I
s^j *■ ^^ X
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
REV. RICHARD Bx\XTER.
THE
PRACTICAL WORKS
THE REV. RICHARD BAXTER:
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR,
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF HIS WRITINGS,
REV. WILLIAM ORME,
AUTHOR OF " THE LIFE OF JOHN OWEN, D.D.j" ** BIBLIOTHECA EIBLICA," ETC.
VOL. III.
IN TWENTY-THREE VOLUMES.
LONDON: /
JAMES DUNCAN, 37, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXXX.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY MILLS, JOWETT, AND MILLS,
BOLT-COURT, FLEET-STREET.
THE
LAST WORK OF A BELIEVER;
His
PASSING PRAYER,
RECOMMENDING
HIS DEPARTING SPIRIT TO CHRIST,
RECEIVED BY HIM.
PREPARED FOR THE FUNERAL OF
MARY THE WIDOW, FHIST OF FRANCIS CHARLTON, ESC^.,
AND AFTER OF THOMAS HANMER, ESQ. ;
AND PARTLY PREACHED AT ST. MARY MAGDALEN'S CHURCH, IN MILK-STREET,
LONDON, AND NOW, AT THE DESIRE OF HER DAUGHTER
BEFORE HER DEATH, REPRINTED.
" If any man serve me, let liiin follow me ; and where I am, there shall also
my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my Father honour," — John xii. 26.
VOL. XVIII.
\
TO THE READER.
Reader,
The person whose death did occasion this discourse was one
that about five years ago removed from her ancient habitation,
at Appley, in Shropshire, to Kidderminster, where she lived
under my pastoral care till I was come up to London ; and
before she had lived there a twelvemonth (for thither she re-
moved) she died of the fever, then very common in the city.
She lived among us an example of prudence, gravity, sobriety,
righteousness, piety, charity, and self-denial, and was truly what I
have described her to be, and much more ; for I use not to flatter
the living, much less the dead. And though I had personal
acquaintance with her for no longer a time than I have men-
tioned, yet I think it worthy the mentioning, which 1 under-
stand by comparing her last years with what is said of her
former time, by those that were then nearest to her, and so
were at her death, that whereas (as I have said) sudden passion
was the sin that she was wont much to complain of, she had not
contented herself with mere complainings, but so effectually
resisted them, and applied God's remedies for the healing of
her nature, that the success was very much observed by those
about her, and the change and cure so great herein, as was a
comfort to her nearest relations that had the benefit of her con-
verse ', which 1 mention as a thing that shows us, 1 . That even
the infirmities that are found in nature and temperature of body
are curable so far as they fall under the dominion of a sanctified
will. 2. That even in age, when such passions usually get
ground, and infirmities of mind increase with infirmities of body,
yet grace can effectually do its work. 3. That to attend God
in his means, for the subduing of any corruption, is not in vain.
4. That as God hath promised growth of grace, and flourishing
in old age, so in his way we may expect the fulfilling of his
promise. 5. That as grace increaseth, infirmities and cor-
ruptions of the soul will vanish.
b2
4 TO THE READER.
This makes me call to mind that she was once so much taken
with a sermon which I preached at the fmieral of a holy aged
woman,* and so sensibly oft recited the text itself as much
affecting her — " For which cause we faint not ; hut though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by
day," &;c. (2 Cor. iv. 16, 17 :) that I am persuaded both the
text itself, and the example opened (and well known) to her,
did her much good.
Her work is done, her enemies are conquered, (except the re-
maining fruits of death upon a corrupting body, which the resur-
rection must conquer,) her danger, and temptations, and troubles,
and fears, are at an end. She shall no more be discomfited with
evil-tidings ; nor no more partake with a militant church in the
sorrows of her diseases or distresses. We are left within the
reach of Satan's assaults and malice, and of the rage and violence
which pride, and faction, and Cainish envy, and enmity to
serious holiness, do ordinarily raise against Christ's followers in
the world. We are left among the lying tongues of slanderous,
malicious men, and dwell in a wilderness among scorpions ;
where the sons of Belial, like Nabal, are such that a man can-
not speak to them. (1. Sam. xxv. 17.) The best of them is as
a briar, the most upright sharper than a thorn hedge. (Mic. vii.
4.) " But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns
thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands; but the
-man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron, and the
staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burned with fire in
the same place." (2 Sam. xxiii. 6, 7.) We are left among our
weak, distempered, sinful, afflicted, lamenting friends ; the sight
of whose calamities, and participation of their sufferings, maketh
us feel the strokes that fall upon so great a number, that we
are never like to be free from pain. But she is entered into
the land of peace, where pride and faction are shut out; where
serpentine enmity, malice, and fury, never come; where there is
no Cain to envy and destroy us ; no Sodomites to rage against
us, and in their blindness to assault our doors; no Ahithophels
to plot our ruin; no Judas to betray us; no false witnesses to
accuse us; no Tertullus to paint us out as pestilent fellows, and
movers of sedition among the people ; no Rehum, Shimshai, or
* Good old Mrs. Doughtv, sometime of Shrewsbury, who had long
■walked with God and longed to he with him, and was amongus an excellentex-
ample of holiness, blamelessuess, contempt of the woi-ld, constancy, patience,
humility, and (which makes it strange) a great and constant desire to die,
though she was still complaining of douhtings, and weakness of assurance.
TO THE READliR. 5
their society, to persuade the rulers that the servants of the God
of heaven are hurtful unto kings, and against their interest and
honour; (Ezra iv. 9, 12, 13, 14, 22; and v. 11;) no rahble to"
cry "Away with them, it is not fit that they should live;" no
Demas that will forsake us for the love of present things; no
such contentious, censorious friends as Job's to afflict us^ by
adding to our afflictions; no cursed Ham to dishonour pa-
rents ; no ambitious, rebellious Absalom to molest us^ or to
lament; no sinful, scandalous, or impatient friends to be our
grief: and, which is more than all, no earthly, sinful inclinations
in ourselves ; no passions or infirmities ; no languishings of
soul; no deadness, dulness, hard-heartedness or weakness cf
grace; no backwardness to God, or estrangedness from him,
nor fears or doubtings of his love, nor frowns of his displeasure.
None of these do enter into that serene and holy region, nor
ever interrupt the joy of saints.
The great work is yet upon our hands, to fight out the good
fight, to finish our course, to run with patience the remainder
of the race that is before us; and as we must look to Jesus the
author and finisher of our faith, as our great exemplar, so must
we look to his saints and martyrs as our encouraging examples
under him. Put the case you were now dying, (and oh, how
near is it, and how sure !) what would you need most, if the #
day were coine? That is it that you need most now. Look
after it speedily while you have time. Look after it seriously,
if you have the hearts of men, and sin have not turned you into
idiots or blocks. What a disgrace is it to mankind, to hear
men commonly at death cry out, ' Oh ! for a little more time.'
And ^ Oh ! for the opportunities of grace again.' And ' Oh ! how
shall I enter upon eternity thus unprepared ? * as if they had
never heard or known that they must die till now. Had you
not a life's time to put these questions ? And should you not
long ago have got them satisfactorily resolved? And justly
doth God give over some to that greater shame of human
nature, as not to be called to their wits, even by the approach
of death itself; but as they contemned everlasting life in their
health, God justly leaveth them to be so sottish as to venture
presumptuously with unrenewed souls upon death, and the con-
ceit that they are of the right church, or party, or opinion; or
that the priest hath absolved them, doth pass with them for the
necessary preparation ; and well were it for them if these would
pass them currently into heaven. But, oh, what heart can
6 TO THE READER.
now conceive how terrible it is for a new departed soul to find
itself remedilessly disappointed, and to be shut up in flames and
desperation, before they would believe that they were in danger
ofit.
Reader, I beseech thee, as ever thou believest that thou must
shortly die, retire from the crowd and noise of worldly vanity
and vexation. Oh, bethink thee, how little a while thou must be
here, and have use for honour, and favour, and wealth ; and
what it is for a soul to pass into heaven or hell, and to dwell
among angels or devils for ever ; and how men should live, and
watch, and pray, that are near to such a change as this. Should
I care what men call me (by tongue or pen) ? Should 1 care
whether 1 live at liberty or in prison, when I am ready to die,
and have matters of infinite moment before me to take me up ?
Honour or dishonour, liberty or prison, are words of no sound
or signification, scarce to be heard or taken notice of, to one of
us that are just passing to God, and to everlasting life. The
Lord have mercy upon the distracted world ! How strangely
doth the devil befool them in the daylight, and make them
needlessly trouble themselves about many things, when one
thing is needful ; and heaven is talked of, (and that but heart-
lessly and seldom,) while fleshly provision only is the prize, the
pleasure, the business of their lives. Some are diverted from
their serious preparation for death by the beastly avocations of
lust, and gaudiness, and meats, and drinks, and childish sports;
and some by the businesses of ambition and covetousness, contriv-
ing how to feather their nests, and exercise their wills over others
in the world 1 And some that will seem to be doing the work,
are diverted as dangerously as others, by contending about for-
malities and ceremonies, and destroying charity and peace;
rending the church, and strengthening factions, and carrying on
interests hypocritically under the name of religion, till the zeal
that St. James describeth, (James iii. 13, 14, &;c.) having con-
sumed all that was like to the zeal of love and holiness in them-
selves, proceed to consume the servants and interest of Christ
about them, and to bite and devour, till their Lord come and
find them jn a day that they looked not for him, smiting their
fellow- servants, and eating and drinking with the drunken, and
cut them asunder, and appoint them their portion with the
hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
(Matt. xxiv. 49—5 1 .)
Oh, study, and preach, and hear, and pray, and live, and use
TO THE READERi 7
your brethren that differ from you in some opinions, as you
would do if you were going to receive your doom, and as will
then be most acceptable to your Lord ! The guilt of sensuality,
worldliness, ambition, of uncharitableness, cruelty, and injustice,
of losing time, and betraying your souls by negligence, or per-
fidiousness, and wilful sin, will lie heavier upon a departing
soul, than now, in the drunkenness of prosperity, you can think.
Christ will never receive such souls in their extremity, unless
upon repentance, by faith in his blood, they are washed from
this pollution. It is unspeakably terrible to die, without a con-
fidence that Christ will receive us ; and little knows the grace-
less world what sincerity and simplicity in holiness is necessary
to the soundness of such a confidence.
Let those that know not that they must die, or know of no
life hereafter, hold on their chase of a feather, till they find what
they lost their lives, and souls, and labour for. But if thou be
a Christian, remember what is thy work : thou wilt not need the
favour of man, nor worldly wealth, to prevail with Christ to re-
ceive thy spirit. Oh, learn thy last work before thou art put upon
the doing of it ! The world of spirits, to which we are passing,
doth better know than this world of fleshly, darkened sinners,
the great difference between the death of a heavenly believer
and of an earthly sensualist. Believe it, it is a thing possible
to get that apprehension of the love of Christ, that confidence
of his receiving us, and such familiar, pleasant thoughts of our
entertainment by him, as shall much overcome the fears of
death, and make it a welcome day to us when we shall be ad-
mitted into the celestial society : and the difference between one
man's death and another's dependeth on the difference between
heart and heart, life and life, preparation and unpreparedness.
Jf you ask me, ' How may so happy a preparation be made?
I have told you in this following discourse, and more fully else-
where formerly. I shall add now these few directions following.
\. Follow the flattering world no further; come off from all
expectation of felicity below ; enjoy nothing under the sun, but
only use it in order to your enjoyment of the real, sure delight;
take heed of being too much pleased in the creature. Have
you houses, and lands, and offices, and honours, and friends, that
are very pleasing to you ? Take heed, for that is the killing
snare ! Shut your eyes, and wink them all into nothing ; and
cast by your contrivances, and cares, and fears, and remember
you have another work to do.
8 TO THE HEADER.
2. Live in communion with a suffering Christ : study well the
whole life and nature of his sufferings, and the reason of them,
and think how desirable it is to be conformed to him. Thus,
look to Jesus, that for the joy that was set before him, despised
the shame, and endured the cross, and the contradiction of sin-
ners against himself. Dwell upon this example, that the image
of a humbled, suffering Christ being deeply imprinted on thy
mind, may draw thy heart into a more just relish of a mortified
state. Sure he is no good Christian that thinks it not better to
live as Christ did, (in holy poverty and sufferings in the world,)
than as Croesus, or Caesar, or any such worldling and self-
pleaser lived. Die daily by following Jesus with your cross, and
when you a have a while suffered with him^ he will make you
perfect, and receive your spirits, and you shall reign with him :
it wonderfully prepareth for a comfortable death to live in the
fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. He is most likely to die
quietly, patiently, and joyfully, that can first be poor, be ne-
glected, be scorned, be wronged, be slandered, be imprisoned,
quietly, patiently, and joyfully. If you were but at Jerusa-
lem, you would, with some love and pleasure, go up Mount
Olivet, and think ' Christ went this very way.' You would love
to see the place where he was was born, the way which he went
when he carried his cross, the holy grave where he was buried,
(where there is a temple which pilgrims use to visit, from whence
they use to bring the mark as a pleasing badge of honour,) but
how much more of Christ is there in our suflfering for his cause
and truth, and in following him in a mortified, self-denying life,
than in following him in the path that he hath trodden upon
earth ? His enemies saw his cross, his grave ; his mother, his
person. This did not heal their sinful souls, and make them
happy; but the cross that he calleth us to bear is a life of suf-
fering for righteousness' sake ; in which he commandeth us to
rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, because our reward is great in
heaven, though all manner of evil be spoken of us falsely by
men on earth. (Matt. v. 11, 12.) This is called a being par-
takers of Christ's sufferings, in which we are commanded to re-
joice, " that, when his glory shall be revealed, we may be glad
also with exceeding joy." (I Peter iv. 13.) And as "the suf-
ferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation aboundeth by
Christ." (2 Cor. i. 5.) Till we come up to a life of willing mor-
tification, and pleased, contented suffering with Christ, we are
in the lower form of his school, and, as children, shall tremble
TO THE READER. 9
at that which should not cause our terror ; and, through mis-
apprehensions of the case of a departing soul, shall be afraid of
that which should be our joy. I am not such an enemy to the
esteem of relics, but if one could show me the very stocks that
Paul and Silas sat in when they sung psalms in their imprison-'
ment, (Acts, xvi.) I could be contented to be put (for the like
cause) into the same stocks, with a special willingness and plea-
sure, how much more should we be willing to be conformed to
our suffering Lord in a spirit and life of true mortification ?
3. Hold communion also with his suffering members : desire
not to dwell in the tents of wickedness, nor to be planted among
them that flourish for time, that they may be destroyed for ever.
(Psalm xcii. 6, 7.) I had rather have Bradford's heart and fag-
got than Bomier's bishopric. It was holy Stephen, and not
those that stoned him, that saw heaven opened, and the Son of
Man sitting at the right hand of God, (Acts vii. 56,) and that
could joyfully say, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He liveth
not by faith (though he may be a hanger-on that keepeth up
some profession for fear of being damned) who chooseth not
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy
the pleasures of sin for a season, and esteemeth not the very
reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world,
as having respect to the recompense of reward. (Heb. xi.
25, 26.)
4. Live as if heaven were open to your sight, and then doat
upon the delights of worldlings if you can. Then love a life of
fleshly ease and honour, better than to be with Christ, if you
can. But of this I have spoken at large in other writings.
Christian, make it the study and business of thy life to learn
to do thv last work well, that work which must be done but
once ; that so death, which transmits unholy souls into utter
darkness and despair, may deliver thy spirit into thy Redeemer's
hands, to be received to his glory, according to that blessed
promise, John xii. 26. And while I am in the flesh beg the
same mercy for
Thy brother and companion in tribulation,
And in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ,
RICHARD BAXTER.
London, Jau. 31, 1C61.
A BELIEVER'S LAST WORK.
ACTS vii. 59. '
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
The birth of nature, and the new birth of grace, in their mea-
sure resemble the death of saints, which is the birth of glory.
It is a bitter-sweet day, a day that is mixed of sorrow and joy,
when nature must quit its familiar guest, and yield to any of
these changes. Our natural birth is not without the throes, and
pain, and groanings of the mother, though it transmit the
child into a more large, and lightsome, and desirable habita-
tion. Our spiritual birth is not without its humbling and heart*
piercing sorrows ; and when we are brought out of darkness into
the marvellous light, we leave our old companions in displea-
sure, whom we forsake, and our flesh repining at the loss of
its sensual delights. And our passage into glory is not without
those pangs and fears which must needs be the attendants of a
pained body, ready to be dissolved, and a soul that is going
through so strait a door into a strange, though a most blessed
place ; and it leaveth our lamenting friends behind, that feel
their loss, and would longer have enjoyed our company, and see
not (though they believe) the glory of the departed soul. And
this is our case that are brought hither this day, by an act of
Providence sad to us, though joyous to our departed friend ;
by a voice that hath called her into glory, and called us into
this mourning plight : even us that rejoice in the thoughts of
her felicity, and are not so cruel as to wish her again into this
corruptible flesh, and calamitous world, from the glorious pre-
sence of the Lord ; and yet should have kept her longer from it,
for our own and others' sakes, if cur wisdom had been fit to
rule, or our wills to be fulfilled, or if our prayers must have been
answered, according to the measure of our failing apprehen-
sions, or precipitant desires. But folly must submit to the
A believer's last work. 11
incomprehensible wisdom, and the desire of the Creature must
stoop to the will of the Creator* The interest of Christ must
be preferred when he calleth for his own, and our temporary
interest must give place : flesh must be silent and not contend,
and dust must not dare to question God ; he knoweth best
when his fruit is ripe, and though he will allow our moderate
sorrows, he will not so much damnify his saints as to detain
them with us from their joyful rest till we are content to let
them go.
Thus also did blessed Stephen depart from glory to glory ;
from a distant sight of the glory of God, and of Jesus standing
at his right hand, into the immediate presence and fruition of
that glory. But yet he must pass the narrow port ; enraged
malice must stone him till he die, and he must undergo the
pains of martyrdom before he reach to the glory which he had
seen. And when he was arrived in safety, lie leaveth his bre-
thren scattered in the storm, and devout men make great la-
mentation at his burial. (Acts viii. 2.) 7^hough it is probable
by the ordinary acceptation of the word avlpe^ evXa^eTt;, that
they were not professed Christians, but devout proselytes, (such as
Cornelius and the iEthiopian eunuch were,) that buried and thus
lamented Stephen, as knowing him to be an excellent person,
cruelly murdered by the raging Jews, yet their example, in a
case not culpable, but commendable, may be imitated by be-
lievers, upon condition that, with our sense of the excellency of
the persons, and of our loss by their removal, we exceed them
that had but a darker revelation in our joyful sense of the fe-
licity of the translated souls.
The occasion of the death of this holy man was partly that
he surpassed others, as being full of faith, and of the Holy
Ghost ; and partly that he plainly rebuked the blind and furious
persecuting zeal of the Jews, and bore a most resolute testimony
of Christ. It is an ill time when men must suffer because
they are good, and deserve not suifering, but reward ; and they
are an unhappy people that have no more grace or wit but to
fight against heaven, and set themselves under the strokes of
God's severest justice, by persecuting them that are dear to
Christ, and faithfully perform their duty. It is no strange thing
for the zeal and interest of a faction to make men mad ; so
mad as implacably to rage against the offspring of heaven, and
to hate men because they are faithful to their great Master, and
because they are against their faction j so mad as to think that
12 A BELIEVER S
the interest of their cause requireth them to destroy the best
with the greatest malice, because they stand most in their way,
and to forget that Christ, the revenger of his elect, doth take
all as done to him that is doi^ to them ; so mad as to forget
all the terrible threatenings of God, and terrible instances of
his avenging justice against the enemies of his servants, whom
he taketh as his own, and to ruin their own reputations by
seeking to defame the upright, whose names God is engaged to
honour, and whose righteousness shall shine forth as the sun,
when foolish malignity hath done its worst. When Christ had
pleaded his cause effectually with Saul, that was one of the per-
secutors of Stephen, he maketh him confess that he was-
-zirepKra-Zg €[A(Acciy6(A€vo^, exceedingly, excessively, or beyond measure
mad against the Christians.
But this blessed protomartyr, in despite of malice, doth
safely and joyfully pass through all their rage to heaven. By
killing him they make him more than conqueror, and send him
to receive his crown. And he shuts up all the action of his
life in imitation of his suffering Lord with a twofold request to
heaven, the one for himself that his spirit may be received, the
other for his persecutors, that this sin may not be laid to their
charge ; (Acts vii. 59, GO ;) for so you may find Christ did before
him, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do,"' and, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."
(Luke xxiii. 34, 46.) Only Christ directeth his prayer imme-
diately to the Father, and Stephen to Christ, as being one that
had a mediator, when Christ had none, as needing none, and
being now bearing witness, by his suffering, to Christ, and
therefore it was seasonable to direct his prayer to him, but
especially because it was an act of mediation that he petitioneth
for, and therefore directeth his petition to the mediator.
This first request of this dying saint, which I have chosen to
handle, as suitable and seasonable for our instruction at this
time, in a few words containeth not a few exceeding useful,
wholesome truths.
As, L It is here plainly intimated that Jesus Christ is ex-
alted in glory, in that he hath power to receive departed souls.
IL That Christ is to be prayed to, and that it is not our duty
to direct all our prayers only to the Father. Especially those
things that belong to the office of the mediator, as interceding
for us in the heavens, must be requested of the mediator. And
those things which belong to the Father to give for the sake of
LAST WORK. 13
the mediator, must be asked of the Father for his sake. I cannot
now stay to tell you m particular what belongeth to the one,
and what unto the other.
III. That man hath a spirit as well as a body 5 of which more
anon.
IV. That this spirit dieth not with the body (unless you will
call a mere separation a dying.)
V. That Christ doth receive the spirits of his saints when
they are separated from the body.
VI. That a dying Christian may confidently and comfortably
commend his spirit to Christ, to be received of him.
VII. That prayer in general, and this prayer in special, 'That
Christ will receive our departing souls,' is a most suitable con-
clusion of all the actions of a Christian's life.
The first and second of these doctrines, offered us by this text,
I shall pass by.
The third is not questioned by any that knoweth himself to
be. a man : but that we may -understand it, and the rest, we
must consider what the word "spirit" doth here signify. By
"spirit," here can be meant nothing but the rational soul, which
is the principal constitutive part of the man. For though the
word do sometimes signify the wind or breath, and sometimes
the moral and intellectual qualifications, and have divers other
senses, I need not stay to prove that it is not here so taken.
Stephen prayeth not to Christ to receive his breath, his graces,
or the Holy Ghost, but to receive his rational, immortal soul.
It is not only the soul, but God himself, that is called
" a Spirit :" and though the name be fetched from lower
things, that is because that we have no adequate positive con-
ception of God or spirits, so we can have no adequate proper
names for them, but must take up with borrowed names, as
answerable to our notions.
Sometimes the word spirit (as Heb. iv. 12, &c.) is distin-
guished from the soul ; and then it either signifieth the superior
faculties in the same soul, or the same soul as elevated by grace.
Do you ask, 'What is the soul ?' You may also ask, 'What
a man is ?' And it is pity that a man should not know what
a man is. It is our intellectual nature, containing also the sen-
sitive and vegetative. The principal or first act, by which we
live, and feel, and understand, and freely will. The acts tell
you what the faculties or powers are, and so what the soul is.
If you know what intellection, or reason and free-will are, you
14 A believer's
may know what it is to have a spiritual nature, essentially con-
taining the power of reasoning and willing. It is thy soul by
which thou art thinking and asking what a soul is ; and as he
that reasoneth to prove that man hath no reason, doth prove
that he hath reason by reasoning against it ; so he that reason-
eth to prove that he hath no soul, doth thereby prove that he
hath a reasonable (though abused) soul.
Yet there are some so blind as to question whether they have
souls, because they see them not ; whereas if they could see
them with eyes of flesh they were no souls, for spirits are invisi-
ble. They see not the air or wind, and yet they know that air
or wind there is. They see not God or angels, and yet they are
fools indeed if they doubt whether there be a God and angels. If
they see not their eyes, yet they know that they have eyes, because
with those eyes they see other things. And if they know not
directly and intuitively that they have rational souls, they might
know it by their knowing other things, which without such
souls cannot be known. It is just with God that those that
live as carnally, and brutishly, and negligently, as if they had no
souls to use or care for, should at last be given up to question
whether they have souls, or no.
O woful fall ! depraved nature ! O miserable men, that have
so far departed from God, as to deny both themselves and God!
or to question whether God be God, and man be man. Return
to God, and thou wilt come to thyself. Forget not, man, thy
noble nature, thy chiefest part : think not that thou art only
shell, because thou seest not through the shell. It is souls that
converse by the bodies while they are in flesh. It is thy soul
that I am speaking to, and thy soul that understandeth me.
When thy soul is gone I will speak to thee no more. It is thy
soul that is the workmanship of God by an immediate or special
way of fabrication. "The souls which I have made." (Isa. Ivii.
16.) " He breathed into man the breath of life, and he became
a living soul." (Gen. ii. 7.) It is thy soul that is said to be made
after God's image ; in that thou art ennobled with a capacious
understanding and free-will ; and it is thy soul that is the im-
mediate subject of his moral image, even spiritual wisdom,
righteousness, and holiness. God hath not hands, and feet, and
other members, as thy body hath. How noble a nature is that
which is capable of knowing not only all things in the world,
(in its measure), but God himself, and the things of the world
that is to come 3 and capable of loving and enjoying God, and of
LAST WORK. 15
seeking and serving him in order to that enjoyment 1 Christ
thought not basely of a soul that redeemed souls at such a price,
when he made his soul an offering for sin. (Isa. liii. 10.) Were
it not for our immortal souls would God ever honour us with
such relations to him as to be his children ? (For he is first the
Father of spirits, (Heb. xii. 9,) and then the Father of saints.)
Should we be called the spouse and the members of Christ ?
would he be at so much cost upon us ? should angels attend us as
ministering spirits, if we had not spirits fit to minister to God ?
Would the Spirit of God himself dwell in us, and quicken, and
beautify us with his grace ? should a world of creatures (whose
corporeal substance seems as excellent as ours) attend and serve
us, if we were but an ingenious sort of brutes, and had not ra-
tional, immortal souls ? Should such store of mercies be provided
for us ? should ministers be provided to preach, and pray, and
labour for us, if we had not souls to save or lose ? " They watch
for your souls as they that must give account." (Heb. xiii. IJ.)
Why should they preach in season and out of season, and suffer
so much to perform their work, but that they know that "He
that winneth souls is wise," (Prov. xi. 30,) and that " He which
converteth the sinner from the error of his way, doth save a soul
from death, and hide a multitude of sins." (Jam. v. 20.) The
devil himself may tell you the worth of souls when he compasseth
the earth, (Job i. 7,) and goeth about night and day to deceive
them, and devour them, (1 Peter v. 8,) and yet can he make you
believe that they are so worthless as to be abused to the basest
drudgery, to be poisoned with sin and sensuality, to be ventured
for a thing of nought ?
Oh ! sirs, have you such immortal souls, and will you sell them
for a lust, for a beastly pleasure, for liberty to glut your flesh,
or for the price that Judas sold his Lord for ? Is thy soul no
more worth than honour, or wealth, or foolish mirth ? Is thy
soul so base as not to be worth the care and labour of a holy
life ? Is the world worth all thy care and labour, and shall less
be called too much ado, when it is for thy precious soul ? Alas |
one would think by the careless, fleshly lives of many, that they
remember not that they have souls. Have they not need, in the
depth of their security, in the height of their ambition, and in
the heat of fleshly lusts, to have a monitor to call to them, * Re-
member that thou art a man, and that thou hast a soul to save
or lose ?' What thinkest thou of thy negligence and carnal life,
when thou readest that so holy a man as Paul must Keep under
16 "A believer's
his body, and bring it into subjection, lest he should be a cast-
away after all his labours. (1 Cor. ix. 25 — 27.) Oh, live not as if
the flesh were the man, and its pleasure your felicity, but live as
those that have spirits to take care of.
Doct. IV. The spirit of man doth survive the body; it dieth
not with it. It is not annihilated; it is not resolved into the
essence of some common element of souls, where it loseth its
specific form and name. It was still the spirit of Stephen that
was received by Christ : it sleepeth not. To confute the dream
of those that talk of the sleeping of souls, or any lethargic, un-
intelligent, or inactive state, of so excellent, capacious, and
active a nature, were but to dispute with sleeping men.
When we say it is immortal, we mean not that it, or any crea-
ture, hath in itself a self-supporting or self-preserving suffici-
ency; or that they are necessary beings, and not contingent; or
primitive beings, and not derived from another by creation.
We know that all the world would turn to nothing in a moment
if God did but withdraw his preserving and upholding influ-
ence> and but suspend that will that doth continue them. He
need not exert any positive will or act for their destruction or
annihilation. Though ejusdem est annihilare, cvjus est creare;
none can annihilate but God ; yet it is by a positive, efficient
act of will that he createth : and by a mere cessation of the act
of his preserving will he can annihilate. I mean not by any
change in him, but by willing the continuance of the creature
but till such a period; but yet he that will perpetuate the spirit
of man, hath given it a nature (as he hath done the angels) fit
to be perpetuated. A nature not guilty of composition and
elementary materiality, which might subject it to corruption.
So that as there is an aptitude in iron, or silver, or gold, to
continue longer than grass, or flowers, or flesh ; and a reason
of its duration may be given a natura 7'ei, from that aptitude in
subordination to the will of God ; so there is such an aptitude
in the nature of the soul to be immortal, which God maketh
use of to the accomplishment of his will for its actual per-
petuity.
The heathenish Socinians, that deny the immortality of the
soul, (yea, worse than heathenish, for most heathens do main-
tain it,) must deny it to Christ himself, as well as to his mem-
bers ; for he used the like recommendation of his soul to his
Father when he was on the cross, as Stephen doth here to him.
If " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," be words that prove not the
LAST WORK. 17
surviving of the spirit of Stephen ; then, " ^^''ather, into thy
hands I commend my spirit," will not prove the surviving of the
Spirit of Christ. And, then, what do these infidels make of
Christ, who also deny his Deity ; and, consequently, make him
nothing but a corpse, when his body was in the grave ? How
then did he make good his promise to the penitent malefactor ?
" This day shalt thou be with me in paradise/' But he that
said *^ Because I live, ye shall live also,'* (John xiv. 19,) did
live in the Spirit, while he was put to death in the flesh ; ( I
Peter iii. 18;) and receiveth the spirits of his servants unto life
eternal, while their flesh is rotting in the grave. This very
text is so clear for this, if there were no other, it might end the
controversy with all that believe the holy Scriptures.
I confess there is a sleep of souls, a metaphorical sleep in sin
and in security, or else the drowsy opinions of these infidels
had never found entertainment in the world ; a sleep so deep
that the voice of God, in the threatenings of his word, and the
alarm of his judgments, and the thunder of his warnings by his
most serious ministers, prevail not to awaken the most : so dead
a sleep possesseth the most of the ungodly world, that they can
quietly sin in the sight of God, at the entrance upon eternity, at the
doors of hell, and the calls of God do not awaken them : so
dead a sleep, that Scripture justly calls them dead : (Eph. ii. 1,
5 :) and ministers may well call them dead, for alas, it is not
our voice that can awake them; they are as dead to us: vire
draw back the curtains to let in the light, and show them that
judgment is at hand, and use those true but terrible arguments
from wrath and hell, which we are afraid should too mueh
frighten many tender hearers, and yet they sleep on ; and our
loudest calls, our tears, and our entreaties, cannot awaken
them. We cry to them in the name of the Lord, " Awake, thou
that sleepest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light." (Eph. V. 14.) This moral sleep and death of souls,
which is the forerunner of everlasting death in misery, we can-
not deny. But after death even this sleep shall cease ; and God
will awaken them with his vengeance, that would not be awaked
by his grace. Then, sinner, sleep under the thoughts of sin and
God's displeasure if thou canst. There is no sleeping soul in
bell ; there are none that are past feeling. The mortal stroke
that layeth thy flesh to sleep in the dust, lets out a guilty soul
into a world where there is no sleeping ; where there is a light
irresistible, and a terror and torment, that will keep them
VOL. XVIII. c
18 A believer's
waking. If God bid thee awake by the flames of justice, he
will have no nay. The first sight and feehng which will sur-
prise thee when thou hast left this flesh, will awake thee to
eternity, and do more than we could do in time, and convince
thee that there is no sleeping state for separated souls.
Doct. V. Christ doth receive the spirits of his saints when
they leave the flesh.
Here we shall first tell you what Christ's receiving of the
spirit is. The word signifieth, to take it as acceptable to him-
self; and it comprehendeth these particulars.
1. That Christ will not leave the new- departed soul to the
will of Satan, its malicious enemy. How ready is he to receive
us to perdition, if Christ refuse us, and receive us not to sal-
vation. He that noM' seeketh as a roaring lion night and day,
as our adversary, to devour us by deceit, will then seek to de-
vour us by execution. How glad was he when God gave him
leave but to touch the goods, and children, and body of Jobi
And how much more would it please his enmity to have power
to torment our souls ? But the soul that fled to the arms of
Christ by faith in the day of trial, shall then find itself in the
arms of Christ, in the moment of its entrance upon eternity.
O, Christian, whether thou now feel it to thy comfort or not,
thou shalt then feel it to the ravishing of thy soul, that thou
didst not fly to Christ in vain, nor trust him in vain to be thy
Saviour. Satan shall be for ever disappointed of his desired
prey. Long wast thou combating with him ; frequently and
strongly wast thou tempted by him. Thou oft thoughtest it
was a doubtful question, who should win the day, and whether
ever thou shouldest hold out and be saved : but when thou
passest from the flesh, in thy last extremity, in the end of thy
greatest and most shaking fears, when Satan is ready, if he
might, to carry thy soul to hell ; then, even then, shalt thou
find that thou hast won the day. And yet not thou, but Christ
is he that hath been victorious for thee, even as when thou
livedst the life of faith, it was not thou, but Christ, lived in thee.
(Gal. ii. 20.) Thou may est fear at thy departure, and leave
the flesh with terror, and imagine that Satan will presently de-
vour thee; but the experience of a moment will end thy fears,
and thou shalt triumph against thy conquered foe. He that
saved thee from the dominion of a tempting devil, will cer-
tainly save thee from him when he would torment thee. Here
he would have us that he may sift us, and get advantage on our
LAST WORK. 19
weakness ; but Christ prayeth for us, and strengtheneth us, that
our faith may not fail. (Luke xxii. 31.) And he that saveth
us from the sin, will save us from the punishment, and from
Satan's fury, as he did from his fraud.
2, Christ's receiving us, doth include his favourable enter-
tainment and welcoming the departed soul. Poor soul, thou
wast never so welcome to thy dearest friend, nor into the arms
of a father, a husband, or a wife, as thou shalt be then into the
presence and embracements of thy Lord. Thou hearest, and
readest, and partly believest, now how he loveth us, even as his
spouse and members, as his flesh and bone. (Eph. vi.) But
then thou shalt feel how he loveth thee in particular. If the
angels of God have joy at thy conversion, what joy will there
be in heaven at thy entrance into that salvation* And sure
those angels will bid thee welcome, and concur with Christ in
that triumphant joy. If a returning prodigal find himself in the
arms of his father's love, and welcomed home with his kisses,
and his robe and feast, what welcome then may a cleansed con-
quered soul expect when it cometh into the presence of glori-
ous lovcj and is purposely to be received with such demonstra-
tions of love, as may be fitted to magnify the love of God,
which exceedeth all the love of man, as omnipotency doth ex-
ceed our impotency, and therefore will exceed it in the effects.
Though thou hast questioned here in the dark, whether thou
wert welcome to Christ when thou camest to him in prayer, or
when thou camest to his holy table, yet then doubt of thy wel-
come if thou canst.
O had we but one moment's sense of the delights of the em-
braced soul that is newly received by Christ into his kingdom,
it would make us think we were in heaven already, and trans-
port us more than the disciples that saw the transfiguration of
Christ ; and make us say, in comparing this with all the glory
of the world, " Master, it is good for us to be here ;" but in con-
sideration of the full, to say, ' It is better to be there ; ' but it
must not be : earth must not be so happy as to have a moment's
sense of the unconceivable pleasures of the received soul ; that
is the reward and crown, an4 therefore not fit for us here in our
conflict.
But low things may, by dark resemblance, a little help us t<^
conceive of something that is like them in a low degree. How
would you receive your son, or husband, the next day after some
bloody fight, where he had escaped with the victory ? Or your
c2
20 A believer's
child, or friend, that arrived safely after a long and a dangerous
voyage ? Would you not run and meet him, and with joy
embrace him, if he had been many years absent, and were now
come home ? I tell thee, poor soul, thy Saviour hath a larger
heart, and another kind of love than thou, and other reasons
of greater force to move him to bid thee welcome into his
presence.
3. Christ's receiving the departed soul includeth the state of
blessedness into which he doth receive it. If you ask what that
is, I answer it is unto himself, to be with him where he is, and
that in general is full of comfort, if there were no more,' for we
know that Christ is in no ill place ; he is glorified at the " right
hand of the Majesty on high.'' (Heb. i. 3.) And that the
souls of the righteous, and at last their bodies, are received to
himself, he often telleth us : " If any man serve me, let him
follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be."
(John xii. 26.) " And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am,
there ye may be also." (John xiv. 2, 3.) And, in the mean
time, when we once are absent from the body, we are present
with the Lord, (2 Cor. v. 8,) and that is in " the building of
God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
(Verse 1.) Paul, therefore, desired " to depart, and to be with
Christ" as being far better; (Phil. i. 23 ;) and Christ promised
the converted thief, " This day shalt thou be with me in para-
dise.*" (Luke xxiii. 43.) And our state after the resurrection
hath the same description, " And so shall we ever be with the
Lord." (1 Thess. iv. 17.) And what it shall be he declareth
himself, " 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." (John xvii. 24.) The soul of
Lazarus (Luke xvi.) was received into Abraham's bosom, where
he is said to be comforted. The heavens receive Christ, (Acts
iii. 21,) and therefore the heavens receive the spirits that go
to him, even the spirits of the just made perfect; (Heb. xii.
23 ;) that is, that are crowned with Christ in glory, and freed
from the imperfections and evils of this life. And so that is
plain, though some would pervert it, that " whether we wake
or sleep, we may live together with him." (1 Thess. v. 10.)
Not whether we wake to righteousness, or sleep in sin, for such
sleepers live not with him ; nor whether we wake by solicitude,
or sleep in security; nor whether we naturally wake or sleep
LAST WORK. 21
only, but whether we live, or die, and so our bodies sleep in
death, yet we live together with him. Jn a word, Christ will
receive us into a participation of his joy and glory; into a joy
as great as our nature shall be capable of, and more than we
can now desire, and that the largest heart on earth can justly
conceive of or comprehend. And because all this tells you but
to the ear, stay yet but a little while, and experimental sight
and feeling shall tell you what this receiving is, even when we
receive the kingdom that cannot be moved, (Heb. xii. 28,)
and when we receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our
souls. (1 Peter i. 9.)
Doct. VJ. A dying Christian may confidently and comfortably
commend his spirit to Christ, to be received by him.
Though he have formerly been a grievous sinner, though at
the present he be frail and faulty, though he be weak in faith,
and love, and duty, though his body by sickness be become unfit
to serve his soul, and as to present sensibility, activity, or joy,
he seem to be past the best, or to be nothing, though the
tempter would aggravate his sins, and weakness, and dulness
to his discouragement, yet he may, he must, with confidence
recommend his spirit to Christ to be received by him.
O learn his doctrine. Christians, that you may use it in the
hour of your last distress. The hour is near; the distress will
be the greatest that ever you were in. As well as we seem now
while we are hearing this, our turn is nigh. The midwife is not
so necessary to the life of the child that receiveth it into the
world, as Christ's receiving will be then to our everlasting life.
To say over heartlessly these words, " Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit," will be no more than a dead-hearted hypocrite may do.
Such formal lip-service in life or at death doth profit nothing
to salvation; now make such necessary preparation, that at
death you may have well-grounded confidence that Jesus Christ
will receive your spirits.
1. And first, let me bring this to the carnal, unprepared
sinner.
Poor sinner, what thoughts hast thou of thy dying hour, and
of thy departing soul ! I wonder at thee what thoughts thou
hast of them, that thou canst sin so boldly, and live so care-
lessly, and talk or hear of the life to come so senselessly as thou
dost ! Thou mightest well think I wronged thee, if I took
thee to be such a brute as not to know that thou must die.
Thy soul that brought thy body hither, that causeth it now to
92 A believer's
hear and understand, that carrieth it up and down the world,
must very shortly he required of thee, and must seek another
habitation. What thoughts hast thou of thy departing soul ?
Will Christ receive it ? Hast thou made sure of that ? Or hast
thou made it thy principal care and business to make sure 1 Oh,
what doth intoxicate the brains of sensual, worldly men, that
they drown themselves in the cares of this life, and ride and run
for transitory riches, and live upon the smoke of honour and
applause, and never soberly and seriously bethink them whether
Christ will receive their departed souls ! That they can fill their
minds with other thoughts, and fill their mouths with other
talk, and^ consume their time in other inconsiderable .employ-
ments, and take no more care, and spend no more thoughts,
and words, and time about the entertainment of their departing
souls I When they are even ready to be gone, and stand, as
it were, on tiptoe ; when fevers, and consumptions, and many
hundred diseases are all abroad so busily distributing their sum-
monses, and when the gates of death have so many passengers
crowding in, and souls are making such haste away, will you not
consider what shall become of yours ? Will you say that you
hope well, and you must venture ? If God had appointed you
nothing to do to prepare for your safe passage and entertainment
with Christ, you might then take up with such an answer ; but
it is a mad adventure to leave all undone that is necessary to
your salvation, and then to say, you * must put it to the venture/
If you die in an unrenewed and unjustified state, it is past all
venture, for it is certain that Christ will not receive you. You
may talk of hoping, but it is not a matter to be hoped for.
Hope that God will make good every word of his promise, and
spare not ; but there is no more hope that Christ will receive
the souls of any but of his members, than there is that he will
prove a liar. He never promised to save any others, and that
is not all, but he hath declared and professed fi-equently that
he will not. And you are no believers if you will not believe
him ; and if you believe him, you must believe that the unbe-
lievers, the unregenerate, the unholy, and the workers of ini-
quity, shall not be received into the kingdom of heaven, for he
hath professed it. (John iii. 3, 36 ; Heb. xii. 14 ; Matt. vii. 23.)
If Christ would receive the souls of all, your venture then
had reason for it ; or if he had left it as a thing that depended
only on his unrevealed will, and not on any preparations of our
own, we might then have quit ourselves of the care, and cast
LAST WORK. 23
it all on him, as being his part, and none of ours. But it is
not so, I hope I need not tell you that it is not so. Believe it,
the question must be now resolved, and resolved by yourselves,
whether Christ shall receive your departed souls, or cast them
off as firebrands for hell. He hath made the law, and set
down the terms already to which he will unalterably stand, and
which' we must trust to. It is now that you must labour to be
accepted of him, " for we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his
body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or
bad." (2 Cor. v. 9, 10.) Oh, sirs, this is the reason of our
importunity with you. " Knowing the terror of the Lord, we
persuade men," saith the apostle in the next words. (Verse 11.)
We know that the sentence will be just, and that it is now in
your own hands what judgment then shall pass upon you. And
if just now your souls were passing hence, before you went from
the place you sit in, would you think any care could be too
great to make sure that they should go to happiness. O that
you would consider how much it is your own work, and how
much it resteth on yourselves what Christ shall then do with
you 1 Then you will cry to him for mercy, ' O cast not away
a miserable soul 1 Lord, receive me into thy kingdom !' But
now he must entreat you to be saved, and to be the people that
he may then receive, and you will not hear him. And if you
will not hear him when he calleth on you, and beseecheth you
to repent and to prepare, as sure as Christ is Christ, he will
not hear you when you cry and call for mercy too late in your
extremity. Read Prov. i., and you will see this is true. It is
you that are to be entreated that Christ may receive you, for
the unwillingness and backwardness is on your part. You are
now poisoning your souls by sin, and when we cannot entreat
you either to forbear, or to take the vomit of repentance, yet,
when you are gasping and dying of your own wilful self-
murder, you will then cry to Christ, and think he must receive
you upon terms inconsistent with his justice, holiness, and truth.
But flatter not yourselves, it will not be. This is the accepted
time ; behold now is the day of salvation. Refuse it now, and
it is lost for ever. O sirs, if this were the hour, and you were
presently to be received or refused, would you blame me to cry-
and call to you with all the fervour of my soul, if I knew that
it were in your own choice ^yhether you would go to heaven or
hell ? Why now it is in your choice. Life and death are
24 A believer's
set before you. Christ will receive you if you will but come
within the capacity of his acceptation. If you will not^ there
will then be no remedy. It is a doleful thing to observe how
Satan doth bewitch poor sinners. That when time is gone,
and the door of mercy is shut against them, they would think
no cries too loud for mercy, and no importunity too great. For
Christ telleth us, that then they will cry, " Lord, Lord, open to
us/' (Matt. XXV. 10, II.) And yet now, when the door stands
open, no arguments, no earnestness, no tears, can entreat them
to enter in ; then there is not the most senseless sinner of you
all but would cry more strongly than -Esau for the blessing,
when his tears could find no place for repentance. (Heb. xii.
16, 17.) ' Lord, receive a miserable soul ! O whither shall I
go if thou receive me not ! I must else be tormented in those
scorching flames.' And yet now you will sell your birthright
for one morsel ; for a little of Judas's or Gehazi's gain, for the
applause of worms, for the pleasing of your flesh that is turning
to corruption, for the delights of gluttony, drunkenness, sports,
or lust. There is not a man of you but would then pray more
earnestly than those that you now deride for earnest praying,
as if they whined, and were ridiculous. And yet now you will
neither be serious in prayer, nor hear Christ or his messengers,
when he maketh it his earnest request to you to come in to him
that you may have life. (John v. 40.) Then you will knock
when the door is shut, and cry, ^ Lord, open to a miserable
sinner,' and yet now you will not open unto him, when by his
word and Spirit, his mercies and afflictions, he standeth at the
door of your stubborn hearts, and calleth on you to repent and
turn to God 5 now our entreaties cannot so much as bring you
on your knees, or bring yow to one hour's serious thoughts
about the state of those souls that are so near their doom. Oh,
sirs, for your souls' sake, lay by your obstinacy. Pity those souls
that then you will beg of Christ to pity. Do not you damn
them by your sloth and sin in the day of your visitation, and
then cry in vain to Christ to save them when it is too late.
Yet the door of grace is open, but how speedily will it be shut.
One stroke of an apoplexy, a consumption, a fever, can quickly
shut it, and then you may tear your hearts with crying, " Lord,
open to us," and all in vain. O did you but see departed souls, as
you see the corpse that is left behind ! Did you see how thev are
treated at their removal from the flesh ! How some are taken and
others left -, how some are welcomed to Christ, and others are ab-
LAST WORK. 25
horredj and turned over to the tormenter, and thrust out with im-
placable indignation and disdain, (Luke xiii. 28 ; Piov. i. 24, 26,
27}) sure you would enter into serious consideration this day, what
it is that makes this difference, and why Christ so useth the one
and the other, and what must be done now by the soul that would
be received then. Alas 1 men will do any thing but that which
they should do ! Among the superstitious Papists the conceit
of a deliverance from purgatory makes them bequeath their lands
and moneys to priests and friars to pray for them when they are
dead, and to have other men cry to Christ to receive them, and
open to them, when time is past ; and yet now, in the accepted
time, now when it is at your choice, and the door is open, men
live as if they were past feeling, and cared not what became of
them at the last, and would not be beholden to Christ to receive
them, when the deceitful world hath cast them off.
And, now, beloved hearers all, I would make it my most
earnest request to you, as one that knoweth we are all passing
hence, and foreseeth the case of a departed soul, that you would
now, without any more delay, prepare and make sure that you
may be received into the everlasting habitations : and to this
end, I shall more distinctly, though briefly, tell you, 1. What
souls they are that Christ v^ill receive, and what he will not ;
and, consequently, what you must do to be received. 2. What
considerations should stir you up to this preparation.
1. Nothing is more sure than that Christ will not receive,
1, Any unregenerate, unconverted soul, (John iii. 3, 5 ; Matt,
xviii. 3,) that is, not renewed and sanctified by his Spirit. (Rom.
viii. 9; Heb. xii. 14; Acts xxvi. 18.) They must have
the new and heavenly nature that will ever come to heaven.
Without this you are morally incapable of it. Heaven is the
proper inheritance of saints. (Col. i. 12.) This heavenly na-
ture and spirit is your earnest : if you have this you are sealed
up unto salvation. (2 Cor. i. 22 ; Eph. i. 13, and iv. 30.)
2. Christ will receive none but those that make it now their
work to lay up a treasure in heaven, rather than upon the earth,
(Matt. vi. 20, 21,) and that seek it in the first place, (Matt.
vi. 33,) and can be content to part with all to purchase it.
(Matt. xiii. 44, 46 ; Luke xiv. 33, and xviii. 22.) An earthly-
minded worldling is incapable of heaven in that condition.
(Phil. iii. 17, 18; Luke xvi. 13.) You must take it for your
portion, and set your hearts on it, if ever you will come thither,
(Matt. vi. 21 J Col. iii. 1—3.)
26 A believer's
3. Christ will receive no soul at last, but such as sincerely re-
ceived him as their Lord and Saviour now, and gave up them-
selves to him, and received his word, and yield obedience to it,
and received his Spirit, and were cleansed by him from their
iniquities. (John i. 11, 12; Luke xix. 27.) "That all they
might be damned that believed not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness." (2 Thess. ii. 10, 12.) They are God's own
words ; be not offended at them, but believe and fear, " He
hateth all the workers of iniquity," and will say to them, " De-
part from me, I know you not." (Psalm v. 5 ; Matt. vii. 23.)
4. He will receive none but those that loved his servants, that
bore his holy image, and received them according to their abili-
ties. (Matt. XXV. 40, 41, &c.) And if he will say to those that
did not entertain them, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever-
lasting fire," what will he say to those that hate and persecute
them ? (1 John iii. 14, and v. 2.)
' 5. He will receive none but those that live to him in the body,
and use his gifts and talents to his service, and make it their
chief business to serve, and honour, and please him in the world ',
(Matt. XXV. 21, 26 -, 2 Cor. v. 9, 15 ; Gal. vi. 7, 8 ;) and live
not to the pleasing of the flesh, but have crucified it and its
lusts. (Rom. viii. 1, 13; Gal. v. 24.)
. Examine all these texts of Scripture, (for the matter is wor-
thy of your study,) and you will see what souls they are that
Christ will then receive, and what he will reject. You may see
also what you must now be and do, if you will be then received.
If you are not regenerate by the Spirit of God; (though you
may be sacramentally regenerate in baptism ;) if you are not jus-
tified bv Christ ; (though you may be absolved by a minister ;) if
you seek not heaven with higher estimation and resolutions than
any felicity on earth, and take not God for your satisfying por-
tion; (though you be never so religious in subserviency to a
fleshly, worldly happiness;) if you receive not Christ as your
only Saviour, and set him not in the throne and government of
your hearts and lives ; (though you may go with men for cur-
rent Christians;) if you hate not sin, if you love not the holy
image and children of God, and use them not accordingly; if
YOU crucify not the flesh, and die not to the world, and deny not
yourselves, and live not unto God, as making it your chief
business and happiness to please him ; I say, if this be not
yoiir case, as sure as you are men, if you died this hour in this "
condition, Christ will not own you, but turn you off with a
LAST WORK. 27
"Depart, ye cursed.'* You may as well think of reconciling
light and darkness, or persuade a man to live on the food of
beasts, or the stomach to welcome deadly poison, as to think
that Christ will receive an ungodly, earthly, guilty soul.
Deceive not yourselves, sinners. If God could have enter-
tained the ungodly, and heaven could hold unholy souls, answer
me, then, these two or three questions.
Quest. 1. What need Christ, then, to have shed his blood, or
become a sacrifice for sin ? If he could have received the un-
godly, he might have done it upon cheaper rates. This feigneth
him to have died to no purpose, but to bring the unsanctified to
heaven, that might have been as well entertained there without
his sufferings.
<3uest, 2. To what use doth Christ send the Holy Ghost to
sanctify his elect, or send his word and ministers to promote it,
if tliey may come to heaven unsanctified ?
Quest. 3. If the ungodly go to heaven, what use is hell for?
There is no hell, if this be true. But you will quickly find that
to be too good news to the ungodly to be true.
2. In Luke xvi., Christ teacheth us our duty by the parable
of the steward, that asketh himself beforehand, what he. shall
do when he must be no longer steward, and contriveth it so
that others may receive him when he is cast off; and he applieth
it to us that must now so provide, that when we fail we may be
received into the everlasting habitations. This is the work that
we have all to mind. We always knew that this world would
fail us, 0, how uncertain is your tenure of the dwellings that
you now possess. Are you provided, certainly provided whither
to go, and who shall receive you when your stewardship is ended,
and you must needs go hence ? O think of these considerations
that should move you presently to provide.
1 . Your cottages of earth are ready to drop down, and it is a
stormy time, there are many sicknesses abroad. One blast may
quickly lay them in the dust, and then the flesh that had so much
care, and was thought worthy to be preferred before the soul,
must be laid and left to rot in darkness, to avoid the annoyance
of the living; and when you may justly look every hour when
you are turned out of these dwellings that you are in, is it not
time to be provided of some other ?
2. Consider, if Christ should not receive thy spirit how un-
speakably deplorable thy case will be. I think there is no man
in all this assembly so mad, that \vould take all the world now
28 A believer's
to have his soul refused then by Christ, that would professedly
make and subscribe such a bargain; and yet, alas, how many
are they that will be hired for a smaller price, even for the plea-
sure of a sin, to do that which Christ himself hath told them
will cause him to refuse them ? O sirs, for aught you know, be-
fore tomorrow, or within this week, you may be put to know
these things by trial, and your souls may be refused or received;
and wo to you that ever you were men, if Christ receive you not.
Consider, 1. If Christ receive thee not, thou hast no friend
left, then, to receive thee. Thy house, and land, and riches,
and reputation, are all left behind ; none of them will go with
thee ; or, if they did, they could afford thee no relief. Thy
bosom friends, thy powerful defenders, are all left behind ; or,
if they go before thee, or with thee, they can do nothing there,
that could do so much for thee here. No minister so holy, no
friend so kind, no patron so powerful, that can give thee any
entertainment, if Christ refuse to entertain thee. Look to the
right hand or the left, there will be none to help thee, or care
for thy forsaken soul. Then thou wilt find that one Christ had
been a better friend than all the great ones upon earth.
2. If Christ, then, receive not thy departed soul, the devils
will receive it. I am loth to speak so terrible a word, but that
it must be spoken, if you will be awaked to prevent it. He that
deceived thee will then plead conquest, and claim thee as his
due, that he may torment thee. And if the devil say, 'This
soul is mine,* and Christ do not rescue and justify thee, but say
so too, no heart is able to conceive the horror that will then
overwhelm thee. Doth not the reading of the sentence make
thee tremble, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels?" (Matt. xxv. 41.) This
is that dreadful delivering up to Satan, when the soul is excom-
municated from the city of God. Oh, therefore, if thou be yet
unreconciled to God, agree with him quickly, while thou art
here in the way, lest he deliver thee to this terrible jailor and exe-
cutioner, and thou be cast into the prison of the bottomless pit :
" Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out
thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." (Matt, v.
25, 26.)
3. The greatness of the change will increase the amazement
and misery of thy spirit, if Christ receive it not. To leave a
world that thou wast acquainted with ; a world that pleased
thee, and entertained thee ; a world where thou hadst long thy
LASt WORK. 20
business and delight, and where, wretched man, thou hadst
made thy chief provision, and laid up thy treasure, this will be
a sad part of the change. To enter into a world where thou
art a stranger, and much worse, and see the company and the
things that before thou never sawest, and to find things go there
so contrary to thy expectation ; to be turned, with Dives, from
thy sumptuous dwelling, attendance, and fare, into a place of
easeless torment, this will be a sadder part of thy change. Here
the rich would have received thee, the poor would have served
and flattered thee, thy friends would have comforted thee, thy
playfellows would have been merry with thee. But there, alas !
how the case is altered : all these have done ; the table is with-
drawn, the game is ended, the mirth is ceased, and now suc-
ceedeth, " Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst
thy good things, and Lazarus evil things ; but now he is com-
forted and thou art tormented." (Luke xvi. 25.) Oh, dreadful
change to those that made the world their home, and little
dreamed, or did but dream, of such a day. Never to see this
world again, unless by such reviews as will torment them : never
to have sport or pleasure more ; and for these to have such
company, such thoughts, such work and usage, as God hath
told us is in hell.
4. If Christ receive thee not, the burden of thy sins will
overwhelm thee, and conscience will have no relief. Sin will
not then appear in so harmless a shape as now : it will then
seem a more odious or frightful thing. O, to remember these
days of folly, of careless, sluggish, obstinate folly, of sottish
negligence, and contempt of grace, will be a more tormenting
thing than you will now believe. If such sermons and discourses
as foretel it are troublesome to thee, what then will that sad ex-
perience be ?
5. The wrath of an offended God will overwhelm thee. This
will be thy hell. He that was so merciful in the time of mercy,
will be most terrible and implacable when that time is past, and
make men know that Christ ani mercy are not neglected, re-
fused, and abused at so cheap a rate, as they would needs ima-
gine in the time of their deliration.
6. It will overwhelm the soul if Christ receive it not, to see
that thou art entering upon eternity, even into a state of ever-
lasting wo. Then thou wilt think, 'O whither am I going?
What must I endure ? and how long, how long ? When shall
my miseries have an end ? and when shall I come back ? and
30 A bbliever's
how shall I ever be delivered ?' O now what thoughts wilt thou'
have of the wonderful design of God in man's redemption !
Now thou wilt better understand what a Saviour was worth, and
how he should have been believed in, and how his gospel and
his saving grace should have been entertained.
O that the Lord would now open your hearts to entertain it,
that you may not then value it to your vexation, that would not
value it now to your relief ! Poor sinner, for the Lord's sake,
and for thy soul's sake, 1 beg now of thee, as if it were on my
knees, that thou wouldest cast away thy sinful cares and plea-
sures, and open thy heart, and now receive thy Saviour and his
saving grace, as ever thou wouldest have him then receive thy
trembling, departed soul ! Turn to him now, that he may not
turn thee from him then. Forsake him not for a flattering
world, a little transitory, vain delight, as ever thou wouldest
not then have thy departed soul forsaken by him ! O delay not^
man, but now, even now receive him, that thou mayest avoid so
terrible a danger, and put so great a question presently out of
doubt, and be able comfortably to say, 'I have received Christy
and he will receive me ; if I die this night he will receive me,'
then thou mayest sleep quietly, and live merrily, without any
disparagement to thy reason. O yield to this request, sinner,
of one that desireth thy salvation. If thou Wert now departing,
and 1 would not pray earnestly to Christ to receive thy soul,;
thou wouldest think I were uncharitable. Alas 1 it will be one of
these days ; and it is thee that I must entreat, and thyself must,
be prevailed with, or there is no hope. Christ sendeth me to
thyself, and saith, that he is willing to receive thee, if now thou
wilt receive him, and be sanctified and ruled by him. The
matter stops at thy own regardless, wilful heart. What sayest
thou ? AVilt thou receive Christ now, or not ? Wilt thou be a
new creature, and live to God, by the principle of his Spirit,
and the rule of his word, to please him here, that thou mayest
live with him for ever ? Wilt thou take up this resolution, and-
make this covenant with God this day ? O give me a word of
comfort, and say, thou art resolved, and wilt deliver up thyself to
Christ. That which is my comfort now on thy behalf, will be
ten thousand-fold more thy comfort then, when thou partakest
of the benefit. And if thou grieve us now, by denying thy soul
to Christ, it will be at last ten thousand-fold more thy grief.
Refuse not our requests, and Christ's request now, as ever thou
wouldest not have him refuse thee then, and thy requests. It is
LAST WOBK. 31
men's turning away now from Christ that will cause Christ then to
turn from them. "The turning away of the simple slayeth
them, and they then eat but the fruit of their own way, and are^
filled with their own devices." (Prov. i. 31, 32.) " See then that
ye now refuse not him that speaketh : for there is no escaping
if you turn away from him that speaketh from heaven/'
(Heb. xii. 25.)
What would you say yourselves to the man that would not be
dissuaded from setting his house on fire, and then would pray and
cry importunately to God that he would keep it from being burnt?
Or of the man that will not be dissuaded from taking poison,
and then when it gripeth him will cry to God to save his life ?
Or of the man that will go to sea in a leaking, broken vessel,
yea, himself will make those breaches in it that shall let the
water in, and when it is sinking will cry to God to save him
from being drowned ? And will you do this about so great a
matter as the everlasting state of your immortal souls ? Will
you now be worldlings, and sensualists, and ungodly, and undo
yourselves, and then cry, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," at the
last ? What 1 receive an unholy spirit ? Will you not knock
till the door is shut ? When he telleth you, that " it is riot
every one that will cry Lord, Lord, that shall enter into tlie king-
dom of heaven, but he that doth the will of his Father which
is in heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.)
Lastly, consider with what unspeakable joy it will fill thy soul
to be then received by the Lord. O what a joyful word will it
be, when thou shalt hear, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, in-j
herit the kingdom prepared for you." If thou wilt not. have this
to be thy case, thou shalt see those received to the increase of
thy grief whom thou refusedst here to imitate : "There shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God,
and those that from east, west, north, and south, shall sit there
with them, and thou thrust out," (Luke xiii. 27 — 29.)
1 have been long in this part of my application, having to do
with souls that are ready to depart, and are in so sad an unpre-
pared state, as is not to be thought on but with great compas-i
sion ; I am next to come to that part of the application which
I chiefly intended to those that are the heirs of life.
2. O you that are members of Jesus Christ, receive this cor-
dial which may corroborate your hearts against all inordinate
fears of death. Let it come when it will, you may boldly recom-
32 A BELIEVEll*S
mend your departing souls into the hands of Christ. Let it be
by a lingering disease, or by an acute, by a natural or a violent
death, at the fulness of your age, or in the flower of your youth,
death can but separate the soul from flesh, but not from Christ;
whether you die poor or rich, at liberty or in prison, in your
native country or a foreign land, whether you be buried in the
earth or cast into the sea, death shall but send your souls to
Christ. Though you die under the reproach and slanders of the
world, and your names be cast out among men as evil-doers,
yet Christ will take your spirits to himself. Though your souls
depart in fear and trembling, though they want the sense of the
\ove of God, and doubt of pardon and peace with him, yet Christ
will receive them.
I know thou wilt be ready to say, that thou art unworthy,
'Will he receive so unworthy a soul as mine ?' But if thou art
a member of Christ thou art worthy in him to be accepted.
Thou hast a worthiness of aptitude, and Christ hath a worthi-
ness of meHt.
The day that cometh upon such at unawares that have their
hearts overcharged with surfeiting, drunkenness, and the cares of
this life, and as a snare surpjiseth the inhabitants of the earth,
shall be the day of thy great deliverance ; " Watch ye, therefore,
and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all
these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the
Son of man." (Luke xxi. 34 — 36.) " They that are accounted
worthy to obtain that world can die no more ; for they are equal
unto the angels, and are the children of God." (Lukexx. 35, 36.)
Object. ' O but my sins are great and many ; and will Christ
ever receive so ignorant, so earthly and impure a soul as mine ?*
Answer. If he have freed thee from the reign of sin, by giving
thee a will that would fain be fully delivered from it, and given
thee a desire to be perfectly holy, he will finish the work that
he hath begun ; and will not bring thee defiled into heaven, but
will wash thee in his blood, and separate all the remnant of cor-
ruption from thy soul, when he separateth thy soul from flesh ;
there needs no purgatory, but his blood and Spirit in the instant
of death shall deliver thee, that he may present thee spotless to
the Father.
O fear not then to trust thy soul with him that will receive
it ', and fear not death that can do thee no more harm. And
when once thou hast overcome the fears of death, thou wilt be
the more resolute in thy duty, and faithful to Christ, and above
1a ST WORK. S3
the power 'of most temptations, and wilt not fear the face of
man, when death is the worst that man can brin«^ thee to. It
is true, death is dreadful ; but it is as true that the arms of
Christ are joyful. It is an unpleasant thing to leave the bodies
of our friends in the earth ; but it is unspeakable pleasure to
their souls to be received into the heavenly society by Christ.
And how confidently, quietly, and comfortably you may com-
mend your departing spirits to be received by Christ, be inform-
ed by these considerations following.
1. Your spirits are Christ's own ; and may you not trust
him with his own ? as they are his by the title of creation,
"All souls are mine, saith the Lord 5" (Ezek. xviii. 4 ;) so also
by the title of redemption, " We are not our own, we are bought
with a price." (1 Cor. vi. 19.)
Say therefore to him, ^Lord, I am thine much more than my
own ; receive thine own, take care of thine own. Thou drewest
me to consent to thy gracious covenant, and I resigned myself and
all I had to thee. And thou swarest to me, and I became thine,
(Ezek. xvi. 8.) i\nd I stand to the covenant that I made, though I
have offended thee. I am sinful, but I am thine, and would not
forsake thee, and change my Lord and Master for a world. O
know thine own, and own my soul that hath owned thee, though
it hath sinned against thee ! Thy sheep know thy voice, and
follow not a stranger ; now know thy poor sheep, and leave
them not to the devourer. Thy lambs have been preserved ?>y
thee among wolves in the world, preserve me now from the
enemy of souls. I am thine, O save me, (Psalm cxix. 94,) and
lose not that which is thine own !'
2. Consider that thou art his upon so dear a purchase, as
that he is the more engaged to receive thee. Hath he bought
thee by the price of his most precious blood, and will he cast
thee off? Hath he come down on earth to seek and save thee,
and will he now forsake thee ? Hath he lived in flesh a life eS"
poverty, and suffered reproach, and scorn, and buffetings, aiexi
been nailed to the cross, and put to cry out, "My God^ my
God, why hast thou forsaken me !" And will he now forget hfs;
lovCj and sufferings, and himself forsake thee after this }- DLdi
he himself on the cross commend his spirit into his; Faitber's;
hands, and will he not receive thy spirit when thoti; aS deatll
commendest it to him? He hath known himself what it is to
have a human soul separated from the body, and the body buried"
in a grave, and there lamented by surviving friends. And why^
VOL. XVIII. D.
34 A believer's
did he this, but that he might be fit to receive and relieve thee
in the like condition ? O who would not be encouraged to en-
counter death, and lie down in a grave, that believeth that
Christ did so before him, and considereth why he went that way,
and what a conquest he had made !
I know an argument from the death of Christ will not prove
his love to the souls of the ungodly so as to infer that he will
receive them ; but it will prove his reception of believers' souls :
" He that spared not his own son, but gave him up for us
all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things ?"
(Rom. viii. 32,) is an infallible argument as to believers, but not
as to those that do reject him.
Say therefore to him, ' O my Lord ! can it be that thou
couldest come down in flesh, and be abused, and spit upon, and
slandered, and crucified ! That thou couldest bleed, and die,
and be buried for me, and now be unwilling to receive me ! That
thou shouldest pay so dear for souls, and now refuse to enter-
tain them I That thou shouldest die to save them from the
devil, and now wilt leave them to his cruelty ! That thou hast
conquered him, and yet wilt suffer him at last to have the prey!
To whom can a departing soul fly for refuge, and for entertain-
ment, if not to thee that diedst for souls, and sufferedst thine
to be separated from the flesh, that we might have all assurance
of thy compassion unto ours ? Thou didst openly declare upon
the cross, that the reason of thy dying was to receive departed
souls, when thou didst thus encourage the soul of a penitent
malefactor, by telling him, " This day shalt thou be with me in
paradise/' O give the same encouragement or entertainment
to this sinful soul that flieth unto thee, that trusteth in thy
death and merits, and is coming to receive thy doom.'
3. Consider that Jesus Christ is full of love, and tender com-
passion to souls. What his tears over Lazarus compelled the
Jews to say, " Behold how he loved him," (John xi. 36,)
the same his incarnation, life, and death should much more
stir us up to say, with greater admiration, ' Behold how he loved
«s.' The foregoing words, though the shortest verse in all the
Bible, " Jesus wept," (verse 35,) are long enough to prove his
love to Lazarus : and the Holy Ghost would not have the tears
of Christ to be unknown to us, that his love may be the better
known. But we have a far larger demonstration of his love ;
" He loved us, and gave himself for us." (Gal. ii. 20.) And by
what gift could he better testify his love ? " He loved us, and
LAST WORK. 35
washed us in his blood." (Rev. i. 5.) He loved us, as the
Father loveth him. (John xv. 9.) And may we not comfortably
go to him that loved us ? Will love refuse us when we fly unto
him ?
Say then to Christ * O thou that hast loved my soul, receive
it ! I commend it not unto an enemy. Can that love reject
me, and cast me into hell, that so oft embraced me on earth,
and hath declared itself by such ample testimonies !'
O had we but more love to Christ, we should be more sensible
of his love to us, and then we should trust him, and love would
make us hasten to him, and with confidence cast ourselves upon
him.
4. Consider that it is the office of Christ to save souls, and
to receive them, and therefore we may boldly recommend them
to his hands. The Father sent him to be the Saviour of the
world; (1 John iv. 14;) and he is effectively the Saviour of
his body. (Eph. v. 23.) And may we not trust him in his
undertaken office, that would trust a physician or any other in
his office, if we judge him faithful ? Yea, he is engaged by cove-
nant to receive us : when we gave up ourselves to him, he also
became ours ; and we did it on this condition, that he should
receive and save us. And it was the condition of his own
undertaking; he drew the covenant himself and tendered it
first to us, and assumed his own conditions, as he imposed
ours.
Say then to him, ' My Lord, I expected but the performance
of thy covenants, and the discharge of thine undertaken office :
as thou hast caused me to believe in thee, and love and serve
thee, and perform the conditions which thou laid'st on me,
though with many sinful failings, which thou hast pardoned ; so
now let my soul, that hath trusted on thee, have the full ex-
perience of thy fidelity, and take me to thyself according to thy
covenant. '^ O now remember the word unto thy servant, upon
which thou hast caused him to hope !" (Psalm cxix. 49.) How
many precious promises hast thou left us, that we shall not be
forsaken by thee, but that we shall be with thee where -thou art,
that we may behold thy glory ! For this cause art thou the
mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first
testament, they which are called might receive the promise of
eternal inheritance. (Heb. ix. 15.) According to thy cove-
nant, " Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is, and
d2
36
of that which is to come." (1 Tim. iv. 8.) And when we have
done thy will (notwithstanding our lamentable imperfections)
we are to receive the promise. (Heb. x. 36.) O, now receive
me into the kingdom which thou hast promised to them that
love thee ! (James i. 12.)
5. Consider how able Christ is to answer thine expectations ;
All power is given him in heaven and earth, (Matt, xxviii. 19,)
and all things are given by the Father into his hands. (John
xiii. 3.) All judgment is committed to him. (John v. 22.) It
is fully in his power to receive and save thee ; and Satan cannot
touch thee but by his consent. Fear not, then ; he is the first
and last, that liveth, and was dead, and behold he liveth for ever-
more, amen : and hath the keys of hell and death. (Rev. i. 17,
18.)
Say then, if thou wilt, Lord, thou canst save this departuig
soul ! Oh, say but the word, and I shall live ! Lay but thy
rebuke upon the destroyer, and he shall be restrained. When
my Lord and dearest Saviour hath the keys, how can I be kept
out of thy kingdom, or cast into the burning lake ? Were it a
matter of difficulty unto thee, my soul might fear lest heaven
would not be opened to it 3 but thy love hath overcome the
hinderances ; and it is as easy to receive me, as to love me.
6. Consider how perfectly thy Saviour is acquainted with
the place that thou art going to, and the company and employ-
ment which thou must there have ; and, therefore, as there is
nothing strange to him, so the ignorance and strangeness in
thyself should therefore make thee fly to him, and trust to him,
and recommend thy soul to him, and say, ' Lord, it would be
terrible to my departing soul to go into a world that I never
saw, and into a place so strange, and unto company so far
above me ; but that I know there is nothing strange to thee,
and thou knowest it for me, and I may better trust thy know-
ledge than mine own. W^hen 1 was a child 1 knew not mine
own inheritance, nor what was necessary to the daily provisions
for my life ; but my parents knew it that cared for me. The
eyes must see for all the body, and not every member see for itself.
Oh, cause me as quietly and believingly to commit my soul to
thee, to be possessed of the glory which thou seest and pos-
sessest, as if I had seen and possessed it myself, and let thy
knowledge be my trust !
7. Consider that Christ hath provided a glorious receptacle
for faithful souls, and it cannot be imagined that he will lose his
LAST WORK. 37
preparations, or be frustrate of his end. All that he did and
suffered on earth was for this end. He therefore became the
Captain of our salvation, and was made perfect through suffer-
ings, that he might bring many sons to glory. (Heb. ii. 10.)
He hath taken possession of our nature, and is himself inter-
ceding for us in the heavens. (Heb. vii. 25.) And for whom
doth he provide this heavenly building, not made with hands,
but for believers ? If, therefore any inordinate fear surprise
thee, remember what he hath said : " Let not your hearts be
troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in m<e : in my Father's
house are many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told
you : I go to prepare a place for you j and if I go and pre-
pare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto
myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." (John xiv.
1-3.)
Say, therefore, ' Lord, when thou hadst made this lower nar-
row world, thou wouldest not leave it uninhabited : for man
thou madest it, and man thou placedst in it. And when thou
hast prepared that more capacious glorious world for thy re-
deemed flock, it cannot be that thou wilt shut them out. O,
therefore, receive my fearful soul, and help me to obey thy own
command.* (Luke xii. ^32.) Fear not, little flock, for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Oh, let' me
hear that joyful sentence, " Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world." (Matt. xxv. 34.)
8. Consider that Christ hath received thy soul unto grace,
and therefore he will receive it unto glory. He hath quickened
us who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past
we walked, &c. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great
love wherewith he loved us, even v/hen we were dead in sins
and trespasses, quickened us together in Christ, and raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. (Eph. ii. 1 — 6.) The state of grace is the king-
dom of heaven, as well as the state of glory. (Matt. iii. 2, and
X.7, and xiii. 11, 24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47.) By grace thou
hast the heavenly birth and nature : we are first-born to trouble
and sorrow in the world, but we are new-born to everlasting
joy and pleasure. Grace maketh us heirs, and giveth us title,
and therefore at death we shall have possession. The Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his abundant mercy, hath
begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the reiurrectiou of
38 A believbr's
Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us.
(1 Pet. i. 3, 4.) The great work was done in the day of thy
renovation ; then thou wast entered into the household of God,
and made a fellow- citizen with the saints, and receivedst the
Spirit of adoption. (Eph. ii. 19 ; Gal. iv. 6.) He gave thee life
eternal, when he gave the knowledge of himself, and of his
Son. (John xvii. 3.) And will he now take from thee the king-
dom which he hath given thee ? Thou wast once his enemy,
and he hath received thee already into his favour, and reconciled
thee to himself, and will he not then receive thee to his glory ?
(Rom. v. 8 — 11.) "God commendeth his love towards us, in
that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more
then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through him. For, if when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being re-
conciled we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we
also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we
have now received the atonement." And when we have peace
with God, being justified by faith, (Rom. v. 1,) why should we
doubt whether he will receive us ? The great impediments
and cause of fear are now removed, unpardoned sin is taken
away, our debt is discharged. We have a sufficient answer
against all that can be alleged to the prejudice of our souls :
yea, it is Christ himself that answereth for us ; it is he that
justifieth, who then shall condemn us ? Will he not justify
those at last whom he hath here justified ? Or will he justify
nsj and yet not receive us ? That were both to justify and con-
demn us.
Depart, then, in peace, O fearful soul ; thou fallest into his
hands that hath justified thee by his blood i will he deny thee
the inheritance of which he himself hath made thee heir, yea,
a joint-heir with himself? (Rom. viii. 17.) Will he deprive
thee of thy birthright, who himself begot thee of the incorrupti-
ble seed ? If he would not have received thee to glory, he
would not have drawn thee to himself, and have blotted out
thine iniquities, and received thee by reconciling grace. Many
a time he hath received the secret petitions, complaints, and
groans which thou hast poured out before him, and hath given
thee access with boldness to his throne of grace, when thou
couldest not have access to man ; and he hath taken thee up,
when man hath cast thee off. Surely he that received thee so
LAST WORK/ 39
readily in thy distress, will not now at last repent him of hi»
love. As Manoah's wife said, " If the Lord were pleased to
kill us, he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-
offering at our hands, neither would he have showed us all these
things." (Judges xiii. 23.) He hath received thee into his
church, and entertained thee with the delights and fatness of
his house,(Psalm xxxvi. 8,) and bid thee welcome to his table^
and feasted thee with his body and his blood, and communi-
cated in these his quickening Spirit ; and will he then disown
thee, and refuse thee, when thou drawest nearer him, and art
cast upon him for thy final doom ? After so many receptions in
the way of grace, dost thou yet doubt of his receiving thee ?
9. Consider how nearly thou art related to him in this state
of grace : thou art his child, and hath he not the bowels of a
father ? When thou didst ask bread, he was not used to give
thee a stone; and will he give thee hell, when thou askest but
the entertainment in heaven which he hath promised thee ?
'ihou art his friend, (John xv. 14, 15,) and will he not receive his
friends? Thou art his spouse, betrothed to him the very day
when thou consentedst to his covenant; and where then shouldest
thou live but with him ? Thou art a member of his body, of
his flesh and bone ; (Eph. v. 30 ;) and no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church : (verse 29 :) as he came down in flesh to be a suitor
to thee, so he caused thee to let go all for him ; and will he now
forsake thee ? Suspect it not, but quietly resign thy soul into
his hands, and say, ' Lord, take this soul that pleads relation
to thee ; it is the voice of thy child that crieth to thee: thie
name of a father, which thou hast assumed towards me, is my
encouragement. When thou didst call us out of the world unto
thee, thou saidst, I will receive you, and I will be a father to
you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters. (2 Cor. vi. 17,
LS.) O our Father, which art in heaven, shut hot out thy
children, the children of thy love and promise. The compas-
sion that thou hast put into man engageth him to relieve a
neighbour, yea, an enemy, much more to entertain a child ; our'
children and out friends dare trust themselves upon our kind-
ness and fidelity, and fear not that we will reject them in their
distress, or destroy them, though they do sometimes offend us;
our kindness is cruelty in comparison of thine; our love de-
serveth not the name of love in comparison of thy most precious
love. Thine is the love of God, who is love, itself; {1 John iv;
40
S, 16 ;) and who is the God of love: (2 Cor. i. 13, 1 1 :) and is
answerable to thine omnipotency, omniscience, and other attri-
butes ? But ours is the love of frail and finite sinful men. As
we may pray to thee to forgive us our trespasses, for we also
forgive those that have trespassed against us ; so we may pray
to thee to receive us, though we have offended thee ; for even
we receive those that have offended us. Hath thy love unto
thine own its breadth, and length, and height, and depth ; and
is it such as passeth knowledge? (Eph. iii. 17 — 19.) And yet
canst thou exclude thine own, and shut them out that cry unto
thee ? Can that love, which washed me and took me home
when I lay wallowing in my blood, reject me, when it hath so
far recovered me ? Can that love now thrust me out of heaven
that lately fetched me from the gates of hell, and placed me
among thy saints? '" Whom thou lovest, thou lovest to the
end." (John xiii. 1.) "Thou art not as man, that thou
shouldest repent." (Num. xxiii. 19.) " With thee is no vari-
ableness, or shadow of turning." (James i. 17.) If yesterday
thou so freely lovedst me as to adopt me for thy child, thou
wilt not to day refuse me, and cast me into hell. Receive,
Lord Jesus, a member of thy body ; a weak one, indeed, but yet
a member, and needeth the more thy tenderness and compas-
sion, who hast taught us not to cast out our infants, because
they are small and weak. " We have forsaken all to cleave
unto thee, that we might with thee be one flesh and spirit."
(Eph. V. 31 ; 1 Cor. vi. 17.) O cut not off and cast not out thy
members that are engrafted into thee. " Thou hast dwelt in
me here by faith, and shall I not now dwell with thee ?" (Eph.
iii. 17.) Thou hast prayed to the Father, that we may be one
in thee, and may be with thee to behold thy glory ; (John xvii.
20 — 24 ;) and wilt thou deny to receive me to that glory, who
pray but for what thou hast prayed to thy Father ? Death
maketh no separation between thee and thy members : it dis-
solveth not the union of souls with thee, though it separate
them from the flesh ; and shall a part of thyself be rejected and
condemned ?'
10. Consider that Christ hath sealed thee up unto salvation
and given thee the earnest of his Spirit, and therefore will cer-
tainly receive thee. (2 Cor. i. 22, and v. 5 ; Eph. i. 13, 14,
and iv. 30.) Say, therefore, to him, ' Behold, Lord, thy mark,
thy seal, thine earnest; flesh and blood did not illuminate and
renew me; thy Spirit which thou hast given me is my witness
LAST WORK. 41
that I am thine/* (Rom. viii. 16.) And wilt thou disown and
refuse the soul that thou hast sealed ?'
1 1 . Consider that he that hath given thee a heavenly mind,
will certainly receive thee into heaven. If thy treasure were
not there, thy heart would never have been there. (Matt. vi.
21.) Thy weak desires do show what he intends thee for; he
kindled not those desires in vain. Thy love to him, (though
too small) is a certain proof that he intends not to reject thee;
it cannot be that God can damn, or Christ refuse a soul that
doth sincerely love him : he that loveth, " dwelleth in God, and
God in him." (1 John iv. 15, 16.) And shall he not then
dwell with God for ever ? God fitteth the nature of every crea-
ture to its use, and agreeable to the elements in which they
dwell: and, therefore, when he gave thee the heavenly nature,
(though but in weak beginnings) it showed his will to make thee
an inhabitant of heaven.
Say, therefore, to him, ' O Lord, I had never loved thee if
thou hadst not begun and loved me first; I had not minded
thee, or desired after thee, if thou hadst not kindled these de-
sires; it cannot be that thy grace itself should be a deceit and
misery, and intended but to tantalize us ; and that thou hadst
set thy servants' souls on longing for that which thou wilt
never give them. Thou wouldest not have given me the wed-
ding garment, when thou didst invite me, if thou hadst meant
to keep me out : even the grain of mustard seed which thou
sowedst in my heart, was a kind of promise of the happiness to
which it tendeth. Indeed I have loved thee so little, that I am
ashamed of myself, and confess my cold indifferency deserves
thy wrath ; but that I love thee, and desire thee, is thy gift,
which signifieth the higher satisfying gift ; though 1 am cold
and dull, my eyes are towards thee ; it is thee that I mean when
I can but groan ; it is long since I have bid this world away ; it
shall not be my home or portion; O perfect what thou hast
begun ; this is not the time or place of my perfection ; and
though my life be now hid with thee rn God, when thou ap-.
pearest, let me appear with thee in glory. (Col. iii. 4.) And,
in the meantime, let this soul enjoy its part that appeareth be-
fore thee ; give me what thou hast caused me to love, and then
I shall more perfectly love thee, when my thirst is satisfied,
and the water which thou hast given me shall spring up to
everlasting life. (John iv. 14.)*
12. Consider also, that he that hath engaged thee to seek
42l A BELIEVE R*8
first his kingdom, is engaged to give it them that do sincerely
seek it. He called thee off the pursuit of vanity when thou
wast following the pleasures and profits of the world ; and he
called thee to labour for the food that perisheth not, but en-
dureth to everlasting life. (John vi. 27.) Since then it hath
been thy care and business, (notwithstanding all thine imper-
fections,) to seek and serve him, to please and honour him, and
so to run that thou mightest obtain.
Say, then, * Though my sins deserve thy wrath, and nothing
that I have done deserve thy favour, yet godliness hath thy
promise of the life to come ; and thou hast said, " That he that
seeks shall find/' (Matt. vii. 7, 8.) O now let me find the
kingdom that 1 have sought, and sought by thy encouragement
and help ; it cannot be that any should have cause to repent of
serving thee, or suffer disappointment that trusts upon thee.
My labour for the world was lost and vain, but thou didst en-
gage me to be steadfast and abound in thy work ; on this
account that my labour should not be in vain. (1 Cor. xv.
58.) Now give the full and final answer unto all my prayers :
now that I have done the fight, and finished my course, let
me find the crown of righteousness which thy mercy hath laid
up. (2 Tim. iv. 8.) O crown thy graces, and with thy
greatest mercies recompense and perfect thy preparatory mer-
cies, and let me be received to thy glory, who have been guided
by thy counsel. (Psalm Ixxiii. 24.)'
13. Consider that Christ hath already received millions of
souls, and never was unfaithful unto any. There are now with
him, the spirits of the just made perfect, that in this life were
imperfect as well as you. Why, then, should you not comfort-
ably trust him with your souls? and say, ' Lord, thou art the
common salvation and refuge of thy saints ; both strong and
weak, even all that are given thee by the Father shall come to
thee, and those that come thou wilt in nowise cast out. Thou-
sands have been entertained by thee that were unworthy in
themselves, as well as I. It is few of thy members that are
now on earth, in comparison of those that are with thee in
heaven. Admit me, Lord, into the new Jerusalem ; thou wilt
have thy house to be filled ; O, take my spirit into the number
of those blessed ones that shall come from east, west, north,
and south, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the
kingdom, that we may, together with eternal joys, giv6 thanks
and praise to thee that hast redeemed us to God by thy blood/
LAST WORK. 4S
14. Consider that it is the will of the Father himself that we
should be glorified. He, therefore, gave us to his Son, and gave
his Son for us, to be our Saviour, *' That whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life." All our sal-
vation is the product of his love. (John iii. 16, 17; Eph. ii. 4 ;
John vi. 37, and xvi. 26, 27.) I say not that I will pray the
Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have
loved me, &c. (John xiv.) He that loveth me, shall be loved of
my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Say, therefore, with our dying Lord, ^ " Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit; by thy son who is the way, the truth,
and the life, I come to thee." (John xiv. 6.) " Fulness of
joy is in thy presence, and everlasting pleasures at thy right
hand." (Psalm xvi. 11.) Thy love redeemed me, renewed
and preserved me ; O ! now receive me to the fulness of thy
love. This was thy will in sending thy Son, that of all that thou
gavest him he should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the
last day. O let not now this soul be lost that is passing to thee
through the straits of death. I had never come unto thy Son
if thou hadsi not drawn me, and if I had not heard and learned
of thee. (John vi. 44, 45.) I thank thee, O Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that thou hast revealed to me, a babe, an
idiot, the blessed mysteries of thy kingdom. (Luke x. 21 ;
Acts iv. 13.) O, now, as the veil of flesh must be withdrawn,
and my soul be parted from this body, withdraw the veil of thy
displeasure, and show thy servant the glory of thy presence :
that he that hath seen thee but as in a glass, may see thee
now with open face ; and when my earthly house of this taber-
nacle is dissolved, let me inhabit thy building not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. (2 Cor. v. 1.)*
15. Lastly, consider that God hath designed the everlasting
glory of his name, and the pleasing of his blessed will, in our
salvation ; and the Son must triumph in the perfection of his
conquest of sin and Satan, and in the perfecting of our redemp-
tion ; and, doubtless, he will not lose his Father's glory and his
own. Say, then, with confidence, * I resign my soul to thee,
O Lord, who hast called and chosen me, that thou mightest
make known the riches of thy glory on me, as a vessel of mercy
prepared unto glory. (Rom. ix. 23.) Thou hast predesti-
nated me to the adoption of thy child by Christ unto thyself,
to the praise of the glory of thy grace, wherein thou hast made
me accepted in thy beloved, (Eph, i. 5, 6, 11, 12.) Re-
4i A believer's
ceive me now to the glory which thou hast prepared for tis,
(Matt. XXV. 34.) The hour is at hand. Lord, glorify thy poor
adopted child, that he may for ever glorify thee. (John xvii.
1.) It is thy promise to glorify those whom thou dost justify.
(Rom. viii. 30.) As ^'^ there is no condemnation to them that
are in Christ; (Rom. viii. 1 ;) so now let him present me
faultless before the presence of the glory with exceeding joy ; and
to thee the only wise God our Saviour, be the glory, majesty,
dominion, and power for evermore. Amen." (Jude ver. 23, 34.)*
What now remaineth, but that we all set ourselves to learn
this sweet and necessary task, that we may joyfully perform it
in the hour of our extremity, even to recommend our departing
souls to Christ, with confidence that he will receive them. It
is a lesson not easy to be learned j for faith is weak, and doubts
and fears will easily arise, and nature will be loth to think of
dying ; and we that have so much offended Christ, and lived so
strangely to him, and been entangled in too much familiarity
with the world, shall be apt to shrink when we should joyfully
trust him with our departing souls. Oh ! therefore, now set
yourselves to overcome these difficulties in time. You know
we are all ready to depart; it is time this last important work
were thoroughly learned, that our death may be both safe and
comfortable.
There are divers other uses of this doctrine, that I should
have urged upon you, had there been time. As, 1. If Christ
will receive your departing souls, then fear not death, but long
for this heavenly entertainment.
2. Then do not sin for fear of them that can but kill the
body, and send the soul to Christ.
3. Then think not the righteous unhappy because they are
cast off by the world ; neither be too much troubled at it your-
selves when it comes to be your case; but remember that Christ
will not forsake you, and that none can hinder him from the
receiving of your souls. No malice nor slanders can follow you
so far as by defamation to make your justifier condemn you.
4. If you may trust him with your souls, then trust him with
your friends, your children that you must leave behind, with
all your concernments and affairs : and trust him with his gospel
and his church ; for they are all his own, and he will prevail to
the accomplishment of his blessed pleasure.
But, 5. I shall only add that use which the sad occasion of
our ineeting doth bespeak. What cause have w$ now to mix
LAST W6ftK* 45
our sorrows for our deceased friend, with the joys of faith for
her feHcity ? We have left the body to the earth, and that is
our lawful sorrow, for it is the fruit of sin ; but her spirit is re-
ceived by Jesus Christ, and that must be our joy, if we will
behave ourselves as true believers. If we can suffer with her,
should we not rejoice also with her ? And if the joy be far
greater to the soul with Christ, than the ruined state of the
body can be lamentable, it is but reason that our joy should be
greater for her joy, than our sorrow for the dissolution of the
flesh. We that should not much lament the passage of a friend
beyond the seas, if it were to be advanced to a kingdom, should
less lament the passage of a soul to Christ, if it were not for the
remnant of our woful unbelief.
She is arrived at the everlasting rest, where the burden of
corruption, the contradictions of the flesh, the molestations of
the tempter, the troubles of the world, and the injuries of mali-
cious men, are all kept out, and shall never more disturb her
peace. She hath left us in these storms, who have more cause
to weep for/ourselves, and for our children, that have yet so much
to do and suffer, and so many dangers to pass through, than for
the souls that are at rest with Christ. We are capable of no
higher hopes than to attain that state of blessedness which her
soul possesseth ; and shall we make that the matter of our la-
mentation as to her, which we make the matter of our hopes as to
ourselves ? Do we labour earnestly to come thither, and yet
lament that she is there ? You will say, it is not because she is
clothed upon with the house from heaven, but that she is un-
clothed of the flesh : but is there any other passage than death
into immortality ? Must we not be unclothed before the garments
of glory can be put on ? She bemoaneth not her own dissolved
body; the glorified soul can easily bear the corruption of the
flesh ; and if you saw but what the soul enjoyeth, you would be
like-minded, and be moderate in your griefs. Love not your-
selves so as to be unjust and unmerciful in your desires to your
friends I Let Satan desire to keep them out of heaven, but do
not you desire it. You may desire your own good, but not so
as to deprive your friends of theirs ; yea, of a greater good, that
you may have a lesser by it. And if it be their company that
you desire, in reason you should be glad that tliey are gone to
dwell where you must dwell for ever, and therefore may for ever
have their company ; had they stayed on earth you would have
had their company but a little while, because you must make so
46 A believer's
short a stay yourselves. Let them therefore begin their journey
before you, and grudge not that they are first at home, as long
as you expect to find them there. In the mean time he that
called them from you hath not left you comfortless ', he is with
you himself, who is better than a mother, or than ten thousand
friends ; when grief or negligence hindereth you from observing
him, yet he is with you, and holdeth you up, and tenderly pro-
videth for you ; though turbulent passions injuriously question
all his love, and cause you to give him unmannerly and unthank-
ful words, yet still he beareth with you, and forgiveth all, and
doth not forsake you for your peevishness and weakness, because
you are his children, and he knoweth that you mean not to for-
sake him : rebuke your passions, and calm your minds ; reclaim
your thoughts, and cast away the bitterness of suspicious, quar-
relsome unbelief, and then you may perceive the presence of
your dearest friend and Lord, who is enough for you, though
you had no other friend. Without him all the friends on earth
would be but silly comforters, and leave you as at the gates of
hell ; without him all the angels and saints in heaven would
never make it a heaven to you. Grieve not too much that one
of your candles is put out while you have the sun ; or if indeed
it be not day with any of you, or the sun be clouded or eclipsed,
let that rather be the matter of your grief j find out the cause,
and presently submit and seek reconciliation : or if you are de-
prived of this light, because you are yet asleep in sin, hearken to
his call, and rub your eyes : " Awake thou that sleepest, and
arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. (Eph. v.
14.) " Knowing that it is now high time to awake out of sleep,
our salvation being nearer than when we first believed ; the night
is far spent, the day of eternal light is at hand; cast off there-
fore the works of darkness, and put on all the armour of light ;
walk honestly and decently as in the day." (Rom. xiii. 11 — 14.)
And whatever you do, make sure of the Friend that never dieth,
and never shall be separated from you, and when you die will
certainly receive the souls which you commend unto him.
And here, tliough contrary to my custom, 1 shall make some
more particular mention of our deceased friend on several ac-
counts, 1. In prosecution of this use that now we are upon,
that you may see in the evidences of her happiness how little
cause you have to indulge extraordinary grief on her account,
and how much cause to moderate your sense of our loss with
the sense of her felicity, 2. That you may have the benefit of
LAST WORK. A3
her example for your imitation, especially her children that are
bound to observe the holy actions as well as instructions of a
mother. 3. For the honour of Christ, and his grace, and his
servant : for as God hath promised to honour those that ho-
nour him, (1 Sam. ii. 30,) and Christ hath said, "If any man
serve me, him will my Father honour, (John xii. 26.) so I know
Christ will not take it ill to be honoured in his members, and to
have his ministers subserve him in so excellent a work : it is a
very considerable part of the love or hatred, honour or disho-
nour, thatChrist hath in the world, which he receiveth as he ap-
peareth in his followers. He that will not see a cup of cold
water given to one of them go unrewarded, and will tell those at
the last day that did or did not visit and relieve them, that they
did or did it not to him, will now expect it from me as my duty
to give him the honour of his graces in his deceased servant, and
1 doubt not will accordingly accept it, when it is no other in-
deed than his own honour that is my end, and nothing but the
word of truth and soberness shall be the means.
And here I shall make so great a transition as shall retain my
discourse in the narrow compass of the time in which she lived
near me, and under my care, and in my familiar acquaintance,
omitting all the rest of her life, that none may say I speak but
by hearsay of things which I am uncertain of; and I will con-
fine it also to those special gifts and graces in which she was
eminent, that 1 may not take you up with a description of a
Christian as such, and tell you only of that good which she held
but in common with all other Christians. And if any thing
that I shall say were unknown to any reader that knew her, let
them know that it is because they knew her but distantly, im-
perfectly, or by reports ; and that my advantage of near acquaint-
ance did give me a just assurance of what I say.
The graces which 1 discerned to be eminent in her, were
these. 1. She was eminent in her contempt of the pride, and
pomp, and pleasure, and vanity of the world \ and in her great
averseness to all these she had an honest impatience of the life
which is common among the rich and vain-glorious in the
world : voluptuousness and sensuality, excess of drinking, cards
and dice, she could not endure, whatever names of good house-
keeping or seemly deportment they borrowed for a mask. In her
apparel she went below the garb of others of her rank ; indeed
in such plainness as did not notify her degree; but yet in such
a grave and decent habit as notified her sobriety and humility.
48 A feELlfiVEft's
She was a stranger to pastimes, and no companion for time-
wasters, as knowing that persons so near eternity, that have so
short a life, and so great a work, have no time to spare. Ac-
cordingly, in her latter days she did, as those that grow wise by
experience of the vanity of the world, retire from it, and cast
it off before it cast off her : she betook herself to the society of a
people that were low in the world, of humble, serious, upright
lives, though such as had been wholly strangers to her ; and
among these poor inferior strangers she lived in contentment and
quietness ; desiring rather to converse with those that would help
her to redeem the time, in prayer and edifying conference, than
with those that would grieve her by consuming it on their lusts.
2. She was very prudent in her converse and affairs, (allow-
ing for the passion of her sex and age,) and so escaped much of
the inconveniences that else in so great and manifold businesses
would have overwelmed her : as "a good man will guide his
affairs with discretion," (Psalm cxii. 5,) so " discretion will pre-
serve him, and understanding will keep him, to deliver him from
the way of the evil man, who leaveth the paths of uprightness to
"walk in the way of darkness." (Prov. ii. 1 1 — 13.)
3. She was seriously religious, without partiality, or any taint
of siding or faction, or holding the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ
in respect of persons ; 1 never heard her speak against men, or
for men, as they differed in some small and tolerable things ; she
impartially heard any minister that was able, and godly, and
sound in the main, and could bear with the weaknesses of minis-
ters when they were faithful ; instead of owning the names or
opinions of prelatical, presbyterian, independent, or such like,
«he took up with the name of a Christian, and loved a Christian
Tis a Christian, without much respect to such different tolerable
opinions. Instead of troubling herself with needless scruples,
and making up a religion of opinions and singularities, she
studied faith and godliness, and lived upon the common certain
truths, and well known duties, which have been the old and
beaten way, by which the universal church of Christ hath gone
to heaven in former ages.
4. She was very impartial in her judgment about particulai
cases, being the same in judging of the case of a child and a
•stranger; and no interest of children, or other relations, could
anake her swerve from an equal judgment.
5. She very much preferred the spiritual welfare of her chil-
dren before their tempoial ; looking on the former as the true
LAST WORK. . 49
felicity, and on the latter without it but as a pleasant, voluntary
misery.
6. Since I was acquainted with her I always found her very
ready to good works, according to her power. And when she
hath seen a poor man come to me, that she conjectured solicited
me for relief, she hath reprehended me for keeping the case to
myself, and not inviting her to contribute ; and I could never
discern that she thought any thing so well bestowed as that
which relieved the necessities of the poor that were honest and
industrious.
7. She had the wonderful mercy of a man-like, Christian,
patient spirit, under all afflictions that did befall her, and under
the multitude of troublesome businesses, that would have even
distracted an impatient mind. Though sudden anger was the
sin that she much confessed herself, and therefore though she
wanted patience, yet I have wondered to see her bear up with
the same alacrity and quietness, when Job's messengers have
brought her the tidings that would have overwhelmed an impa-
tient soul. When law-suits and the great afflictions of her
children have assaulted her like successive waves, which I fear-
ed would have borne her into the deep, if not devoured all her
peace, she sustained all as if no great considerable change had
been made against her, having the same God, and the same
Christ, and promises, and hope, from which she fetched such
real comfort and support as showed a real, serious faith.
8. She was always apt to put a good interpretation upon
God's providences ; like a right believer, that having the spirit
of adoption, perceiveth fatherly love in all, she would not easily
be persuaded that God meant her any harm ; she was not apt
to hearken to the enemy that accuseth God and his ways to
man, as he accuseth man and his actions to God ; she was none
of those that are suspicious of God, and are still concluding
death and ruin from all that he doth to them, and are gathering
wrath from misinterpreted expressions of his love ; who weep
because of the smoke before they can be warmed by the fire.
^ Yet God is good to Israel ', and it shall go well with them that
fear before him,' (Psalm Ixxiii. I3 Eccles. viii. 12, 13,) were her
conclusions from the sharpest providences ; she expected the
morning in the darkest night, and judged not of the end by the
beginning; but was always confident if she could but entitle
God in the case that the issue would be good. She was not a mur-
VOL. XVIII. E
50 A believer's
murer against God, nor one that contended with her Maker ;
nor one that created calamity to herself by a self-troubling, un-
quiet mind ; she patiently bore what God laid upon her, and
made it not heavier by the additions of uncomfortable prognos-
tics, and misgiving or repining thoughts. She had a great con-
fidence in God, that he was doing good to her and her's in all ;
and^vhere at present she saw any matter of grief, she much sup-
ported her soul with a belief that God would remove and over-
come it in due time.
9. She was not troubled, that ever I discerned, with doubt-
ings about her interest in Christ, and about her own justification
and salvation ; but whether she reached to assurance or not, she
had confident apprehensions of the love of God, and quietly re-
posed her soul upon his grace. Yet not secure through pre-
sumption or self-esteem ; but comforting herself in the Lord her
God ; by this means she spent those hours in a cheerful perform-
ance of her duty, which many spend in fruitless self-vexation for
the failings of their duty, or in mere inquiries whether they have
grace or not, and others spend in wrangling, perplexed contro-
versies about the manner or circumstances of duty : and I be-
lieve that she had more comfort from God by way of reward
upon her sincere obedience, while she referred her soul to him,
and rested on him, than many have that more anxiously per-*
plexed themselves about the discerning of their holiness, when
they should be studying to be more holy, that it might discover
itself. And by this means she was fit for praises and thanks-
giving, and spent not her life in lamentations and complaints,
and made not religion seem terrible to the ignorant, that judge
of it by the faces and carriage of professors. She did not re-
present it to the world as a morose and melancholy temper, but
as the rational creature's cheerful obedience to his Maker, ac-
tuated by the sense of the wonderful love that is manifested in
the Redeemer, and by the hopes of the purchased and promised
felicity in the blessed sight and fruition of God. And I conjecture
that her forementioned disposition to think well of God, and of
his providences, together with her long and manifold experience,
(the great advantage of ancient, tried Christians,) did much
conduce to free her from doublings and discpiieting fears about
her own sincerity and salvation; and I confess, if her life had
not been answerable to her peace and confidence, P should not
have thought the better, but the worse of her condition ; no-
LAST WORK. 51
thing being more lamentable than to make haste to hell, through
a wilful confidence that the danger is past, and that they are in
the way to heaven as well as the most sanctified.
10. Lastly, I esteemed it the height of her attainment that
she never discovered any inordinate fears of death, hut a cheerful
readiness, willingness, and desire, to be dissolved, and to be with
Christ. This was her constant temper both in health and sick-
ness, as far as 1 was able to observe. She would be frequently
expressing how little reason she had to be desirous of longer life,
and how much reason to be willing to depart. Divers times in
dangerous sicknesses I have been with her, and never discerned
any considerable averseness, dejectedness, or fear. Many a time
I have thought how great a mercy I should esteem it if I had
attained that measure of fearless willingness to lay down this
flesh, as she attained. Many a one that can make light of
wants, or threats, or scorns, or any ordinary troubles, cannot
submit so quietly and willingly to death. Many a one that can
go through the labours of religion, and contemn opposition,
and easily give all they have to the poor, and bear imprisonr
ments, banishment, or contempt, can never overcome the
fears of death. So far, even the father of lies spake truth ;
" Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for
his life." (Job ii. 4.) I took it, therefore, for a high attain-
ment and extraordinary mercy to our deceased friend, that
the King of Terrors was not terrible to her. Though I doubt
not but somewhat of averseness and fear is so radicated in na-
ture's self-preserving principle, as that it is almost inseparable,
yet in her I never discerned any troublesome appearances of it.
When I first came to her in the beginning of her last sickness,
she suddenly passed the sentence of death upon herself, without
any show of fear or trouble, when to us the disease appeared
not to be great. But when the disease increased, her pains
were so little, and the effect of the fever was so much in her head,
that, after this, she seemed not to esteem it mortal, being not
sensible of her case and danger : and so, as she lived without
the fears of death, she seemed to us to die without them. God,
by the nature of her disease, removing death as out of her
sight, when she came to that weakness, 'in which else the en-
counter was like to have been sharper than ever it was before.
And thus, in one of the weaker sex, God hath showed us that
it is possible to live in holy confidence, and peace, and quiet-
ness of mind, without distressing griefs or fears, even in the
e2
52 A believer's
midst of a troublesome world, and of vexatious businesses, and
with the afflictions of her dearest relations almost continually
before her : and that our quiet or disquiet, our peace or trouble,
dependeth more on our inward strength and temper than upon
our outward state, occasions, or provocations : and that it is
more in our hands than of any or all our friends and enemies,
whether we shall have a comfortable or uncomfortable life.
What remaineth now, but that all we that survive, especially
you that are her children, do follow her as she followed Christ ?
Though the word of God be your sufficient rule, and the exam-
ple of Christ be your perfect pattern, yet as the instructions, so
the example of a parent must be a weighty motive to quicken
and engage you to your duty ; and will else be a great aggra-
vation of your sin. A holy child, of unholy parents, doth no
more than his necessary duty ; 'because whatever parents are, he
hath an holy God : but an unholy child of holy parents is inex-
cusable in sin, and deplorably miserable, as forsaking the doc-
trine and pattern both of their Creator and their progenitors,
whom nature engageth them to observe ; and it will be an ag-
gravation of their deserved misery to have their parents witness
against them, that they taught them, and they would not learn;
and went before them in a holy life, but they would not follow
them. ** My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and for-
sake not the law of thy mother ; for they shall be an ornafhent
of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.'' (Prov. i. 8.)
Read and consider Prov. xxx. 17, and xv. 20, and xxiii. 22, 25.
Sins against parents have a special curse affixed to them in this
life, (as the case of Ham showeth ; and the due observance and
honouring of parents hath a special promise of temporal bless-
ings, as the fifth commandment showeth. " Children obey your
parents in the Lord, for it is right : honour thy father and thy
mother,^ (which is the first commandment with promise,)
that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the
earth." (Eph. vi. 1 — 3.) Thehistories of all ages are so full of the
instances of God's judgments, in this life, upon five sorts of sin-
ners, as may do much to convince an atheist of the government
and special providence of God, that is, upon ])ersecutors, mur-
derers, sacrilegers, false witnesses (especially by perjury), and
abusers and dishonourers of parents. And the great honour
that is due to parents when they are dead, is to give just honour
to their names, and to obey their precepts, and imitate their
good examples. It is the high commendation of the Rechabites,
LAST WORK. 53
that they strictly kept the precepts of their father^ even in a
thing indifferent, a mode of Hving ; not to drink wine, or build
houses, but dwell in tents : and God annexeth this notable
blessing, " Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel,
Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your
father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that
he hath commanded you : Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts,
the God of Israel ; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man
to stand before me for ever." (Jer. xxxvi. 6, 7, 18, 19.) But,
especially in the great duties of religion, where parents do but
deliver the mind of God, and use their authority to procure
obedience to divine authority ; and where the matter itself is
necessary to our salvation, the obligation to obedience and imita-
tion is most indispensable ; and disobedience is an aggravated
iniquity, and the notorious brand of infelicity, and prognostic of
ensuing wo ; the ungodly children of godly parents being the
most deplorable, unhappy, unexcusable persons in the world (if
they hold on).
There is yet another doctrine that I should speak to.
Doct. 7. Prayer in general, and this prayer in particular, that
Christ will receive our departing souls, is a most suitable conclu-
sion of all the action of a Christian's life.
Prayer is the breath of a Christian's life : it is his work and
highest converse, and therefore fittest to be the concluding ac-
tion of his life, that it may reach the end at which he aimed.
We have need of prayer all our lives, because we have need of
God, and need of his manifold and continued grace. But in our
last extremity we have a special need. Though sloth is apt to
seize upon us, while prosperity hindereth the sense of our neces-
sities, and health persuadeth us that time is not near its journey's
end, yet it is high time to pray with doubled fervour and impor-
tunity when we see that we are near our last. When we find
that we have no more time to pray, but must now speak our last
for our immortal souls, and must at once say all that we have to
say, and shall never have a hearing more. O, then, to be unable
to pray, or to be faithless, and heartless, and hopeless, in
our prayers, would be a calamity beyond expression.
Yet I know, for ordinary observation tells it us, that many
truly gracious persons may accidentally be undisposed and dis-
abled to pray when they are near to death. If the disease be
such as doth disturb the brain, or take them up with violence of
pain, or overwhelm the mind by perturbation of the passions, or
54 A belijever's
abuse the imagination, or notably waste and debilitate the
spirits, it cannot be expected that a body thus disabled should
serve the soul in this or any other duty. But still the praying-
habit doth remain, though a distempered body do forbid the
exercise. The habitual desires of the soul are there ; and it is
those that are the soul of prayer.
But this should move us to pray while we have time, and
while our bodies have strength, and our spirits have vigour and
alacrity to serve us, seeing we are so uncertain of bodily dispo-
sition and capacity so near our end. O pray, and pray with all
your hearts, before any fever or deliration overthrow your under-
standings or your memories, before your thoughts are all com-
manded to attend your pains, and before your decayed spirits
fail you, and deny their necessary service to your suits, and be-
fore the apprehensions of your speedy approach to the presence
of the most holy God, and your entrance upon an endless state,
do amaze, confound, and overwhelm your souls with fear and
perturbation. O Christians ! what folly, what sin and shame
is it to us, that now while we have time to pray, and leave to
pray, and helps to pray, and have no such disturbing hinderances,
we should yet want hearts, and have no mind, nor life and fer-
vour for so great a work. O, pray now, lest you are unable to
pray then ; and if you are then hindered but by such bodily in-
disposedness, God will understand your habitual desires, and
your groans, and take it as if you had actually prayed. Pray
now, that so you may be acquainted with the God that then you
must fly unto for mercy, and may not be strangers to him, or
unto prayer, and that he may not find then that your prayers are
but the expression of your fears, and not of your love, and are
constrained, and not voluntary motions unto God ; pray now
in preparation to your dying prayers. Oh, what a terrible thing
it is to be to learn to pray in that hour of extremity, and to
have then no principle to pray by, but natural self-love, which
every thief hath at the gallows ! To be then without the
spirit of prayer, when without it there cannot an acceptable
word or groan be uttered, and when the rejection of our suits
and person will be the prologue to the final judicial rejection,
and will be a distress so grievous as presumptuous souls will not
believe, till sad experience become their tutor. Can you ima-
gine that you shall then at last be taught the art of acceptable
prayer merely by horror, and the natural sense of pain and
danger, as seamen in a storm, or a malefactor by the rack, when
LAST WORK. 55
in your health and leisure you will not be persuaded to the daily
use of serious prayer, but number yourselves with the fiimilies
that are under the wrath of the Almighty, being such as call
not on his name. (Jer. x. 25 j Psalm Ixxix. 6.)
Indeed, there are many prayers must go before, or else this
prayer, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," will be in vain, when
you would be loth to find it so. You must first pray for renew-
ing, sanctifying grace, for the death of sin, and the pardon of
sin, for a holy life, and a heavenly mind, for obedience, patience,
and perseverance, and if you obtain not these, there is no hope
that Jesus Christ should receive your spirits, that never received
his sanctifying Spirit.
How sad is it to observe that those that have most need of
prayer, have least mind to pray, as being least sensible of their
needs ! Yea, that those that are the next step to the state of
devils, and have as much need of prayer as any miserable souls
on earth, do yet deride it, and hate those that seriously and
fervently perform it ; a man of prayer being the most common
object of their malicious reproach and scorn. O miserable
Cainites, that hate their brethren for offering more acceptable
sacrifice than their own ! Little do they know how much of
the very satanical nature is in that malice, and in those re-
proachful scorns. And little do they know how near they are to
the curse and desperation of Cain, and with what horror they
shall cry out, " My punishment is greater than I can bear.''
(Gen. iv. 1 1, 13.) If God and good men condemn you for your
lip-service, and heartless devotions, and ungodly lives, will you
therefore hate the holy nature and better lives of those that
judge you, when you should hate your own ungodliness and hy-
pocrisy ? Hear what God said to the leader of your sect,
" Why art thou wrath? And why is thy countenance fallen?
If thou do well, shalt thou not be accepted ? And if thou doest
not well, sin lieth at the door." (Gen. iv. 6,) Have you not
as much need to pray as those that you hate and reproach for
praying? Have you not as much need to be oft and earnest
in prayer as they ? Must Christ himself spend whole nights in
prayer, (Lukevi. 12,) and shall an ignorant, sensual, hardened
sinner think he hath no need of it, though he be unconverted,
unjustified, unready to die, and almost past the opportunity of
praying? O miserable men, that shortly would cry and roar
in the anguish of thpir souls, and yet will not pray while there is
time and room for prayer ! Their Judge is willing now to hear
56 A believkr's
them, and now tliey have nothing but hypocritical, Hfeless
words to speak ! Praying is now a wearisome, tedious, and un-
pleasant thing to them, that shortly would be glad if the most
heart- tearing lamentations could prevail for the crumbs and
drops of that mercy which they thus depise. (Luke xvi. 24.)
Of all men in the world it ill becomes one in so deep necessities
and dangers to be prayerless.
But for you, Christians, that are daily exercised in this holy
converse with your Maker, hold on, and grow not strange to
heaven, and let not your holy desires be extinguished for want
of excitation. Prayer is your ascent to heaven; your departure
from a vexatious world to treat with God for your salvation.
Your retirement from a world of dangers into the impregnable
fortress where you are safe, and from vanity unto felicity, and
fropi troubles unto rest, which, though you cannot come so near,
nor enjoy so fully and delightfully as hereafter you shall do,
yet thus do you make your approaches to it, and thus do you
secure your future full fruition of it. And let them all scoff at
hearty, fervent prayer as long as they will, yet prayer shall do
that with God for you which health, and wealth, and dignity,
and honour, and carnal pleasures, and all the world shall never
do for one of them. And though they neglect and vilify it
now, yet the hour is near when they will be fain to scamble and
bungle at it themselves, and the face of death will better teach
them the use of prayer, than our doctrine and example now
can do. A departing soul will not easily be prayerless, nor
easily be content with sleepy prayers, but, alas ! it is not every
prayer that hath some fervency from the power of fear that
shall succeed. Many a thousand may perish for ever that have
prayed, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." But the soul that
breatheth after Christ, and is weary of sinning, and hath long
been pressing toward the mark, may receive encouragement for
his last petitions, from the bent and success of all the foregoing
prayers of his life. Believe it, Christians, you cannot be so
ready to beg of Christ to receive your souls, as he is ready and
willing to receive them. As you come praying, therefore, into
the world of grace, go praying out of it into the world of glory.
It is not a work that you were never used to, though you have
had lamented backwardness, and coldness, and omissions. It
is not to a God that you were never with before ; as you know
whom you have believed, so you may know to whom you pray.
It is indeed a most important suit to beg for the receiving of a
LAST WORK. 57
departed soul, but it is put up to him to whom it properly doth
belong, and to him that hath encouraged you by answering
many a former prayer with that mercy which was the earnest of
this, and it is to him that loveth souls much better than any
soul can love itself. O live in prayer, and die in prayer, and
do not, as the graceless, witless world, despise prayer while they
live, and then think a ^ Lord have mercy on me,' shall prove
enough to pass them into heaven. Mark their statues and mo-
numents in the churches, whether they be not made kneeling
and lifting up the hands, to tell you that all will be forced to
pray, or to approve of prayer, at their death, whatever they say
against it in their life. O pray, and wait but a little longer,
and all your danger will be past, and you are safe for ever !
Keep up your hands a little longer, till you shall end your
conflict with the last enemy, and shall pass from prayer to ever-
lasting praise.
A SERMON
PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF
THAT
HOLY, PAINFUL, AND FRUITFUL MINISTER OF CHRIST,
MR. HENRY STUBBS ;
ABOUT riFTY YEARS A SUCCESSFUL PKEACHER AT BniSTOL, AVEtLS, CHEW
DURSLFY, LONDON, AND DIVERS OTHER PLACES.
A SERMON,
VBEACHED AT THE
FUNERAL OF MR. HENRY STUBBS.
ACTS XX. 24.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy ^ and
the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to
testify the Gospel of the grace of God»
This hour being designed to such a commemoration of oul*
deceased friend, Mr. Stubbs, as is laudably used at such men's
funerals, 1 have chosen words of this text, which the heart and
life of this holy man did so constantly express, that, doubtless,
the same Spirit suggested them to blessed Paul and him.
They are the profession of a full devotedness to God, in his
christian and ministerial work, notwithstanding all expected
difficulties and oppositions, which he resolved with unmoved
patience to undergo to the joyful finishing of his course.
The witness of the Holy Ghost, with his own experience, did
teach him to expect bonds and afflictions at Jerusalem, it
being the ordinary entertainment which every where did abide
him ; but how much worse might come he knew not, but was
resolvedly prepared for all. The joyful finishing of his course
was so desirable to him, that no suffering, though it were the
loss of life itself, did seem too dear or hard a means for its ac-
complishment.
Here is then, first, the great and desirable prize for which
nothing could ])e too dear. Secondly, The cheerful resolution
of the apostle to go on, and part with life itself to attain it.
62 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
The first, though the words have no great difficulty, yet, as
to the matter, may need to some a brief expHcation, viz :
1. What is meant by his " course."
2. What by his " ministry and testifying the gospel of the
grace of God."
3. How this was " received of the Lord Jesus."
4. What is meant by the " finishing of his course,"
5. How it was to be done '^ with joy."
6. Why he was not moved by foreseen sufferings, nor ac-
counted his " Hfe dear" to attain this end.
And for brevity, 1 shall now observe this method, to add the
instructions and other applications, to each part of the text as
I explain it.
First, the word translated " course," signifieth a race to be
swiftly run : and a threefold race is here included. 1. The race
of human life, which is short and uncertain ; we are not born
for nothing; nor doth God give us life, and time, and maintain-
ance, to live in idleness, or to sei-ve the flesh. The sun stands
not still whether we sleep or wake ; our breath, our pulse are
still in motion, our glass is running. And oh 1 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 joy," it concerns us timely to foresee. For the review
of time, of precious time, and the work of time, will be no con-
temptible part of our everlasting work.
Secondly, the " course" (or race) of 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,
conduct, his powerful operations, and effectual interces*-
sions 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 temp-
tations, the quenching of the devil's fiery darts, the denial
of ourselves 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 rccll work. To believe in Christ and his promise of heaven,
to the forsaking of all worldly hopes, is a serious business. To
love God above all, and our neighbour as ourselves, and to do
as we would be done by, how easily soever mentioned and pro-
DEA.TH OF MR. HENRY STUBB9. M
fessed, 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 : Judas*s 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
ourselves and them that hear us ; to take heed to ourselves and
all the flock, to hold back nothing profitable to them, but to
teach them publicly, and from house to house, day and night
with tears, (Acts xx.,) in meekness, instructing those that op-
pose 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 lan-
guages, 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
government 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 Jesus, by an
extraordinary call, a voice from heaven, and an inspiration of
others that were ministerially to send him, and the special in-
spiration of his own soul, for apostolical qualifications. But do
64 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
not ordinary ministers also receive their office from the Lord
Jesus ? Yes 3 and though the way of their reception differ, their
obligation to finish their course is divine, as well as Paul's.
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 mayors and bailiffs of corporations by his
charters,) wherein the ordainers and electors orderly determine
of the recipient persons, and the ordainers ministerially invest '
them ; but the office, power, and obligation is directly from the
law of Christ. And if any breach or interruption should be
made in human ordination and tradition, the law still standeth
to direct men in the choice and investiture, and to confer autho-
rity, and to oblige, as well as the Holy Ghost, to give men the
necessaries thereto.
Therefore, as \ye 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 Paul's 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 Christ's plough, 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 in-
creased, 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 edify them, and leave
to all ages his doctrine and example, a certain word and power-
ful motive. 3. To glorify Christ and God the Father in all
this ; not to sit warm in a reverend habit, for men to honour for
the sake of the office and bare name of an apostle.
But to " testify the gospel of the grace of God," to declare
the truth of it, the necessity of it, the privileges, and the
honour, the great love of God, revealed by the Son of his love
to sinners, and the great and manifold benefits given them in
Christ, the hope of glory set before them, and the just and
reasonable means and conditions of obtaining it. Thus did he,
as immediately sent, and thus must we, as sent by Christ's ap-
pointed order in his law, testify the gospel of the grace of
God.
DEATH OF Mil. HENRY STUBBS. 65
Fifthly, concerning Paul's " finishing his course with joy,"
we must consider, 1. What joy it is that is here meant. 2.
How much of this joy each faithful minister may expect, 3. And
whence and on what account he may expect it.
First. The joy here meant, which Paul expected, is, 1. The
joy which the nature of the work affordeth ; divine, certain,
great, and holy truth is pleasant to him that understandeth it,
believeth it, and is exercised in the serious 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 re-
conciliation, justification, adoption, and salvation of those that
were his enemies ; of the wonderful mysteries, and methods of
God's 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 knowledge of God, and
greater love to him, and communion with him ; and our suc-
cess on others while they are brought home to God and saved.
If it be pleasant to a successful physician to save men's lives, it
must be more so to a successful minister of Christ, to further
men's regeneration, and to save men's souls. To add more to
the number of them that love the Lord Jesus, that are his mem-
bers, that are enemies to sin, examples of holiness, that pray
for the world, and that shall live in glory ; is not this a joyful
work ? There is joy among the angels in heaven for every
sinner that repenteth. (Luke xv. 10.) Christ rejoiceth in it,
and all good men that know it rejoice in it, and shall not the
minister of it then rejoice ? "I rejoiced greatly," saith St. John,
and " I have no greater joy." (3 John 3, 4.) " Ye are our
joy and crown of rejoicing." (I Thess. ii. 19.)
Thirdly. The honour of Christ, and the pleasing of God in
our labours, and their success, is the top of all our joy. (2 Cor. v.
9 ; Heb. xii. 28; Eph. v. 10 ; Heb. xiii. 21, and xi. 5.) For
to please God, and to be perfectly pleased in him, is our heavenly
felicity itself.
Fourthly, It is our joy to foresee the blessed end, the ever-
lasting, glorious reward. To live in the belief and hope of this,
and to taste the love of God in Christ, which is the first-
VOL. XVII I. F
66 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
fruits. All this is the joy in which we may hope to finish our
course.
Jl. How much of this joy may we here expect ?
Ansvv. 1 . So much as shall satisfy us that in our dedication
of ourselves 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 ourselves so much envy and
malice, so much slanders and reproaches, to name no worse,
3'et experience tells us, that God taught us to choose 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 rejoicing. (2 Cor. vi. 10.) When we are falsely
reported of, our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our con-
sciences, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not in
fleshly wisdom, we have had our conversation in the world.
(2 Cor. i. 12.) Paul and Silas could sing with their backs sore
with scourging, and their feet fast in the stocks ; (Acts xvi.;) and
the apostles rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer
reproach and abuse for Christ. (Acts v. 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, " Whither shall we go ? Lord, thou hast
the words of eternal life." (John vi. 68.)
Secondly. We may expect so much joy as shall make the
duties of Christianity and ministry easy and delightful to us,
(Psalm i. 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 at 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 physic 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 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 tolerable, especially those that are for truth and
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. %^
righteousness. (Matt. v. 10 — 12.) Believers took joyfully the
spoiling of their goods, and accepted not offered deliverance ;
(Heb. xi.;) 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, xii.)
Fifthly. We may expect so much joy as shall encourage us to
hold out to the end, and n^ver to forsake Christ and a holy life,
as weary or as hoping for better.
Sixthly. We may expect so much joy, as shall be some fore-
taste of the heavenly joy, and some reward here of all our
labours. Yea, some may be filled with joy and peace in
believing, and have unspeakable glorious joy. (Rom. xv. 13 5
1 Pet. i. 7, 8.)
Seventhly. We may expect so much as shall convince the un-
godly, that we live a more comfortable life than they. Paul
and Silas singing in the stocks, it is like, had some part in the
conviction of the gaoler.
III. Whence, and on what accounts may we expect this joy ?
Answ. This maybe gathered from what is said before. 1.
From the love and acceptance of the Father. 2. From the grace
of the Son. 3. From the communion of the Holy Spirit. And,
therefore, 1. From the goodness of our work before mentioned.
2. From the truth of the promises of God. 3. From the com-
munion 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 profaning it ; and the best
things corrupted become the worst, and such men most perni-
cious to mankind, and these rotten pillars the greatest betrayers
and enemies to the church; I mean such as Gregory Nazianzene
sadly describeth in his time, even at the first general council at
Constantinople ; and such as Isidore Pelusiota in his Epistles to
Zosimus, and some such others freely reprehendeth ; and such
as Gildas describeth in this land ; and such as Salvian rebuketh ;
and such as, the canons of abundance of councils tell us, swarmed
heretofore.
First. Had there not been prelates and priests, that had placed
their joy in dominion over their brethren, and getting into ex-
alted thrones, in being rich and idle, and bowed to even by
princes, and mastering kings and kingdoms by cursing them
68 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
from Christ 5 making themselves as the soul, and princes as the
body ; themselves as the sun, and princes as the moon and stars,
abusing Tibi dabo claves, and " the disciple is not above his
master,'' to the mastering of kings and states, as their sheep and
disciples; a great part of the church history had been unwritten,
or otherwise written than it is.
Secondly. Yea, far be it from any minister of Christ to expect
their joy from human applause, and the multitude of followers
or disciples; to be accounted a learned or a holy man, an ex-
cellent preacher, and so to have the respect and love of many.
A good name and love are not to be despised when they fol-
low fidelity as its shadow ; and as they signify the good of those
that profit by the word. The Galatians would once have even
pulled out their eyes for Paul ; but, alas ! what is the thought
and breath of man, that is hastening to the dust, and to the im-
partial Judge ? How small a matter should it be to us to be
judged of many, that are so near the final judgment; and what
a terrible sentence is it to the hypocrites ! " Verily they have
their reward." (Matt. vi. 2.) Oh! poor and miserable re-
ward ? And yet what age hath not seen that verified, " Of
your own selves shall men arise, that shall speak perverse things
to draw away disciples after them." (Acts xx. 30; Rom. xvi.
17.) Such still have been as have caused divisions and of-
fences, contrary to apostolical doctrine, not serving the Lord
Jesus, but their own bellies, being ever fleshly, worldly men,
and, by good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the
simple. And men that have had the form of godliness, (or the
lifeless image,) but deny the power of it by wicked lives, are
those from whom we must turn away.
Thirdly. Yea, and far be it from any faithful minister, or
Christian, to take up his joy from a conceit that he hath com-
mutatively merited of God, by the excellency of his faith or
labours. Alas! who is sufficient for these things? And what
have we that we have not received ? Or who hath given to God
that it may be repaid him? Or what faithful minister of Christ
did ever come out of the pulpit, or from his private duty, without
grief and shame that his faith and love, his skill and zeal, have
been so vastly unsuitable to such great and excellent things that
he was about? And yet the conscience of simplicity and
godly sincerity, and God's forgiveness, assistance, and accept- ,
ance, may set our joy above that shame and grief.
Fourthly, And now it is easy to see the reason why Paul
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. 69
accounted not his life dear, nor was moved by the foresight of
any sufferings, so he might but finish his course with joy.
For, first, He well knew that the end would pay for all, and
no man shall ever lose by God, nor shall the most abundant
labour be in vain. (1 Cor. xv. 48.) Is there any repentance
in heaven for their labours or sufferings for Christ on earth ?
Do they think that God is in their debt ? ^^ Faith ever reckon-
eth that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.^' (Rom.
viii. 18.) " For which cause we faint not; but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory ; while we
look not at the things which are seen, which are temporal ; but at
the unseen things, which are eternal." (2 Cor. iv. 16 — 18.)
Secondly. And Paul well knew that he and all the world
were in the hands of God, and that he served such a Master as
could easily preserve him as far as he saw meet, from all his
enemies and sufferings. And that sufferings chosen for us by
God, are better than if we had the kingdoms of the world by
the gift of Satan. (Matt, iv.) Balak's words to Balaam, me-
thinks, were words of honour and joy, " the Lord hath kept thee
from honour.*' Oh ! who would not be ambitious of being so
kept from honour ? The poverty and shame that is by and for
God, is better than the preferment and honour of men ; and the
reproach of Christ is greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt. And if God see it best, he knoweth how to save the
righteous from trouble, and if not, to give them suffering
strength, and joy.
And it is a wonder of Providence how God preserveth their
names and honour, tha;t despise honour and life for him, so that
even they that killed the present prophets and just men, yet
build the sepulchres of those that were killed by their fathers,
and say, ' If we had lived in the days of our fathers we would
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.*
(Matt, xxiii. 27, 28.) The wonder of that foreigner in Henry
VlII.'s days, Deus bone quomodo hie vivuni gentes, that saw
men killed for being protestants, and for being papists, was not
so contradictory a subject as the papists' usage of the saints,
a stupendous instance of man's madness and Satan's methods,
that at the same time can rack, and burn, and murder saints,
and yet honour the relics, names, and memories of the dead
70 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
that were before them. That while they zealously cast away
men's lives and treasure, to recover the holy land where saints
had lived, at the same time murdered those by thousands that
did most nearly imitate them ; and to this day kill the living
saints, under the name of schismatics or heretics, (for not obey-
ing the king of Rome before God,) and keep holy days for the
dead, and reverence their shrines and relics. What contempt
'did poor St. Martin undergo from his neighbour bishops, as
suspected of Priscilleanism, and as an unlearned hypocrite, that
was for liberty for heretics, so that he separated from their
synods and communion, and yet what a name hath he left
behind him even in that church whose prelates thus despised
him.
Thirdly. Moreover, Paul had now tried both the ways, of
being against Christ, and being for him, and was so fully con-
vinced by experience and revelation of the evil of the one and
the goodness of the other, that he had great reason to be re--
solved and unmoved, as knowing that no suffering can make
the servants of Christ as miserable as his enemies, nor any pre-
ferment or prosperity make any one of the worldlings as happy
as the poorest saint. Because he had rather be Lazarus than
Dives hereafter, and had rather stand on the right hand of
Christ than on the left, therefore he accordingly made his
choice. For he well knew how bad a bargain it would prove to
win all the world and lose his soul, and to lay up a treasure on
earth, so as also to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath,
and to prepare for such an even-song as Luke xii. 20, " Thou
fool ! this night shall they require thy soul 3 and then whose are
the things that thou hast provided ?"
Alas ! what gain is it to save an estate a little while, that at
death must certainly be forsaken. To save a life this year, this
month, this day, that may be gone on sadder terms the next,
and certainly will, ere long, be gone. Are not the bishop of Win-
chester, and London, Gardiner, and Bonner, now dead, as well as
the martyrs whom they burnt ? Are not Alexander the Third,
and Innocent the Third, and Fourth, and such other persecuting
Popes, now dead, as well as all the godly Christians whom they
murdered ? Alas 1 what a nothing is time, and how little dif-
ference between to-day and to-morrow, this year, and next !
That which hath been, that which is, and that which will be !
Shall a man part with his God, and his everlasting hopes, that
he may be able to say in hell, ' I was once a lord, a man of
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBliS. 71
hohdtir ', I had once full provision for the flesh ; I had pleasure
in the way to the torment which I undergo ?*
In the expounding of these words of St. Paul, I have but
given you the image, or rather the spirit, of Mr. Stubbs. Funeral
praises, brought, by flatterers, into disgrace, will be here blamed
by no wise man that knew the person, no more than in Nazi-
anzene for his orations for Cyprian, Basil, and others, unless it
be for the defect, which is unavoidable.
First. This faithful servant of Christ hath run his race ; what
that was, and how he performed it, the county of Gloucester
knoweth, and the city of Wells in Somersetshire knoweth, and
this city, and this congregation partly know. And 1 will speak
but little of him but what 1 know myself, and have by unques-
tionable testimony. His birth, parentage, and youthful life, I
am not acquainted with. He was a minister of Christ about
fifty years, dying at the age of seventy-three. His studies, and
parts, and labours, lay not in the critical or controversial way,
and as he was so happy as not to waste his time in contentious
studies, so he was so humble and honest as not to trouble his
auditory with such matters, nor to pretend to have studied what
he had not, nor, like many proud ignorants, to boast or contend
most where they know least. His soul was taken up with the
great things of religion. His preaching was most on the bap-
tismal covenant, on the articles of the creed, the Lord's prayer,
and decalogue, and such necessary things which essentially con-
stitute a Christian. I never heard him meddle with controver-
sies in public, or in his private talks, but all, how to know God
in Christ, a!id how to seek and serve him, and how to resist
temptations, and sin, and what a life we shall live with Christ for-
ever ; and how to live in love, righteousness, peace, and pro-
fitableness to one another, especially how to serve God entirely,
and in what state we shall live with him for ever. He was the
freest of most that ever 1 knew from that deceit of the serpent
mentioned 2 Cor. xi. 3, who corrupteth men by drawing them
from the simplicity which is in Christ. His breath, his life, his
preaching, his prayers, his conference, his conversation, was
christian simplicity and sincerity. Not as the world calleth
simplicity, folly, but as it is contrary to hypocrisy, to a counterfeit
zeal, to mere affectation, to a divided heart. He knew not how
to dissemble nor wear a mask; his face, his mouth, his whole
conversation, laid bare his heart. While he passed by all
quarrels and controversies, few quarrelled with him ; and he had
72 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
the happiness to take up head, heart, and time, with only great,
sure, and necessary things.
ir. Of all men that ever I knew, he seemed to me one of the
most humble. His preaching, his discourse, his garb, and all
his behaviour, spake pure humility, and were far from pride ;
never did I hear from him a word of ostentation, much less of
envy at the precedence of others ; he came to Christ as a teach^
able child, and preached as a learner, and I never heard that
he strove with any. He had learned of Christ to be meek and
"lowly, and to make himself of no reputation, nor seek the honour
that is of man. Oh ! how far was he from striving to be above
his brethren, or troubling the church by a proud, imperious, or
turbulent spirit !
III. He was exceedingly peaceable in his principles and in
his practice; never contending with opinionators, or those that
cry down this and that error of their brethren, to get the repu-
tation of being free from errors. He put not his finger into the
fire of contention ; nor ever, that I heard of, made himself of a
sect or faction, nor preached for this party against that, except
for Christ's paity against the devil's. Nor did 1 ever hear him,
in his private talk, backbite any ; nor exercise the too common
liberty against others, in carping at their infirmities, or making
himself their judge. Had the church had no more unpeaceable
pastors, we had not been in the sad condition that we are in,
denying peace and concord, obstinately, to the servants of Christ,
and militating, by forbidden arms, against one another. Long
would it have been before he would have reviled, vexed, or hin-
dered any true minister of Christ from preaching his gospel, or
living in peace.
IV. He was an honourer of his superiors, and obedient to
authority, as far as would stand with his obedience to God.
I never heard that, publicly or privately, he spake a disloyal or
irreverent word of the king, or others in authority. After he
had here preached awhile in London, he had a preferment to
a parish church in Gloucestershire, of eight pounds per annum
maintenance, and it had had, many and many years, no
minister; and by the connivance, or forbearance, of the reve-
rend Bishop of Gloucester, he there preached, for some years
past, in peace ; of which I am past doubt that bishop
hath no cause to repent. He used part of the Liturgy, not
sticking at the censure of them that called this as their judg-
ments led them. His judgment, his work, his age, and expe-
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. 73
rience, set him above all factious inducements, and taught him
to please God, whoever were displeased. And when, at last, he
was driven away, I never heard him speak with any bitterness.
He is now where God's praises are celebrated, and whence no
holy soul shall ever be cast out.
V. His labour was such as beseemed one absolutely devoted to
God : his preaching was very plain and familiar, fitted rather
to country auditors than to curious ears ; and he chose accord-
ingly ; but it was wholly for faith, love, and holiness. He was
much in catechising, and very moving in his familiar exhorta-
tions, setting his whole heart upon the winning and edifying of
souls, and longing for the success, as much as covetous mer-
chants do for rich returns. He kept a private weekly meeting
for the young people, to deal with them as a catechiser, by way of
familiar questions ; which was much of his labour wherever he
came. And he much rejoiced in the young people's willingness,
and his success. The greatest benefice cannot please one that
worketh for the fleece, so much as he was pleased that his un-
wearied labour profited his flock. How thankful was he to
God, and the bishop's connivance, for that short liberty to work.
And to their honour I must say, that he praised not only the
friendly peaceablencss of the magistrates and gentry of the county,
but also of his neighbour conformable ministers, that lived by
him in love, and envied not his liberty.
This holy man so little cared for the hypocrite's reward, that
no reproach of men did move him ; nor did he count his great
labour or life dear to him, that he might subserve him, that came
to seek and save the lost. He took that for the joyful finishing
of his course, from which Satan and many mistaken men would
have discouraged him. As it was one of the greatest aggrava-
tions of Christ's sufferings, that he was crucified as a reputed
sinner, even as a blasphemer, and an enemy to Caesar, and a
contemner of the law ; so he knew that all things must be
accounted dung that we may be found in Christ, and conform
to him even in his sufferings. And if a Seneca could say, that
no man more showeth himself to be a good man than he that
will lose the reputation of being a good man, lest he should
lose his goodness itself, and defile his conscience ; no wonder
if this holy man accounted not his fame too dear to preserve his
conscience. And, indeed, his friends and physicians suppose
that his labours hastened his death.
He came frpm the country to London, again to work, and.
f4 A SERMdN PREAiCHEB At tiJfi
after his journey, preaching almost every day, and sbm6 days
twice, even after he began to be ill, no wonder if the fever and
dysentery, that followed, despatched him. At first he fell down
in the pulpit, but, on recovering, went On ; and so again^ after,
till he was disabled. Some will censure him for imprudence in
such labours ; but they must consider what it is to be above the
inordinate love of life, and to long for the good of souls; And
withal, that which much emboldened him, was, that he was
wont to go somewhat ill into the pulpit, and to come better
out : but the heat of the season, seventy-and-three years of age,
gave advantage to the messenger which God did send to end his
labours, and all his sufferings.
Two things especially I commend to imitation. 1. That he
was more in instructing and catechising children by familiar
questions than almost any man that I have known; which
showed that he laboured not for applause. 2. He prayed as
constantly as he preached, and no wonder, then, that his la-
bours had much success. He omitted not his duty to God in
his family, by the greatness of his public labours. And a man
of prayer is a man of power with God.
For my part, I never saw him till his coming to live in Lon-
don, I think not seven years ago, though I long heard of his
successful preaching. But to show you how great his charity
was, and what a loss I have myself, and how faulty I and Others
are in too much forgetting of our friends, I will tell you that
he hath oft told me that (as 1 remember, above twenty years)
he never went to God in prayer but he particularly remembered
me. But his love has not tempted me to say a word of him
which I verily believe not to be true. And 1 conclude it with
this profession, that 1 scarce remember the man, that ever I
knew, that served God with more absolute resignation and de-
votedness, in simplicity and godly sinceiity, and not with
fleshly wisdom, and lived like the primitive Christians, without
any pride or worldly motives, or in whose case I had rather die.
And, therefore, no wonder that he lived in peace of conscience,
and died with Paul's words, ^' I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course. Henceforth is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which God, the righteous Judge, shall give."
Which both Paul and he might say without any injury to Christ,
or grace, or free justification. Thus did he finish his course in
eminent fidelity, and constant peace of conscience ; and what
was wanting in fuller joy, is now made up.
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. 7^
Use 1. And what use should we make of all, but to imitate
such examples, and not to be moved by any trials, nor count
our lives dear that we may finish our course with joy, and the
ministry which we have received of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
testify the gospel of the grace of God ? Run the same race,
and you may have the same joy and blessed end. Would you
have more particular counsel how to finish your course with joy?
I shall briefly give you some ', the Lord cause you and me to
follow it !
L He that never began well, cannot finish well. Search the
Scriptures, and advise with the wise ; prove all things, and hold
fast that which is good. Take heed that you take not evil for
good, and good for evil : set out in the way of truth. If you are
out of the way, the faster and the further you go, the more you
have to repent of, and lament. Be honest and faithful in seek-
ing truth, and God will forsake not you. But go not with
Balaam's covetous heart, and pre-engaged purpose. Oh ! fear
a false heart, and false teachers, especially men that plainly pro-
secute a worldly interest and design.
IL If God, Christ, grace, and glory, be not enough for you,
and seem not a sufficient portion, unless you have also prosperity
to the flesh, undertake not the ministry, nor profess Christi-
anity : for, without self-denial, contempt of the world, taking
up the cross, and forsaking all, you have but the delusory name
and image of Christianity. Absolutely devote yourselves to
God, and hope not for great matters in the world. Except
nothing from him j suspect and fear the hypocrite's reserves ;
serve Christ and trust him ; trust him with estate, and liberty,
and life, and soul, and all ; study your duty for your part, and
cast your care on him for his part. Take no thought what ye
shall eat or drink, but seek first God's kingdom and the righte-
ousness thereof. You will never finish your course with joy, if
you be not absolutely devoted to God.
III. Preach to yourselves first, before you preach to the peo-
ple, and with greater zeal. O Lord, save thy church from
worldly pastors, that study and learn the art of Christianity,
and ministry ; but never had the christian, divine nature, nor
the vital principle which must difference them and their services
from the dead. Do you love other men's souls more than your
own? will a dead nurse give warm and vital milk? Nothing
doth more to make you good preachers, than that which doth
most to make you good Christians : I thank the Lord for the
76 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
method of his grace and providence, that cast me divers
years into the care of my own soul, before 1 purposed to
preach to others, and made me read over the most of all our
honest EngHsh practical divines, to make me a Christian in-
deed, before I set myself to the artificial part. I repent not of
this unusual method.
IV. Let your joyful part of religion be most of your medita-
tions : the infinite goodness of God, who is love; the wonder
of man's redemption ; the freeness and fulness of the promise ;
and the certainty and glory of our future state. These are the chief
part of our religion, and of chiefest use ; which must resolve us,
fix us, quicken us, and help us to live in thankfulness and
joy-
V. Above all, labour to strengthen faith in Christ, his word,
and the life to come, and to live in the constant exercise
thereof. Faith is it that showeth us the matter and reason of
our duty and our joy. And if believing meditation have too
long intermissions, our joy will also intermit. And if affliction
or weakness make our present state to be grievous to us, and
keep us from much present joy, yet faith and hope can see that
which is to come. Many of God's faithful servants labour in
peace of conscience and in hope ; who, through infirmities of the
flesh, have no great joys : and yet may be well said to finish
their course with joy, because everlasting joy is the end, which
at the finishing of it they obtain.
VI. Stick not at labour or suffering : hearken not to the
repining and seducing flesh. Think nothing too much or too
dear ; your work is good, and much better wages in itself than
fleshly pleasure. Labour for God and souls, and keep out selfish-
ness and carnal ends, and God will secure your reward. La-
bour faithfully, and trust God confidently ; fulfil his command-
ing will, whoever countermand you ; and then rest in his ac-
cepting, disposing, and rewarding will, whatever befall you in the
world. His will is the only infallible rule ; and his will is the
only secure and felicitating rest. They that conscionably do his
will, may comfortably say, " The will of the Lord be done;'* as
our brother in his sickness often did.
His will made us, his will hath maintained and preserved us,
and multiplied mercies to us. By his will we live, and by his
will we die, and in his will we hope to rest for ever. Mr.
Stubbs is gone before; this will hath guided him, and this will
hath received him. In the same good hand 1 am closely fol*
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. /^
lowing him. Our separation is like to be very short ; and none
of you will stay long behind: farewell, vain, vexatious world!
farewell, malignant, lying, cruel world ! Welcome life, light,
and love, delightful, perfect, and eternal ! Let it be our care so
to finish our course with joy, that we may hear, " Well done,
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall
find so doing. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.
Use 2. But methinks, I should not let you, that have been the
hearers of Mr. Stubbs, and such as he, go without some notice
what it is that this text and this providence of God do call you
specially to consider. Which is, 1. Whether you have fur-
thered the joy of your teacher's course. 2. Whether you take
care that your own course may be finished with joy, and why it
must be done, and how. ^
L Do not think that you are not much concerned in the
matter, whether your teachers live and die in joy ; neither say,
when they are dead, it is too late to mind that which is past
and gone. As much as it is past, your account is not past.
You may hear of it again in another manner than now you do.
You are concerned in it, 1. For your own interest. 2. For
their relation to you, and labours for you, in gratitude and hu-
manity. 3. As you are obliged to the church of Christ, and .
regard its interest. And, 4. As you are men, and lovers of man-
kind.
L What is their ministry but the seeking of your salvation ?
And what is their joy, but their success (next God's acceptance
of their labours) . And if they miss of this, is it not you that
will be the greatest sufferers ? If you fall out with your physi-
cian, or cast away, or cast up, the only physic that can cure you,
is not death more to you, than the loss of his labour and physic
to him ? Shall the physician mourn over his dying patient, and
shall the patient think it nothing to him ? If the child prosper
not, or die, the nurse's sorrow is a smaller matter than the child's
death. Is your unconverted, unpardoned, miserable state, and
your danger of damnation, more to us than to you ? Will
your hell be no more painful than our compassion ? And
when your worm never dieth, and your fire will be unquench-
able, our compassion will cease, and we shall grieve for you no
more.
The God that forbade Samuel to mourn any more for Saul,
will cause us to approve of his righteous judgment, and to re-
7S A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
joice in the glorifying of his justice on you. Abraham did but
upbraid Dives with his former sinful pleasures. Your teachers,
yea, your own parents, will not mourn in heaven for all the tor-
ments that you undergo in hell, nor consent to ease you by a
drop of water. (Luke xvi.)
O what a pitiful sight it is now to see a teacher or pai-ent
mourning over the misery of ignorant, careless, wilful sinners,
and they themselves rejoicing, and despising compassion, and
laughing at the brink of hell. I heard of a passionate wife that
cut her own throat to anger her husband. And they tell us,
that the Circumcellian Donatists, that separated from other
Christians, in a practical zeal for their own bishop, did murder
themselves to bring the odium upon their adversaries as perse-
cutors.
But that poor sinners should merrily run towards hell, to
anger their teachers, yea, that multitudes should do thus, what
^n instance is it of the madness of corrupted minds ! One
saith, ' I will never hear him more :' and another saith, ' Shall
I be catechised like a boy ?' and another saith, ' These preachers
would make us mad, if we should believe and lay to heart what
they say :' and another saith, * Cannot one drink and be merry,
and please his flesh, but he must be damned for it ? Are none
saved but puritans and precisians?' And who is it that will
have the worst of this at last ? God will not condemn us for
your sins. If you will needs be miserable for ever, our desires
and endeavours to have saved you shall not be lost at all to us,
Gh ! how dear will impenitent sinners pay for all the tears and
groans which now they do constrain from their compassionate
teachers !
. That God who is love itself, and putteth love into parents for
the education of their children, hath also put a tender love to
souls, and especially to their own flocks, into every faithful
minister of Christ ; which maketh all their study, and labour,
and sufferings, easy to them, or tolerable, at least, for the com-
fortable hope which they have of men's salvation. Oh ! may we
but serve the Saviour of the world, in the gathering of his chosen
flock ; and in bringing sinners from darkness to light, and from
the power of Satan unto God, in making reconciled and adopted
sons of those that were the enemies of God and holiness, what
a joy would it be to every true minister of Christ. Did a damned
wretch cry, ' Send Lazarus to warn my brethren, that they come
not to this place of torments ?' And shall not we rejoice
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. 7^
if we cannot only keep sinners from those flames, but also
help them to live in joy with Christ and holy spirits for
ever ? May we see souls in heaven for ever praising God,
and know that this is the fruit of our labours and God's
grace ? Yea, may we here see holy persons living to God, and
calling upon his name, and rejoicing in hope, and serving, and
honouring him in a wicked world, and say, ' These are they
that God hath given to Christ by our embassage; how much
sweeter will this be to us, than fleshly pleasures ; and will you
not allow us the joy of your salvation ? If so, judge yourselves
whether the loss of Christ, and grace, and heaven, and happi-
ness, and all hope, will be a smaller loss to you, than thp loss
of such comfort, in your hoped welfare, will be to us.
Oh ! all you that are yet unconverted, fleshly, worldly persons,
strangers to a holy, heavenly life, under the ministry of such
holy men as 1 am speaking of, think in time, I beseech you, of
these two particulars.
First. What a loss is it to lose the blessing and fruit of a holy
ministry. God giveth not such to all the world. Many king-
doms of heathens and infidels have no such helps. Nay, most
of the christian world have too little such j all ears are not so
happy a« to hear the joyful tidings, the sound instructions, the
close convictions, the earnest exhortations which you have heard,
and these not mixed with the poison of heresies. And will you
lose, will you wilfully lose all this ? What ! have the best of
physicians, and be yet unhealed ? Have the best of teachers,
that long, and labour, and pray for your salvation, and yet be
ignorant unbelievers, or base neglecters of this great salvation ?
W^ill you, as Capernaum, be lift up to heaven in mercies, and
cast down to hell hy your contempt. O that you knew in time
how great a loss it is to lose one counsel, one sermon, much
more all the life and labours of one such a minister of Christ,
that prayed, and studied, and laboured for your souls. Do you
ever hope to be saved, or not ? If not, despair is a beginning
of hell. If yea, do you hope to be saved without preaching, or
by it ? If without it, what reason have you for such hopes,
when God hath made this his ordinary means ? Whatever hope
they may have that can have no preaching, you can have none
that might have had it, and would not; or that had it, and
despised and disobeyed it. But if it be by preaching that you
hope to be instructed, converted, and saved, what preaching is
it ? Do you look for better than such as ypu have lost ; or i§
80 A SKRMON PREACHED AT THE
smaller and weaker remedies like to cure you, that, to the last,
despised greater ?
Secondly. And remember that all this will aggravate your
sin, and rise up in judgment against you to your condemnation.
Do you think all these sermons, and prayers, and tears, shall
never more be thought on ? Yes. God, who sent his ministers,
sets not so light by their labours as you do. He knoweth, and
thy conscience shall one day consider, what importunate exhort-
ations thou didst neglect. How, on such a day, on such a
text, his minister earnestly pleaded with thy soul, and thou
hadst nothing to say against the word, and yet thou wentest on
and did not repent. Oh ! for your soul's sake, put us not to
come in against you as witnesses to your condemnation, instead
of rejoicing in your sanctification and salvation.
Oh ! put us not to shake off the dust of our feet against you !
Turn not all our love and labours, to kindle a greater fire for
your misery. Remember, that even the merciful Saviour of
souls hath said that it shall be easier yet for Sodom and Gomor-
rah in the day of judgment than for such. Fire from heaven
declared the wrath of God against Sodom and Gomor-
rah; and will you yet have a more dreadful fire? And
what moveth you to all this ! Do they persuade you to any
thing dishonest, or to your hurt ? Will you despise all our
counsel, and go to hell rather than love God, and learn and do his
holy will, and live in the delightful hopes of heaven, and in love,
peace, and good works, towards one another ? This is all that
we persuade you to : and will it not torment your consciences
for ever to remember that this was all that you fled from God
for, and that you avoided more than sin and hell ?
Secondly. I have told you that your own interest is more
concerned in the success of our ministry, than our joy. I next
tell you that it is inhuman ingratitude to deny us such a joy as
this. Our relation and labours for you make it our due ; shall
children deny their parents the comfort of their love, when it is
only their well-doing and happiness that they desire ? As
Christ and angels rejoice at a sinner's conversion, so do true
ministers in their degree. And is it not base ingratitude to deny
Christ, angels, and ministers, this joy, by refusing, obstinately,
to be saved ?
Thirdly. And why do you take on you to be Christians, and
no more regard the interest of the church of Christ? Those
are the church's enemies that will not give up themselves to
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. 81
Christ, that would not have him to reign over them, and subdue
their fleshly minds and lusts. (Luke xix. 27 ; Rom. viii. 6, 7,
13.) That hinder the success of the ministers of Christ that
would build up his church. And what is our building but to
bring home souls? Our office is not of man, but of Christ. He
giveth us our commission, though man, deliver it us. He com-
mandeth you to receive and obey his word which we deliver to
you, and terribly threateneth those that will not. (Heb. xiii.
17 ', John xiii. 20; Matt. ix. 36, 37 ; Luke ix. 18, &c.) Is it
not rebellion against him, then, to be refusers ? Nay, what do
you but as much as in you lieth to destroy the ministerial office,
and to destroy the church of God. For if we are but to stand
here and talk to you a while, and not to win your souls to God,
this is but an image or carcass of the ministry, as to the success
and end. As you mortify all God's ordinances, and turn them into
a lifeless image, so you do the ministry to you ; and make it to
you but " as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal.*' Is it worth
your tithes, or are we worthy of your reverence, merely to talk
to you, and never to convert and save you ?
O the blindness of the minds of the ungodly! If the
seekers, or other heretics, do but cry down ministers and uni-
versities, you justly rise up against them as enemies to
Christianity and the Church ; and yet you yourselves destroy
their ministry as to yourselves, and would have but the name,
and garb, and image. He that would have the tenth part of all
men's revenues to be settled to maintain physicians in the land,
and yet would not have men to be healed by them, is more fool-
ish, and a worse enemy to the country, than he that would have
none at all.
Fourthly. And as you are lovers of mankind, you should not
deny us so reasonable a joy as your own salvation, especially to
such as, for the hope of this, renounce the pleasures and ho-
nours of the world. If you could do well enough without in-
structers, Christ would not have appointed them ; and if there
had been any better way for your salvation, for our parts,
we could have found out work and callings that would better
have served us for worldly ends ; and we could live idle, and
seek preferment, and flatter, and please you, and neglect your
souls in this calling that we are in.
But, then, wo to us, as well as you ! Oh ! remember who hath
said, *^ Obey them that have the rule over you, for they watch for
your souls, as they that mu«t give account, that they may do it
VOL. XVIII. G
82 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
with joy, and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you,"
(Heb. xiii. 170 ^^ ^^ "^^ worthy to be called a man, that will
deny any joy or good to his neighbour, which doth no hurt to
himself or others ? But, consider whether he be not herein
worse than a devil, that will deny another the comfort of seeing
him happy, and freely doing him the greatest good ?
Do you not see, now, how much you are concerned, that you
further our joyful finishing of our course ? 1 beseech you,
let conscience judge you, before God judge you. Speak as
before God, Have you been turned by them from darkness to
lights and from unbelief to a lively faith ; and from a fleshly to a
spiritual life ; and from worldly love and hopes to the love of
God, and the hope of endless joys in heaven ? Are you at a
point with the flattering world and fleshly lusts j and have you
heartily taken God and heaven for your portion, and Christ for
your Saviour, and the Holy Spirit for your sanctifier and com-
forter, and the word of God for your law and charter, and the
servants of God for your pleasantest company, and the service
and praises of God for your best and pleasantest work, and sin
for your worst and greatest enemy ? If this be so, bless God
that made the word so effectual to you. But if it be not, you
have wronged your teachers in robbing them of the joy which
was their due. This is it that we studied, prayed, and preached
for : this is it that we live and labour for. This was to have
been the chief part of our reward from you. It is not your
tithes and money, without this, that will satisfy any but an hire-
ling.
Many old canons of the Church forbade ministers to receive
any offerings or gifts from unbelievers and wicked men ; as if
thay had said, ^ Keep your money to yourselves, and think not
to stop our mouths with gifts.' Give up yourselves to Christ, or
you give us nothing. I tell you it is you that are our great
afflicters, and you shall answer for it. It is much more to us to
lose the joy of your salvations, than to lose our estates or liber-
ties, or worldly honour and reputation : and you can never be
saved if you will not be sanctified, nor happy if you will not be
holy. O, yet look back and remember what counsel God sent
you by his ministers, and what importunities they used with you;
and if you have denied them yet their joy, O pity yourselves if
you regard not theni ; and deny not yourselves still the present
joy of a holy life, and the everlasting joy of heavenly glory,
which yet you may attain.
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. 83
II. And have not you also a course that should be finished
with joy, as well as we ? O sirs ! time is precious, short, and
hasty. This race is for all eternity, and is to be run but once.
Heaven will be quickly won or lost for ever. Can any one hear
and believe this who hath the heart of a man, and not be
awakened presently to make haste ? Dare you die in an unholy,
unpardoned state ? Dare you go out of the world more fool-
ishly than the unjust steward out of his stewardship, before you
have provided another habitation ? Dare you appear before
God without his Spirit and image, and without the wedding gar-
ment of sincere holiness, and so without a part in Christ? O
sirs ! no heart can now donceive what a dreadful appearing that
will be. Alas, sirs ! we are dying, we are all dying, one to-day
and another to-morrow, and we are all quickly gone; and do
you take no care whether you shall go next, when God bids you
care, in a manner, for nothing else ? Your course Vv'ill soon be
finished. Shall it be with joy, or the beginning of everlasting
misery ? Oh ! resolve now, resolve this day, as you would speed
for ever. God's grace must save you ; but it lieth more on your
present choice and resolution than careless sinners will well con-
sider of.
Quest. But how should I finish my course with joy ?
Answ. You may gather it from what is said already. Are
you willing, if I tell you to do your part ? Asking questions
will not serve instead of work.
I. Will you see that you perish not through your own mere
carelessness, and wilful neglect of what you can do for your
soul ? If you will not do what you can, what good will directions
do you ? If men will live as if they had not reason and self-
love, and knew not that they must die, or care not what be-
comes of them for ever, what can one do for the safety of such
men ? As men cannot dispute, that agree not in some granted
principles, so we cannot lead you to Christ by the gospel, if you
agree not in some principles of Immanity and self-preservation. <
A sottish carelessness is the undoing of the most.
II. Set yourselves to study the gospel of Christ, till you un-
derstand what salvation is, and what is the way to it, and know
the nature of true religion : and then you will see in it so much
truth, so much necessity, so much amiable beauty and fitness to
make you wise, good, and happy, that it will win your hearts
to love and pleasure in it.
III. Study thoroughly the true meaning of your baptiswul
G 2
84 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
covenant, and solemnly, before God, consent to it with tongue
and heart, and live as under the obligation of it all your days ;
and also live in the belief of all the promises of it, and expecta-
tions of all the benefits promised. The sum o^ all your religion
for duty and comfort is comprised in your baptismal covenant.
Though it be an error to be oft baptised, it is a hundred times
worse error, never truly to understand, consent, and practise,
after so solemn a vow and covenant.
IV. When you have given up yourselves to God, as your God
and Father, your Saviour and your Sanctifier, remember that
your great relations have engaged you in the greatest business,
and the highest hopes in all the world. And, therefore, now
live as fellow-citizens of the saints and the household of God,
that have nobler converse, work, and hope, than worldly unbe-
lievers. Remember, now, with whom and what you have to do,
and that it is not a by and trifling business, but the best and
greatest that you have undertaken.
V. Join with those that are for heaven, whose counsel and
company may be your help ; separate from no Christians by
way of divisions, further than God commandeth you ; and do
not easily forsake the judgment of the generality of godly men:
but make few your familiar friends, and those such as are most
wise, and humble, and sincere, and cheerful in the belief and
hopes of glory, and suitable to your use and converse.
VI. In all doubts and difficulties of religion, judge not hastily
before you have thoroughly heard and tried. Prefer a suspended
judgment, that stayeth till it have tried, before a rash and
hasty judgment of what you know not, and may repent of.
VII. Carefully govern your fleshly appetites and sense, and
avoid needless temptations, especially to sinful pleasure : for lust
will conceive else, and bring forth sin ; and sin being finished
will bring forth death. You will find sin and comfort contrary.
VIII. Especially, fear the flatteries of the world, and hopes
5 of a pleasant life to the flesh on earth, and an itch after riches,
plenty, or preferment, and designs for the attaining them ; love
not the world, nor the things that are in the world, the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride of life, the portion of the
wicked ; for if any man love the world (for the flesh and itself)
so far the love of the Father is not in him. (I John ii. 15, 16.)
IX. Value precious time, and live not in idleness ; spend
time as you would hear of it at last, and as those that know
what it is to have but one short life to determine where they
DEATH OF MR. HENRY STUBBS. 85
shall live for ever. Hear and abhor all pastimes and triflings
that would rob you of your time.
X. Converse daily in heaven while you are on earth; let faith
still see it ; let hope still make after it, and let love desire it, and
delightfully remember it. There is our Father, our Saviour, our
Comforter, our friends, with whom we must live for ever. There
let our hearts be as the place of all our hopes, and let the strain
of your religion be as heavenly as you can; let it consist in love,
in unity and concord, in the joyful praises of Jehovah, and in a
pure, holy life. This will raise you above the sinful love of this
transitory life, and the fear of death, and give you the foretastes
of heaven on earth, while you do God's will on earth as it is
done in heaven. But it is the Spirit and grace of Christ which
you must beg and seek, and on which you must obediently de-
pend, for the performance of all this, and not upon your incon-
stant wills. Without Christ we can do nothing; but by his
strengthening us we can do all things necessary to our salvation;
and we are more than conquerors, even in our patient sufferings,
through the Captain of our salvation, who hath conquered
for us.
Thus we may finish our course with joy.
A
TRUE BELIEVER'S CHOICE
AND
PLEASURE.
INSTANCED IN THE EXEMPLARY
LWE OF MRS. MARY COXE,
THE LATE WIFE OF
DR, THOMAS COXE,
TO MY
WORTHY AND MUCH HONOURED FRIEND,
DR. THOMAS COXE.
Sir,
Though your great kindness and care of the health of me
and mine much oblige me to you, and your personal worth
much more, and your worthy children command my great
respect and love, yet none of these should have moved me to
say a word of all that I have said of your deceased wife, which
I had not verily believed to be true, and it was God's grace in
her which much more commanded it than all my debt to you
and yours.
She was so exemplary, as that I think it my duty, for the
good of others, to make this publication of her character, and
of this sermon.
But one great defect is here to be notified to the reader,
that almost all her secret way of duty, and particular converse,
is omitted, which you that were still with her could have
described, for I thought meet to say no more than I either
knew myself, or was obvious, and known to many.
The words which I heard but yesterday from the mouth of
your brother in discourse, were such as I doubt can be said
of few, that in so many years, from the hour of her marriage
to her death, she was never known to do one disobliging action,
or speak one disobliging word, of or to any one of her husband's
kindred or relations.
Had it seemed meet to you, or to your worthy and inge-
nuous son, and your pious daughter (the true image of her
90 THE DEDICATION.
mother,) to have been the describer of the soul and hfe of
this exemplary saint, how much more fully could you have
done it than I, that was so much less acquainted with her.
She is gone home, and you and I are at the door. The
Lord give us so to live by faith on the promise and love of
God, and the things unseen, that thence we may daily fetch
our ruling motives, and establishing consolations, and not from
a transitory, deceitful world ; and, following Christ and his saints
under the cross, may with them possess the incorruptible crown,
and be found at his call among those that love his appearing,
and be for ever with the Lord. Amen, Amen.
November li), 1669.
A TRUE BELIEVER'S
CHOICE AND PLEASURE.
PSALM cxix. 111.
Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever ; for they
are the rejoicing of my heart.
A TEXT that speaketh of rejoicing, and that in an heritage, and
an heritage for ever, may seem unsuitable to a mournful funeral ;
but it was chosen by our deceased friend, and not without jus-
tifiable reason. That which was a day of sorrow to us, was a
day of rest and joy to her, and it was meet that she should
foresee that joy, and, tasting it in the first-fruits, should commend
that to us which she had found so sweet, and would bring us
to the felicity which she hath now obtained. If the damned
sensualist, (Luke xvi.,) would have had one sent from another
world, in hope to save his unbelieving brethren, no wonder if a
holy person were desirous that others should partake of her
pleasure and inheritance, and, like the lepers that found the
siege of Samaria raised, would not feast and rejoice alone. She
chose this, no doubt, as that which was most lively imprinted
on her own heart, with a just desire that it might be imprinted
also on the hearts of others, that so we may not only rejoice
with her that now rejoiceth in the heavenly possession, but, as
Paul saith, " Every man may prove his own works, and so may
have rejoicing In himself alone, and not (only) in another."
(Gal. vi. 4.) Let us, therefore, by God's assistance, so improve
these words, as may conduce to this desired end.
By God's " testimonies" here is meant that supernaturally
revealed law and promise, which was possessed by the church
of the Jews, as God's peculiar people, supposing the law of
nature, and the common mercies which God had given to all'
the rest of fallen mankind. Both the precepts and promises
are here included, the types, and their signification of the thing
typified.
92 A TRUE believer's
" I have taken them," signifieth, I have believed them, im-
plying that God revealed them ; and I have accepted them,
implying that God had offered them ; and 1 have chosen them,
implying the preferring them before all competitors ; and I
have trusted them, as signifying their special use for the guid-
ing, stablishing, quieting, and saving of the soul.
" For an heritage," signifieth,
1. As that which I trust to as my security for an heavenly
inheritance.
2. And as that which now is my best portion while I am in
the way, including the things connoted.
3. And as that which I prefer before all wealth, and worldly
heritage. Alexander and Caesar had larger dominions than
David, but neither of them was king of God's peculiar people,
that had possession of his oracles, nor had the promises which
he had, that Christ should be his son and successor on hia
throne.
The words *' for ever," relate both to the inheritance as
everlasting, and also to David's choice, as immutably here-
upon determined.
They are said tq be the rejoicing of the heart aptitudinally in
themselves, which caused him to choose them, and actually,
because he had chosen, believed, loved, and obeyed them.
So that this is the sum of the sense : ' Worldly men make
choice of a worldly inheritance, and hopes, and on this they
trust; and in'this they seek their chiefest pleasure : but I, though
blessed largely with thy bounty, have suffered many afflictions
in the world : but thy word hath been my guide, and thy pro-
mises still fulfilled to me ; and experience hath confirmed my
faith and resolution to lay all my hope upon thy word or cove-
nant, both for this life and that to come, and from it T seek and
fetch my comfort : it hath been my joy in all my sorrows, and
in it to the last will I rejoice.' This is the sense of the text,
from which we are all taught, —
Doct. That God's covenant or testimonies are the true be-
liever's heritage for ever, and as such are trusted and chosen by
him, and therefore, among all the allurements and the crosses of
this world, are the support and rejoicing of his heart.
In the handling this I shall show you,
I. What it is in God's testimonies which make them fit to
be our heritage and our joy.
II. How they are called an heritage for ever.
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 93
III. How they are so taken by believers.
IV. How far they are their joy.
I. In God's covenant or testimonies there is, 1 . The Author.
2. The Mediator. 3. The applying Agent. 4. The ascertain-
ing revelation. 5. The donative or benefit given. 6. The
guiding doctrine and law. 7. And the persons or subjects
connoted, to whom all this is suited, to be an heritage for ever,
and the rejoicing of their hearts.
1. The author is God, the Lord of us and all, in whose hand
and will is our soul and body, our life and death, our health and
sickness, our joy and sorrow ; whose loving-kindness is life, and
better than life ; (Psalm Ixiii. 3 ;) who, if he will, can make us
whole and happy, and who hath told us what he will do by his
covenant. He wanteth not love, for he is love itself; essential,
infinite self-love, communicating to his creatures such love as
his wisdom seeth meet for them to receive. The love that gave
us the Mediator and the covenant, will certainly perform it ;
it was of mercy that he promised, it is now of mercy and justice
that he performs it. He wanteth not wisdom to rule the world
by truth and goodness, and needeth riot deceit and falsehood
hereunto, nor to flatter such worms as we into obedience. Nor
doth he, that maintaineth heaven and earth, want power to
make good all his word ; nor is there any adverse power to
make it difficult, and hazard the success. Indeed, he that se-
riously considereth the divine perfection, will think it were more
strange and incredible that God should not bless and glorify
the faithful according to his word. If it be credible that the
sun sends forth its illuminating and enlivening beams so far and
wide, to so many millions of various creatures, (though it scorch
the unsuitable objects that are too near,) it is credible that God,
who is infinite goodness, should bless the capable with heavenly
glory. And did we not see that sin maketh many uncapable,
it would be harder to reason to believe that all shall not be
blessed by such a God, than that all the faithful shall be blessed.
And we find, that though both be hard to unbelievers, they are
of the two more hardly brought to believe the threatenings, than
the promises, of God. Wnat wonder is it that infinite power,
wisdom, and love, should make some of his creatures blessed by
communication, and man in especial, when he hath made him
capable of it?
And what greater satisfaction and security can a fearful,
troubled, dying man have, than the infallible word of the most
94 A TRUE believer's
glorious God ? Surely he that firmly believeth it to be his
word, can hardly choose but believe that it is true, and meet for
our most quieting trust.
2. The angels and Moses were the mediators of the Jewish
law; but the eternal Word incarnate is the Mediator of the new
covenant ; promised only before, to Abraham, David, &c., yea,
to Adam, but sent, when made man, iii the fulness of time.
(Gal. iv. 4.) And it must needs be a sure and excellent cove-
nant which is made and confirmed by such a Mediator, named
in the prophecy, " Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The
Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace :" (Isa. ix. 6 :) of the
increase of his government and peace there is no end. He is
the heir of all things, by whom the worlds were made ; the
brightness of God's glory ; the express image of his person ;
and upholding all things by the word of his power ; made better
than angels, having by inheritance obtained a more excellent
name; whom all the angels of God do worship; and for whom
they disdain not to minister to the faithful. It is a sure and
comfortable doctrine which must have such a Preacher sent
from heaven, and a certain covenant which hath such a won-
derful Mediator.
3. But it is not like the powerless word of man, but the
holy Spirit of the Father and the Son undertaketh to accom-
pany it, and, as the arm of God, to set it home, and make it
effectual to its proper ends : we have not only heard this word,
but felt it ; as we hear and feel the powerful winds, though we
see them not, and perceive not whence they come, or whither
they go ; all have felt this that are born of the Spirit. (John
iii. 8.) God spake not like man when he said, "Let there be
light ;" (Gen. i. ;) and he teacheth not like man, when his Spirit,
by his word, doth quicken, illuminate, and regenerate souls. It
is a sure covenant that hath such an inward Mediator, such an
agent, and advocate, and witness of Christ, speaking operatively
from God to man, and speaking prevailingly in man to God.
4. And the sure manner of revelation doth make it fit to be
our trust and joy. As it beareth on itself the image or impress
of God's power, wisdom, and goodness ; so by powerful mira-
cles, and manifold wisdom, and unmeasurable goodness, it hath
been delivered, sealed, defended, and propagated; and by a
comunicated spirit, or life, light, and love, in all sound believers,
confirmed to this day.
5. And what is it that with such glory and certainty is de-
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 95
livered to us from heaven ? It is a deed of gift, (thus sealed by
Christ's blood and Spirit,) of grace, and glory ; of Christ to be
our Head, and Lord, and Husband, and Life, in and with him ;
(John V. 10, 12 ;) of the free pardon of all our sins, how many
and great soever, and of reconciliation with God, and of jus-
tification by the blood and righteousness of our Redeemer, and
of the continued teaching, preserving, sanctifying, strengthen-
ing, comforting aid of the Holy Spirit ; of adoption and title to
the heavenly inheritance, that being sons, and having the Spirit
of the Son, by it we shall be sealed up to glory, and be made
the habitation and temples of God. In a word, it is a promise
of this life, so far as that all things shall work together for our
good; (Rom. viii. 28 :) and of the life which is to come, where
we shall live in glory with Christ for ever. This is the sure and
blessed covenant of God.
6. And what is the doctrine and laws of God ? are they not
also suited to our trust and joy ? Is it not a delightful thing to
read that which no mere man could tell us ? How God made
man and all the world, and what laws he gave him. How sin
came into the world, and death by sin. How God hath go-
verned the world from the beginning, and how he hath redeemed
us. What Christ is, and what he hath done, and what he will
do. And what man is, and what he should be, and what he shall
be, and do, and have for ever.
And what is there in God's laws but that which is our safety,
and should be our joy ? If good laws be the safety and honour
of kingdoms, are not God's laws so to all the world ? What
an ugly dungeon were the world without them ; and what a
worse than brutish thing were man 1 Oh ! how happy were
man, were families, were cities, were kingdoms, if all had made
God's laws their rule, and all men's laws and lives had been
ruled by them ! Then there would have been none but wise,
just, and holy rulers, that would have governed for God, and
for the common good, and princes would have been indeed the
fathers of their countries, and masters of their families, abhor-
ring all contradicting selfish interests, and all injustice, tyranny,
and oppression. Then subjects would have, with reverence,
readiness, and fidelity, obeyed God, in obeying and honouring
their parents, princes, and masters. Then all men would love
their neighbours as themselves, and do as they would be done
by; love and justice would reign among all, and injury, par-
tiality, and selfishness would be abhorred. And which of us
69 A TRUE believer's
cannot say, ^ Had I been ruled by God's laws, I had escaped
all the guilt, the shame, the corrections, the terrors that
have befallen me. It is our sin against that sacred rule,
which is the cause of all our sorrows, else what peace might
we have had in our consciences, in our bodies, in our houses,
in our cities, and country, as having peace with God. God's
strictest laws are but his strict forbidding us to destroy
or hurt ourselves and others, as you forbid fire, and water, and
knives, and gunpowder, surfeiting, and poison, to your children,
for their preservation.
Oh 1 how glad would every true Christian be, if God's laws were
more fully written on his heart, and he could but be and do
all that God therein commandeth. For want of this perfect con-
formity it is that he crieth out with Paul, " To will is present
with me, but to do I find not. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death !"
How joyful should we be if we could but trust God, and love
him, and obey him, and be free from sins as much as the law
of God commandeth us. We testify, therefore, that the law is
holy, and just, and good, while we repent that we break it, and
wish that we could better keep it. For this would keep our
souls from guilt and shame, and terrors, and our bodies from
much calamity and pain ; all God's ways are pleasantness, and
all his paths are peace. Great peace have they that love his
law, and nothing shall offend them ; let papists hide it, and
accuse it, and let the ignorant and malignant scorn it, yet will
believers judge it fit for their confidence and delight.
7 And the rather, because that all this is admirably suited to
our necessity. We are tindone sinners, and had perished for
ever, without a Saviour, and a pardoning covenant. We are
dark and foolish, and should have erred to damnation, without
this sure and heavenly guide. We are beset with temptations ;
and how should we overcome them without God's promise of
better things than this world can give us ? We are under ma-
nifold pains and sorrows, and must shortly die ; and how should
we undergo all this in peace if we had not hopes of future hap-
piness, and of that which will compensate all our losses ? We
have a life of service to God which must be faithfully and cheer-
fully done, and how should we so do it without good persuasion
of this reward ? He that cometh to God, must believe that God
is, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Oh ! then, what a joyful word should that be to us which is
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 9?
sent from God himself thus to guide, to secure, to strengthen
and comfort us, by the promise of all that we need, and can
well desire, sealed by the blood, miracles, and Spirit of Christ,
and bearing the impress of God the author, and that to such
miserable sinners as we are.
II. But how are God's testimonies our heritage for ever,
when in heaven we shall have no need of Scriptures ?
Answ. 1 . " For ever" sometimes signifieth to the end of my
life, as David saith, ^^ I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for
ever," (Psalm xxiii.,) and so oft. And so God's testimonies
were taken for his heritage, or chiefest portion, and rejoicing
constantly, and to his life's end, as securing him of an everlast-
ing heritage.
2. And the heritage promised by them, and connoted, is ever-
lasting ; and the holiness imprinted by them on his soul will be
perpetuated and perfected in heaven.
III. What is it for believers to take God's testimonies for
their heritage ?
Answ. It is supposed that the flattering world, and the plea-
sures of the flesh, do stand here in competition, and are by
many taken for their best, and this because they either think
not of, or believe not, the better things of a life to come, and the
comforts of a holy prospect and preparation. In this case, every
true believer, seriously weighing all, and what can be said on
both sides, what the world and flesh will be and do for him, and
what God, and grace, and glory will be and do, doth wisely
discern and resolve,
1. That the world is vanity, and sin abominable.
2. That God is all-sufficient, infinitely good, and to be
trusted, and his word most wise and just and true, and there-
fore, though his belief have its imperfections and assaults, yet
he so far believeth God's promises to be sure, and his precepts
to be good and necessary, as that he resolveth here to place
his hope and trust for his whole felicity in this life and
hereafter, and to give up himself to the study, love, and
obedience of God's laws, as the guide and security, and
comfort of his soul, renouncing all the flatteries of the flesh
and world which stand against it, and are preferred by
sensual unbelievers.
In few words, this was David's faith and choice, and this is
the faith and choice of all true believers, by which we may
VOL. XVIIK H
9B A TRUE BELIE VER*S
discern whether we are such, though all have not the same
degree of trust and fixed resolution, yet all have this much in
sincerity.
IV. Quest. But can all say, ' They are the rejoicing of my
heart.'
Answ. All of them can say,
1. We see that there is in the word and covenant of God
in Christ, unspeakably more matter fit to be our joy, than in all
the pleasures, and wealth, and honours of tliis world.
2. And therefore we prefer it before them all, in our desire
and our fixed choice.
3. And we find so much goodness and suitableness to us in
this sacred word, as that we love it as our food and our security,
though not with the appetite and love which we desire.
4. And though we have not that joy in this our love to it,
and in the hopes of promised glory, which a stronger faith and
love would cause, yet we find that it is our best, and we perceive
more good in it than in sinful pleasures, and the true and chief
support of our souls in all our fears and troubles, and in our
prospect of another life, is from the love and word of God through
Christ,
And though our pleasure in it be not sensual and luscious, it
is much more solid and satisfying to our souls, than we find in
any other thing.
And the sweetness which we taste in it, is greater ^t some
times than at other.
And the comfort which we have in our bodily health and
welfare is much, as it signifieth to us the love of God perform-
ing to us his promises, and helping us to serve him with joy and
gladness, in order to everlasting joy.
This is the ordinary case of true believers, though extraordi-
narily : I. Some tempted, troubled, melancholy Christians,
overwhelmed with grief and fears, do not perceive this much in
themselves. 2. And the healthfuUer, stronger sort of Christians
have yet a more sweet and constant pleasure, in the testimonies
and ways of God.
Having said thus much for explication, a little more may
suffice to show you why and whence it is that believers receive
the testimonies of God with this fixed choice, and trust, and
pleasure.
1. It is from honest self-love and interest. They certainly
CHOICE AND PLEASUaE. 99
find that it is their best, that it is true and good, and that
there is nothing else to be found in this world that will serve
instead of it, to be a quieting security, guide, and comfort to the
soul. They perceive what they need, and that nothing else
can supply those needs. This must be their hope, or they must
despair.
2. It is from holy suitableness and love to God, and the good-
ness which they relish in his word. As God giveth every living
creature an appetite suitable to his food and benefits, so doth
he to the new creature. Holiness is mostly the soul's appetite
to God, and spiritual good. The word which promiseth and
guideth us to the incorruptible crown of glory, is an incorruptible
seed; (1 Peter i. 3— 6 j) and it is our milk or food; (1 Peter ii.
2;) and by it we are made partakers of the divine nature; (2
Peter i. 4 ;) and it is the ingrafted or innaturalized word which
is able to save our souls. (James i. 21.) And as the whole
stock is marvellously turned to serve a little graft which is
planted into it, and as if it had lost its former kind, doth bring
forth only the fruit of the graft, so is God's word implanted in
us to the change of our nature, and our fruits ; and it is no
sound appetite which hath no pleasure. No wonder if a strong
belief do cause us to " rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of
glory, that we may receive the end of our faith, our salvation.''
(1 Peter i. 6—8.)
All God's commands and promises have, by the divine im-
pression of them on our souls, left somewhat there which is
like them, and connatural ; even a holy light to understand
their truth and goodness, and a holy love to them and the
things revealed, to desire them, and take pleasure in them, and
a holy liveliness to pursue the good desire. And this is the
writing of the law and gospel on our hearts ; and in this sense
it may be said that God, that Christ, that the Holy Ghost is in
our souls, and dwelleth in us, even as an efficient principle, and
a beloved object, and desired end. And if this be all that they
intend, those called quakers have no reason to accuse us for not
preaching a God and a Christ within us. And if this be it that
is meant by those who tell the world, that by saying that the
Holy Ghost is in us, we are more arrogant than the pope, that
claimeth a visible monarchy ; we glory in this joyful privilege,
this earnest, seal, and first-fruits of heavenly glory, and humbly
thank him, who hath vouchsafed it, and assured us of it in his
word. (Rom. viii. 9, 11 ; 2 Cor. vi. 16 ; Eph. iii. 17 ; 1 John
H 2
100 A TRUE believer's
iv. 13 ; I Cor. iii. 16 ; 2 Tim. i. 14 ; 1 John iii. 24, and iv. 12,
15, Hi.) And if the scorners have any belief of the Scriptures,
let them read and tremble, " If any man have not the Spirit of
Christ, the same is none of his." (Rom. viii. 9.)
III. X have given you the sense and the reason of this doc-
trine; we come hither to learn what use to make of it. And I
think if I preach also on the copy or impress of this text, whose
relics we have laid in the dust, and tell us what use she made
of such doctrine, it will be a considerable help to our own appli-
cation.
I have never loved or used to adorn sepulchres, or hang out
specious signs at the door of pride, ambition, tyranny, or world-
liness, to entice others to imitate prosperous sinners in their
sin ; were I to preach at the funeral of an Alexander or a
Caesar, I had rather say that which may save the living from fol-
lowing them in pride and bloodshed, than to tempt men to the
like sin and misery.
To praise damned men, because they had the pleasures of sin
for a season, is to be more foolish and uncharitable than the
tormented gentleman, (Luke xvi.,) who would have had one sent
from the dead to warn his brethren, lest they should follow him
to that place of torment, by preferring fleshly pleasure and
prosperity, before the life and hope of saints. Our praises ease
not tormented souls. It is a mark of the citizens of the holy
city, that " A vile person is contemned in their eyes ;" but
withal, that they " Honour those that fear the Lord; for God
doth honour them."
My duty, therefore, to God, and my love to holiness and
holy persons, and to you in special that are her children and
other relations, commandeth me to tell you (though some of
you know it better than I) that our deceased friend, in the
course of her pilgrimage, did speak of herself by her constant
practice, what David professed in this text. Though I speak
but from eighteen or nineteen years' acquaintance with her my-
self, I have full evidence of it for the former part of her life ;
and my acquaintance with her by neighbourhood, and mutual
esteem, hath been sucli as hath given me more advantage to
Ivuow her, than most have had ; though I remember not ever to
liave spoken with one person that hath known her, that did not
take her for an extraordinary and eminent example of the piety
and virtues which I shall mention.
If the hypocrites seek the praise of men, verily they have
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 101
their reward (a poor reward) ; but she, seeking first the king-
dom of God, and tlie honour that is of him, had this cast in as
overplus. I never heard that any person of any persuasion
did speak evil of her, or question her eminent sincerity and
worth.
Had she come to this by sinful compliance, she might have
feared Christ's words : " Wo to you when all men speak well
of you;" (Luke vi. 26;) but as God hath not left himself
without witness to the very heathens, so he hath not left inno-
cency, wisdom, love, peace, and piety, without some witnesses
in the consciences of the ungodly; few of them have the face to
speak against these in their proper names ; and if he could not
dishonour them by our mixed faults, and by the slanderous af-
fixed names of heresy, schism, disobedience, hypocrisy, fanati-
cism, folly, and what else ignorance and malignity can devise,
the devil knew not how to dishonour holiness and virtue, jior
to encourage the blind world to so common a hatred and op-
position of them, as they show in all nations of the earth.
When she chose this text, it was from such a suitable spirit,
as all men choose the food, the friends and company, the busi -
ness and discourse, which by agreeableness they most delight
in. That she made God's word and covenants (connoting God's
love, Christ, grace, and glory, the spring, matter, and end) her
best, her heritage, her all, contemning all that stood in compe-
tition ; and that these were the rejoicing of her heart, she
showed to us that knew her, by these notable effects.
I. By her constant, serious, diligent use of the word of God,
l)y hearing, reading, conference, and meditation. Her food
was not more constantly used, nor, 1 believe, so sweet to her.
Her hearing in the public assemblies, nothing but necessity
could interrupt; and her private constancy her relations know.
She practically told us that the blessed man's " delight is m
the law of the Lord, and therein doth he meditate day and
night." (Psalm i. 2.)
II. She made so much (in esteem, use, and thankfulness) of
every little of the help she could get in these spiritual things, as
showed that they were her heritage and joy. When some
come home with accusations of the sermon, as dry, dull, or
weak, she found in it something for profit and solace. 1 am
sure my own conversation and duties have been truly guilty of
the foresaid faults ; and yet how gladly would she come over
the way to us at prayer-time. How much did she value now
102 A TRUE believer's
and then a little (too dull, unprofitable) conference, and took it
for a loss that she could have no more. How glad was she of
now and then a too dry and short letter, and how carefully
would she keep them ; as if, with the woman of Canaan, she
had been begging for the crumbs. Alas ! our duller appetites
seldom so desire after, or delight in, much larger portions of
well-dressed food, but fulness hath loathing, and we call it dry
manna, which we are weary of j or every little fault in the
dressing turneth our stomach against it; full souls loathe the
honeycomb, but to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet.
III. She loved and received the word of God from any faithful
minister that brought it. It is true that she more frequented and
desired Eome than others ; but her religion was not faction, or
siding with this party, or with that ; she was far from a schisma-
tical mind or practice. When one party separate from all that
preach in the parish churches, and another from all that preach
elsewhere ; she separated from neither.
IV. Accordingly, she loved all persons that feared God as
such ; not confining her affections or kindness to those of this or
that controvertible opinion ; but that candour and holy simpli-
city, and serious practical religion which she had herself, was it
that she loved in all others whomsoever.
V. And accordingly her conference was not about contro-
versies or matters of contention, in which too many spend their
hours in these times, but that which tendeth to edification, and
to administer grace to the hearers. She was not such as Paul
oft reproveth for striving about words, and little things, that
tend not to edify, but sulnert.
VI. Much less was she tainted with any heresy or dangerous
error in religion, nor ever drawn from the truth, and her spi-
ritual steadfastness ; but cleaved to the form of wholesome
words, and the simplicity that is in Christ, and to them that
held the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ; avoiding
the vain j anglings of men of contention, pride, and corrupt
minds.
VII. She was not of a censorious backbiting temper, nor used,
as too many faulty Christians, to make it her discourse to find
fault with others, and make herself the judge of controversies
cases, actions, and persons which she understood not; but had
learned that lesson, " Speak evil of no man;" and to know and
be called to it, before she judged.
VIII. She was very desirous of the good of all, and glad of
CHOICJB AND PLEASURE. lOB
any thing which tended to promote the conversion and saving
of men's souls.
IX. She was charitable and liberal also to their bodies, in an
unusual degree ; as I am able to say by particular experience,
in which I have known it exercised to the poor.
X. Her humility and detestation of pride was manifest, not
only in her garb and behaviour, but in her low thoughts of her-
self, and the lowliness of all her conversation, and great dislike
of all that savoured of pride.
XI. She was not morose, nor a refuser of converse and useful
visits, when reason required them : but she took it for a great
affliction to have much diversion by company, or by matters,
from her constant course of better work ; and (besides her
health) was, therefore, the more inclined to be much in the
country, that her mind and time might not be at the mercy of
too much intruding diversions, and unprofitable discourse.
Xfl. Much more was she averse to all sorts of sensuality;
such pleasing of the flesh as corrupteth the mind, and turneth
it from holy work and pleasure; and such vain recreations as
waste precious time, and profit not ourselves or others. Holy
things were her food and feast, her work anjd recreation.
XIII. Her prudence in all matters was very exemplary; be-
ing much more against unadvised rashness, and actions which
tend to ill effects, than most of us of the stronger sex ; and I
confess I should think much better of myself if I could equal her
herein. In which her acquaintance commonly admired her,
though this is a point which all must acknowledge much imper-
fection in.
XIV. And her gentleness, meekness, and calmness of mind
and carriage was very amiable to her friends, and most that did
converse with her. She was a great adversary to passionate
behaviour, which surely came from that power of grace, which
had made love and meekness become a nature in her, seeing no
such thing could be else expected in one of her sex, and com-
plexion, and bodily weaknesses.
XV. She did not, as the hypocrite, give God the second place
in her heart and life, and the world the first, nor put off Christ
with the leavings of the flesh, nor take this world for her best or
heritage, and the next only for a reserve when she must needs
leave this ; she seemed to prize no heritage but God, nor to set
much by any transitory vanity whatsoever.
XVI. She excelled in the earnest desire of her children's
104 A TRUE believer's
good, and in the care of their well-doing and salvation. How
oft hath she desired me to pray for them. How glad was she
if I would at any time but converse with them, and advise
them : they know better themselves (though I know much) how
much she prayed for them. How oft and tenderly she coun-
selled them. What letters of serious, holy counsel she would
write to them. And how like she was to Job, who prayed and
sacrificed for his children when they were merry and feasting
together, fearing lest they should forget God, and sin against
him.
XVII. This kind of life which I have described, was her call-
ing and trade, and in a manner her only business in the world.
It was not now and then in a good mood, like a feast and re-
creation; but as she knew that one thing is needful, so she chose
that better part, which never was, nor will be taken from her.
She so lived as if she had but this one thing to mind and do in
the world, to please God by obeying him, and to cleave to
Christ ; and to do good and to be saved. Nothing else seemed
to be much in her mind, thoughts, care, and business ; her life
seemed to be but this one thing. But I must confess that poor
and tempted persons, that are under many worldly wants,
crosses, and employments, cannot be expected to reach her
measure in this ; though one thing be their best and portion,
they may be tossed with many troublesome cares and busi-
nesses. But God gave her both mind, opportunity, and help to
live in as even a course of constant holiness in a family, as
monks can pretend to or hope for in their community or soli-
tude. Religion was her very life.
XVIII. In this life she had also a constant peace of consci-
ence, bewailing her imperfections, but not living in melancholy,
despair, hard thoughts of God, or an uncomfortable sort of re-
ligion. I have oft heard her speak of her lamented weakness
of faith, love, and heavenly desires and joy; but never, that I
remember, one doubting word of her own sincerity and salva-
tion ; but her ordinary speech was lamenting that we were all so
weak in our belief of the word of God, and the unseen world,
and what excellent persons we should be, if herein we had a
stronger faith, that were liker unto sight ; and how much it
should be the business of all believers, to pray and labour for an
increased powerful belief hereof, as that which would set all
light in us.
XIX. Her patience under her bodily infirmities also was ex-
CHCilCE AND PLEASURE. 105
emplary. Her weakness made her so liable to dangerous coughs
while she was in London air, that by this she was constrained
to live much from home ; and most of all her life she was tor-
mented with a frequent headach ; but in her patience in all this
she did possess her soul, and patience furthered experience, and
experience hope; and she learned more the quiet fruits of righte-
ousness by being much exercised herein,
XX. And as by this she daily learned to die, so the expecta-
tion and preparation for death was her continual work and
state. She lived, and heard, and prayed, and wrote her letters
to her children as at the brink of the grave, and the door of
eternity. Not that her diseases did seem to us to be very
mortal, or threaten this sudden change ; but she knew the bre-
vity of man's life, and that death is ready to remove us all, and
what a moment it is till that certain hour.
And as she lived holily and in peace with God and man, so
she died with ease and little likelihood of the ordinary miseries
of fear or pain. A little soreness and swelling of her leg, and
pain towards the hip, turned to two swooning fits, and in the
third or fourth, having been in quiet discourse with her hus-
band, she as quietly sunk and died away, desiring that I
should be sent for to pray with her ; she was dead before I came,
without any signs of nature's striving. And she had said to her
daughter after her former fits, she did not think that one could
have died so easily as she had almost done. A death thus ex-
pected, and thus prepared for, is not to be called sudden.
Thus God can make death easy to some of us, that are apt to
over-fear the antecedent pain. And, now, what can be more
(almost) (lesired in this world, than such a life, and such a
death. Our dear friend is at home with Christ, and God's will,
which is goodness and love itself, is so fulfilled ; even that will
which must dispose of all things, and in which only we must
seek our rest.
And having described this true copy of the text, I may boldly
speak of it to the several sorts.
I. 1 may ask again both quakers and scorners, whether the
Holy Spirit do not dwell and work in such among us, as our
dear friend now deceased was.
J I. I may ask unbelievers and Sadducees, whether these ope-
rations of the Spirit of God on believers be not a sign that God
owneth the gospel by which he thus worketh ', and that Christ.
106 A TRUE BHLTEVER'*
liveth and reigneth, who can thus still send a sanctifying Spirit
into believers' souls. And whether it be'not blasphemy to think
and say, ' Either that these excellent endowments of souls are
not of God, or that he giveth them all in vain, and that
believers are all deceived by God, and labour and hope all
their days, for that which hath no being ; and that the better
God maketh them, the more deluded, vain, and frustrate
he maketh them, and rulelh and amendeth the world by
falsehood/
III. 1 may ask the papists, with what face they can say
as they use to do, that they never heard of a Protestant
saint ? And whether we may not be as religious in the places
that God hath set us in, as if we turned recluses, monks, or
nuns, and shut up ourselves from doing any good in the world ?
IV. I may ask the malignant, that call all serious godliness
hypocrisy, whether such a life as this doth savour of dissimu-
lation ? and whether such seriousness and hypocrisy are not con-
traries, and hypocrisy be not a profession without that serious-
ness, which is sincerity ? And whether they that in baptism
solemnly vow to take God for their God, and Christ for their
Lord and Saviour, and the Holy Ghost for Christ's advocate
and witness, and their Sanctifier and Comforter, and to renounce
the flesh, the world, and the devil ; and, when they have done,
perform none of this which they vowed ; but to live to the flesh
and world which they renounced, and take a holy life as need-
less, yea, and hate it; I say, whether these be not the impudent
hypocrites that vow and profess that holiness which they abhor,
rather than they that, with all their diligence, perform the holy
vow which they have made. And if wives promise fidelity to
their husbands, servants to their masters, and subjects to their
princes, are they the hypocrites that are serious and keep their
promise ? or they that were never serious in it, but scorn the
keeping of it ?
V. And as to those malignant persons that take this strict
and serious diligence for men's souls to be but scrupulosity,
or the character of some over-zealous bigots or puritans who
are most inclined to schism, and to be troublesome or dangerous
to states, I ask them,
1. What is there in all the description which 1 have here
truly given you, which is injurious or dangerous to church or
state, or any person ? Will it hurt any one that God and men
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 107
are seriously loved ? and that God's testimonies are trusted and
delighted in and obeyed ? and that God's kingdom and righte-
ousness is first sought?
2. Is it not Christ, and Christianity, and Scripture that you
accuse ? If it be schismatical and dangerous to be serious in
performing what we profess and vow, surely it is bad in baptism
to vow it, and still by calling ourselves Christians to profess it.
To accuse, hate, and scorn the serious practice of your own
professed religion, is to be the most foolish self-condemners,
and, in some respects, worse than Mahometans, infidels, and
heathens.
VI. But my most earnest desire is to you the loving husband,
and beloved children of our departed friend, that you will not
overlook, —
1. The correction,
2. The sin,
3. The mercy,
4. Or the duty which God now calleth you seriously to con-
sider.
(1.) I need not persuade such as are rather apt to overmuch
sorrow, not to despise this chastening of the Lord, but rather
not to faint under his rebuke. But I cannot dissuade you from
a sense of your loss ; we that are your neighbours feel it : but
you much more, to whom it is much greater. What saints in
heaven do know of us, or think of us, or do for us, we shall bet-
ter know when we are there : but here you are deprived of the
daily prayers which she sent up for you ; of the continuance of
her loving care of your souls, and watchfulness over you ; of her
wise and faithful counsels to you, and of her imitable example,
as it was still before you; a husband of a pious, prudent helper,
and children of a tender aff'ectionate mother; your great sor-
rows tell me you feel your loss.
(2.) And all correction is for sin, which is worse than suffer-
ing. Oh ! fall down before God, and with penitent tears bewail
your sin, which hath caused your loss. Humbly confess how
unworthy you were of such a*^ mother, and beg of God to for-
give that sin.
(3.) But mercy also, as well as sin and loss, must be ac-
knowledged. Your sorrow must give due place to thankfulness
and comfort. Your mother is taken from you, but remember,
1 . What a mercy it was, and is to you, that you are so re-
lated to such parents, seeing God hath promised special mercy
108 A TRUE believer's
to the faithful and their seed ; and if any of you miss it, it will
be through your own ingratitude and contempt.
2 What a mercy is it that all her prayers for you are yet in
force, and more of the answer of them may yet be sent you, if
you reject it not.
3. You have yet all her holy counsels to remember, and they
may profit you while you live.
4. And though she be gone, I hope her example will never
be forgotten by you.
5. And what a mercy is it that, under all her infirmities, you
enjoyed her so long.
6. And yet how much greater cause of thankfulness have you
that she so lived and so died, and that you may think of her
with comfort as being with Christ, and hope to be with her for
ever. Every one hath had a mother, but every one had not
such a mother as you have had.
(4.) And I have intimated your duty, while I have mentioned
your loss and mercy.
1. Think over often what sin she reproved in you, and what
counsel she gave you ; and now revive your resolution to obey it.
2. Remember what she was wont to pray for on your behalf;
and let it not now be along of your neglect or wilfulness, that you
are without it.
3. RememDer her humble, moderate, holy example; and
think whether your souls have not as much need of the greatest
care and diligence as her's had ? And why should not you
be as studious to please God, and make sure of heaven as she
was ? Bless God that you have such a pattern, that hath so
long dwelt with you, for your imitation, next your imitation of
Christ. Holy simplicity is despised by the world, but it will
prove the only wisdom at the last.
I have told you what use to make of the example of our de-
ceased friend. Let me now tell you what use of the text which
she so much loved, transcribed, and chose.
I. And, first, here you may learn the nature of true faith and
sound religion. It taketh God's testimonies and promises for
our heritage, and for the comfort of our hearts. It is not true
faith, unless we so trust God's promises for this life and that to
come, as to take what he promiseth for our best, and our inherit-
ance, and his promise for our best security and title, and his law
for our governing rule that we may obtain it.
So that, 1 . Here you see how we differ from infidels that do
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 109
not trust their everlasting hopes and happiness on the promise
of God. -
2. And how we differ from hypocrites who speak best of hea-
ven, but really look for their best on earth, which Christ calleth
" trusting in their riches," because that is, indeed, their trust,
from which they have their greatest expectations, and for which
they most labour and will leave all : this a believer doth for
promised happiness ; and this the worldly hypocrite doth for the
prosperity of the flesh on earth.
3. And here you see that faith and godliness are not melan-
choly, uncomfortable things, as the devil and the flesh would
persuade inexperienced fools and unbelievers, unless it be sad to
have security from God of a heavenly heritage, and rejoice
therein.
And here you see the differences between the mirth of 'a
fleshly infidel, and of a believing saint. One is like a drunkard
that is merry for an hour in a brutish kind of befooling plea-
sure ; or like one that hath a pleasant dream, or one that heareth
a jest or merry tale, or seeth a pretty comedy or show. The
other is more rational and heart-contenting than it should be
to any of you to have good security for many hundred years*
life and health, and prosperity here on earth. Such a birth-
right do profane fools sell for such a morsel, not knowing that
the fear of God caused by true faith is the beginning of wisdom.
Hence, therefore, we may learn how to try our sincerity of
faith. Doth it make us take God's promise and the thing pro-
mised, as our heritage ? Though we are not without temptations
to doubting, nay, nor without the remnants of unbelief, but our
hearts are troubled, when we look beyond death, with many
fears ; yet if we so far trust God's word, as resolvedly to take it
for that which we will adhere to, and lay our chiefest hopes upon,
we have a faith that will entitle us to the promised benefits.
Object. But some may say, ' I cannot say that it is the re-
joicing of my heart.*
Answ. 1. Can you say that you take it for that in which you
place and seek your joy, though you cannot yet attain it; and
that you prefer any other pleasure in your esteem and choice
and seeking ? If so, you show that you truly believe and
trust to the faithfulness of God's word, though yet you reach
not what you seek. Desire is the first-fruit of faith and love,
and holy joy is the flower and perfection.
110 A TRUE believer's
2. Cannot you say that it is this word that maketh you hope
that there is for man a better life, and that you shall not perish
like the beasts, and that your fears and sorrows are somewhat
abated by the promises of God ?
3. Cannot you say that you perceive a pleasing goodness in
the word of God, which maketh it welcome and acceptable
to you ?
By what I have mentioned, you may find,
1. That the word hath not been in vain unto you, when it
hath caused such effects.
2. -And that the same Spirit is in you which wrote the word,
or else you would not lov^e and desire it, and take it for suitable
food and pleasure, yea, your heritage and joy.
3. And you may hence perceive that you are not without the
love of God himself, though you see him not, and have not such
sensible conceptions of him as you have of men and things
which you have seen ; for if you love truth and goodness and
holiness in God's word, because it is such, you sure love best
the greatest truth, goodness, and holiness, and that is God.
4. And hence you may perceive that though our nature love
not death, and a weak faith will not overcome all fears, when
we think of coming into an unseen world, yet really you are
lovers of heaven, in that you are lovers of that which consti-
tuteth heaven and is its desirableness to man ; even holiness and
God's love, and glorious presence, and our perpetual joy herein.
If you desire this, you desire heaven, though the fear of death
do make you doubt of it.
5. And hence you may find that you are not worldly hypo-
crites, else it is not God's promises and law that you would take
for your heritage and joy; but worldly prosperity and fleshly
pleasure, and God and heaven should have but the leavings of
the flesh, for fear of an after-reckoning at death.
6. And though your joy be small, you may know that it is of
the right kind, when it is chiefly sought in God's love and pro-
mises ; and you would not let go the word of God, and lose
your part in it for all the vanities of this world.
III. Hence also you may learn why all true Christians so
much value the testimonies or word of God ? Why they so
much read it, think of it, talk of it, and hear of it, and are
loth that papists should corrupt it, or conceal it in an unknown
tongue, or that any should deny them the necessary use of it, or
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. Ill
silence the ministers that preach it to them ? who would will-
ingly he deprived of his heritage or heart rejoicing ?
IV. Yea, indeed, hence we see how much we should set by
it, and use it, how dear it should be to us, how strictly we
should obey it, with what delight we should read and meditate
in it, how diligent we should be to confirm our belief of it, and
how we should fetch our hope and comfort from it in life and at
our death ?
V. And you may see hence that it is no wonder that the
devil and all his servants in the world are enemies to the word
of God, because they are enemies to our heritage and joy : and
there are few better signs while many pretend to be for Christ,
to know who are really for him, and who are against him and his
greatest enemies, than to judge of men as they further or hin-
der, love or hate, the word of God as to its proper use, as the
heritage and joy of holy souls.
VJ. But the chief part of my application is to commend this
wise and holy choice, and solid comfort, to you all ; and to be-
seech you presently to imitate David, and turn away from all in-
consistent pleasures. If you live in sorrow or deceit, and die
in desperation, it is not for want of an offer from God of better
things. Have you lived hitherto as thus resolved ? If you have,
the Lord confirm you ; and, be sure, such hopes shall not de-
ceive you. If you have not, what will you now choose and do ?
If you live not to some end, you live not like men, according to
reason. If you have chosen what end to live for and seek, what
is it ? Consider, 1 beseech you, of these things following, be-
fore it be too late.
1 . What will you take for your heritage, or your best, if not
the future promised joys, and what will you take for your secu-
rity but God's word ? What is it that you place your chiefest
hopes in ? Shall health and wealth, and pleasure to the flesh,
and honour among men, be taken for your heritage ? Dare you,
under your hands, make a covenant for these to quit all your
hopes of the life to come ? If not, which is it you prefer, and
which would you quit, if one must be hazarded or lost ? Which
hath the nearest and highest place in your hearts ? Which seek
you first, and make all other things give place to ? O sirs ! it
is a shame to our stupid hearts, that we have need to be so often
told by preachers that we must die, and that our flesh must
shortly lie neglected in dust and darkness, till the resurrection,
and that we, and all the deceitful trifles of this world, are ready
112 A TRUE believer's
to part for ever ! It is a shame that we must be oft told that
which every fool and child, at the use of reason, may know, how
poor and how short an heritage, or pleasure, all those have, who
have no better than this world can give them !
What say you ; will you die in hope, or in despair ? If unbe-
lief make you hope that there is no hell, yet hope of heaven you
can have none, unless you trust the word of God. The light of
nature, indeed, is such a natural word, or revelation, as may tell
us much of a future life of retribution ; but God's supernatural
revelation is so much clearer, that we cannot expect that he will
see by a lesser, who wilfully rejects a greater light. Sure all
men would live for ever if they could, and all would be for ever
happy. You would not sure die like dogs, without any hope of
a better life hereafter, if you could have good security for such
hopes ? And what better security is there to be found by mor-
tal men than the promises of God, confirmed by Christ's
blood and miracles, and by the seal of his Holy Spirit.
In a word, without all doubt, either heaven must be your
heritage, or you must have none that is worthy of a serious
thought, and enough to keep a man from wishing that he had
never been born ; or been a brute that had not reason to know
the matter of his griefs and fears : and either God's word
seconding the light of nature, must give you hopes of a better
life, or you must live and die in mere despair. And shall that
be your wilful choice ?
2. Consider how invaluable a mercy it is to man, yea, to sin-
ful, miserable man, that God should vouchsafe to give him such
an everlasting heritage, and such security for it ; and that on the
mere thankful acceptance of the sinner. And how worthily will
they be undone that, by wilful refusal, are deprived of freely
offered felicity.
3. And, consider how suitable an heritage and security it is
that is offered us, and how fit for our joyful acceptance and
esteem.
The thing promised is no less than endless glory with God
our Redeemer, and all the blessed. It is in the world where we
must be for ever : it is the perfection of that which every holy
soul desireth. It is our best, our all : it must be that or no-
thing ; that or hell.
The word or covenant which is our trust,
1. Is God's own word.
2. It perfecteth and secondeth natural revelation and hope.
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 113
3. It beareth on itself the impress of God, even his power,
wisdom, and love, in wonders, propliecies, and grace. It is
sealed by the blood of Christ, by his own and his disciples*
multitude of miracles, and by the gift of his sanctifying Spirit
to all true believers, to the end. It is confirmed to our souls by
the experience of the power of it, and the blessed effects, and
this indwelling spirit, the witness of Christ ; and by the answer
of prayers, by many providences, and by the experience of all
believers to this day.
It is excellently suited to all our needs, to our wants, our
dangers, our fears, our doubts, yea, and our shiful unworthiness
in the freeness of God's mercy, and all his gifts.
Indeed, man had rather live by sight, and would fain know,
by seeing, whither souls go, and what they are, and have and do,
hereafter. But it is not we, but God that is the ruler, and
fittest to choose both the gift and means, the end and way.
If we thankfully trust and improve a promise, we shall quickly
see and have possession. Blessed be God for the light of his
gospel, to guide us up to the light of glory ! O that we had
hearts to trust it, love it, and rejoice in it, as we have just
cause !
4. And is it not a great mercy of God, that he hath herein
called us to a life of happiness and present joy. If he had bid
us only weep for sin to the last breath, the condition had been
easy, as for pardon, and hope of endless mercy ; but he hath
given us a word which he would have to be the rejoicing of our
hearts, and do vye not love joy, or have we any better ?
I have not now time, and I much more want myself such a
mind and heart as i should have, to tell what cause of daily joy
God hath given us in his word and covenants. But this I will
tell you, that our want of joy is our daily sin and shame, as well
as our loss and suffering, and among all the discoveries of the
sinful weakness of our faith, hope, and love, our want of re-
joicmg in the word of promise, and hope of glory, is not the
less. O what an enemy is death in this respect, that standing
between it darkeneth and afltrighteth us from our joys ! but
Christ hath conquered death to deliver those that through fear
of it are subject to bondage. (Heb. ii. 15.) And though we
cry, 'O miserable men! who shall deliver us?' we yet thank
God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
And I must second the testimony of our deceased friend, in .
professing for your encouragement my own experience; I have
VOL. XVI H. I
114 A TRUE BEtJEVEk'S
taken God's testimonies for my heritage, and they have been
these fifty years, or near, the pleasure of my life, and sweeter
than honey, and more precious than thousands of gold or silver.
As we tell men, in charity, of the things which we have found
good, the medicines that have healed us, and commend the
persons that have been friendly to us ; and as man's nature is
inclined to propagate the knowledge, and communicate the good
which we partake of, and grace increaseth this inclination, so I
take it to be my duty to add herein my own experience, if it
may contribute to the determining of your choice ; and reason
teacheth all men to regard that means and remedy good the
more, which many have had experience of, and it is not to be
taken for vain ostentation to profess that which all must have
in some degree that will be saved.
Though, the natural and sinful fears of pain and death too
long deprived me of much of the joy which I should have had
in the thoughts- of the unseen world, and too much doth so to
this day, yet I must say that the word of God, and the persons
that love and practise it, and the holy way of life and peace,
and all things that here savour of heaven, have been so good
and pleasant to me, as enableth me to assure you, that on earth
there is nothing so worthy of your desire and joy.
And to encourage you, I will tell you, by my own experience,
what benefit may be expected from this kind of delight, agree-
able to David's and our friend's experience.
1. By this means my life hath been almost a constant pleasure.
2. This pleasure hath much upheld me under almost con-
stant bodily infirmity and p'ain. i ^
3. It hath made all my sufferings from men, and crosses lit
the world, to be tolerable, and very easy tp me ; had not God's
word been my delight, 1 had lived uncomfortably, in constant
pains and sorrows, and had perished in my trouble.
4. It hath saved me from the snares of sinful pleasures ;
man's nature will seek for some delight, and they that have it
not in good will, seek it in things hurtful and forbidden ; it is
GUly greater things that can overcome our mistaken choice of
les&er. In my childhood, I was sinfully inclined to the pleasure
of r(Stn^ances, and of childish sports, but when I tasted the
sweetness of God's testimonies and ways, I needed no other,
but spitf out those luscious, unwholesome vanities. And though
commoiLknowledge, called learning, be pleasant to man's
r cannot say that I have not overvalued it, yet I
f
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 115
IKiust say, that the relish of these greater matters hath made mfc
see how much of it is vanity, and hath saved me from the pursuit
of that part of it which doth but please curiosity and fancy, and
tendeth not to use, and to greater things, and sensual pleasures
I had no need of.
5. It hath by this means made that pleasure which I had to
be such as my reason did approve and justify, whereas if 1 had
sought it in preferment, wealth, or sensuality, a foreseeing con-
science would have affrighted me out of all my pleasure, and I
should have had more of the pricks than of the rose, of the
sting than of the honey. Of this pleasure you need not fear
too much, but of the sensual pleasure, we more easily catch a
mortal surfeit.
6. This sweetness of God's word hath made also my calling
and daily labour sweet, so that it had my heart, and not my
forced hand and tongue.
7. And this hath helped my constancy herein, for when we
have no delight in our work, we grow weary, and weariness tend-
eth to give it over, or to do it heartlessly, and slubber it over
in unacceptable hypocrisy.
8. And this hath much saved me from the sinful loss of
time; pleasure cureth trifling and delays. Who needeth vain
pastimes that delighteth in God's word and work ?
9. And this hath been to me an excellent help for the increase
of knowledge ; for the mysteries of godliness have still more to
be learned by the wisest man ; and as boys at school, so the
scholars of Christ, learn best who have most pleasure in their
books.
10. And this pleasure hath much confirmed my belief of the
truth of Scripture, when it hath borne its own witness to my
mind, and I have tasted that goodness which is agreeable to its
truth. I easily believe him that commendeth a thing to me,
when 1 taste or feel that it is good.
11. And this pleasure hath helped me against vain thoughts
and talk, while the truths of God were sweet, and so continually
welcome ; it is easy to think of that which we delight in, and
sinful delights corrupt the thoughts and speech with constant
sin.
12. And this pleasure hath somewhat fed my daily thankful-
ness to God, in the constant experience of the goodness of his
truth and ways.
13. And it cured the error of my beginnings when I strove
1 2 '
1J6 A TRUE believer's
for nothing so much as to weep for sin, and perceived not that
the joy of the Lord is our strength, and the flower of holiness,
and likest to the heavenly state ; and that the Spirit sanctifieth,
by making God and goodness pleasant to us.
14. And hereby it made me find, that the praises of God are
the sweetest and noblest exercises of religion, when before I
placed more in lamenting sin and misery.
15. And this maketh many things needless to me that else
would seem needful. I want not more company; I want no re-
creation but for my body. If I have not what I would have,
I see where only it is to be found.
1(). And I am assured that the constant pleasure of my mind
hath not only kept me from melancholy, but from greater sick-
nesses, and tended to the lengthening of my life, (as Scaliger
saith pleasant studies do,) for constant pleasure must needs
tend to health.
17. And this taste hath made me long for more, and had I
not felt that it is good to draw near to God, and very desirable
to know him and his will, I should never have so earnestly
begged for clearer light, and more near and sweet communion
with him. Pleasure is the cause of strong desire.
18. It hath been one of my greatest helps against many
temptations of subtle enemies, that tempt men to sadducism,
and doubt of the life to come.
19. It hath made me more communicative to others, for we
would all have partakers in our delights.
20. And it hath greatly furthered my repentance and hatred
of sin, when I have tasted what pleasure it depriveth us of, and
the abhorrence and loathing of myself that can delight in such
a God, and Saviour, and word no more. When 1 taste how
good it is, and see so much reason to rejoice in it, and the hopes
of glory a thousand fold more than I do, none of all the actual
sins of my life do make me half so much loathe my naughty heart,
as to think that my want of greater joy in so great and near
a good, doth show so much weakness in my faith, and hope, and
love. O that I had more faith and love, that I might have
more of this delight !
Hearers, I have sincerely told you what comfort you may have,
if you will not refuse it, from the word of God, and from the ex-
perience of David, and (because things near are aptest to affect)
from the experience of our deceased friend, and of myself, and^
indeed, of all God's servants in their degree. You would live in
CHOICE AND PLEASURE. 117
joy, you would die in joy ; we need it in a life of so much
trouble, and for a change that else is terrible, and it is sure and
near. O sirs ! we need another kind of comfort than sport,
or appetite, or wealthy or any such fading vanity, will give us ; you
may have some of it, if you will. And though joy be the top of
grac^ whicli we arrive not at with a wish, nor in an hour, yet
the nature of the new creature relisheth, orsavoureth, the things
of the Spn-it. (Rom. viii. 5 — 7.) And the spirit of adoption
is a spirit of filial love, and crieth Abba, Father, and the love
of God the Father, the grace of the Son, and the communion
of the holy Spirit, which are the believer's part, are all of them
the greatest comforters, and Christ giveth believers that seek
and trust him, that spring of living waters which tendeth to
everlasting satisfaction, and cureth indigent and sinful thirst.
Will you then have any portion, heritage, and joy, which will
be worthy of a man, and shall go further with you than the
grave ? If you will you may ; God and this congregation are
witnesses that it was offered you. But think not to refuse it,
and prefer the transitory pleasures of sin before it, and at last
have it, and find that which you refused, or which you sought
not first. (Matt. vi. 33.) Nor to find a treasure in heaven
where you never laid it up, or sought it. The hopes of the
wicked perish, and the hypocrite's hopes are as the giving up of
the ghost ; but the righteous hath hope in his death, and there-
fore may die in peace and joy. (Job viii. 13, 14, and xi. 20;
Prov. xi. 7) and xiv. 32.)
Perhaps some will say, that such a discourse of rejoicing is
unsuitable to the mourning of a funeral. I think not of such
a funeral, in which we commemorate the holy life and death, and
believe the present and everlasting joy, of such a friend, and one
with whom we have long joined in seeking and vyaiting for that
felicity, and hope, ere long, and for ever, to rejoice with Christ,
and her, and all the blessed. And funeral sermons are not for
the benefit (though for the due honour) of the dead, but of the
living, to teach us all to prepare for death, which, indeed, is so
much of the business of our whole life, that all the rest is but
a vain show, and foolish trifling, or much worse. And wherein
doth our preparation for death so much consist, as foreseeing
what so great a change will need, and wliat a trial it will put
our faith and hope to, to seek and get such security for our
everlasthig state, and such sound belief of it, and settled content
and comfort in it, which the fears of death, judgment, and hell.
118 A believer's choice and pleasure.
may not shake or overcome ; that so we may finish our course
with joy, and pass through the valley of the shadow of death,
and fear no evil, but may comfort one another and ourselves
with this, that we shall for ever be with the Lord, and may say
with Paul, " I have fought a good fight; I have finished my
course; henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,"
which God, the righteous Judge, will give to me and to all that
love Christ's appearance, when he shall come to be glorified in
his saints, and admired in all them that do believe, and shall
say, " Well done, good and faithful servant ! Enter thou into
the joy of thy Lord."
Wo, and for ever wo, to every soul of you that shall finally
reject or neglect the offer of such an heritage and joy ! And
blessed be that grace which hath caused all true believers to
prefer it in their highest esteem, and choice, and seeking. I have
looked about to see if there were any better and surer to be had,
and 1 am fully satisfied it must be this or none. I offer you but
.what God hath caused me, and all that he will save, to choose ;
and Lord grant that I may never look back to any other ! Let
the love of God, my heavenly Father, the grace of Jesus Christ,
my Lord, and the joy of the sanctifying Spirit, sealing up the
promise of God as my security, and writing his law and gospel
in my heart, be my heritage and joy, and I shall never envy the
most prosperous sinner their portion in this life, but shall live
and die in the thankful praise of the God of my salvation, who
is essential, infinite, joyful love. Amen, Amen.
nm •-i\-ft Imi/'.
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, ESQUIRE,
CITIZEN OF LONDON,
BRIEFLY AND TRULV PUBLISHED FOB THE CONVICTION OF HYPOCRITES AND
THE MALIGNANT, THE STRENGTHENING OF BEtlEVERS, AND THE IMITATION
OF ALL, ESPECIALLY THE MASTERS OF FAMILIES IN LONDON.
*' Go, and do thou likewise." — Luke x. 27.
TO MY WORTHY FRIENDS,
MRS. JUDITH ASHHURST,
WIDOW OF HENRY ASHHURST, ESQ.
AND
MR. HENRY ASHHURST,
THEIR SON,
WITH ALL HIS BRETHREN AND SISTERS,
GRACE AND PEACE.
Dear Friends,
I AM persuaded, that the image of so good a husband and
father cannot but be deeply printed on your minds ; but yet may
it 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 public performance of that
which I have thought meet to make more public. I have
long known you so well, that I am comfortably persuaded,
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 follow-
discourse of your father's example, as consolatory and obliga-
tory 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. God's Scripture blessings of
the faithful and their seed, doth make this relation honourable
and comfortable to you all. How cheerfully may you all follow
the footsteps of one so near you, who sped so \ve]\ in following
Christ. The greatest comforts and blessings are the greatest
obligations to further duty; and that duty is the way to get
122 DEDICATION.
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 yourselves.
You have not only heard, but seen and felt, that holiness is not
a bare name or dream, and religion a mere art or image, but a
divine nature, a real renovation of heart and life, and that the
effects of God's Spirit, in sanctifying souls, do greatly difference
them from carnal minds. You have seen that godliness, genuine
and real, is not a wearisome, uncomfortable life. Live as he
did, and it will be a cure of melancholy, passions and discon-
tents, 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 yourselves or others : as also to be absolutely de-
voted to God, of public minds, and comforts to the poor and
needy, and to use all that you have as his stewards, daily pre-
paring 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 John ii. 15.) " For where your treasure is, there
will your hearts be also." (Matt. vi. 2L) The Spaniards have
a proverb, * The world is a carrion, and they are the dogs that
love it, much more that snarl and fight about it.' One would
think, that to read and believe, Matt. v. and vi ; Luke xii. and
xvi. ; and James iv., should affright men from being deceived
by such a shadow, 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 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 de-
ceive you.
The great love which your father had to me, and much more
DEDICATION. 123
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 ser-
vants, called his brethren, that men in them may show 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 endea-
vouring 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 j Christ for your Saviour; the holy Spirit for your
Sanctifier; the holy Scriptures for your rule 3 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 prepara-
tion 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.
Oh 1 how great, how good, and absolutely necessary a work is
this, which if any one of you should miscarry about, you would
be more inexcusable 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
Your servant for such ends,
RICHARD BAXTER.
December 7, 1680.
FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL BE WITH CHRIST,
&c. &c.
JOHN xii. 26.
If any man serve me, let Mm 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 human 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 friend's
recovery to health than a mourning solemnizing of his funeral;
but it is not we that made the world, or our own or others' souls,
and it is not our right to determine of their time and events.
It is one prime Agent, supreme Ruler, and ultimate end ; one
that is infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness, who is omni-
present, immutable, and every way perfect, that must actuate,
order, and bless a world of such imperfect and differing indi-
viduals; and not such ignorant understandings, such partial
and ill-guided wills, and such impotent powers as ours are : he-
that maketh the watch, determineth how many hours it shall
go. The giver of life and time, must give us the measures of
it; it is our part to spend it well : it is because the Creator hav-
ing left us to some liberty and trust about ourselves, we are the
misusers of it, that there are so many disorders, and, conse-
quently, calamities, in the world, and on ourselves and ours, as
there are. And if the God of love did not keep the overruling
determination in his hand, and bring good out of all our evil,
and harmony out of our discords and confusions, what a chaos,
or hell, would the world become ! Let us, therefore, humbly
aiid willingly leave God's own work to himself, (he will do all
well, and at last we shall understand it,) and let us mind our
own. He hath taken up our brother's soul from earth : it is our
part to think how to improve this ; our own are following : our
FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL BE WITH CHRIST. 125
hour is at hand : our oil is wasting apace : our glass is almost
run ; every pulse, every breath, every word leaveth us one less of
the number appointed us. It is our great concern to look in-
wards, and look upwards, and with our utmost diligence to
study how to spend the short time that remaineth, that we may
die in safety, peace, and hope, and follow the departed saints to
glory.
To instruct myself and you herein, I have chosen this text,
as giving us both sure directions, and such great and comfort-
able promises as in life, and at death, we may boldly trust.
They are spoken by no doubtful messenger, but by the mouth
of Christ himself; and that to men who were under our
temptations, and earnestly desired to see Christ glorified on
earth, and to partake of outward greatness here ; to see that
famous man who had wrought so many miracles, and lately
raised the dead. But he tells them that both he and they must
die before they can be glorified, and that they must overcome
the inordinate love of this life, if ever they would attain a life
of blessedness ; (John xii. 23 — 25 ;) and that they might not, by
uncertainty of the end or way, say, as Philip, " We know not
whither thou goest, and how shall we know the way," he
summarily tells them both ; the way is to serve him, and follow
him ; the end that is promised is, to be where he is, and to be
honoured of his Father.
As if he should say, ' I know that your weakness and re-
maining carnality is such, that you would fain see me reign as
an universal king on earth, that you might be advanced by me
in the flesh ; and it is a hard lesson to you to learn to lay down
this life, which is so dear to you, and to pass into a world
which you never saw, and know so little of. But have 1 not, by
my doctrine, life, and frequent miracles, and newly by raising
Lazarus from the dead, convinced you that I am the true
Messiah, sent of God, to whom you may boldly trust the con-
duct and disposal of your lives and souls ? If so, then see that
you absolutely trust me, learn of me, serve me, and follow me.
And let this satisfy you living and dying, that you shall speed
as I myself do, and be with me where I am, though the place
and state be yet unseen to you ; and there you shall, by my
Father, be advanced to far greater dignity and honour, than in
this sinful life and world you are capable of. And of all this
I give here my promise, which you must believe and trust, if
you will be saved by me.'
126 FAITHFUL SOUI-S SHALL
This is the plain exposition of the text. But let us more
distinctly inquire. I. What is here meant by serving Christ.
II. What it is to follow him. And, afterwards, 111. What it
is to be where he is. IV. And what to be honoured by his
Father.
I. Some, that by false and narrow fiotions have received a
wrong opinion of saving faith, may be puzzled at this, that
serving Christ and following him are made the necessary terms
or conditions of being where he is. And some say, that justi-
fying faith, and saving faith, are two different things; and
some say, that Christ himself did not clearly preach the doc-
trine of justification by faith, but left it for St. Paul. But the
plain truth is, that in the gospel it is all one, to be a believer,
a Christian, and a disciple of Christ, in covenant with him as
the true Messiah. And in those times the disciples of any
great and famous teachers were taken into their families, and
were their servants ; not in a worldly common work, but in
order to the ends of their office and instructions ; it is the same
word which we often translate " deacons ;" and as it was then
usual with Jews and heathens, at their great feasts, for the
servitors to give every guest his part, by. the appointment of
the ruler of the feast ; so the Spirit, by the apostles, did institute
church deacons to be servants to distribute the provisions made
at their love-feasts, and the proportions allowed for each one*s
relief, to look to the poor, and to execute such church orders
as the present bishops or elders did appoint (by which you may
see how big the bishop's church then was). And so Christ
calleth all Christians his deacons, ministers, or servants, and
some above others, peculiarly in office, as those that were to
serve him as the Saviour of the world, for their own and men's
salvation ; as his relation to us partaketh by analogy of many,
so is our service to him. It is as the service of a scholar in
obedient and diligent humble learning; as the obedience of a pa-
tient to his physician ; as the obedience of a beggar in asking,
and thankfully accepting ; as the obedience of a malefactor,
who thankfully taketh a pardon ; and if a rebel, promiseth to lay
down arms, and live in true subjection to his prince; as the ser-
vice of a child that liveth depend en tly in dutiful gratitude and
love. It is not to give Christ any thing that he needeth ; but
to be readier to hear him, than to offer him the sacrifice of
fools, who, by thinking to oblige him by their gifts, do but
offend him.
-HE WITH CHRIST. 1^7
The matter of our required service is, 1. To confess, witli
grief, our sin, our misery, and our need of him, his grace and
mercy.
2. To learn, understand, and believe his word.
3. Thereby to know God, from whom we were revolted ; and
to return to him in the hand of our Mediator, by absolute re-
signation, devotion, and subjection; to obey, and trust, and love
him, and joyfully to hope for everlasting happiness in his love.
4. To give up ourselves to Christ as our Saviour, by his sacri*
fice, merits, teaching, government, and intercession ; to bring
us home to God, by justifying, sanctifying, and finally glorify-
ing us.
5. To obey the motions of his Spirit to that end, which are
but to bring us to a conformity of 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 public good, the church's
welfare, and the conversion of the dark, unbelieving world.
10. 7^0 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, honourable, pro-
fitable, and exceedingly desirable, to every one that knoweth what
it is to hope for happiness, and to live like a Christian or
a man ?
11. And what is it that is meant by following Christ ? Dis-
ciples 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 suf-
ferings wherewith God trieth us, and by what death he chooseth
for us, into the heavenly mansions, whither he is ascended.
128 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
This is the following of Christ, which the straits 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 Pro-
curer, 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 ourselves
and others. But if the soul consent not, God doth not consent
to justify or save us. O sirs ! try quickly, try faithfully, before
death say, 'It is, now too late,' whether you are such as God, as
well as men, will judge to be Christians indeed. Oh ! be not self-
deceivers, for God will not be mocked with names and shadows,
and heartless words, and the false pretences of a worldly, fleshly,
unsanctified mind. You will find one day that Christ came not
to be a shadow, nor a steppingstone to worldly ends, nor a
patron of pride and fleshly lusts. You will find, ere 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 asleep, 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 to serve and fol-
low 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 yourselves undone by sin,
and liable to God's 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 purchased and promised you blessedness with
himself. This is true Christianity, and this is a trust which will
not deceive. Sirs, you send fbr us in sickness, and perhaps we
BE WITH CHRIST. 129
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. Oh ! 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 dread-
ful 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 Christian is not to be used to deceive fleshly men into damp-
ing presumption, but to signify 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 look a little to his foot-
steps, that we may know.
1. Christ lived in the world to do his Father's work and will,
to glorify and please him. (See John iv. 34, and ix. 4, and
viii. 29, and xii. 27, 28, and xvii. 4.) Is it God's 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 condescending
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 yourselves and others ? Do your
prayers and your practices prove this to be true ?
3. Christ's great work was to gather a church on earth, which
should be his peculiar kingdom, spouse, and body, to glorify
God, and be glorified with him. (Eph. iv. 1 — 17, and v. 25 — 32,
and iii. 21 ; Acts xx. 28.) If you are Christians indeed, Christ's
church is to you as your body to the members, that are all ready
to serve it, abhorring abscission and separation from it, and
every painful, perilous disease.
You love, you long, you pray for tlie true enlargement, con-
cord, and holy prosperity of the church : that God's name may
be hallowed, his kingdom come, and his will done on earth as it
VOL. XVill. K
130 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
is ill" heaven, is the first and chief of your desires. (Sec 1 Cor.
xii. ; Col. i. 18, .24.) Are you thus followers of Christ?
4. Love to God and man was the very nature and life and
work of Christ; manifested in constant doing good, and praying
for his persecutors, and reconciling enemies to God. (Rom. v.
8—10; 2 Cor. v. 19, 20; John xv. 13; Mark x. 21 ; John
XV. 9 ; Gal. ii. 20; Eph. ii. 4.) And if you follow Christ, love
will be you nature, life, and work, and you will walk in love as
Christ loved us. (Eph. v. 2 ; 1 John iv. 11.) Even as he hath
loved us, he requireth that we love one another, (John xiii. 34,
and xv. 9, 12,) which is not with a barren, unprofitable love.
(James ii. 14, &c. ; John xiii. 35.)
5. In order to these ends, Christ lived quite above all the
pomps and vanities of the world, and above the love of worldly
dominion and fleshly pleasure, and life itself ; and refused not
to die a shameful death, as a reputed malefactor, to redeem us,
" Making himself of no reputation, enduring the cross and de-
spising the shame. (Phil. ii. 7, 10; 1 Pet. iii. 18, and iv. 1.)
And if you follow Christ, though you must not be cross makers,
you must be cross bearers, and above the love of worldly
vanity, and life itself in comparison of eternal life. For Christ
suffered for us, leaving us an example, (1 Pet. ii. 21,) and will
have us take up our cross and follow him, forsaking all that
stands against him, (Luke xiv. 29, 32, S3,) and submit to be
in our flesh partakers of his sufferings. (1 Pet. iv. 13.) We can^
not equal him in patience, but we must so far imitate him, as
not to sin and forsake the truth for fear of suffering, nor to ac-
count our lives dear, that we may finish our course with joy.
(Matt. V. 11,12; Acts xx. 24.)
6. Christ, though he were the Lord of all the world, did con-
descend to a humble, low condition, and chose not a prince's
court for converse, but the poor, and men of low degree. And
he hath commanded us to learn of him to be meek and lowly,
(Matt. xi. 29,) and to be the servants of all, as that which is
above worldly greatness. (Mark ix. 35 ; and x, 44.) And he
blesseth the meek, and the poor in spirit. (Matt, v.) Do we
follow him in this ? And condescend to men of low estate,
(Rom. xii. 16,) remembering that not many great and noble are
called, (I Cor. i. 26,) and that God hath chosen the poor of
the world, that are rich in faith, to be heirs of his kingdom ;
(Jam. ii. 5 ; I Cor. i. 27, 28 ;) or do you not as those reproved.
BE WITH CHRIST. 131
(Jam. iv.) show a worldly, carnal mind, by too much valuing the
high and rich, and too much vilifying the poor ? Our flesh and
health is nearer us far than our clothes and riches. And yet
how far is flesh and strength from making a bad man more va-
luable and amiable than a weak and sickly saint.
7. Though Christ was the greatest lover of souls, yet was he
the greatest hater of sin : so great that he came into the world
to destroy it, as the devil's work ; and would rather die than
sin should not be condemned and die, (1 John iii. 7, 8 ; Matt,
i. 21,) and to save men from it was his office. And for all his
meekness, he forbeareth not to call Herod fox, and sharply re-
prove the scribes and Pharisees, (Matt, xxiii,) yea, and to give
Peter the rebuke which he gave the devil, when he did his
work, by dissuading him from his sufferings : " Get thee behind
me, Satan." (Matt, xvi.)
And if we look on sin as a harmless thing, and the profit, ho-
nour, or pleasures reconcile us to it, and we are indifferent
towards it on pretence of moderation and avoiding rash zeal and
indiscretion 5 this is not to be followers, but enemies of Christ,
reproaching his office and cross, as if he had needlessly been
born and died.
8. A heavenly mind and life is the chief imitation of Christ :
his kingdom was not of this world ; his glory is at the right
hand of the Father : and our glory must be in seeing his glory.
(John xvii. 22, 24.) It is in heaven that he promiseth his fol-
lowers a reward. (Matt. v. 12 ; Heb. xi. 16, and xii. 22 ; Luke
xvi. 9, and xxiii. 43.) And it is in heaven that our treasure
must be laid up, and our hearts, affections, and hopes must be
set, and our conversation must be. (Matt. vi. 19 — 21 ; Col. iii.
1, 3, 4; Phil. iii. 19, 20.)
You see now what it is to be followers of Christ : is this your
case ? I mean not in degree, but in sincere imitation. O try
and judge !
Use 2. Whatever it hath been, shall it be so for the time to
come ? O that this might be a day of effectual resolution and
engagement to us all ! Do I need to tell you that it is not
Christ that leadeth men to gluttony or drunkenness, or cham-
bering and wantonness, to idleness, and pride, and worldly va-
nity, and fleshly lust ? (Rom. xiii. 13 ; Gal. v. 2i, 22 ; Rom.
viii. I, &c.) It is not Christ that teacheth men to doubt of the
immortality of the soul, and of the life to come, and of the truth
of the gospel : nor is it Christ that teacheth them to play the
K 2
132 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
hypocrite, and scorn and hate and persecute the serious prac-
tice of that religion which their tongues profess : these are the
works of the devil, which Christ came to destroy. O bethink
you whom you follow, and whither you go, before you come to
your journey's end. The world, flesh, and devil have undone all
that ever followed them to the end. But if you will serve Christ
and follow him, I will tell you what encouragements you have.
1. You have the greatest and most honourable master
in all the world, that is able to make good all his undertak-
ings.
2. You have the surest, infallible leader, that never was de-
ceived nor did deceive, nor hath he need of deceit to govern us.
3. You have love itself to lead you ; one that hath done
more than all the world besides can do, to show you that he
loveth you, and therefore doth all for your good.
4. You have a humbled, condescending leader; God in flesh,
that hath spoken face to face with man, and came near us to
bring us up to God.
5. You have a plain, famihar teacher, who hath not set your
wits on artificial, logical tricks, like the undoing of a pair of tar-
rying irons, but hath brought light and immortality to light,
and taught us to know God and our everlasting hopes, and a
safe and joyful way thereto.
6. And yet you have a complete, perfect teacher, who teach-
eth 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 guide 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
liars and deceivers, not to be trusted, further than some way
they have learned 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 Christ-
ians, who know that they must die, and who know that there is
no other hope or way, to persuade them to be what they pro-
fess, that they may not miss of what they hope for ? But the
following promises, if believed, will persuade you.
III. " Where I am there shall my servant be." They that
serve and follow Christ, shall, in their measure, speed as he
BE WITH CHRIST. 133
doth, and be with him where he is. Quest. And where is
that ? Answ. It is certainly in no ill place : though it be a
controversy, whether Christ descended 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 pro-
mised the converted thief to be that day with him. He is in
heaven. (Acts i. 11.) This same Jesus which is taken up
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have
seen him go into heaven. (Acts iii. 21.) " Whom the hea-
ven must receive till the time of restitution of all things."
(John xvii.) "And now, O Father, glorify me with thine own
self." (Verse xiii.) " And now I come to thee." It is in the
glorious presence of God that Christ now abideth in our na-
ture : even at the right hand of God. (Matt. xxvi. 64 ;
Mark xiv. 62, and xvi. 19; Luke xxii. 6, 9; Acts vii. 55,56;
Rom. viii. 34; Eph. i. 20 ; Col. iii. 1 ; Heb. i. 3, 13, and viii.
1, and xii. 2, and x. 12; 1 Pet. iii. 22.)
Therefore, though many texts do seem to intimate that he
will return to earth again, and that the new Jerusalem shall
come down from heaven, and that we look for a new hea-
ven 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 conie down to earth, and
the veil be drawn, it will be no loss.
2. That departed, faithful souls go to him, the Scripture else-
where also tells us. " Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold
ray glory which thou hast given me." (John xvii. 24.) " To-
day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." (Luke xxiii. 43.)
When we " fail" here, we shall " be received into" the ever-
lasting habitations. (Luke xvi. 9.) " The beggar died, and
was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom," (v. 22,) "now
he is comforted." (Ver. 25.) " 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. For
in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house which is from heaven, that mortality might be swal-
lowed up of life." (2 Cor. v. 1, 8.) ^' We are confident and
willing rather to be absent fioai the body and pre-,ent with the
]34 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
Lord," (Ver. viil.) " To me to live is Christ, and to die is
gain — having a desire to depart to be with Christ, which is far
better." (Phil. i. 21, 22.) "We are come to Mount Sion,
and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, 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 Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." (Heb.
xii. 22 — 24.) " 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." (Rev. xiv. 13.)
I heap all these texts together for myself as well as you, that
we may see that as the faithful shall certainly have a blessed re-
surrection, so their departing souls at death shall certainly be
with Christ in glory. For 1 take the assurance of the soul's im-
mortality, 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 Christian-
ity, 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 soul's 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 Jesus 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 expressed 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 contra-
diction, 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 se-
rious holiness at least, if it feast him not with the foretaste of
heavenly joys. Can you imagine that any man can firmly be-
BE WITH CHRIST. 135
lieve 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 indiffereni 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
misery, as not to make it his chiefest care. For I see that if a
man have but a law-suit, on which all his estate depends, or a
trial on which his life depends, he cannot forget it or make
light of it : he will not drink or jest or play away the little time
in which his business must be done. And can any one soundly
believe that his soul at death shall go to Christ in glory, and not
set more by such a hope than by all the riches, and sport, and
pleasure, and vain-glory of so short a life as this ? Or can any
man soundly believe that the wicked and unholy shall go to
everlasting punishment, and yet not make it his chief care to
escape it ? Sure, as mad and bad as man's corrupted mind is,
this will scarce stand with human nature. I judge of others by
myself: if I had never had at the worst a secret uncertainty
whether the gospel be true, and souls immortal, I might have
been surprised indeed to a sudden temptation to some sin, but
1 could never harve thought that a man in his wits should choose
any life but resolved holiness 3 nor could 1 have chosen any
other.
If I see a man a careless neglecter of his soul, that maketh
no great matter of sin or duty, or maketh not God, and Christ,
and heaven the subject of his most serious ruling thoughts, and
his greatest business in the world ; but showeth us that his
health, and wealth, and honour, and pleasure are better loved
and more earnestly sought, and faster held ; I will not believe
that this man taketh the gospel and the soul's future state there-
in described, to be a certi\in truth -, let him say what he will, he
doubteth of it at his heart : and such men use to say when they
speak out, *1 know what I have here, but I know not what I shall
have hereafter : could I keep v.'hat 1 have, I would let others
take what is promised in heaven.'
But, O man, thou knowest thou canst not keep what thou
hast ! Shortly thy soul must be required and called away, and
136 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
then whose are the things which thou hast loved ? (Luke xii.
19, 20.)
I will therefore say more. Though men had no certainty of
dwelling with Christy and doubted whether his word be true, yet
it were worse than madness not to prefer the bare probability
(that I say not possibility) of a future endless glory, (when end-
less misery is probable to the refusers,) before all here that can
be set against it. Oh ! what is this transitory dream of worldly,
fleshly pleasure to everlasting joy or misery ! Verily every man
at his best estate (in worldly respects) is altogether vanity.
(Psalm xxxix. 5.) Oh ! mark how emphatical every word is.
Verily (it is no doubt) every man high and low, good and bad,
in bodily and worldly respects only, at his best or settled estate
(not only in pain, and poverty, and age, but in his strength, and
wit, and wealth, and honour, on the throne as well as on the
dunghill) is vanity. That is an untrusty lie and shadow that
seemeth something and is next to nothing, and this altoge-
ther (in mere worldly, corporal respects, in all that he hath to
glory or take pleasure in.) What need we more to prove all this,
than to foresee how the dream and tragedy endeth ? A little
while we run up and down, and eat and drink, and talk and
sport, and sometimes laugh, and sometimes weep, and then
change our pomp and pride for a shroud and coffin, and are laid
to rot in a grave of earth, where these idol, pampered bodies, be
turned themselves into the quality of their darksome habitation.
And if these were our best, were not every man at his best
estate altogether vanitf ?
And if a mere probability of the life to come, in reason should
resolve all men for serious holiness, how can we think that a
certain or firm belief would not do it ?
By this, then, it is past doubt, that hypocrisy reigneth in all
mere, nominal Christians, and in all that live not a holy life,
and, indeed, in most men in the world. They are false in pro-
fessing to believe, that Christ is true, and his gospel certain
truth, and that at death they must go to heaven or hell, if their
lives show not that heaven and hell are greater, and more pre-
vailing matters with them, than all the fleshly provisions, plea-
sures, and glory of this world.
Hypocrites are distinguished from professed infidels ; but if
they were not unbelievers at the heart, they were not hypocrites
in professing faith. The Scripture giveth these titles or attri-
butes therefore to saving faith ; it is called, " faith unfeigned,"
BE WITH CHRIST. 137
or not hypocritical; (1 Tim. i. 5;) and (Philem. 6) it is
called "effectual;" and (Gal. v. 6) " Faith that works by love ;'*
and (James ii.) " Faith that is not dead, but working to perfec-
tion ;" it is not " unfeigned," if it be not " effectual." You
cannot make a man believe that a bear pursueth him, or his
house is on fire, or his life in danger, but he will accordingly
bestir himself. You cannot draw a man to other business from
the care of his life, if he believe that it lieth on his present care.
O sirs, the hypocrite's belief of another world, and his
lifeless opinion, conquered by secret unbelief, will shortly fall
as an house built on the sand; (Matt. vii. 23 ;) and no heart
can now fully conceive how terrible to him the fall will be.
When you see that there is no more tarrying here, and that
death and an endless life are come, a dead profession, and
secret unbelief, will leave you then to despair and horror. It
is not the name of a Christian that will then serve to comfort,
or to save your souls. I do not say, that no man shall be saved
that hath any doubting, even of the gospel and the life to
come ; but I say, you cannot be saved, if your belief of it pre-
vail not to engage you in a holy life, and conquer not the
flesh, the world, and the devil. It must be a prevailing faith.
But, I suppose, you are convinced, that a sound and firm
belief of the passage of departing souls to Christ, or unto misery,
would certainly resolve men for a holy life ; bur some say, ' If
we be uncertain, how can we help it ? We are out of sight, and
we have not the command of our own understandings. We would
be sure what becomes of souls with all our hearts, but we can-
not attain it/
Answ. Christ came into the world to teach it us ; such know-
ledge is too high and precious to be attained with a slothful
wish, or to be had without the use of the means which Christ
hath appointed us. Have you learned of Christ, with a humble
and teachable, willing mind ? Have you not been diverted and
blinded by the things which you knew were but deceitful vanity?
Have you set your understandings a work with such serious
consideration, and so long as the trial of so great a matter doth
require ? Have you sought to able and faithful ministers of
Christ to help you where you found yourself insufficient? Have
you daily begged the lielp of the Spirit of God, as knowing that
heavenly things must be discerned by a heavenly light ? Have
you honestly obeyed so much as you did know ? If you have
done this, which reason requireth, I do not think that thus
138 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
Avaiting on God, he will leave you to any damnable unbelief, or
to an unholy, sensual life.
But because the strengthening of our belief herein is the most
needful thing, even to the best, both for their hope, and joy, and
duty, and all that understand themselves must earnestly desire,
that their belief of the gospel, and the life to come, did reach
to a satisfying certainty ; I will shortly repeat the proofs that
must ascertain us, though T have largely done it in my books
called ' The Life of Faith,* and ' The Reasons of the Christian
Religion,' and 'The Unreasonableness of Infidelity;' 1 care not
how oft (when necessary) I repeat them, and wish that they
were more of the daily study of those that now study contro-
versies, or only superstructures.
I. And first, nature giveth us these arguments to prove man's
future state.
1. God hath made man with an essential capacity, to think
and care, as his greatest concern, what shall become of his
soul when he dieth ; and God maketh none of his works in vain,
much less so noble a one as man.
2. A bare probability of the life to come, as now revealed,
with our certainty of the brevity and vanity of this life, maketh
it the interest and certain duty of all men in the world, to be
far more careful for their future state, than for the body, and
this present life. He liveth against reason that doeth not this.
3. And can a wise man believe that God bindeth all men, by
their essential reason, to make the care of a thing that is not,
or ever shall be, to be the chief business of their lives, and that
deceit and falsehood should be the guide of all our greatest
actions, and man should be made to follow a lie, to his ever-
lasting disappointment? Judge reasonably, whether this be
like to be the work of the most great and wise and holy God.
4. History and experience assureth us, that it is the expecta-
tion of a life to come, the hope of reward there, and the fear of
punishment, which are God's means, for the actual government
of mankind. And though many atheists are in the world, and
more Sadducees- and unbelievers, yet few, if any, are wholly
such, but have consciences that keep them in some awe ; and
laws and professed religion tell you, that it is hopes and fears of
another life, which are the ruling principles ; which, as they
reign in the best, so few of the worst will directly contradict ;
and were it not for such fears of punishment hereafter, the lives
of no princes or enemies would be safe from destroying malice,
BE WITH CHRIST. 139
policy, or power. And is it likely that this world is governed
by a lie, by that God who wants no power, wisdom, or love, to
govern it by truth ; and who maketh the best men the greatest
haters of lying, that they may be like him ?
5. And how comes the belief of the soul's immortality to be
so common a principle in the nature of man, if it be not true ?
II. But seeing it is the gospel that must give us the full and
satisfying certainty, keep these few evidences of its truth con-
tinually printed on your minds.
1. Remember that promises, types, and prophecies foretold
Christ's coming long before ; even prophecies sealed with mira-
cles and fulfilled.
2. Remember that Christ's own person and doctrine did bear
that image of God, which is unimitable ; and had that power,
wisdom, and love, which prove them to be of God. God's image
and superscription discernible by holy minds, doth difference
the gospel from all the words of fallible men.
3. Remember that it was proved to be of God, by multitudes
of open and uncontrolled miracles ; and God will not work
miracles remedilessly to deceive mankind, especially the great
miracle of Chriat's resurrection, (long by him foretold,) and his
visible ascending up to heaven.
4. The sending down the promised Spirit on the apostles, and
on other believers then, for languages, miracles, prophesyings,
&c. ', and the long exercise of these tongues and miracles by
many, and in many parts of the world, and the gathering of the
churches by them.
5. The full and certain historical conveyance of these matters
of fact to us, in and by the sacred Scriptures, church ordinances,
and tradition, (as the statutes of the land are delivered us,)
without any weakening contradiction of the said history or
fact.
6. Above all, the continued testimony of God's Spirit in all
true believers, that is, the same Spirit which endited the Scrip-
ture, writeth it out on all holy souls, or formeth, reneweth, and
disposeth them to answerable holiness ; even to the image of
God, in holy light, and love, and life, and to a heavenly mind
and conversation, and to be sober, just, and loving to all. And
God would never bless a lie, to do the greatest work in this
world, to make men good and like himself; and, remember,
that the whole frame and tendency of the Spirit's sanctify-
ing work on souls, is to prepare them for a life to come, by
140 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
causing them to believe it, desire it, hope for it, and seek it,
and hate sin, and part with any thing to obtain it. All sound
believers have this work upon them, and are of such a mind
and spirit ; and this spirit or holy nature in them, is Christ's
witness and theirs. They have the witness in themselves.
(IJohn V. 10.)
7. And remember that even the malice of Satan affordeth us
much help to confirm our faith. It is notorious that he keepeth
up through all the world a war against Christ, and against our
hopes of future glory. How he followeth men with inward,
importunate temptations against their own interest and reason,
and what proof of his malice we have in human wickedness, and
in witches, witchcrafts, or operations on bodies, apparitions,
&c., I have so often proved to you that I will now forbear the
repetition. And doth not all this contain assuring evidence of
the truth of Christ, his gospel, and our future hopes ?
Use. Come, then, fellow-Christians. Let us pray, " Lord,
increase our faith ;" let us detest all suggestions which tend to
unbelief, and so would bring us to the rank of brutes, and to
despair ; let us live according to our most holy faith, and show
ourselves and others that we heartily believe that the servants of
Christ that follow him, shall be with him where he is. Oh,
pray for faith ! Meditate for faith. Lament your unbelief.
O fools that we are, and slow of heart to believe a gospel so re-
vealed and confirmed ! Why are we so fearful of dying, O
we of little faith ! Were but this one text written on our hearts,
and turned into faith and hope, yea, did we believe Christ
speaking it but as 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, oh, how joyfully should we live and die ! Oh ! 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 con-
taineth, 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
BE WITH CHRIST. 141
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 prepare a place for us; in his Father's
house he hath many mansions. (John xiv. 3.) It was not a
mere 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." (John xiv. 19.) The ar-
ticle of his descending to Hades, called hell, is to tell us that
Christ's 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 glo-
rified, there come no devils, enemies, or fears. We are here
with him as chickens under the wings of the hen. (Matt, xxiii.
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 departed 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. vi.
8, 9.)
But we cannot conceive of the state ano opera .ions o a sepa-
rated 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 ? Jf 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 yourselves 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 rejoice, 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
142 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
him we shall have the company of our holy, departed friends ;
even all of them that we conversed tvith 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 oh ! how much better will Christ's own glorious presence
be, than his presence in humbled flesh was to his followers on
earth. Here Christ was a despised, crucified 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 im-
perfect 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 Je-
hovah's praises. There is no malignant calumny or persecu-
tion, no envious reproach of one another, or striving who shall
have his will, or be 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 si'i 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 Father's love did give us
the Redeemer, and the Father's love shall glorify us with him.
What is the honour that is here meant ? Honour sometimes
signifieth advancement in general, making one great and happy.
(Numb. xxii. 17, 37, and xxiv. 1 1, and xxvii. 20 ; 1 Kings iii.
13; 1 Chron. xvi. 27; Psalm viii. 5 ; 1 Sam. ii. 30.) And
sometimes 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. (I Tim. v. 17.) And sometimes it is taken
for a magnified, praised state. God will honour faithful Chris-
tians all these ways ; he will advance them to the highest dig-
nity they are meet for ; he will give them the most bounteous
provisions of his household, even more than they can now desire
or believe. He will make them kings and priests to God, and
BE WITH CHRIST. 148
coheirs with Christ in the glorious inheritance. (Rom. viii. 17 ;
Rev. i. 6, andv. 10, and xx. ().) They shall judge the world,
and angels. (1 Cor. vi. 2, 3.) They shall see God, (Matt.
V.,) and be called his children, and all together the spouse and
body of Christ. (Eph. v. ; Rev. xxi. and xxii., &c.) They
shall at Christ's appearing (who is their life) appear with him
in glory. (Col. iii. 4.) When he cometh to be admired in
his saints, and glorified in all them that believe. (2 Thess.
i. 10, Sic.) We shall see face to face, and shall see him as
he is. (1 John iii. 2.) We shall behold the glory that God
hath given him. (John xvii. 24.) The righteous shall have
dominion in that morning, and shall shine as stars, (Dan, xii.
3,) yea, as the sun in the firmament of the Father. (Matt,
xiii. 34.) God will put his name upon them, and they shall be
pillars in his temple, and go out no more. (Rev. ii. and iii.)
Yea, they shall be equal with the angels. (Luke xx. 36.) Thus
shall it be done to them whom God delighteth to honour, even
to all in their several degrees who faithfully serve and follow
Christ.
And yet, Christians, are we afraid of dying? I even hate
my own heart for the remnant of its unbelief, which no more re-
joiceth, and no more longeth to be with Christ, while I read and
speak of all this to you. I know that clear and full apprehen-
sions are ))roper to possessors, and therefore not to be here ex-
pected, but, Lord, give us such a light of faith as may let in
some such tastes of glory, as are needful to us in our hoping
state ! How can we cheerfully labour, and suffer, and over-
come without them ? How shall we go through a tempting
and troubling world ? And entertain with joy the sentence of
death, and lay down the body in the dust without the joy of
the Lord, which is our strength ? Had our hearts this one
promise deeply written in them, we should live in holiness and
die in joy.
I have spoken of my text to myself and you. f have now a
copy of it to describe. Let none think that the praise of the
dead is a needless or inconvenient work, Christ himself praiseth
them, and will praise them whom he justifieth before all
the world. " Well done, good and faithful servant, &c."
(Matt. XXV.) " He will be admired and glorified in them." (2
Thess. i. 2.) The 1 1th of the Hebrews is the praise of many of
them, of whom the world was not worthy j (this wicked world
which know neither how to value them, or to use them), Christ
144 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
will have the tears and costly love of a poor penitent woman
who anointed him, to be spoken of wherever the gospel is read.
The orations of excellent Gregory Nazianzen, (greater than
Gregory the Great,) with many such, show us that the ancients
thought this a needful work. Many live in times and places
where few such men are known, and they have need to know
from others that there are, and have been such. Had not I
known such, I had wanted one of the greatest arguments for my
faith, I should the hardlier have believed that Christ is a Sa-
viour, if I had not known such as he hath begun to save, nor
that there is a heaven for souls, if I had not known some dis-
posed and prepared for it, by a holy mind and life. 1 thank
God, 1 have known many, many^ many such, of several ranks,
some high, more low. Oh ! how many.such (though not all of the
same degree of holiness) have I lived with, who are gone before
me ; holy gentlemen, holy ministers of Christ, and holy
poor men ! 1 love heaven much the better when I think that
they are there. And while 1 am so near them, and daily wait
for my remove, though I here yet breathe and speak in flesh,
why may I not think that I am nearlier related to that congre-
gation than to this. The saying is, ' a friend is half our soul.'
If so, sure the greater half of mine is gone thither long ago. It
is but a little of me that is yet in painful, weary flesh. And now
one part of me more is gone, the holy and excellent Henry
Ashhurst, and God will have me live so long after him, as to
tell you what he was, to his Father's and Redeemer's praise,
and to provoke you to imitation.
God saith, " The memory of the just shall be blessed, while
the wicked's name shall rot." Methinks even the natural pride
of princes, who would not be the scorn of future ages, but the
praise, should accidentally incHne them to do good, and seem
good at the least ; while the common experience of all. the world
tells us, that God doth wonderfully show himself the Governor
of the world, by ruling fame, to the perpetual honour of good,
and the shame and scorn of evil.
Even among heathens, what a name is left of Titus, Trajan,
Adrian, and above all the Roman emperors, of Antonine the
philosopher, and Alexander Sevcrus. And who nameth a Nero,
Domitian, Commodus, Heliogabalus, &c., without reproach ?
Yea, T have observed that though malefactors hate that prince
that punisheth them, and ungodly men hate piety and the
persons that condemn and trouble them in their sins, yet such a
BE WITH CHRIST. 145
testimony for goodness is left in common nature, that even the
generality of the profane and vicious world speak well of a
wise, just, godly prince, even living, and much more when he is
dead. And so they do of other public persons, magistrates and
ministers of the gospel ; and they will praise goodness in others
that will not practise it, especially that which brings sensible
good to men's bodies or to the commonwealth.
And therefore great men should hate that counsel which
crieth down popularity, as a trick to make them contemn the
sense of those below them. For usually it is the best rulers that
are most praised by the vulgar, by reason of the self-glorifying
light by which true goodness shineth in the world, and by reason
of the experience of mankind, that good men will do good to
others. How commonly will even drunkards, whoremongers,
and unjust men, reproach a magistrate or teacher that is a
drunkard, whoremonger, or unjust, and praise the contrary?
Much more will the wise and good do it, who indeed are as the
soul of kingdoms and other societies, and the chief in propa-
gating fame. It is true that the bellua multorum capitum is
liable to disorders, and unfit for secrets or uniting government,
and it is hypocrisy to affect popular applause as our felicity or
reward, or to be moved by it against God and duty. But many
men see more and hear more than one, and single men are
apter to be perverted and judge falsely by personal interest and
prejudice, than the multitude are. Vox populi'is ofttimes vox
Dei. I have read Dr. Heylin, vilifying a Bishop Abbot, and
saying, the church had no greater a plague than a popular
prelate (or to that sense). And 1 have heard some reproach
the late Judge Hale as a popular man ; but as my intimacy with
the last assured me that he set very little by the opinion of high
or low, in comparison of justice and conscience, so, while God
keeps up a testimony for goodness in human nature, men will
not think ill of a man because his goodness hath constrained
even the most to praise him. Nor will it prove the way to
please God or profit themselves or others, to make themselves
odious by cruelty or wickedness, and then to despise their judg-
ments that dispraise them, and to cry down popularity. " Wo to
you when men speak well of you," meaneth when either you do
the evil that the wicked praise, or forsake truth and duty lest
they dispraise you; or, as hypocrites, make men's praise your end.
It is not so low a matter as great birth or riches, or any other
worldly honour, which I am to remember of our deceased friend.
VOL. xvni. I.
I4t5 FAITHFUL SOtJLS SHALL
Multitudes that are now in misery, did once excel him in all
these. ]5ut yet, as a touch of the history of his life is fit to go
before his exemplary character (which is my work), and because
it is a great honour and blessing to the seed of the faithful, I
shall premise a little first of his parentage, and then of that part
of his life which I knew not, but give you on the unquestionable
credit of others.
He was the third son of Henry Ashhurst, of Ashhurst, in
Lancashire, Esq., by Cassandra, his wife, daughter of John
Bradshaw, of Bradshaw, of the same county, Esq. His father
was a gentleman of great wisdom and piety, and zealous for the
true reformed religion in a country where papists much abounded.
And when king James (the more to win them) was prevailed
■with to sign the book for dancing and other such sports on the
Lord's-day, he being then a justice of peace, (as his ancestors
had been,) and the papists, thus emboldened, sent a piper not
far from the chapel to draw the people from the public worship,
he sent him to the house of correction ; and being for this mis-
represented to the king and council, he was put to justify the
legality of what he did, at the assizes ; which he so well per-
formed, that the judge was forced to acquit him ; (though he was
much contrary to him ;) and an occasion being ofi^ered to put
the oath of allegiance on his prosecutors, their refusal showed
them papists, as was before suspected.
God blessed this gentleman in his three sons. The eldest
was a man eminent for his wisdom, integrity, and courage, a
member of the long parliament called 1640; though all such by
interested, partial men are accounted and called what their pre-
judice and enmity doth suggest, and though, with many more
such, he was by the conquering army abused and cast out. The
second son was a colonel ; and Henry, the youngest, about
fifteen years old, was sent to London, and bound apprentice to
a master somewhat severe. And whereas such severity tempteth
many proud and graceless young men to be impatient and weary
of their masters, and to break out to seek forbidden pleasures,
at play-houses, taverns, and perhaps with harlots, and to rob
their masters to maintain these lusts, till they are hardened in
sin, and break their own hopes, and their parents' hearts, (alas !
how many such wretches hath this city!) God's grace in our
friend did teach him to make a clean contrary use of it. This
affection did help to drive him to hear good preachers for his
comfort, and to betake himself to God in prayer, and to search
BE WITH CHRIST. 147
the Scripture for direction, in which way he found the teaching
and blessing of his heavenly Master, which helped him to bear
all harshness and hardness in his place.
And having no place of retirement but a cold hole in the
cellar, in the coldest nights, he spent much time in prayer and
meditation ; and his good father allowing him a yearly pension
for his expenses, he spent it mostly in furnishing his poor
closet with good books — not play-books or romances and idle
tales, but such as taught him how to please God and to live
for ever.
From his childhood he had a humble meekness, and sweetness
of temper, which made his life easy to himself and others, and
made him so acceptable to godly jninisters and people, that
their acquaintance and converse and love became to him a
great confirmation and help to his growth in grace, especially
good Mr, Simeon Ash, a man of his plainness, and of the pri-
,mitive strain of Christianity.
His master, I need not tell how, so wasted his estate, that
he shut up shop when Mr. Ashhurst was gone from him, whose
great fidelity had helped to keep him up, and he took care of
his indigent children afterwards.
His portion was but five hundred pounds and a small annuity,
and one Mr. Hyet, a minister, lent him three hundred pounds
more; with which stock he set up in partnership with one Mr.
Row, a draper, and so continued three years. Mr. Row took
up his stock, and was a major in the Earl of Essex's army, and
left Mr. Ashhurst to the whole trade. Narrowly escaping the
misery of an unsuitable match, he married, on Mr. Ash's motion,
the daughter of one Mr. Risby, who is now his sorrowful widow,
having with her about fifteen hundred pounds. He began his
trade at the beginning of the wars, when others left off theirs.
He dedicated yearly a good part of his gain to God, in works of
charity ; and it increased greatly : and as his trustiness made
men desirous to deal with him, so God strangely kept those men
that he trusted from breaking, when the most noted tradesmen
In the same towns broke, to the undoing of those that trusted
them. And though his trading was great about thirty years, he
managed it with ease and calmness of mind, and was not by it
diverted from duties of religion. He usually was at one v/ord
in his trading.
His body being healthful, he rose about four o'clock, or five,
and in secret usually spent about two hours in reading, medita-
l2
148 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
tion, and prayer, and then went to his family duties, as is after-
ward described. He was a great improver of his time, or else
he could never have done what he did for so many persons,
usually saying, he desired to live no longer than he might be
serviceable to God and men. But he was most regardful to lose
no part of the Lord's-day, in which he did all towards God and
his family with great reverence and humble seriousness ; and as
he much desired godly, trusty servants, he had much of his de-
sire, and his house was a school of piety, meekness, and as a
church.
When his faithful pastor, Mr. Simeon Ash, was buried (the
very day before the new Act of Uniformity would have silenced
him, being an old non-conformist), he used to go, at the end of
the week, to Hackney, to his country-house, and there spend
the Lord's-day.
In the common fire his house was burnt, as well as others,
but is rebuilt with advantage ; and all God's corrections, and
the hurt which, by his permission, we undergo from bad men,
will turn to our gain, if we believe and patiently expect the end.
Thus far 1 have given you, for the most part, but what his
best knowing friends have most credibly given me of the history
of his pilgrimage ; but I will next tell you what I knew myself,
in above twenty years' familiarity with him, and that shall be
more descriptive than historical, though, in what is already said
from others, you may much know what he was.
Mr. Ash's praise, and his own free love, first brought on our
acquaintance 5 and, indeed, my many restraining hinderances
have kept me from so much familiarity with many.
Those that knew him need little of my description. Those
that have been much in his house, and seen his children and ser-
vants carry themselves as reverently and respectfully to him, as
if he had been a lord, when yet he was so lovingly familiar with
them, will think there was some cause for this. Those that hear
it the common speech of magistrates, godly ministers, and peo-
ple, ' We have lost the most excellent pattern of piety, charity,
and all virtue that this .city hath bred in our times,' will think
that there is some reason for this praise. Some of us seem to
shine to strangers, who are cloudy and contemptible to those
that are near us : and many excellent, obscure, poor Christians
are taken little notice of, in a low, retired, or unobserved station : -
but his esteem, and honour, and love, was at home and abroad,
by his children, servants, neighbours, fellow-citizens, that 1 say
HE WITH CHRIST. 149
not even by some that loved not his religiousness, or that took
him to be too much a friend to those whom their opinions and
interest engaged them against.
And if you would truly know what was the meritorious cause
of all this love and honour, I will tell you : it was the image of
Christ, and the fruits of his holy doctrine and his Spirit. No man
believeth that there is a God, who doth not believe that the liker
is any man to God, the better and the more honourable he is. All
is glorious that is holy, that is of God, and for God, separated
to him from all that is common and unclean. Base fools may
more admire and reverence a proud man, or gilded idol 5 but all
that know God, and the almost nothingness of vain man, do
value all things and persons in the measure, as they are disposi-
tively, actively, and relatively divine. The Spirit of God, by
David, begins the Psalms with describing such blessed men as
these: and Christ, next after his preaching repentance, begins
with such men's characters and blessedness. Matt. v. I shall,
therefore, now truly tell you what our deceased brother was, and
Avhat of God so shined in him as commanded all this love and
praise ; while far greater men, by their filth and folly, their sin
and hurtful cruelty, have made themselves the plague and bur-
den of their times, as the children of him whose name is but
the contract of ' do evil.'
I. His religion was only the Bible, as the rule. He was a
mere Scripture Christian, of the primitive spirit and strain. No
learning signified much with him, but what helped him to
understand the Scripture. The Bible was his constant book, and
in it he had great delight ; and he loved no preaching so well as
that which made much and pertinent use of Scripture, by clear
exposition and suitable application. He liked not that which
worthy Dr. Manton was wont to call ' gentlemanly preaching,*
set out with fine things, and laced, and gilded, plainly speaking
self-preaching, man-pleasing, and pride; for when pride chooseth
the text, the method, and the style, the devil chooseth it, though
the matter be of God : therefore he also highly valued those
books which are much in such wise and .seasonable use of
Scripture ; of which he commended, above all, the lectures of
Mr. Arthur Hildersham.
II. He neither much studied books of controversy, nor de-
lighted in discourse of any of our late differences. I scarce
ever heard him engage in any of them ; hut his constant talk
was of practical matter, of God, of Christ, of heaven, of the
150 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
heart and life, of grace and duty, or of the sense of some prac-
tical text of Scripture. He so little savoured and minded the
quarrels that many lay out their greatest zeal on, and find mat-
ter in them to condemn and backbite one another, that he
eitlier carried it as a stranger or an adversary to such discourse.
III. Accordingly, while men were guilty of no damning heresy
or sin, but held all great and necessary truths in love and holi-
ness, and righteousness of life, he made Httle difference in his
respects and love. A serious, godly, independent, presbyterian,
or episcopal Christian, was truly loved and honoured by him.
Indeed, he loved not church tyranny, nor hypocritical images
of religion, on one hand, nor confusion on the other j but the
primitive spirit of seriousness, purity, and charity, he valued in
all. A diflfering tolerable opinion never clouded the glory of
sincere Christianity in his eyes. He was of no sect, and he was
against sects as such, being of a truly catholic spirit: but he
could see true godliness and honesty in many whose weak-
ness made them culpable, in too much adhering to a side or
Tsect.
IV. He greatly hated backbiting and obloquy. "Speak
evil of no man,'' was a text which he often had in his mouth.
I never knew any noted men so free from that vice as Judge
Hale and Mr. Ashhurst. If a man had begun to speak ill of
any man behind his back, either they would say nothing, or
divert him to something else, or show their distaste of it. Sin
he would speak against, but very little of the person. Only one
sort of men he would take the liberty to express his great dis-
like of, and that Was the liinderers of the gospel, and silencers
of faithful preachers of it, and persecutors of godly Christians,
and oppressors of the poor : and their pretences of govern-
ment, and order, and talk against schism, could never reconcile
him to that sort of men : but his distaste was never signified
by scurrility, nor any thing that savoured of an unruly or sedi-
tious spirit.
V. His heart was set on the hallowing of God's name, the
coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will on earth as
it is done in heaven ; on the propagating of religion, and encou-
raging of all able, faithful preachers and practisers of it to his
power. Ever since I knew him, it seemed much more of his
serious business in the world than his trade or worldly gain was.
He was a right hand to his faithful pastor, good old Mr. Simeon
Ash. How seldom did I visit Mr. Ash, at any time, but 1 found
BE WITH CHRIST. 151
or left them together ; and now they are together with Christ.
He did not love with barren words, nor serve God of that which
cost him nothing. Few but I knew from his own mouth, that
he gave these eighteen years (since August 24, 1662,) an hun-
dred pounds a year to the ejected ministers of Lancashire, and
some schools there and in the neighbouring parts, and many
Bibles, catechisms, and other good books, to divers places, be^
sides the said one hundred pounds a year : and a friend of his
and mine tells me that it was to him that he yearly delivered
it to be distributed, save that lately twenty pounds a year of it
went to Northumberland.
VI. Indeed, charity was his life and business. Another mean
man that was oft with him, saith that he hath had of him
many score pounds to give away, which few ever knew of. 1
do not think that there are many that can say that ever they
were denied when they asked him for money to a charitable
use. I am sure I never was.
About 1662 and 1663, he endeavoured hard to have got the
pious citizens of London to contribute yearly to the relief of
the poor ejected ministers of the several counties where they
had been born ; and I was employed to the Lord Chancellor
Hide to acquaint him with it and get his consent, that it might
not be taken for a fomenting of faction : but though he said,
' God forbid that he should be against men's charity,^ yet most
durst not trust him, and so it fell.
Since then he and others set up a conventicle, which, me-
thinks, might be tolerated by bishops themselves. They met
often to consult and contribute for the rehef of poor house-
keepers ; and they chose an ancient, active godly man, fit for that
work, to be as a deacon ; I mean, to go about the city, and find
out such housekeepers as were very poor, sick, or impotent, or
any way in want, and to bring in a catalogue of their names,
places, and degrees of need ; always preferring the pious, ho-
nest poor. And they made Mr. Thomas Gouge their treasurer,
(one of the same trade, whose hands could not be tied from
doing good when his tongue was tied by the silencers,) and the
foresaid messenger brought them their contributions, with good
instructions, and prayer when there was need ; for which use,
sometimes, they procured a minister for the ignorant.
Indeed, he was the common comforter and reliever of dis-
tressed ministers and others. 1 know of none in London that
they so commonly resorted to as him.
152 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
VII. And SO large was his desire of doing good, that not only
England, Scotland, and Ireland knew it, but it specially ex-
tended to the natives in America; of whose conversion to
Christianity he had a fervent desire. In Oliver Cromwell's time,
a public collection was made all over England for the educating
of scholars, and defraying other charges in New England for
that work, of which good old Mr. Eliots, the Indian's evan-
gelist, was the chief operator : with that money, lands were
purchased to the value of about eight hundred pounds a year,
and settled on a corporation of citizens in trust, and Mr.
Ashhurst must be the treasurer, on whom lay the main care and
work. When the king was restored, the corporation was dead
in law ; and one that sold most of the lands which were settled
for that use (Colonel Bedingfield, a Papist) seized on his sold
land, and yet refused to repay the money. The care of the re-
covery, and of restoring the corporation, and all the work, was
the business of Mr. Ashhurst ; for which he desired my solicita-
tion of the Lord Chancellor Hide, who did readily own the justness
of the cause and goodness of the work, and first gave us leave
to nominate the new corporation, and Mr. Boyle for president,
and Mr. Ashhurst for treasurer ; and afterwards, when it came
to suit before him, did justly determine it for the corporation.
And so these nineteen years last past, it was he, by the help of
Mr. Boyle, and the rest, who hath had the main care of the New
England assistance, by which a printing-press hath been there
set up, and the Bible translated into the Indian's tongue, and
other books also, for their instruction, and the agents encou-
raged to help them, till the late unhappy war there interrupted
much of their endeavours ; and of their victory in that war the
converted Indians were not the least cause.
Oh ! how sad will the news of his death be to old Mr. Eliots,
if he live to hear it, and to his American converts : and he hath
left by his will an hundred pounds to the college there, and fifty
pounds to their corporation.
IX. Some may think that he wanted a public spirit, because
he avoided being a magistrate, and paid his fine rather than take
an alderman's place : but it was only to keep the peace of liis
conscience, which could not digest, 1. The corporation declara-
tion and oath ; nor, 2. The execution of the laws against non-
conforming ministers and people. I never heard him plead that
the solemn oath, called the National Covenant, was not unlaw-
fully imposed or taken. His thoughts of that I knew not;
BE WITH CHRIST. 155
but he was not ignorant that the words showec-.j^ \\\ effect • but
promise or vow to God, and that a vow made sin
notwithstanding', to the lawful and necessary part o.to ijjs children
and he thought that to oppose, in our places, Jsions of love
popery, and schism, and to repent of sin and amend^ 'ation. He
ful and necessary things ; and therefore to say that ' the^gn used
obligation, by that oath,'on me or any other person,' withou»^(] j^-
cepting any of these aforesaid, was a thing that he would ratht^ion
I believe, have suffered death than do. He would not do that
which he thought perjury himself, much less justify it in thou-
sands whom he never knew : and he feared lest he should be-
come guilty of constituting all the cities and corporations of
England by perjury, and stigmatizing the front of the nation
with such a fearful brand. Some men think that the mark of
the beast in Revelations, without which none might buy or sell,
was ^ perjury' and ' persecution ;' finding that the Lateran coun-
cil, sublnoc. III., and others, which are of their religion, do ab-
solve subjects of their temporal lords, whom the Pope excommu-
nicateth from their oaths of allegiance, which was ordinarily
practised against emperors and kings ; and finding that these
lords or princes themselves were to swear to exterminate all
called heretics, on pain of excommunication, deposition, and
damnation ; and that every such ruler that professeth himself a
papist knowingly, bindeth himself to destroy all protestants, or
exterminate them, if he can do it without injury to the papal
church : and also finding that all their clergy must swear the
Trent oath, by which they cannot but be perjured ; and they say
that they never heard or read that ever such a thing was done by
heathens, infidels, or Mahomedans ; and Mr. Ashhurst was
afraid of any thing that seemed to him such a brand. Yet I
never heard him speak uncharitably of those worthy men who
do what he refused, supposing that they in words or writing de-
clared as openly as they sware and took the declaration, that
they took it but in such or such a lawful sense ; though he
could not do so himself.
IX. He had an earnest desire of the welfare of the city, that
it might flourish in piety, sobriety, justice, and charity, and that
good men might be in power ; believing that the welfare of the
world lieth not so much in the forms of government, as in the
goodness of men ; and that that is the best form which best
secureth us from bad men. And all such service as he could
do, no man was readier to do, as when he was master of the
^^-^ FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
VII. And soors' Company, and on many other occasions, he
England, See relations teli me, that he then gave them about
tended to tb,wn money, and greatly promoted the improvement
Christianity ;k, to the rebuilding of their hall, and abatement of
a public cc^\
of schole never was a soldier, even when London was a garrison,
that \ilways for the ways and works of peace. He was ever
g^ainst tumults, sedition, and rebellion ; and I never heard a
word from him injurious to the king and higher powers. He
was greatly troubled at the late resistance made by the assem-
blies in Scotland, and glad when his letters thence told him, that
they were but a few hot-headed men, whom the generality of
the godly presbyterians disclaimed, and would oppose. Peace
was his temper, and peace with all men, to his power, he kept
and promoted ; and 1 never knew man that lived in more peace
with his conscience, and with all men, good and bad. I never
heard that he was an enemy, or had an enemy, save sin, the
devil, the world, and the flesh, as all good men renounce them.
Nay, I never heard of any one man that ever spake evil of
him, so strange a reconciling power hath such a mind, and such
a life.
XI. He excelled all that ever I knew in the grace of meek-
ness ; and Christ saith, " That such shall inherit even the
earth." For men know not how to fall out with such, while no
public employment doth, by cross interest, cause it. They that
were nearer him than I, say, that they never saw him in any
undecent passion ; he knew not how to show himself angry, no
nor displeased, otherwise than by mild and gentle words. His
countenance was still serene, and his voice still calm and quiet ;
never fierce or loud, no, not to a servant. He oft used to
women the words of saint Peter, " A meek and a quiet spirit is
in the sight of God of great price;" (1 Peter iii. 5 ;) which is
the ornament there commended, instead of gold and gaudiness,
which now are grown into so common and excessive use, as if it
were the design to avoid the imputation of hypocrisy, l)y wear-
ing the open badges of folly and pride, lest they should seem
wise and humble ; as some will rant and scorn, lest they should
be thought religious hypocrites.
God fitted him for his place ; had he been a magistrate or a
preacher, a little more sharpness had been needful. And
though I once knew one, that for want of just anger, was too
like Eli, and could not sufficiently reprove or correct a child,
BE WITH CHRIST. 155
vet it pleased God, that his mildness had no such ill effect ; but
his family loved and reverenced him the more.
Xfl. 1 never observed a father carry himself to his children
(as well as to his wife) with more constant expressions of love,
and with a greater desire of their holiness and salvation. He
spake to his children with that endeared kindness, as men used
to do to a bosom friend, in whom is their delight. And, in-
deed, love is the vital spirit, which must make all education
and counsel effectual, which, without it, usually is dead, both'to
children, and all others; though there are seasons when we
must be angry and not sin.
XIII. Indeed, he was so made of love and gentleness, that
I may say, that love was his new nature, and his temper,
his religion, and his life, and that he dwelt in love ; and,
therefore, in God, and God in him. His looks, his smiles,
his speech, his deeds, were all the constant significations of
love.
XIV. And no less eminent was his humility ; his speech,
company, garb, behaviour, and all his carriage, did declare it.
He was a great disliker of proud, vain attire, boasting speech,
and pomp, and inordinate, worldly splendour, especially that
which was chargeable, while so many thousands were in want.
He was poor in spirit, suited to a low condition, though he was
rich, and condescended to men of low estate. The poor were
his pleasing friends. He loved the rich, that were rich to God,
but he hated ambition, and flattering great men.
XV. Indeed, he was a plain Christian, of the primitive stamp,
strange to hypocrisy and affectation, and all that is called the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and pride of life ; and the sins
of Sodom, pride, idleness, and fulness ; his habit, his furniture,
his provisions were all plain ; nothing for excess, as provision
for the flesh, to satisfy the lust thereof; yet all that was need-
ful for right ends. No niggardly parsimony, but sparing to do
good ; sparing from all the ways of pride and pomp ; but never
sparing from decency, or good works.
XVI. The government of his family, and the worship of God
there performed, was wise, cheerful, grave, and constant. He
Avorshipped God as other good Christians use to do ; besides his
secret devotions, reading the Scriptures, (after the craving of
God's help,) and giving some plain, short notes, which Were
suited to his family's use, catechizing, and taking an account of
156 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
their profiting; singing psalms, and prayer ; and, on the Lord's-
day, hearing, and repeating the sermons. A non-conformist
preaching an early sermon to many in his house, which so
ended, that none might be hindered from the further work of
the day. The whole day seemed not too long to him for the
delightful employment of his soul toward God. Oh ! how far
was he from being weary, or needing any vain recreation. In
his family-worship he played not the orator, nor was very
tedious; but in conference of good things, and in his counsels
plain and short; much like the style of Mr. Greenham's
writings.
XVII. He had a special care to place his children in a way
of employment, and with good relations ; out of the way both of
idleness and ill company, and worldly vanity and temptations.
And God hath so blessed him in his wise and holy endeavours
for them, that of four sons and two daughters, there is not one
whom we have not good cause to hope well of, that they will, in
piety and welfare, answer his endeavours.
XVIII. Others can tell you more than I of his management of
his trade ; only this I will say, that God greatly blessed his
honesty and liberality ; and men knew that they might trade
with him, without any danger of deceit, so that he grew up to
a very considerable estate ; and yet was never so intent on his
trade, but he was ready for any service of God, and help to
others, or public work.
And those that say, they shall lose their custom, except they
tipple and make their bargains in ale-houses, coffee-houses, or
taverns, or use much prating and enticing words, may see here
that one hath thriven more than most have done, that yet took
a quite contrary course.
XIX. He was a stranger to vain talk and frothy jests, and
also to a sour, morose converse ; but good, short, cheerful dis-
course, was his ordinary attainment,
XX. It is no wonder, if in such a life, so absolutely devoted
to God, he lived in a constant serenity of mind ; he that had
peace with God and men, had peace of conscience. I never
heard him speak one word which savoured of any doubt of his
salvation, or discouraging thoughts of the life to come ; he lived
not in bondage to tormenting fears, or sad apprehensions ; but
studied fully to please God, and joyfully trusted him, rejoiced in
his love, and hoped for his kingdom ; but without any over-
BR WITH CHRIST. 157
valuing of his own worth, or works ; having much in his mouth
those words of St. Paul, " I have nothing to glory of," and " I
am nothing."
XXI. The last part of his example, which 1 have to commend
to you, and specially ro myself, is his marvellous patience, as
through all his life, so specially in his last and sharp afflic-
tion. It was a providence which posed many of us, that God
should so smartly handle such a man as this; till God's oracles
told our faith enough to silence all murmuring thoughts of God.
For God had given him before the blessings of Job, a healthful
body, and constant prosperity ; and shall sinners taste no cor-
rection, and receive nothing of God, but pleasant things ? All
God's graces must have their exercise and trial; and faith
and patience are most tried and exercised in a suflfering state :
God loveth not martyrs less than others. 2. And he had served
God before by action, and usually, our last service is by patience;
and Lazarus, in sores and wants, was in a safer way to Abra-
ham's bosom, than Dives in his silks and sumptuous fare. 3.
And we are naturally so loth to leave this world and flesh,
that God seeth it meet to help our willingness, by making us
weary of it; and affliction, though grievous to the present,
tendeth to the quiet fruit of righteousness, and making us par-
takers of God's holiness, certainly tendeth to make us partakers
of his glory; cross-bearing, and partaking of the sufferings of
Christ, is an indispensable christian duty; we must be con-
formed to him in his sufferings, if we will reign with him, and
be partakers of our Master's joy. And in heaven all tears are
wiped away, and there are no groans nor moans, no sorrows nor
repining,'; or accusing God, for any of our former sufferings.
What need have I, yeaj what need have you all to remember
this ?
Flesh will feel, and faith will not avoid pain and present
torment, no more than death ; but it fortified our dear brother's
soul, that it should not too much suffer with his body.
Several years he was molested most with some cloudy troubles
of his head, which Tunbridge waters eased for a time; and next
with acrimony of urine ; and next, it too painfully appeared, to
be the stone in the bladder. He long resolved to endure it to
the death ; but at last extremity of torment and despair of any
other ease, did suddenly cause him to choose to be cut. Two
stones were found, and one of them in the operation was
broken into pieces ; many of which were taken out, by very
158 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL
terrible search, and about thirty pieces after came away through
the wound ; physicians and all present admired at his patience.
No word, no action, signified any distressing sense ; and, though
he was about sixty-five years old, God did recover him, and
heal the wound ; but we were too unthankful, and his pains re-
turned : gently at first, but afterwards as terribly as before. And,
after that, a strong fever, of which, unexpectedly, he recovered.
And, then, oft inflammations, and at last, a dangerous one; and
finally, so great torment, that a French lithotomist being here,
he was over-persuaded to be searched, and cut again, and a
third stone was taken away, with competent speed and ease,
and divers big fragments of it, which had been broken off in the
first operation. Thus was he cut twice in about a year's space ;
and the wound seemed marvellously to heal for divers months ;
and when we had prayed hard for him, we turned it to thanks-
giving, and thought the danger of death was past ; but after,
his strength failed, and he died in peace. God gave him those
months of ease and calmness, the better to bear his approach-
ing change.
In all this, none heard him express any querulous impatience.
Most of his words were telling men how tolerable his pain was,
and how good God was, and thankfully acknowledging his
mercy. The last words which I had from him, were of the
goodness of God, 'O that we could love God more.* And
when he thought he should recover, he was very solicitous in
his inquiry, what God would have him do in gratitude. And
one of the chief things which he resolved on to one of his old
friends, was, that he would set upon as many parliament men as
he could speak with, to repeal all the laws which hinder good
men from preaching Christ's gospel. Adding moreover, ' And
countrymen,' saith he, ' you and 1 will take care for Lanca-
shire, that the gospel may be more preached among them.' (It
being their native country, and abounding with papists, and
many parts having scarcity of preachers.)
But suddenly he pased from the exercise of faith and patience,
unto sight and rest.
His last words (save his farewell, and" Come, Lord Jesus,")
were to an old friend, Mr. Nathaniel Hulton, ^ to walk in the
way of God, will be comfort at death ;' being not of their
mind, who for fear of fetching too much comfort from our own
duty (which they call works) do think Christ's merits injured
by such thoughts and words as these : as if the cure were a
BE WITH CHRIST. 159
disgrace to our physician, or Christ (Matt, xxv.) had mis-de-
scribed the last judgment ; or God were no " rewarder of them
that dihgently seek him/' and " laying up our treasure and
hearts in heaven," were no means to be " received into the
everlasting habitation."
And thus passed this faithful soul to Christ.
And now, reader, have I not shown thee a true copy of the
first part of my text ? One that indeed served Christ and fol-
lowed him. Is not this his image and imitation ? And is it
not sure then that he is where Christ is ? and that God that
maketh it our duty to honour his memory on earth, hath given
him another kind of honour in the heavens ?
And to what other end have I said all this of him ?
In general, " Go and do thou likewise."
I. I do it much for the use of the magistrates and people of
this city ? I commend this example to them all. Oh, what an
honourable and happy city would this be, if you were all such as
our deceased brother was ? We joyfully thank God for so
much goodness as flourished among you ? The Lord make
London still the glory of the cities on earth ! But were all fa-
milies used as his family was, and all men here lived as this man
lived, we should suspect we had the " new earth, wherein
dwelt righteousness." And were princes and nobles such, the
world such, or but the christian church such, what a taste
of heaven should we have on earth. But should we not then
be too loth to die ? and too little difference earth from heaven ?
But, oh, that London, who know that I do not over-praise this
holy man, would but imitate his example !
II. t do it much for his children's use. Their honour, their
comfort, but especially their everlasting good. Will they ever
forget the instructions, the love, and the life of such a father ?
III. I do it partly for the use of the clergy and their agents,
that have judged such me!i as this to be worthy of all the re-
proach and sufferings which some canons and late laws have
laid on such : I write not to cast reproach back upon them.
But, reverend fathers and brethren, as you believe a God, a
Christ, a judgment and a life to come, bethink you whether
such men as this should be fined, or excommunicated, ipse
factOy as your canon doth it ? And when Christ hath promised,
that if they serve him, they shall be where he is, and his Father
will honour them, dare you make your church-doors too narrow
to receive them^ when Dr. Heylin tells us how far Bishop Laud
160 FAITHFUL SOULS SHALL BE WITH CHRIST.
would have had it widened to receive the papists, if they would
come in : do not such men as this serve and follow Christ ?
And are they yet excommunicate schismatics if they will not
serve and follow you, in the things that neither Christ nor his
apostles commanded or practised ? yea, which they forbid (as I
have proved in my First Plea and my Treatise of Episcopacy). I
am in great hope that if you knew but the tenth part of the now
silenced ministers, and prosecuted people, that I do, your con-
sciences would constrain you to publish your repentance, and
petition king and parliament for better terms of unity and peace.
For I will hope that most silencers and afflicters do it more
through ignorance and unacquainted ness with the men than in
diabolical malignity.
IV. And I have done this for my own use. To discharge
my duty ; to set before me this pattern of sincerity, love, and
patience, for my reproof and imitation. We were of the same
year for age; and of the same judgment, and desire, and aim ;
but I have not attained to his degree of goodness and patience.
Being not unlikely to be exercised with some like afflictions,
after a life of wonderful mercy, and quickly to follow my de-
parted friend ; I beg of God that he will not try me beyond the
strength which he will give me, but so increase my faith and
patience, that I may finish my course with joy.
V. Lastly, I have written this for the comfort of all serious,
suffering believers. Christians, let us not think that we serve
Christ for nought, or that our labour for holiness and heaven is
in vain ? Nor let us faint when we are tried and chastised.
Labour and sorrow will quickly have an end : angels are ready
to convoy us home : how low soever you are here in your
bodies, estates, employment, or reputation, you have Christ's
promise that his Father will honour you ! Look then to Jesus,
the Author and Perfecter of your faith, who, for the joy that was
set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame, lest
you be weary and faint in your minds ; and comfort one an-
other with these words, that " we shall be ever with the Lord.'*
Amen.
A SERMON
PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OP
MR. JOHN CORBET,
THAT
FAITHFUL MINISTER OF CHRIST
WITH
HIS TRUE AND EXEMPLARY CHARACTER.
VOL. XVI 11. M
A
SERMON
PRKACIIED AT THE
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET,
X. dec.
2 COR. xii. 1—9.
It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to
visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ
above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell;
or whether out of the body, I cannot tellt God knoweth ;J such
an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a
man, (ivhether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell :
God knoweth ;) how that he was caught up into Paradise,
and heard unspeakable tvords, which it is not lawful for a
man to utter. Of such an one will I glory : yet of myself
I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. For though I woidd
desire to glory, I shall not be a fool ; for I will say the truth :
but now I forbear, lest any man should tJdnk of me above
that ivhich he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And
lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance
of the revelations, there ivas given to me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted
above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice,
that it might depart from me. And he said. My grace is
sufficient for thee : for my strength is made perfect in weak-
ness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infir-
mities, that thepoiver of Christ may rest upon me .
It is but lately that we were here lamenting the loss of this
city and the church of God, in the removal of an excellent
saint : we are now come on the like occasion. It is a year of
jubilee for holy souls, and a harvest for heaven. The ripest are
A SERMON, &C, 163
gathered, and the green and sour fruit is yet left on earth.
But, oh ! what a heavy judgment is it, to the needy world,,
which wants such lights, as God is taking in. But we are not
the choosers. It is well if we be obedient learners, and can
follow such to life in the holy path.
The text read to you, hath so much matter of instruction that
will excuse me if 1 scarce name the most. It is part of Paul's
vindication against the accusers of his person and ministry,
which were some erroneous judaizing teachers. He confesseth
that glorying is an inexpedient thing, and sounds like folly ;
but yet, in case of necessary defence, it may be modestly and
sincerely done. Especially the opening of those divine revela-
tions and gifts which make for the strength of the faith of
others. The explication shall be taken in as we go.
Observ. 1. It is no new thing for the wisest and holiest of
Christ's ministers to be accused even by the teachers of Christ-
ianity.
For 1. There are many erroneous teachers, that are confi-
dent they are in the right, and oppose the teachers of truth as
if they were the erring men.
2. And there are worldly, proud, malignant hypocrites, who
bring their unsanctified hearts into the sacred office, and ma-,
nage it as men do common trades, but with greater enmity and
strife.
3. And there are abundance of ignorant or half-wise injudi-
cious men, who have self-conceitedness enough to be peremp-
tory and confident, but neither knowledge nor humility enough
to perceive their own weakness and mistakes.
Use 1. Therefore let it not become a scandal to you, if you
hear some teachers accusing and vilifying others.
2. And think not that a minister is erroneous or faulty,
merely because others, though of great name, do accuse him,
or so represent him. It hath still been so, and while Satan is
Satan, and man is corrupt man, and there is so much darkness,
and so much worldly temptations, and cross interests, it will
be so ; and preachers will be made the common and danger-
ous hinderers of preachers ; and where they have power, will
silence them, and disgrace their work.
Observ. 2. Glorying or boasting, is in itself an inexpedient
thing. It savours of pride, and selfishness, and folly, when it
is not necessary and just. And therefore all Christians should
be backward to it.
m2
164 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
Observ. 3. Yet that which is so inexpedient, may, on just
occasions, become good, and a duty.
That is, 1. When it is made needful to God's honour and
the vindication and success of our ministry and the truth.
And,
2. When these are our true needs. And,
3. When we speak nothing but the truth.
Use 3. Oh, that men knew how great a sin it is, by their
confident errors and rash accusations, to put Christ's ministers
upon such a defence ; much more to seek their silence and
destruction.
2. And here you see that inconveniences will not excuse us
from necessary duties ; nor prove that all is unlawful which
hath such. What is it in this confused and imperfect world
that hath not its inconveniences. In government, both monar-
chy, aristocracy, and democracy, absolute and limited, have their
many inconveniences. In churciies, the power of people and
pastors, equality and subordination, riches and poverty, severity
and lenity, to use discipline or neglect it, have their inconve-
niences. In worship, imposed words or free, and all human
forms and modes have their inconveniences. In houses, a mar-
ried life and a single, to have children and to have none, to
have servants or none, to have much business or little, to be
high or low, rich and poor, to rule gently or severely, have all
their inconveniences. In our conversations, to be yielding or
not, to converse with few or many, with high or low, to speak
or to be silent, have all their inconveniences.
And yet there are men that on one side can silence Christ's
faithful ministers by hundreds or thousands, and persecute the
true mem])ers of Christ, and cast out true discipline, and cor-
rupt the churches, and justify all this by urging some inconve-
niences. And there are others that can unchurch most churches
in the world, and separate from their worship, and think the
charge of inconveniences v/ill justify all. And so we should
have no government, no ministry, no worship, no families,
wives, or children, or servants, no books, no trades, no food, no
physic, if all mere inconveniences forbid them.
By this our instance, Solomon may be understood, what it is
to be wise and righteous overmuch, some are so wise and right-
eous (materially, not formally) that they can find faults in all
persons, all duties, all speeches, all actions, and on pretence of
doing all better, would hinder us from doing what we can, and
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBEF. 165
yndo all as if it were for amending. Not but that inconveniences
may make actions sinful ; but the great part of christian pru-
dence lieth in holding the balance, and trying wisely whether
the good or hurt, the benefit or inconvenience do weigh down ;
Ave shall never preach or pray, nor converse with mankind
without some inconveniency.
Observ. 4. Divine revelations acquainting the soul with
heaven, are matters most worthy of lawful, humble, modest
glorying.
It v/as Paul's heavenly visions which he gloried in as his ad-
vancement, when he had mentioned his many persecutions and
sufferings in the way.
These tend to that perfection and felicity of souls : in these
men have to do with the glorious Jehovah, the angelic choir,
the heavenly society, our glorified Head, our highest hopes, and
matter of the greatest everlasting joys. Oh, if God would but
give you and me this heavenly sight, and let us but once see
what Paul saw, what little things would crowns and lordships
seem to us when we look down from such a height ! What
trifling should we think most of the bustles of this world !
What toys and dreams, their wealthy honour and sinful delights !
I should then say, ' Now I see what it is that we seek and hope,
and suifer for, what it is to enjoy God and our Redeemer : and
therefore now I know what it is to be a believer, a saint, a
man indeed.* Oh ! what a help to mortification would such a
sight of paradise be ? How easily should we after resist temp-
tations, deny the flesh, contemn the world, and hate our sins.
Oh ! how it would overcome all these distrustful trembling fears of
death, and make us long, and groan, and cry to be with Christ.
What life would it put into all holy duty. How easily should
we bear our short afflictions. How would it mellow our sour,
contentious minds toward one another, and teach us better
whom to love and live in peace with, than pride and worldli-
ness or faction will teach us.
Fellow Christians, though you and I may not expect such
raptures and ecstacies as Paul's; yet we have the gospel of Jesus,
a divine revelation of this same heavenly glory ; not to be set
light by, because we see it not ourselves. It is by the Son of
God that saw it, and now is there preparing it for us ; it is sealed
by a certain word, and the heavenly beams are sent down
from him upon our hearts, to show it us, and lead us up. We
are capable of a lively belief, of the full assurance of hope, of
166 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
the pledges, earnest, and first-fruits ; and of rejoicing with un*-
speakable, glorying joy. We are capable in our manner, and
are sure of traffic for heaven, and with heaven, of sending up
our treasures, and there conversing in spirit, as in the city
which is our home, and hearing by faith the joyful harmony of
the heavenly songs and praises of Jehovah. Here we are capa-
ble of such a powerful touch with the loadstone of divine love,
or to have our spirits so refined and sublimated, as shall make
it as natural to them to make upward towards Christ, and long
for full and perfect union. Oh ! had we lived as believers should
have lived, how much more of heavenly-mindedness, and delight
might we have attained than we have done. Oh ! thank God
for the gospel revelation, and beg grace to bring it in power on
your hearts. And then, let worldlings take their earthly por-
tions ; we can spare them all that hindereth not the gather-
ing and edification of the church, and the heavenly interest of
souls.
• Observ. 5. There is a third heaven and heavenly paradise,
where are the concerns and hopes of holy souls.
Paul was taken thither up; had he no interest there, no
hopes, no friends, no business there ; why, then, should he have
been rapt up thither ? How many heavens there be, and why
it IS here called the third ; 1 will not interrupt your more neces-
sary thoughts, by conjecturing inquiries. Most say, the air is
called the first ; the starry heaven the second ; and the place
of the glorified spirits the third ; but these are vain conjectures.
No man knoweth how many there be ; the globes or stars, are
at vast distance from each other ; some great philosophers have
been tempted to think, that world is infinite, as an adequate
effect of infinite power, because God hath no unactive power ; all
this is profane rashness. The heavens, which are our inherit-
ance, are the place where perfect glorious spirits shall live in
blessed society with Christ and one another ; joyfully beholding
the glory of God, and feeling the delights of mutual love ; and
yet there are different degrees of glory from the different de-
grees of the capacity of spirits; whether also from any differ-
ence in the place, and communicating causes, we shall shortly
better know : there are more sorts of spirits than we can now
know. Though 1 know not how to receive Aquinas's doctrine,
that no two angels are of the same species ; the diversity, as
well as the incomprehensible glory and numbers, are unknown to
us. Those that God employeth under Christ as his pursuivants.
FLtNERAL Of MR. JOHN CORBET. 167
messengers, and servants for his church, are called angels*
Whether there be orders over orders, quite above angels, and
how angels differ from the perfected spirits of the just, we
know not.
As it is designed for saints, its glory consisteth,
1. In the glory of the place.
2. In the perfecting and glorifying the natures and persons
that enjoy it.
.3. In the glory of the heavenly society, Clirist, angels, and
saints.
4. In the glory of their high and excellent work, to love and
magnify God for ever.
5. In the communication of the joyful love, and light, and life
of God, upon these glorified spirits. Oh ! what doth every one of
these words signify ! Is not this a paradise indeed, that is a
place of purest, greatest pleasure ?
Use 1 . And are we not taught by such a glass as this, how
great and how good a God we serve ? Oh, look up to the heavens
and see what he is by that which he hath made. Yea, it is said,
(Psalm cxiii.(),) that he humbles himself to behold the things in
heaven, as well as upon earth. O sinners ! what a God do you
despise, neglect, and forget ! and what a heaven do you sell
for fleshly lust, and to feed a corruptible body for the grave !
O Christians ! what a God have we to serve and fear, and how
zealously and purely should we serve him ! .What a God have
we to trust and hope in, and how great a sin is it to distrust
him 1 What a heaven have we to seek and hope for, and how
cheerfully and constantly should we do it 1 Alas ! our cold hearts^
and slothful lives, and worldly cares, and sinking spirits, beseem
not such a God and heaven. Were we designed but to inhabit
the sun, or some resplendent star, how high is it above this
earth ? Shall we creep only on earth and feed on dust, and
defile our souls as if we were preparing them by sin for hell,
when we have a third heaven and paradise to look up to, and
•seek and hope for ?
Doth Satan say, ' What is that to thee, that is so far above
thee?' It is to us; it is the place where the glory of God is
which we seek ; where our glorified Head is. The place of holy
spirits, whither also Enoch and Elias were translated ; where
.Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob live ; whither Christ's Spirit went
at death, and where he received the believing thief; where
liazarus is in Abraham's bosom, which Stephen foresaw, and to
168 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
which he was received. It is the place which we are set on
earth to seek, dearly purchased, surely promised, to which God's
Spirit is now preparing us, and of which it is our pledge and
seal. Were it not for such an end and hope, how vain were
man, and what a dream this world. Take heaven from us, and
take our lives, our joys, yea, more than many such lives as
these. Oh ! that we could be more deeply sensible for what we
are Christians, and for what we hope I what holy, patient,
joyful Christians should we then be. But it is not a wavering
belief, a divided heart, and a few cold, strange, and staggering
thoughts of heaven that will do this as we desire it.
Observ. 6. Souls are not so closely tied to the body, but now
they may be rapt up into paradise, or the third heavens.
When Paul could not tell whether it was in the body or out
of it, it showeth somehow the soul was there, and that it is
possible it might be out of the body.
Obj. If it were in the body, the body must go with it. If
out of the body, it must leave the body dead.
Answ. It might be in the body, and not take up the body. If
man were born blind, the lucid spirits, and a visive faculty would
act only within, but as soon as a miracle opened his eyes, he
would see as far as the sun and stars. And the sun sends down
even its beams to this earth. Should God open this dark
lantern of the body, we little know how far a soul may see
without any separation from the body. Did not Stephen's soul
in the body see Christ in glory ?
And if it went out of the body, it followeth not that it must
be separated from the body and leave it dead. When London
was on fire, how high did the flame go above the fuel, and yet
it was not separated from the fuel. A soul can stay in the body,
and yet not be confined to it as a chicken in the shell, but may
see, and mount above it to the heavens.
Use. Therefore think not of souls as you do of bodies, which
are circumscribed in their proper places. We know not what
formal thoughts to have of the dimensions or locality of spirits.
Somewhat such eminenter they have, (for they have individua-
tion and numeral quantity, and some passivity,) but not forma-
liter as gross bodies have. While the soul is in the body it
worketh on it, and is a substance distinct from it, and such a
form as hath also its own form, even its formal power or virtue,
of vital activity, sensitive and intellective perception, and sen-
sitive and rational appetite. It is active life itself, as the prin-
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 169
ciple, it perceiveth itself, and loveth itself, it understandeth
what other spirits are, by itself, it remembereth innumerable
things past, it riseth up to some knowledge of God, it can seek,
love, and obey him, and all this though not out of the body,
yet above any efficiency of bodily organs. Oh ! what a sad part
of man's fall is it, to lose so much as the world hath done, of
the knowledge of ourselves. And to begin to know ourselves,
our souls, and how man differs from a beast, is the first part of
recovering knowledge, leading up towards the knowledge of
God, which is the highest.
O then, sirs, do not only own the heavenly dignity of souls,
but use your souls accordingly. Are they good for no better
than to serve the body in lust and appetite, and keep it in motion
and some pleasure, or at least from stinking a while in the world ?
Sinners, hear and consider, if you wilfully condemn your own
souls to bestiality, God will condemn them to perpetual mi-
sery. Yea, you do it yourselves, and pass from brutishness to
the devilish nature and woful state.
Observ. 7. The things of the heavenly paradise are to mortal
men unutterable.
That is,
I. Such as cannot be uttered. And,
II. Such as must not be uttered. It is not lawful to Paul that
saw them.
Not that nothing of it may or must be uttered. Christ hath
brought life and immortality to light. They are great things
and glorious which are by him revealed. Enough well believed
and used to overcome the temptation of this flesh and world,
and to raise us to a holy life, and joyful hope, and comfortable
sufferings and death. Christ best knoweth the just measure of
revelation meet for earth. Candles must serve for narrow and
dark rooms, and are more worth than all the gold on earth.
The sun by day must not come too near us lest it burn us up,
but send us its beams at the distance that we can bear them.
And all souls are not here meet for the same measures, much
less for that sight which the glorified enjoy. The pure in heart
do see God, (Matt, v.,) and even here more than impure souls.
I, There is no human language that hath words fit to reveal
that part of the heavenly things which God hath shut up from
us as his secrets. Man's words are only fitted to man*s use and
to man's concerns, and not to angels and the secrets of heaven.
We speak not a word of God himself, which signifieth formally
170 A SERMON PREACHteD AT THE
what God is, but only analogically or by similitude, and yet not
in vain. Paul saw, and holy souls see, that which no human
language can properly express.
2. And if it could, yet mortals could not understand it, no
more than a language which they never heard.
3. And Paul had it revealed in a manner suited to his own
use, and not in a manner meet for communication.
11. And it was unlawful also to utter it. 1. For God saw not all
that meet for the dark world of undisposed sinners, which was
allowed to one eminent saint.
2. Nor would he have so much more revealed by a minis-
ter than the Son of God from heaven had himself before
revealed.
3. And the revelation is to be suited to the fruition. Full
knowledge is fit only for those that must fully enjoy it.
Use. Therefore remember with what measures of heavenly
knowledge we must be here content, so much as Christ hath re*
vealed and is suitable to a distant life of faith. I have known
some run into greater calamities than I will mention, by an ex-
pectation of visible communion with angels, and others by rash
conceits of visions, dreams, and prophetical revelations ; but the
common error of Christians is, to content themselves with a
feeble faith, (or at least get no better,) and then think it should
be made up by somewhat like to sight or corporal sense, and to
be unsatisfied because they know no more than by believing they
can reach to. As if believing were but an uncertain apprehen-
sion, (with which we are unsatisfied,) and we are not content
to live on that which God hath revealed, but we would fain know
more, before we are ready for it ; whereas we must explicitly
believe all that is explicitly revealed, and implicitly believe and
trust God for the rest.
We are here used to live by sight and sense, and the soul is
strange to such apprehensions as are quite above sense and
without it. And fain we would have God bring down the unseen
things to these sensations and perceptions, and we would fain
have distinct and formal knowledge of that which God hath but
generally revealed. It is somewhat excusable for a soul to
desire this, as it is the state of perfection to which we do aspire.
But it is not well that we remember not more that sight and full
fruition are reserved together for the life to come, and that we
live no more thankfully and joyfully on so much as we may in
the body by believing know.
FtJNBRAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. I7I
Quest. What may we conjecture those things are which Paul
had seen, and must not utter ?
Why should we inquire when they must not be uttered ? We
may mention a possibility to rebuke our bold, unquiet thoughts.
Our souls would fain have not only analogical, but formal
conceptions of the essence, substance, glory, immensity, eternity
of God. Hope for much in heaven, but never for an adequate
comprehension. But this is the very highest of all those things
which are not to be uttered, and therefore not to be here
attained.
Our souls would fain be perfect extensively and intensively in
philosophy, and know heaven and earth, the spheres, or orbs,
or vortices ; the magnitudes, number, distances, motions, and
the nature of all the stars, and the compagination of the whole
frame of being. But this is unutterable, and not here to be
known.
Our souls would fain know more of the angelical nature ;
what such spirits are, whether absolutely immaterial as mere
acts and virtues 5 or substances which are pure matter, and what
their number and diiferences are, and how vast, and many, and
distant their habitations, and what are their offices on earth or
elsewhere ; and how much they know of us and our affairs, and
in what subordination men, churches, and kingdoms stand to
them, and they to one another, and how they are individuated,
and how far one. But all these are unutterable, and locked up
from us.
Our souls would fain know whether there was any world before
this earth, and the creation of the six days ; and whether there
was any spiritual Being, which was an eternal effect by emana-
tion from an eternal cause, as light from the sun ; and whether
the sun and stars are intellectual or sensitive, and exceed man
in form, as well as in matter, and what the noble nature of fire
is. But these things are unutterable, and so notknowable to us.
Our souls would fain have more sensible perceptions of
themselves, as to their substance, and their separate state.
Whether they are substances utterly immaterial ; how they are
generated, how they subsist, and act out of the body, and
how they do enjoy. How they are individuate, and yet how far
one. How far one or not one with Christ, and one another.
Whether they are divisible in substance as continued quantities,
as well in number as quantitates discretes. What place and
limits do confine them (being not infinite). How far they have
172 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
- still sensation ; and how they see, praise, and enjoy God ;
and how they converse with one another ; and how far they
know the things on earth; and how their state before the re-
surrection differs from what it will be after; and how far the
soul will be instrumental in the raising of the body. But all
these are unutterable things.
We would fain know more of the decrees of God, and how
all his acts are eternal, and yet produce their effects in time.
How they are many, and yet but one, producing divers contrary
effects. Many such things inquisitive nature would fain know
which are unutterable.
But this must satisfy us :
1. That sinful souls, and dark, in a dark body, and a dark
world, are not fit for so great a light, nor capable of it. It will
put out our eyes to gaze so nearly on the sun.
2. That Christ hath revealed so much of the greatness and
certainty of the heavenly glory, as he seeth meet and suitable to
God's holy ends and us.
3. That the church hath so much clearer a revelation than
the heathen and infidel world, as should make us thankful for
our light.
4. That, if we believe the revelation of the gospel soundly,
we may live a holy, joyful life, and die in the peace and triumph
of our hopes.
5. That it is not by sight, but by faith that we must here
live, in our wilderness expectant state.
6. That the more we cleave to God, and live by faith above
the flesh and world whilst we are in it, the clearer and sweeter
our apprehensions of heaven will be.
7. That God must be trusted implicitly about that which is
yet unknown to us, as well as explicitly for what we know. And,
8. That what we know not now, we shall know hereafter,
and the day is near. Let these things quiet our souls in health
and sickness, though we are yet in darkness as to the unutter-
able things.
9. And always add, that what we know not, Christ knoweth
for us, to whom it belongeth to prepare the place for us, and us
for it, and to receive us. Had we but a friend in heaven whom we
could trust, we could partly take up with their knowledge. Our
Head is there, and the eyes that we must trust to are in our Head.
But how was Paul in danger of being exalted above measure,
by the abundance of revelations ?
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 173
Answ. 1. It might have been above the measure meet for
man in flesh, and so unsuitable to his present state.
2. It might have been unto sinful pride, as the angels fell
from God, and as Adam fell, desiring to be as a God in
knowledge.
Observ. 8. Even heavenly revelations may be made the matter
and occasion of unmeet and sinful exaltation.
For, 1. It is the nature of sin to turn all our objects into
itself to feed it. Not as they are without us in esse realty but
within us in esse cognito, the ideas in our minds. Austin saith,
indeed, that grace is that quo nemo male utetur, but he must
mean it, 1 . As in itself. 2. And efficiently, grace never doth
evil. But objectively in the idea or remembrance of it, it may
be abused to pride.
2. And the greatest and most excellent objects as ours, give
pride the greatest advantage. Heavenly revelations are far
more excellent than gold, and dominion, and worldly pomp.
Children are proud of fine clothes, and worldly fools of vain-
glory, but saints may be more tempted to be proud of wisdom,
holiness, and things above the reach of others.
3. And Satan knoweth how to fetch temptations from the
highest, best, and holiest things, and his malice being as much
against them as against us, he will be here most malignantly
industrious.
Use. We see, then, that pride is such a sin as the holiest
saint is not fully secured from ; no, not when he hath been hear-
ing unutterable words, and seeing the heavenly paradise itself,
no, not if he come down from the third heavens, and bring his
imperfect nature with him. Though he came newly from
converse with angels, much more when he cometh from the
most fervent prayers, or holiest meditations, or most heavenly
and successful studies, and from hearing the most seraphic
preacher, or preaching as such an one himself. He is not out
of danger when he newly cometh from the most self-denying
acts of mortification, or the greatest victory against temptation,
or the greatest sufferings for Christ. What a sad description do
Cyprian and Epiphanius make of the miscarriages of some con-
fessors that had offered to die for Christ.
Let none, therefore, abuse the grace of Christ, and the doc-
trine of perseverance, by thinking that it sets him above all
danger or fears of falling, unless he can say, that he is better
than Paul was, and hath seen and heard more than he did in
174 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE '
paradise ; than Peter *did with Christ ; and Moses and Elias
on the holy mount. Oh, that this age did not loudly tell us, how
much the real, or supposed knowledge of divine things may be
abused to sinful exaltations. By one side, even by most famed
teachers, to contempt of others, and lording it over the heritage
of God, and racking and rending his church by their needless,
yea, wicked, convulsive, imposing devices. And, by the other
side, by hurtful, unwarrantable censures and separations, and
speaking evil of the things which they know not. Have you
heard and seen more of heaven than others ? Be, then, more
holy, loving, merciful, and peaceable, and liker those in heaven
than others. Read over and over James iii., show out of a good
conversation your works with meekness of wisdom ; for the
wisdom from above, neither befriendeth enmity to piety or
peace, but is first pure, then peaceable, &c.
But how is Paul kept from being exalted above measure ?
Clod gave him a thorn in the flesh. Note,
Observ. 9. God seeth our danger, when we see not our own,
and saveth us from that which we saw not, or had not else pre-
vented. Thanks to him, and not to us.
But how doth God do it ? By a thorn in the flesh.
Observ. 10. It is better that the flesh smart, than the soul
be overmuch exalted.
No pain or suffering of the flesh, is so bad as pride, nor hath
so bad eifects.
. Use. Why, then, do we so little fear exaltation? How
greedily do some religious people desire it. How impatient of
any thing that crosses it, and humbleth them. How little do
they lament it, and confess it. Is pride so rare, or so small a
sin, even among preachers and zealous men ?
And why do we so much fear every thorn in the flesh ; every
sickness, pain, or cross, as if pride could be prevented, or killed
at too dear a rate ?, And why do we quarrel with God for our
sufferings, as if our disease were not so bad as his remedy. Who
ever heard you in health cry out of your pride, as in sickness
you do of your pain. It is a happy thorn, which lets out this
corrupt and pestilent blood.
But what was this thorn in the flesh of Paul?
Answ. The Greek word signifieth, a sharp stake, pale, nail,
stub, or thorn, or any such sharp thing, that runs into the flesh,
as it falls out with barefoot travellers, among such thorns and
stubs.
tUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 175
It is strange how many expositors came to take up that inju"
rious conceit, that it was fleshly Uist ; which hath not the least
colour in the text,
1 . Lust would be rather likened to a fire or itch, than to a
thorn.
2. It would he called an alluring, rather than a buffeting.
3. Paul had a life of labour and suffering, which would keep
down fleshly lust.
4. This thorn is given him, as sent from God, to save him
from sin ; but where is God said to give men lust, to save them
from pride.
5. This thorn was the buffeting of a messenger of Satan; but
it is not like, that Satan could so excite lust in Paul,
6. Paul prayed thrice, that it might be taken from him ; it is
not like, that Satan could so follow him with lustful motions,
and that Paul would not have mentioned fasting, and other
means of cure.
7. God doth not yet say, that he will yet take it from him ;
but under his weakness, manifest his sustaining grace, which
sounds not like an answer of a prayer against lust.
8. Paul is vindicating his ministry against accusers, by
mentioning his infirmities, that is, his bodily sufferings and his
revelations ; and is the telling them of his lust a meet means for
this ?
9. It is called his weakness, which is his usual title for his
sufferings ; but you may see, (Rom, vii.,) that he calleth lust by
more odious names.
I doubt not, but it was some bodily suffering which was this
thorn ; but whether by persecutors, or by a disease, is the chief
doubt ; many think that it was by persecution :
1. Because it was by a messenger of Satan.
2. Because wicked men are, in Scripture, likened to thorns.
I more incline to think, it was a fit of some violent pain in
the flesh, and most likely the stone, (or some such thing,) which,
indeed, is a tormenting thorn in the flesh. For,
1, We read of his frequent persecutions ; but never that he so
named them, or that he so much prayed against them ; but re-
joiced, as Christ bids such, with exceeding joy. (Matt. v. II,
12.) And when he and all the apostles so much exhort be-
lievers to rejoice in sufferings for Christ, is it like he would here
tell men how he prayed against it
And as to the reasons for the contrary sense :—
176 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
1 . Wicked men are called thorns, as hurtful ; and so are other
hurting things. Christ had a crown of thorns on his head;
(John xix. 5 ;) and Paul must feel one in his flesh. Any thing
hurtful is likened to thorns. (Job xli. 2 -, Prov. xxvi. 9, and
xxii. 5 ; Hos. ii. 6, and ix. 6.)
2. And Satan is, in Scripture, usually mentioned as God*s
executioner, even in trying his children. It was into his hands
that Job was put ; hurting work is fittest for an evil and destroy-
ing angel. He would sift the apostles as wheat, by outward
affrighting, as well as inward tempting. However, suffering it
was.
Observ. 11. A thorn in the flesh is one of God's means to
keep the best from being overmuch exalted.
You have heard, that the best may need it ;
1 . And the flesh hath so much hand in our sin, that it is fit
to bear its part of suffering.
2. And it is the most ignoble part, and therefore its suffering
hath less of hurt, and less to signify God's displeasure. Soul
sufferings are the sore sufferings ; and it is the soul that is the
chief agent in our duties ; and, therefore, where it is spared,
we are least disabled for God's work, and our communion with
him.
3. And the nearness of body and soul is such, that God
can use the body to keep the soul in a humble, and a safe con-
dition.
Use, Mistake not the nature and meaning of the flesh's suf-
fering. Grudge not at God, if he exercise thus his greatest
saints. Wonder not if the best men have sharp persecutions,
pinching wants, and painful sickness, a long and sharp torment-
ing stone, or other such like thorn in the flesh.
1. It is but the flesh, in our brutish part; common to
beasts. If flesh must die and rot, why may it not first feel the
thorn.
2. We grudged not at that health, and youth, and ease, and
pleasure of it, which was the danger and temptation to the soul;
why, then, should We grudge at the pain, which tendeth to our
cure.
3. If you feel not the need of suffering, you know not your-
selves. Did you know your pride, and overmuch love of flesh
and ease, you would say, that pain is a physic which you need,
were it but to help on your willingness to die.
4. Pain here depriveth us of none of our true felicity ; it
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 177
hindereth not God's love to us ; it keeps us not from heaven ;
Lazarus was in a fairer way than Dives. It takes nothing from
us, but what we covenanted to forsake for Christ.
5. Do we not find that we are better when we suffer, than
when we are high ? Were reHgious people better when vic-
tories and successes did lift them up, than they have been in
their sufferings ? Did they live then more humbly, peaceably,
and heavenly ?
6. The thorn will soon be taken out ; flesh will not endure
long, and therefore this pain will not be long. A few more
painful nights and days, and the porter which we fear will
break open our prison doors, and end these weary, grievous
sufferings.
Use 2. And think not the thorn is a mark, that such are
worse than others. Paul was not worse ; and shall we censure
such as he ?
Use 3. But let us all know the use of suffering ; what cure
hath this medicine wrought ? Blessed be our wise and graci-
ous Physician, we find it a powerful, though unpleasant remedy.
It keepeth Lazarus from the sins of Dives ; from living a worldly,
sensual life, and loving the prosperity of the flesh, instead of
heavenly, true felicity. It keepeth us from a beastly living to
our appetites and lust ', which would divert and deprave the
spiritual appetite. It keepeth us from being deluded by worldly
flatteries, and looking for a portion in this life, and laying up a
treasure on earth, and from growing senseless and impenitent in
sin. It awakeneth the soul to serious expectations of eternity,
and keepeth us as within the sight or hearing of another
world ; and tells us to the quick, that we must make ready to
die, and to be judged, and that we have much more to do with
God, than with man ; and for heaven, than earth. It taketh
down pride, and all excessive respects to human approbation ;
and keeping us still in the sight of the grave, doth tell us what
man's body is, mors solafatetur, quantula sunt hominumcorpus-
cula. Juv. What faithful soul, that hath been bred up in
the school of afflictions, doth not by experience say, that it
was good for him ? How dull, how proud, how worldly might
we else have been, and trifled away our lives in sloth and
vanity.
And it is not for nothing that our thorns (or nails) in the
flesh, are kin to the nails that pierced our Saviour on tl)e cross
VOL. XVIII. N
178 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
and that we tread in his steps, and as cross-bearers are thus far
conformable to his sufferings.
Be patient, then, under the pain, and careful to improve it,
and thankful for the profit. And let not the soul too much
condole the flesh, as if it had not at hand a better habitation
and interest. It is but this " vile body;" (Phil. iii. 9 ;) lent us
for a little time, as our clothes till night, or as our horse in a
journey ; when we have done with them, be content of God's
separation ; and till then, let us not take our corrector for our
enemy. 1 groan too much. Lord ; I complain too much ; I fear
too much; but my soul doth acknowledge the justice, and love,
and wisdom of thy dealings, and looketh that this thorn should
bring [forth sweet and happy fruit, and that all the nails of my
cross being sanctified, by the blood of my crucified Redeemer,
should tend to make me partaker of thy holiness.
But who put this thorn into Paul's flesh ? It was one of
Satan's messengers.
Observ. 1 1 . The sufferings of the holiest persons in the flesh,
may be the buffetings of a messenger of Satan.
No wonder ; he that hath got somewhat of his own in us all,
defiling us with sin, if he also may answerably be permitted to
afflict us. He possessed many in Christ's time, and it was devils
that made them dumb, and deaf, and mad ; whom Christ at
once delivered from devils and diseases. He is called the ac-
cuser and destroyer, and he that had the power of death, (Heb.
ii. 14,) whom Christ by death and resurrection conquered.
Christ calleth his healing the palsy-man the forgiving of his
sin. And James saith, upon prayer and anointing, the sick
should be healed, and his sins forgiven. And for the cause of
sin, many Christians were sick and weak, and many fallen asleep.
I cannot say, that good angels may not hurt men, and execute
God's judgments; but Scripture maketh evil ones his Ordinary
executioners.
Use. Therefore it is no proof, that a man is not a child of
God, though the devil have permission to torment his flesh.
" The devil shall cast some of you into prison." (Rev. ii. 10.)
Please God, and Satan hath no power; and Christ will
take out the thorn ere long, which Satan is permitted to
put in.
But how doth Paul endure the thorn? He prayeth that it
might depart from him.
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 179
ObserV. 1 2. The best men are sensible of the suffering of the
flesh, and may pray God to take it from them*
Grace doth not make the flesh insensible, nor separate the
soul from it, though it set us above it; nor make us despise it,
though it show us a higher interest and better habitation, and
teach us to bear the cross, and resign the body to the will of
God. A godly man may groan under his pain, and take it as a
fruit of sin, and an act of the chastising justice of an offended
Father, and pray against it as hurtful, though not as a remedy.
They that ignorantly dispute that because Christ hath suffered
all our punishment, therefore there is no penal hurt in pain or
death,' confute themselves if they complain under it, or pray
against it, or desire such prayers from the church or any. , Yea,
one use of the thorn is to awaken and quicken us to prayer,
like Jonas's storm.
Use, Go, then, to God in all affliction, but not with carnal,
discouraged hearts. He maketh you thus feel the need of his
mercy, that you may, with the prodigal, think of home, and
cry for mercy, and abuse it no more. Christ did not blame
the blind and lame for crying out, "Jesus, thou Son of David,
have mercy on us;" nor the Canaanite woman for beg-
ging for the crumbs. Is any afflicted, let him pray, and send
for the elders' prayers. The thorn in the flesh will make us
feel ; and feeling will teach us to repent and pray, and prayer is
the means of hope for the deliverance of body and soul. Grace
maketh us not stupid, yet there are some that think a man be-
haveth not himself like a believer, if he cry and pray that the
thorn may depart. What think they of David, in Psalm vi. and
xvii. and Ixxxviii., and many more ? What think they of Christ,
that prayed that, if possible, the cup might pass by him. He
did it to show that even innocent nature is averse to suffering
and death, though grace makes us submit to the will of God.
(We continue men when we are believers.) We must mourn
with them that mourn, and yet not love others better than our-
selves, nor feel their thorns more sensibly than our own. We
must neither despise chastenings, nor faint.
But how doth Paul pray ? Doth he make any great matter of
his thorns ? He besought the Lord thrice that it might depart.
Observ. 13. Even earnest and oft prayer is suitable to sharp
afflictions.
There is a kind of devils and, so of Satan's thorns, which go
not out by fasting and prayer ; no, not by Christ's own apostles.
n2
180 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
The sense and means must be suited to the malady. God can
do it upon one prayer, or upon none ; but we are not so easily
fitted to receive it.
And Paul, in this also, is conformed to Christ, who, in his
agony, prayed thrice against his cup, though with submission.
Use 1. You see here that the apostles' gift of healing was
not to be used at their own wills, not for their own flesh that it
might not suffer, but for the confirmation of the faith, when it
pleased the Holy Spirit. Trophimus and Epaphroditus might
be sick, and Timothy need a little wine with his water, though
Paul had the gift of healing.
Use 2. O let our pains drive us all to God : who hath not
some ? Sicknesses are all abroad : what house, how few per-
sons have not some; and yet is there a prayerless house or
person ? If faith have not taught you to pray as Christians,
methinks feeling should teach you to pray as men. 1 say not
that prayer must shut out food and physic ; but food and phy-
sic will not do, if prayer prevail not with the Lord of all.
Use 3. And think not thrice or continued praying to be too
much, or that importunity is in vain. " Christ spake a parable
to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not wax faint."
(Luke xviii. 1.) Whether God deliver us or not, prayer is not
lost : it is a good posture for God to find us in 3 we may get
better if we get not what we ask. Obey and pray, and trust
God.
But what answer doth the Lord give to Paul's thrice praying.
He saith, " My grace is sufficient for thee, and my strength is
manifested in weakness.'*
L It was not a promise that the thorn should depart.
2. It seems to be rather a denial at the present, and that Paul
must not yet be cured of his thorn ; for it is called a weakness
that must continue for the manifesting of God's strength : and
what was the sufficiency of grace and strength for, but to endure
and improve the thorn ?
3. But this promised grace and strength is better than that
which was desired.
Observ. 14. Even oft and earnest prayer of the greatest saint
for deliverance from bodily pains, may not be granted in the
kind, or thing desired.
For, 1. We are not lords, but beggars, and must leave the
issue to the donor : and God hath higher ends to accomplish
than our ease or deliverance. It is meet that he should first fit
PUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 181
all his actions to his own will and glory, and next to the good of
many, and to his public works in the world, and then look at our
interest next.
2. And we are utterly unmeet judges of matter, manner, time,
or measure, what God should give us for the body, and how
much, and how, and when. When should we be sick, or pained,
or persecuted, or die, if all our prayers must be absolutely
granted ? We know not how much better God is preparing us
for by pain, and bringing us to by dismal death. He will not
keep us from grace and glory because our flesh is loth to suffer
and to die.
3. And this Paul also was conformed to Christ. He was
heard in the thing that he feared, when, in his agony, he prayed
with strong cries; but it was not by the removing of the bitter
cup, but by divine strength and acceptance. And so it is with
Paul; sufficient grace and strength to bear is the thing pro-
mised.
Use 1. We see, then, that they are mistaken that think
Christ's promise of giving believers whatever they ask, will
prove him a breaker of his promise, if the strongest believer
receive not all that he asketh for the body. Was not Paul a
strong believer ? All that God hath promised, and we are fit
to receive, God will be sure to give.
2. Let not unbelief get advantage by God's not granting such
prayers for the body. Say not, ' Why, then, is it my duty to
pray?' 1. You know not before-hand but God may give it:
possibility bids you beg. 2. Why did Christ pray against his
cup ? 3. You lose not prayer ; you draw nearer God ; you
exercise repentance and desire ; you signify your dependence ;
you are prepared for much greater gifts.
Observ. 15. When God will not take the thorn out of our
flesh, and deliver us when we pray, from bodily sufferings, he
will be sure to do better for prepared persons, even to give them
his sufficient grace, and manifest his strength in their pain and
weakness.
It is not for want of love or power that he lets us tumble on
our beds in pain, or lie luider slanderers' or persecutors' rage.
He that with a word could make the world, with a word can save
from all this. But if we suffer not, how shall suffering graces
be exercised ; faith, patience, self-denial, and hope ? Is not
grace better than ease or life ? How shall we get the benefit of
182 A SBUMON PREACHED AT THE
suffering if we feel it not ? How shall grace and divine strength
be manifested to ourselves and others ?
Quest. What is it that grace is sufficient for ?
Answ. 1. Not to set us up above the frailties of humanity and
mortality, nor to raise us to the joy that souls in heaven have.
2. Not to every one alike, but in our several measures. Some
fear pain and death more than others : some have greater pa-
tience and joy, and long to depart and be with Christ.
But to all the faithful it shall suffice, 1. To keep them from
revolting from Christ, and repenting of their choice and hope.
2. To save them from charging God foolishly, as if he did them
wrong. 3. It shall keep them from damning despair. When
Satan sifteth them, Christ's intercession shall keep their faith
from failing. Grace shall humble them, and save them from
sin, and the flesh, and world : they shall cast soul and body upon
Christ, and trust him in hope in their several degrees : and those
that have been more believing, heavenly, and fruitful than the
rest, are likest to have the greatest peace and comfort, espe-
cially in their greatest need.
Quest. And how is God's strength manifested in our weak-
ness }
Answ. 1. It is manifested to ourselves, by keeping us from
sin, and sinking into despair, and enabling us to bear, and trust,
and wait, and usually in the peace or joy of hope. We know
we are insufficient for this ourselves. When flesh and heart,
as natural, fail us, God is the strength of our hearts, and our
portion for ever. (Psalm Ixxiii. 26.) We do not think oft before
that ever we can bear and overcome, as grace enableth us.
2. And it is manirest oft to others, who shall see that power
of grace in the sufferings of believers, which they did not see in
their prosperity.
Use 1. Let not, then, our own weakness and insufficiency too
much distress us with fears of suffering and death; yea, when
we feel the thorn, let us not forget our help and strength. By
grace here is meant, the loving and merciful help of God, espe-
cially giving us the inward strength by which we may not only
bear, but improve the sufferings of the flesh. This body was
not made to be here incorruptible or immortal ; we were born in
sin, and therefore born to pain and death. We have lived in sin,
and no wonder if we live in sorrow 3 but the sufferings of our
Redeemer have sanctified our sufferings. The cross is not now
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 183
such a cursed thing as guilt had made it. "He took our suffer-
ing flesh and blood, that he might destroy by death the devil
that had the power of death, and deliver us who, by the fear of
death, were all our lifetime subject to bondage." (Heb. ii. 14.)
Our pain prepareth us for endless pleasures, and our sorrows for
our Master's joy. When we have suffered with him, we shall
reign with him : he liveth, and we shall live by him : he is
risen, and we shall rise by him : he is in glory, and we must be
with him.
In the mean time, his grace is sufficient for us, not only in
health and ease, but in all our pain and sickness. He is not so
unskilful or unkind, as to give such physic to his own, which
shall do them moreharm than good. Though it be grievous at the
present, it brings forth the quieting fruit of righteousness ; but
we must first be exercised therein. Let us not, then, be his im-
patient patients ; grace can support us and overcome. Men
are not sufficient : our wit, our power, our worthiness are not
sufficient; but God's grace is sufficient. If ease and life had
been better than grace and glory, we might have had them ;
but God giveth us better than flesh would choose. Though the
body be weak, the head weak, the memory weak, the stomach
weak, and all weak, yet God is strong, and his strength will
support us, and bring us safe to our journey's end. Lazarus lay
among dogs, in wealiness, at the rich man's doors, but the angels
conveyed him in strength to Abraham's bosom. We must lie,
andlanguish, and groan, in weakness, but Omnipotence is engaged
for us. We must die in weakness, but we shall be raised in
power, by him who will change these vile bodies, and make them
like to his glorious body, by the power by which he can subdue
all things to himself. (Phil. iii. 20, 21.) Let us, therefore,
*' lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees ;"
(Heb.xii. 12;) looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our
faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.
And let us beg more for divine grace and strength, than for
the departing of the thorn. Grace is better than ease and
health. If the soul be a nobler part than the body, the health
of it is more desirable. Bodily ease is common to brutes and
wicked men : strength of grace is proper to saints : ease and
health, in this life are short, but holiness will be everlasting.
Health fits us for fleshly pleasure, but holiness for communion
with God. Oh, pray not carnally, for the flesh more than for
the Spirit, for earth more than for heaven 1 Pray, that whiie
184 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
the outward man is perishing, the inward man may be renewed
day by day ; and that our light afflictions, which are but for a
moment, may work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of
glory, while we look not at the temporal things which are seen,
but at the eternal things, which are unseen to us. (2 Cor. iv.
16' — 18.) Why should we grudge at any sufferings, which are
for the glory of God's grace and strength : as Christ said of
Lazarus, "This sickness is not unto death (that is, the end of it
is not to end his life, though he die) but that the glory of God
may be revealed." So pain and death are not God's ends, but
the manifesting of his grace and strength.
But, alas ! It is not only the flesh that is weak, but grace it-
self; (as it is in us, though not as it is in God and of God ;) nor
is it flesh only that hath the thorn, but the heart or conscience
also hath its part. The spirit of a man (if sound and well) will
sustain (his bodily) infirmities : but a wounded spirit, who can
bear ? If faith were not weak, if hope, and love, and desire
were not weak, the weakness of the body might well be borne.
If sin and guilt were no wound or thorn in the soul and consci-
ence, we could be more indifferent as to the fleshy and almost
as quietly bear our o\vn pain and death, as our neighbour's.
Though it is hard to say as Tertullian, Nihil crus sentit in nervo,
cum animus est in calo ; yet our content and joy would over-
come the evil of our suffering. But, alas ! when soul and
body must be both at once lamented, this, this is hardly borne !
Lord ! seeing it is thy sufficient grace, and not my bodily ease
which I must trust to, and my weakness must manifest thy
strength : O let not grace also be in me insufficient and weak !
O let not faith be weak, nor hope, nor love, nor heavenly de-
sires and foretastes be weak ! Nor patience and obedience
weak ! Head is weak, and heart is weak ; but if faith also be
weak, what shall support us : at least let it be unfeigned and
effectual, and attain its end, and never fail. Flesh is failing,
and health (as to its proper strength) is failing. But be thou
my God, the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
And whatever thorn the flesh must - feel, yet let me finish my
course with joy. Amen.
I have run over many things in a text so suitable, that I
could not well spare any of them. Those that well knew our
deceased friend, will say, that except Paul's extraordinary rap-
ture, and apostolical privileges, in Paul's case I have been de-
scribing his.
FUNERAL OF MB. JOHN CORBET. 185
I come not to gratify the interest of any of his relations, to
speak to you according to custom of a stranger whom 1 knew
not ; but for the honour of God's grace, and our own edifica-
tion, to tell you what I knew by my most faithful and familiar
friend. It is almost forty years since I heard him preach in the
city of Gloucester ; there was his entrance, and tliere he lived,
(under a papist bishop of the Protestant church, Godfry Good-
man, as his last testament in print professed,) there he abode
during the civil wars, and wrote the history of what happened
there. He was after removed to the city of Chichester, and
from thence to Bramshot in Hampshire, where he continued
till 1662, when, silenced with the rest, he was cast out. He lived
peaceably in London, without gathering any assembly for pub-
lic preaching. Dwelling in Totteridge with Alderman Web,
his great love drew him there, to remove to me, with whom a
while he took up his habitation. In all the time that he was
with me, I remember not that ever we differed once in any
point of doctrine, worship, or government, ecclesiastical or civil,
or that ever we had one displeasing word.
The king's licenses encouraged his old flock at Chichester to
invite him thither, though they had the help of another noncon-
formist before, with whom he joined with love and concord.
God many years afflicted him with the disease that was his
death ; while the pain was tolerable to nature, he endured it,
and ceased not preaching till a fortnight before he was carried
up to London to have been cut. But before that could be done,
in about a fortnight more he died. This is the short history of
his course.
But I will next give you his true character, and then tell you
how like his case was to Paul's here in my text, and then tell
you to what use I do all this.
I. He was a man so blameless in all his conversation, that I
may say as I did here lately of another (Alderman Ashhurst)
that I never heard one person accuse or blame him, except for
nonconformity, and that difference from others in these divided
times, which his book expresses. Of which more anon.
II. Were it not that I have said we never differed, and so
made myself an incompetent judge, I should have said that I
thought him a man of great clearness and soundness in religion,
much by the advantage of the calmness and consider ateness of
his mind.
III. He was of so great moderation and love of peace, that
186 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
he hated all that was against it, and would have done any thing
for concord in the church, except sinning against God, and ha-
zarding salvation. In the matter of the five articles, or armini-
anism, he went the reconciling way, and I have seen a compen-
dium of his thoughts in a manuscript, which is but the same
with what 1 have delivered in my Cath. Theol. but better fitted
to readers that must have much in a few words.
He constantly at Totteridge joined in all the worship with
the public assembly, and had no sinful, separating principles.
He was for Catholic union, and communion of saints, and for
going no further from any churches or Christians than they
force us, or than they go from Christ. He then preached only
to such neighbours as came into the house between the times
of the public worship. He was for loving and doing good to
all, and living peaceably with all as far as was in his power.
Something in episcopacy, presbytery, and independency, he
liked, and some things he disliked in all 5 but with all sorts
lived in love and peace, that did seek the furtherance of men's
salvation. Many parts of conformity he could have yielded to,
but not to all, nothing less than all would satisfy.
IV. In all he was true to his conscience, and warped not for a
party's interest or faction. If all the nonconformists in England
had refused, he would have conformed alone, if the terms had
been reduced to what he thought lawful. And he studied that
with great impartiality.
V. He managed his ministry with faithfulness and prudence :
he took it for heinous sacrilege to alienate himself from the
sacred office to which he was devoted, though men forbad it
him. But he thought not the same circumstances of ministra-
tion necessary to all times and places : he was not for open
preaching to great numbers, when it was like by accident to do
more hurt than good : nor yet for forbearing it, when it was
like to do more good than hurt. He spared not his flesh, but
held on from year to year under his great pain of the stone in
the bladder, till within a month before he died. Much less
would the prohibition of any restrain him, to whom God gave
no such forbidding power.
VI. He served God with self-denial, not with any selfish or
worldly designs : he never looked after preferment or riches, or
any great matters in the world : he had daily bread, and was
therewith content.
Vn. He suffered his part in our common lot, 1662, Aug.
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 187
22, (ejected and silenced with about 2000 more,) with as little
murmuring as any man that I knew, I never heard him dis-
honour the king, nor speak much against those by whom he
suffered, or rip up their faults, unless a rare and necessary self-
defence be called an accusing them. I never heard him so
much as complain how much church-maintenance he was de-
prived of, nor of the difficulties of his low, dejected case.
VIII. He was a great hater of that base pride and envy,
which possesseth too many of the sacred office, who grudge if
others be preferred before them ; and if the people go from
them to others for their greater edification, and think them-
selves wronged if they be not followed and applauded, either
above, or equal with more worthy men : he was very careful
to preserve the reputation of his brethren, and rejoiced In the
success of their labours, as well as of his own, and a most care-
ful avoider of all divisions, contentions, or offences. And he
was very free in acknowledging by whom he profited, and pre-*
ferring others before himself.
IX. He was very much in the study of his own heart, by
strict examination, as his cabinet-papers, which may come to
light, make known, as I had also occasion otherwise to
know.
X. By this examination he was confidently assured of his
own sincerity in the true love of God, and of holiness, for itself,
and such like evidences which he wrote down renewing his ex-
amination as occasion required : and though he had known
what it was to be tempted to doubt of the life to come, he was
fully settled against all such doubts and temptations.
XI. But though he had a settled assurance both of the truth
of the Gospel, and the life to come, and of his own satisfaction
and sincerity : yet, so lively were his apprehensions of the great-
ness of his approaching change, and the weight of an everlast-
ing state, and what it is to enter upon another world, that he
was not without such fears, as in our frail condition here, poor
mortals that are near death are liable to. And indeed, fear
signifieth a belief of the word of God, and the life to come,
much more than dull insensibility : but he signified his belief
both by fear and hope, and strong assurance.
XII. He had the comfort of sensible growth in grace. He
easily perceived a notable increase of his faith, and holiness,
and heavenliness, and humility, and contempt of worldly vanity,
188 A SERMON PREACHED AT THE
especially of late years, and under his affliction, as the fruit of
God's correcting rod.
I have truly given you the description of the man, according
to my familiar knowledge. I shall yet review the similitude of
his case with this of Paul described in my text.
I. Paul was accused by envious, contentious teachers : and
so was he ; though I never heard any one person else speak
evil of him ; as, is said, they that upbraided not Paul with his
former persecution, nor had any crime to charge him with, yet
accused his ministry : as they said of Daniel, " We shall find
no fault against him, except it be concerning the law of his
God.'' His preaching and writings, though all for peace, were
the matter of his accusations : the bishop blamed him for
preaching, even when the king had licensed him : and a name-
less writer published a bloody invective against his pacificatory
book, called ' The Interest of England,' as if it had been writ-
ten to raise a war. The enemies of peace were his enemies.
II. He took boasting to be inexpedient, as Paul did : and
when he was silenced as unworthy to be suffered in the ministry,
he once offered a modest defence to the bishop, and wrote a
short and peaceable account of his judgment about the sin of
schism, in his own vindication.
III. He had (though not the extacy of Paul, yet) great know-
ledge of things divine and heavenly to have been the matter of
his glory.
IV. The heavenly paradise was the place of his hopes, where
he daily studied to lay up his treasure, which had his chiefest
thoughts and care.
V. He found by experience that an immortal soul is not so
tied to this body of flesh, but that it can get above it, and all
its interest and pleasure, and live on the hopes of unseen glory.
VI. As he knew the incapacity of mortals to have formal and
adequate conceptions of the state of the heavenly paradise and
separated souls ; so he submitted to God's concealing will, and
lived on the measure of gospel revelation.
VII. He knew the danger of being exalted above measure,
by occasion of holy knowledge ; and how apt man is to be so
puffed up.
VIII. God himself saved him from that danger, by his hum-
bling, wholesome, sharper remedy.
IX. A thorn in the flesh was God's remedy to keep him in a
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET. 189
serious, humble frame ; three great stones were found in his
bladder, and one small one in a corrupted kidney ; and how
painful a thorn these were for many years, it is easy to con-
jecture.
X. Satan was permitted to try him as Job, not only by the
pain of his flesh, but also by reproaches, as aforesaid, and by
casting him out of his ministry, as unworthy to preach the
gospel of Christ, unless he would say, swear, and do all that
was by men imposed, and the rest of those afflictions, which
are contained in such an ejected, impoverished, calumniated
state, are described in the late and former experience of many
such.
XI. Though I never heard him pray against poverty or
reproach, yet for the liberty of his ministry he did, that he
might preach that gospel of salvation. And pain forced
him to have recourse to God, for deliverance from the thorn
in his flesh. And if Christ and Paul prayed thrice with earnest-
ness, no wonder if continued pain made him continue his suit
to God.
XII. As Christ was heard in the thing which he feared, and
yet must drink that cup, and Paul, instead of the departing
of the one, was promised sufficient grace, and the manifesting of
God's strength in his pain and weakness; so it pleased not God
to take away the thorn from our dear brother's flesh ; but he
did better for him, and gave him his supporting help, and an
increase of grace, and showed his own strength in all his weak-
ness; and also hastened his "final deliverance, beyond expect-
ation.
And now he is past all, at rest with Christ, and all the blessed.
We see not them, but they see God and God seeth us, and is
preparing us for the same felicity ; and if it be by the same
means, and we must bear the cross, and feel the thorn, it will
be wholesome and short, and good is the will and work of
God. Lord, let me not account ease, honour, or life dear to
me, that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry re-
ceived of the Lord, and come in season and peace to thee.
And is not this providence of God, and this example of
our deceased friend of use to us ? Yes, no doubt, of manifold
use.
I. It is of great use to all the land, to good and bad, to
observe God's threatening in the removal of his servants. Oh I
how many excellent Christians, and faithful ministers of Christy
190 A SERMON PRBACrtKD AT THE
have been taken hence within a few months ; the same week we
hear of four or five more besides our brother, and some of them
the most excellent, useful men. And, is it not time, 1. To
repent of our neglect of such helps as God is now removing?
2. And to be presently awakened to use them, better before the
rest be taken away ? Alas ! poor souls, what a case are you in,
if you die, or the word be taken from you, before you are rege-
nerated, and prepared for a better life. It is not so much their
loss and hurt, as yours, which Satan endeavoureth in silencing
so many hundred such ; and it is your heavy punishment, more
than theirs, which God inflicteth by their death. O speedily
repent, before that death have stopped the mouths which called
you to repentance. And it should awaken the best to prepare
for death, and for public suffering ; it seems there is some great
evil to -come, when God thus takes away the best. Yea, if it
should be a forerunner of a better state, yet all, save two of the
old stock, that dishonoured God in the wilderness, must fall,
and it was by bloody wars, (a dreadful means,) that Joshua, and
the new generation, were to possess the land of promise.
11. It is of use to us, unworthy ministers of Christ, who yet
survive, 1. It calleth loudly to us, to work while it is day, for
our night is near, when we cannot work ; death will shortly
silence us all more effectually than men have done. Do Gods
work prudently, do it patiently, peaceably, and in as much con-
cord, and true obedience, as you can ; but be sure you do it,
whoever forbid it, or be against it, as long as God or yourselves
have not rendered you uncapable. Whatever silencers say
against it, necessity is upon you ', God calls for it, souls call
for it. The charge is dreadful; (2 Tim. iv. 1, 2;) your vows
call for it; Satan's malice, and the number of soul-betrayers
and murderers must provoke you ; our time is short : souls are
precious : Christ the chief shepherd dearly purchased them, and
will judge you according to your works. It will not justify your
neglect to say, ' Men forbade me : sufferings were prepared for
me : bishops and famous divines wrote learned books to prove that
preaching was to me a sin, and that I was bound to forbear it
when forbidden.' 2. And it telleth us, that we, as well as
others, must prepare for the sharpest trials from God ; no thorn
in the flesh so sharp and painful, which we may not feel ; no
death so violent or sudden, but we may undergo : love and
hatred are not known by outward events, prosperity, or adver-
sity. A great difference Solomon acknowledgeth between the
FUNERAL OF MR. JOHN CORBET, 191
good and the bad, the righteous and wicked ; him that sacri-
ficeth, (or worshippeth God,) and him that doth not ; him that
sweareth, (perjuriously, or profanely,) and him that feareth (such)
an oath ; some are loved of God, and some are hated. And
this difference is manifest in such disposals, even of prosperity
and adversity, as tend to their greater holiness and happiness,
which shall manifest the difference fully, and for ever ; but out-
ward events manifest it not in themselves ; all such things come
alike to all ; yea, the cross is more laid on the godly, than the
wicked. O therefore, away with the two disciples* desires of
church-preferment, and worldly dignity, and prepare to drink
of Christ's cup, and be baptised with his baptism. (Eccles.
ix. 1 — 3 5 Matt. xx. 22, 23.) Learn daily how to bear slanders
and persecutions from men, even from christian teachers; and
how to lie in fleshly pains, night and day ; and how to die : and
all this in faith, and peace, and joy, at least in the quiet hope of
everlasting joy.
III. And without any disgracing, or provoking design, but
merely in conscience and compassion to the souls of the people,
and of our reverend brethren themselves ; I do humbly entreat
the right reverend, and reverend imposing clergy, to lay by a-
while, if possible, all unrighteous prejudice, and partiality, and
worldly interests and respects, and consider that they also must
die, and as they will stand to it at last, to resolve these ques-
tions : —
T. Whether those terms of church concord and peace be
wisely and justly made, which are too narrow to receive such
men as this (for faith, knowledge, peaceableness, blameless -
ness, holiness, &c.) into the ministry, communion of their
church, or to endure them out of a jail ? Whether wise and
good men could find no better ? And whether Christ ever di-
rected the church to exclude such, or did not plainly require
the contrary r And whether the apostles ever excluded such,
or made such rules ?
II. Whether they think in their hearts, that it were better
all the good were undone, which hath been done by non-con-
formists these eighteen years, to the ministerial furthering of
knowledge, repentance, holiness, and salvation, than that such
should have preached the gospel when forbidden ?
III. Whether it will be peace to your consciences at the
judgment of Christ, that any of you have furthered the silence-
ing of such, and their other sufferings ?
192 A SERMON, &C.
IV. Whether they that have written and preached against
their preaching, or for their silencing, and the execution of the
laws against them, or persuaded them to give over their work
themselves, and reproached and accused them for doing it, be
not engaged in this frightful cause ?
V. Is it not gross partiality, if you will cherish men of igno-
rance, viciousness, or far less worth, while such as these are
thought intolerable, merely because the former are more obe-
dient to you, than fear of sinning will suffer these to be.
VI. V^as that church therein guided by the Spirit of Christ,
which made the canon which ipso facto excommunicateth such?
VII. If you had known as many of the (about) two thousand
silenced, and as well as I have done, how much of the grace of
God shined in them 5 is it possible, that any man, that hath the
true fear and love of God, and sense of everlasting things, could
ever, by any pretences of church government or order, or upon
any bias of interest, have consented to their silencing and suf-
ferings ?
Some will think, that in partiality, I over magnify men, be-
cause they were of my own mind and party. I have, (besides
some pious women,) written the characters, and published the
praises of divers, of Mr. Richard Vines, Mr. John Janeway, Mr.
Joseph Allen, Mr. Henry Stubbs, Mr. Wadsworth, and now
Mr. John Corbet, and lately one layman. Alderman Ashhurst ;
and he that hath now received them, whom such as you cast
out, or vilified, knoweth that I have in knowledge of them, and
love to Christ, whose grace shined in them, spoken simply the
truth from my heart ; and it is in a time and place, where it is
fully known, and feareth no confutation ; and the history shall
live, to the shame of church-dividing, tearing principles, and all
thorny, hurtful dispositions, and to the encouragement of the
faithful, and the imitation of those that in time to come shall
by faith, patience, and well-doing, seek for immortality, and
eternal life, by serving our Redeemer, and pleasing God.
THE
FAREWELL SERMON
OP
RICHARD BAXTER;
PREPARED TO HAVE BEEN PREACHED TO HIS HEARERS
AT KIDDERMINSTER
AT HIS DEPARTURE, BUT FORBIDDEN.
VOL. XVIII.
TO THE
INHABITANTS
OF THE
BOROUGH AND FOREIGN OF KIDDERMINSTER,
IN
THE COUNTY OF WORCESTER.
Dear Friends,
While I was lately turning up the rubbish of my old papers,
I found this sermon in the bottom, which I had quite forgotten
that I kept, but thought it had been cast away with many hun-
dred others. Much of the last sheet was added to the sermon
after I came from you ; and I remember that when I intended
to send you this sermon as my farewell, I durst not then have so
much converse with you, for your own sakes, lest it should raise
more enmity against you, and your displeasing circumstances of
religious practice should be said to come from my continued
counsels to you.
I have lately taken my farewell of the world, in a book which
I called ' My Dying Thoughts : ' my pain of body and debility
increasing, and my flesh being grown to me more grievous than
all my enemies or outward troubles. I remembered the benefit
I often received upon your prayers ; and craving the continuance
of them, till you hear of my dissolution, therewith I send this,
as my special farewell to yourselves, whom 1 am bound to re-
member with more than ordinary love and thankfulness, while
I am
RICHARD BAXTER.
o2
BAXTER'S FAREWELL SERMON.
JOHN xvi. 22.
And ye now, therefore, have sorrow ; but I will see you again,
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh
from you.
My dearly beloved in our dearest Lord,
I WILL so far consent to your troubled thoughts of this unwel-
come day, as to confess that to me, as well as you, it somewhat
resembleth the day of death. 1. Death is the separation of
the dearest consorts, soul and body ; and how near the union is
betwixt us, both that of relation, and that of affection, which
must admit this day of some kind of dissolution, I will rather
tell to strangers than to you. 2. Death is unwelcome both to
soul and body of itself (though it destroy not the soul, it doth
the body.) So dear companions part not willingly. Your
hearts and minds are here so over-forward in the application,
that words may be well spared, where sense hath taken so deep
possession. 3. Death is the end of human converse here on
earth. We must see and talk with our friends here no more.
And this our separation is like to end that converse between
you and me, which formerly we have had in the duties of our
relations. We must no more go up together, as formerly, to
the house of God ; I must no more speak to you publicly in his
name, nor solace my own soul, in opening to you the gospel of
salvation, nor in the mention of his covenant, his grace, or
kingdom, lliose souls that have not been convinced and con-
verted, are never like to hear more from me for their con-
viction or conversion. I have finished all the instruction, re-
proof, exhortation, and persuasion, which ever I must use, in
order to their salvation. 1 must speak here no more to inform
the ignorant, to reform the wicked, to reduce the erroneous, to
search the hypocrite, to humble the proud, to bow the obstinate,
or to bring the worldly, the impenitent, and ungodly to the
knowledge of the word, themselves, and God. I must speak
no more to strengthen the weak, to comfort the afflicted, nor to
Baxter's farewell sermon, I97
build you up in faith and holiness. Our day is past ; our night
is come, when we cannot work as formerly we have done ! My
opportunities here are at an end. 4. Death is the end of earthly
comforts, and our separation is like to be the end of that com-
fortable communion, which God for many years hath granted
us. Our public and private communion hath been sweet to us.
The Lord hath been our pastor, and hath not suffered us to
want. He made us lie down in his pleasant pastures, and hath
led us by the silent streams ! (Psalm xxiii. 1, 2.) He restored
our souls, and his very rod and staff did comfort us, but his
smiting and scattering time is come. These pleasures now are
at an end. 5. Death is the end of human labours, there is no
ploughing or sowing, no building or planting in the grave. And
so doth our separation end the works of our mutual relation in
this place. 6. Death is the effect of painful sickness, and
usually of the folly, intemperance, or oversight of ourselves.
And, though our conscience reproach us not with gross unfaith-
fulness, yet are our failings so many, and so great, as force us
to justify the severity of our Father, and to confess that we
deserve this rod. Though we have been censured by the world
as being over-strict, and doing too much for the saving of our
own and others' souls, yet it is another kind of charge that con-
science hath against us. How earnestly do we now wish that
we had done much more ; that I had preached more fervently,
and you had heard more diligently, and we had all obeyed God
more strictly, and done more, for the souls of the ignorant,
careless, hardened sinners that were among us ! It is just with
God that so dull a preacher should be put to silence, that could
ever speak without tears and fervent importunity to impenitent
sinners, when he knew that it was for no less than the saving
of their souls, and foresaw the joys which they would lose, and
the torment which they must endure, if they repented not. With
what shame and sorrow do 1 now look back upon the cold and
lifeless sermons which I preached ; and upon those years' neglect
of the duty of private instructing of your families, before we
set upon it orderly and constantly. Our destruction is of our-
selves ! Our undervaluings and neglects have forfeited our op-
portunities. As good Melancthon was wont to sf^y, ' In vul-
neribus nostris proprias agnoscimus pennas.' The arrow that
woundeth us, was feathered from our own wings. 7- Death
useth to put surviving friends into a dark and mourning habit.
Their lamentations are the chief part of funeral solemnities.
And in this also we have our part. The compassion of cpndolers
198 Baxter's farewell sermon.
is greater than we desire, for sorrow is apt to grow unruly, and
exceed its bounds, and bring on more sufferings by lamenting
one, and also to look too much at the instruments, and to be
more offended at them than at our sins, 8. But death is the
end of all the living. The mourners also must come after us,
and, alas ! how soon ! It maketh our fall more grievous to us,
to foresee how many must ere long come down ! How many
hundred pastors must shortly be separated from their flocks. If
there were no epidemical malady to destroy us, our ministry
hath its mortality. Your fathers, where are they ? and the
prophets, do they live for ever ? (Zech. i. 5.) This made us
the more importunate with you in our ministry, because we
knew that we must preach to you, and pray with you, and instruct
you, and watch over you, but a little while. Though- we knew
not what instrument death would use, we knew our final day
was coming, when we must preach, and exhort, and pray our
last with you ! We knew that it behoved us to work while it
was day (and, oh, that we had done it better !) because the night
was coming when none could work. (John ix. 4.) 9. And as
it is appointed to all men once to die, so after death there fol-
loweth judgment. And we also have our further judgment to
undergo. We must expect our hour of temptation. We must
be judged by men, as well as chastened by God. We must
prepare to bear the reproach and slanders of malicious tongues,
and the unrighteous censures of those that know us not, and of
those who think it their interest to condemn us. And we must
also call ourselves to judgment. We are like to have unwelcome
leisure, to review the days and duties which are past. It will
then be time for us to call ourselves to account of our preaching
and studies, and other ministerial works, and to sentence our
labours and our lives, and it will be time for you to call your-
selves to account of your hearing and profiting, and to ask,
' How have we used the mercies which are taken from us?'
Yea, God himself will judge us according to our works. He will
not justify us, if we have been unfaithful in our little, and have
been such as Satan and his instruments, the accusers of the
brethren, do report us. But if we have been faithful, we may
expect his double justification. 1. By pardon he will justify us
from our sins. 2. By plea and righteous sentence, he will jus-
tify us against the false accusations of our enemies, and that is
enough. How small a thing should it seem to us, to be judged
of man, who must stand or fall to the final sentence of the
Almighty God. 10. The separated soul and body do retain
i5AXTER*S FAREWELL SERMON. 199
their relations, and the soul its inclination to a re- union with
its body. And though our nearest obligations may be now dis-
solved, and the exercise of our communion hindered^ yet I know
we shall never forget each other, nor shall the bond of love
which doth unite us, be ever loosed and made void. And so
much of our relation shall still continue, as intimated in those
texts, 1 Cor. iv. 15, 1(), xii. 14; Phil. iv. 1, &:c. 11. And the
power of death will not be everlasting, a resurrection and re-
union there will be at last, but whether in this world, I cannot
prophesy. I am apter to think that most of us must die in the
wilderness, and that our night must bear some proportion with
our day. But things unrevealed belong only unto God. It
sufficeth me to be sure of this, that as our kingdom, so our
comforts are not of this world, and that as Christ, so his servants
under him, may say, " Behold I and the children which God hath
given me, (Heb. ii. 13,) and that we shall present you as chaste
virgins unto Christ." (2 Cor. xi. 2.) " And therefore we have
preached, taught, and warned, that we might present you perfect
in Christ Jesus/* (Col. i. 28.) " For what is our hope, or
joy, or crown of rejoicing, are not even ye in the presence of
our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ? For ye are our glory and
our joy." (1 Thess. ii. 19,20.)
But yet the resemblance between death and this our separa-
tion, holdeth not in all things. 1. It is not I, nor any pastor,
that is the church's soul or life. This is the honour of Christ,
the Head. Being planted into him, you may live, though all
his ministers were dead, or all your teachers driven into corners.
(Isa. XXX. 20.) 2. The continuance of your church state de-
pendeth not on the continuance of any one single pastor what-
soever. God can provide you others to succeed us, that may
do his work for you more successfully than we. And could I
but hope that they should be as able, and holy, and diligent as
I desire, how little should I partake with you in this day's sor-
rows. Had I not given you these exceptions, malicious tongues
would have reported that 1 made myself your life or soul, and
take the churches to be all dead, when such as I are silenced
and cast out. But I remember Psalm xii. ^
Though what I have said, and what you feel, may make you<
think that a funeral sermon is most seasonable on such a day,
yet I have rather chosen to preach to you the doctrine of
rejoicing, because you sorrow not as men that have no hope,
and because I must consider what tendeth most to your strength
and steadfastness ; and that you may see herein I imitate our
200 Baxter's farewell sermon.
Lord, I have chosen his words to his troubled disciples, before
his departure from them. (John xvi. 22.) And though I make
no question but it will be said with scorn, that thus I make
myself as Christ, and that I seditiously encourage you by the ex-
pectations of my restitution, yet will I not therefore forbear to
use my Saviour's consolatory words, but will remember to whom,
and on what occasion, he said, " Every plant which my heavenly
Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone,
they be blind leaders of the blind; and if the blind lead the
blind, both shall fall into the ditch." (Matt. xv. 13, 14.)
The words are Christ's comforts to his orphans, sorrowful
disciplcvS, expressing first, their present condition, and that
which they were now to taste of, and secondly, their future
state. Their present case is a state of sorrow, because that
Christ must be taken from them. Their future case will be a
state of joy, which is expressed, 1. In the futurity of the cause,
" but I will see you again."- 2. In the promise of the eifect,
" and your heart shall rejoice." 3. In the duration and invin-
cibility of it, " and your joy no man taketh from you," or
" shall take from you." He had before likened their sorrows
on this occasion, to the pains of a woman in her child-bearing,
which is but short, and endeth in joy. And in relation to that
similitude, the Syriac translateth Xvtttjv, ' sickness,' and the
Persian translateth it ' calamity.* Some expositors limit the
cause of their sorrows to the absence of Christ, or that death of
his which will for a time both shake their faith, and astonish
their hopes, and deprive them of their former comforts. And
others limit the word ' therefore' to the following crosses or
suiferings which they must undergo for the sake of Christ, and
accordingly they interpret the cause of their succeeding joy.
But I see no reason but both are included in the text, but prin-
cipally the first, and the other consequently. As if he had said,
' When you see me crucified, your hearts and hopes will begin
to fail, and sorrow to overwhelm your minds, and you will be
exposed to the fury of the unbelieving world ; but it will be but
for a moment, for when you see that I am risen again, your joy
will be revived, and my Spirit afterwards, and continual encou-
ragements shall greatly increase and perpetuate your joys, which
no persecutions or sufferings shall deprive you of, but they shall
at last be perfected in the heavenly everlasting joys.* The
cause of their sorrow is first his absence, and next their suffer-
ings with him in the world, when the bridegroom is taken from
them they must fast, that is, live an afflicted kind of life in
baxfer's farewell sermon. 201
various sorrows ; and the causes of their succeeding joy, are
first, his resurrection, and next his Spirit, which is their com-
forter, and lastly, the presence of his glory at their reception
into his glorious kingdom. Their sorrow was to he short, as
that of a woman in travail, and it was to have a tendency to
their joy. And their joy was to he sure and near, " I will see
you again,'* and great, *' your heart shall rejoice,'* and everlast-
ing, " your joy no man taketh from you.**
The sense of the text is contained in these six doctrinal
propositions.
Doct. 1. Sorrow goeth before joy with Christ's disciples.
Doct. 2. Christ's death and departure was the cause of his
disciples* sorrows.
Doct. 3. The sorrows of Christ's disciples are but short. It
is but ' now.*
Doct. 4. Christ will again visit his sorrowful disciples, though
at the present he seem to be taken from them .
Doct. 5. When Christ returneth or appeareth to his disciples,
their sorrows will be turned into joy.
Doct. 6. The joy of Christians in the return or re-appearing
of their Lord is such as no man shall take from them.
Of these, by God's assistance, 1 shall speak in order, and
therefore be but short on each.
Doct. 1. Sorrow goeth before joy with Christ's disciples.
The evening and the morning make their day. They must
sow in tears before they reap in joy. They must have trouble
in the world, and peace in Christ. God will first dwell in the
contrite heart, to prepare it to dwell with him in glory. The
pains of travail must go before the joy of the beloved birth.
Quest. What kind of sorrow is it that goeth before our joy ?
Answ. 1 . There is a sorrow positively sinful, which doth, but
should not, go before our joy. Though this be not meant
directly in the text, yet it is too constant a foregoer of our
comforts. It is not the joys of innocency that are our portion,
but the joys of restoration; and the pains of our disease go be-
fore the ease and comfort of our recovery. We have our
worldly sorrows, and our passionate and peevish sorrows, like
Jonah's for the withering of his gourd. According to the degree
of our remaining corruption, we have our sorrows, which must
be sorrowed for again. Sometimes we are troubled at the pro-
vidences of God, and sometimes at the dealings of men ; at the
words or doings of enemies, of friends, of all about us. We
^re grieved if we have not what we would have, and when we
202 Baxter's farewell sermon,
have it, it becomes our greater grief: nothing well pleaseth us,
till we so devote ourselves to please our God, as to be pleased in
the pleasing of him.
2. And we have our sorrows, which are sinful through our
weakness and imperfection, when, through the languishing
feebleness of our souls, we are overmuch troubled at that which
we may lawfully sorrow for with moderation ; when impatience
causeth us to make a greater matter of our afflictions than we
ought. If God do but try us with wants or crosses ; if we lose
our friends, or if they prove unkind ; we double the weight of
the cross by our impatience. This cometh from the remnants
of unmortified selfishness, carnality, and overloving earthly
things. Were they less loved, they would be less sorrowed for.
If we. had seen their vanity, and mortification had made them
nothing to us, we should then part with them as with vanity and
nothing. It is seldom that God or men afflict us, but we there-
fore afflict ourselves much more. As the destruction of the
wicked, so the troubles of the godly is chiefly of themselves.
3. There is a mere natural suffering or sorrow, which is neither
morally good or bad. As to be weary with our labour, to be
pained with our diseases ; to be sensible of hunger and thirst, of
cold and heat ; to be averse to death as death, as Christ himself
was 5 and at last to undergo it, and lie down in the dust. There
are many sorrows which are the fruits of sin, which yet, in
themselves, are neither sin nor duty.
4. There are castigatory sorrows from the hand of God,
which have a tendency to our cure, if we use them according
to his appointment. Such are all the foresaid natural sufferings,
considered as God's means and instruments of our benefit. He
woundeth the body to heal the soul : he lanceth the sore, to let
out the corruption : he letteth us blood to cure our inflamma-
tions and apostemated parts. He chasteneth all that he loveth
and receiveth ; (Heb. xii. 1 — 14 j) and we must be subject to
a chastening Father if we will live ; for he doth it for our profit,
*' that we may be partakers of his holiness."
5. There are honourable and gainful sufferings from blind ma-
licious wicked men, for the cause of Christ and righteousness,
such as the gospel frequently warneth believers to expect. These
are the sorrows that have the promises of fullest joy, not
that the mere suffering in itself is acceptable to God ; but the
love which is manifested by suffering for him, is that which he
cannot but accept : so that the same measure of sufferings are
more or less acceptable, as there is more or less love to God
Baxter's farewell sermon. 203
expressed by them, and as the honour of Christ is more or less
intended in them. For to give the body to be burned without love
will profit us nothing. But when the cause is Christ's, and the
heart intendeth him as the end of the suffering, (1 Cor. xiii. 3,)
then " blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," &c. (Matt. v. 10 — 12.)
6. There are penitential and medicinal sufferings, for the
killing of sin, and helping on the work of grace, which are
made our duty. In the former we are to be but submissive
patients, but in these we must be obedient agents, and must in-
flict them on ourselves. Such are the sorrows of contrition and
true repentance; the exercises of fasting, abstinence, and
humiliation ; the grief of the soul for God's displeasure, for the
hiding of his face, and the abatement of his graces in us ; and
all the works of mortifying self-denial, and forbearing all for-
bidden pleasures which God doth call his servants to, though in
the primitive and principal part of holiness there is nothing but
what is sweet and pleasant to a soul, so far as it is holy : (as the
love of God and the love of others, and worshipping God, and
doing good, and joy, and thanks, and praise, and obedience, &c.)
Yet the medicinal parts of grace, or holiness, have something
necessarily in them that is bitter, even to nature as nature, and
not only as corrupt, such as are contrition, self-denial, mortifi-
cation, abstinence, as aforesaid.
7. There are charitable sorrows for the dishonour of God, and
for the sin, hurt, and miseries of others. These, also, are our
duties, and we must be agents in them as well as patients. As
we must first pray for the hallowing of, the name of God, and
the coming of his kingdom, and the doing of his will on earth
as it is done in heaven ; so we must most grieve for the abuse
and dishonour of God's name, the hindering of his kingdom,
and the breaking of his laws ; that so many nations see not the
peril, and know not God, and have not the gospel, or will not
receive it, but live in rebellion against their Maker, and in
blindness, obstinacy, and hardness of heart, and are given up to
commit uncleanness with greediness; (Eph. iv. 18, 19;) that
so many nations which are called Christians, are captivated in
ignorance and superstition, by the blindness, pride, carnality, and
covetousness of their usurping, self-obtruding guides ; that so
many men professing Christianity have so little of the know-
ledge or power of what they generally and ignorantly profess,
and live to the shame of their profession, the great dishonour
204 BAXTER S FAREWELL SERMON.
and displeasure of their Lord, and the grief or hardening of
others ; that the church of Christ is broken into so many sects
and factions, possessed with such an uncharitable, destroying
zeal against each other, and persecuting their brethren as
cruelly as Turks and heathens do ; that the best of Christians
are so few, and yet so weak and liable to miscarriages. All these
are the matter of that sorrow which God hath made our duty ;
and all these sorts of sorrow do go before a Christian's fullest joy.
Reason 1 . God will have some conformity between the order
of nature and of grace. Non-entity was before created entity ;
the evening before morning ; infancy before maturity of age ; weak-
ness before strength ; the buried seed before the plant, the
flower, and fruit; and infants cry before they laugh; weakness
is soon hurt, and very querulous. . No wonder, then, if our sor-
rows go before our joys.
2. Sin goeth before grace, and therefore our sorrows are be-
fore our joys. The seed is first fruitful which was first sown.
Joy, indeed, hath the elder parent, i7i esse reali et ahsolutOy but
not in esse causali et relativo. We are the children of the first
Adam, before we are children of the second ; we are born flesh
of flesh, before we are born spiritual of the Spirit. (1 Cor.
XV. ; John iii. 6.) And where Satan goeth before Christ, it is
equal that sorrow be before joy.
3. Our gracious Father and wise Physician doth see that this
is the fittest method for our cure. That we may deny ourselves,
we must know how little we are beholden to ourselves, and
must smart by the fruit of our sin and folly before we are eased
by the fruit of love and grace. It is the property of the flesh
to judge by sense, and therefore sense shall help to mortify it.
The frowns of the world shall be an antidote against its flat-
teries. It killeth by pleasing, and therefore it may help our cure
by displeasing us. Loving it is men's undoing; and hurting us
is the way to keep us from overloving it. These wholesome
sorrows do greatly disable our most dangerous temptations, and
preserve us from the pernicious poison of prosperity. They
rouse us up when we are lazy and ready to sit down ; they awake
us when we are ready to fall asleep ; they drive us to God when
we are ready to forget him, and dote upon a deceiver; they
teach us part of the meaning of the gospel ; without them we
know not well what " a Saviour," a " promise," a " pardon,"
'' grace," and many other gospel terms, do signify. They teach
us to pray, and teach us to hear and read with understanding ;
Baxter's farewell sermon. 205
they tell us the value of all our mercies, and teach us the
use of all the means of grace. They are needful to fix
our flashy, light, inconstant minds, which are apt to be
gazing upon every bait, and to be touching or tasting the
forbidden fruit ; and to be taken with those things which we
had lately cast behind our backs, till medicinal sorrow doth
awake our reason, and make us see the folly of our dreams.
Yea, if sorrow check us not, and make us wise, we are ready to
lay by our grace and wit, and to follow any goblin in the dark,
and, like men bewitched, to be deceived by we know not what, and
to go on as a bird to the fowler's snare, as an ox to the slaugh-
ter, and as a fool to the correction of the stocks. (Prov.vii.22,23.)
4. Moreover precedent sorrows, will raise the price of follow-
ing joys. They will make us more desirous of the day of our
deliverance, and will make it the welcomer to us when it comes.
Heaven will be seasonable after a life of so much trouble 5 and
they that come out of great tribulation, will joyfully sing the
praises of their Redeemer. (Rev. vii. 14.)
5, And God will have the members conformed to their Head;
(Luke xiv. 28, 33 ;) this was Christ's method, and it must be
our's ; (Rom. viii. 17, 18;) we must take up the cross, and fol-
low him, if ever we will have the crown ; and we must suffer with
him if we will be glorified with him. (2 Tim. ii. 12.) Though
the will of God be the reason which alone should satisfy his
creatures, yet these reasons show you the equity and goodness
of his ways.
Use 1. If sorrow before joy be God's ordinary method of
dealing with his most beloved servants, learn hence to understand
the importance of your sorrows ! You say as Baruch, '^ Wo is
me now ; for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow. I fainted
in my sighing, and I find no rest." (Jer. xlv. 3.) You are inge-
nious in recounting and aggravating your afflictions. But are
vou as ingenious in expounding them aright ; do you not judge
of them rather by your present sense, than by their use and ten-
dency ? You will not do so by the bitterness of a medicine,
or the working of a purge or vomit. You will like it best when
it worketh in that way as usually it doth with them that it
cureth. And should you not be glad to find that God taketh
that way with you, which he most usually takes with those
that he saveth. Sure you do not set light by the love of
God, Why, then, do you complain so much against the signs
and products of it? Is it not because you have yet much
206 Baxter's farewell sermon.
unbelief, and judge of God's love as the flesh directeth you, in-
stead of judging by the effects and prognostics which he him-
self hath bid you judge by ? We will grant to the flesh, that
no chastisement for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous ;
if you will believe the Spirit that, nevertheless, afterward it
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are
exercised thereby ; and that " whom the Lord loveth he chas-
teneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth/' (Heb.
xii. 6, 11.) Misunderstand not, then, the prognostics of your
present sorrows. Think how they will work as well as how
they taste. They bode good, though they are unpleasant. If
you were bastards and reprobate^ you might feel less of the
rod. When the ploughers make furrows on you, it prepareth
you for the seed ; and the showers that water it prognosticate a
plenteous harvest. Think it not strange if he thresh and grind
you, if you would be bread for your ]\Iaster*s use. He is not
drowning his sheep when he washeth them, nor killing them when
he is shearing them. But by this he showeth that they are his
own : and the new-shorn sheep do most visibly bear his name
or mark ; when it is almost worn out, and scarce discernible, on
them that have the longest fleece. If you love the world and
prosperity best, rejoice most in it, and grieve most for (he want
of it. But if you love God best, and take him for your part
and treasure, rejoice in him, and in that condition which hath
the fullest significations of his love, and grieve most for his dis-
pleasure, and for that condition which either signifieth it, or
most enticeth you to displease him. (2 Cor. iv. 18; Matt. vi.
20, 21.) If things present be your portion, then seek them
first, and rejoice in them, and mourn when they are taken from
you. (Col. iii. L — 4.) But if really your portion be above with
Christ, let your hearts be there; and let your joys and sorrows
and endeavours signify it. The sense of brutes doth judge of
pain and pleasure only by their present feeling ; but the reason
of a man, and the faith of a Christian, do estimate them ac-
cording to their signification and importance. I know that it
is in vain to think by reason to reconcile the flesh and sense
unto its sufferings : but if I may speak to you as to men, much
more if as to Christians, and reason with your reasonable part,
I shall not at all despair of the success.
Quest. 1 . Tell me, then, who it is that you suffer by ; that
hath the principal disposing hand in all ? Is it one that you
can reasonably suspect of any want of power^ wisdom, or good-
Baxter's farewell sermon. 207
ness ? Is he not much fitter to dispose of you^ than you or
any mortals are ? If the physician he better than the patient,
to determine how he shall be ordered, and if you are fitter than
your infant child, and if you are fitter than your beast, to de-
termine of his pasture, work, and usage, sure then you will
grant, that God is much more fit than we. And if he would
give you your choice and say, ' It shall go with thee all thy
days, for prosperity or adversity, life or death, as thou wilt thy-
self, or as thy dearest friend will ;' you should say, 'Nay, Lord,
but let it be as thou wilt ; for I and my friend are foolish and
partial, and know not what is best for ourselves. Not our wills,
but thy will be done.'
Quest. 2. Do you not see that carnal pleasure is far more
dangerous than all your sorrows ? Look on the ungodly that
prosper in the world, and tell me whether you would be in
their condition ? If not, why do you long for their temptations ;
and to live in that air whose corruption causeth such epidemi-
cal mortalities ? If you would not with the rich man, (Luke
xvi.) be damned for sensuality, nor with the fool, (Luke xii. 19,
20,) say. Soul, take thy ease, &c. when your souls are jjre-
sently to be taken from you ; or with him, (Luke xviii. 22, 23,)
go away sorrowful from Christ ; desire not the temptations
which brought them to it. If you would not oppress the peo-
ple of God with Pharaoh, nor persecute the prophets with Ah ab
and Jezebel, nor resist the gospel, and persecute the preachers
of it with the Scribes and Pharisees ; (2 Thess. xiv. 15, 16 ;) de-
sire not the temptations which led them to all this.
Quest. 3. Would not you follow your Saviour, and rather be
conformed to him and to his saints, than to the wicked that
have their portion in this life ? I doubt you do not well study
the life and sufferings of Christ, and the reason of them ; when
you find yourselves so little concerned in them, and so desirous
of another way. And would you not go to heaven in the com-
mon way that the saints of old have gone before you in ? Read
the Scripture and all church history, and observe which is the
beaten path of life ; and whether even among believers and the
pastors of the' church, it was the persecuted or the prosperous
that most honoured their profession, and which of them it was
that corrupted the church with pride and domination, and kin-
dled in it those flames of contention which are consuming it to
this day ; and sowed those seeds of divisions whose sour fruit
have set their children's teeth on edge. Mark whether it was
208 Baxter's farewell sermon.
the suffering or the prospering part that hath had the greatest
hand in her after-sufferings.
Quest. 4. What saith your own experience, and how hath
God dealt with you in the time that is past ? Hath not your
suffering done you good ? Jf it have not, you may thank your-
selves : for I am sure God's rod hath a healing virtue, and
others have received a cure by it. How much is mankind be-
holden to the cross ! When David went weeping up mount
Olivet, he was in a safer case than when he was gazing on Bath-
sheba from his battlements. And when Christ was sweating
blood upon mount Olivet, (Luke xxii. 44,) it was a sign
that man's redemption was in hand : and when he was bleeding
on the cross, and drinking vinegar and gall, it was almost
finished. And if the cross hath borne such happy fruit, what
reason have we to be so much against it ? If it have proved
good for you that you were afflicted, and no part of your lives
have been more fruitful, why should your desires so much con-
tradict your own experience ? If bitter things have proved the
most wholesome, and a full and luscious diet hath caused your
disease, what need you more, to direct your judgment, if you
will judge as men, and not as brutes ?
Obj. But (you will say) it is not all sorrow that foretelleth
joy : some pass from sorrow unto greater sorrow. How then
shall we know whether our sorrows tend to worse or unto
better ?
Answ. It is true that there are sorrows which have no such
promise, as these have in the text. As, 1 . The mere vindictive
punishment of the wicked. 2. The sinful sorrows which men
keep up in themselves; proceeding from their sinful love of
creatures. 3. And the corrections which are not improved by
us to our amendment and reformation.
But the promise belongeth, 1. To those sorrows which in
sincerity we undergo for the sake of Christ and righteousness.
2. To those sorrows which we ourselves perform as duties,
either for the dishonour of God, or the sins or miseries of
others ; or our penitential sorrows for our own offences. 3. And
to those sorrows of chastisement which we patiently submit to,
and improve to a true amendment of our hearts and lives. For
though sin be the material cause, or the meritorious cause, yet
love which maketh reformation the effect, will also make the
end to be our comfort.
Use 2. If this be God's method, condemn not then the gene-
BAXTER S FAREWELL SERMON. 209
ration of the just, because you see them undermost in the world,
and suffer more than other men. Think it not a dishonour to
them to be in poverty, prisons, banishment, or reproach, unless
it be for a truly dishonourable cause. Call not men miserable,
for that which God maketh the token of his love, and the pro-
gnostic of their joy. Methinks he that hath once read the Psalms
xxxvii. and Ixxiii. ; and Matt. v. 10 — 12; and Job xiii. and
XV. ; and 2 Thess. i., and well believeth them, should never
err this old condemned error any more. And yet it is common
among carnal men, to do as some beasts do ; when one of their
fellows is wounded, they all forsake him : so these stand look-
ing with pity, or fear, or strangeness upon a man that is under
sufferings and slanders, as if it must needs be a deserved thing ;
and think it a great dishonour to a man, how innocent soever,
when they hear that he is used as offenders and malefactors
are ; forgetting how by this they condemn their Saviour, and
all his apostles and martyrs, and the wisest, best, and happiest
men that the earth hath borne. And all this is but the blind
and hasty judgment of sense and unbelief, which hath neither
the wit to judge by the word of God, nor yet the patience to
stay the end, and see how the sorrows of the godly will con-
clude, and where the triumph of the hypocrite will leave them.
And yet some there be that are apt to err on the other ex-
treme, and to think that every man is happy that is afflicted,
and that such have all their sorrow in this life ; and that the
suffering party is always in the right, and therefore they are
ready to fall in with any deluded sect, which they see to be un-
der reproach and suffering. But the cause must be first known,
before the suffering can be well judged of.
Doct. 2. Christ's death and departure was the cause of his
disciples' sorrows.
This is plain in the words " Ye now therefore have sorrow;
but I will see you again." And the causes of this sorrow were
these three conjunct: 1. That their dear Lord, whom they
loved, and whom they had heard, and followed, and put their
trust in, must now be taken from them. If the parting of
friends at death do turn our garments into the signs of our sad
and mournful hearts, and cause us to dwell in the houses of
mourning, we must allow Christ's disciples some such affections,
upon their parting with their Lord.
2. And the manner of his death, no doubt, did much increase
their sorrows. That the most innocent should sufl'er as a re-
voL. xvni. p
210 Baxter's farewell sermon.
puted malefactor, that he that more contemned the wealth and
pleasures and glory of the world, than ever man did, and chose
a poor, inferior life, and would not have a kingdom of this
world, and never failed in any duty to high or low, should yet
be hanged ignominiously on a cross, as one that was about to
usurp the crown ! That deluded sinners should put to death
the Lord of life, and spit in the face of such a majesty, and
hasten destruction to their nation and themselves ; and that all
Christ's disciples must thus be esteemed the followers of a cru-
cified usurper, judge if we had been in their case ourselves,
whether this would have been matter of sorrow to us or not.
Had it not been enough for Christ to have suffered the pain,
but he must also suffer the dishonour, even the imputation of
sin, which no man was so far from being guilty of? and of that
particular sin, usurpation of dominion, and treason against
Caesar, which his heart and life were as contrary to, as light to
darkness ? And was it not enough for Christians to suffer so
great calamities of bodies for righteousness' sake, but they must
also suffer the reproach of being the seditious followers of a cru-
cified malefactor whom they would have made a king ? No !
our Lord would stoop to the lowest condition for our sakes,
which was consistent with his innocency and perfection ! Sin
is so much worse than suffering, that we may take this for the
greatest part of his condescension, and strangest expression of
his love, that he should take not only the nature and the suf-
ferings of a man, but also the nature and the imputation of
sinners. Though sin itself was inconsistent with his perfection,
yet so was not the false accusation and imputation of it : he
could not become a sinner for us ; but he could be reputed a
sinner for us, and die as such. And when our Lord hath sub-
mitted to this most ignominious kind of suffering, it is not fit
that we should be the choosers of our sufferings, and say. Lord,
we will suffer any thing except the reputation of being offend-
ers, and the false accusations of malicious men ! If in this we
must be made conformable to our Head, we must not refuse it,
uor repine at his disposal of us.
3. And their sorrow for Christ's departure was the greater,
because they had so little foresight of his resurrection and re-
turn. It is strange to see how dark they were in these articles
of the faith, for all their long converse with Christ, and his plain
foretelling them his death and resurrection : and how much of
their teacliing Christ reserved to the Spirit after his departure
Baxter's farewell sermon. , 211
from them. " Then took he unto him the twelve, and said
unto them, Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that
are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be
accomplished : for he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and
shall be mocked and spitefully entreated, and spit upon, and
they shall scourge him and put him to death, and the third day
he shall rise again/' (Johnxii. 16; Lukexviii. 31 — 34.) And
they understood none of these things, and this saying was hid
from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.
Had they known all that would follow, and clearly foreseen his
resurrection and his glory, they would then have been troubled
the less for his death, but when they saw him die, and foresaw
him not revive, and rise, and reign, then did their hearts begin
to fail them, and they said, " We trusted that it had been he
which should have redeemed Israel." (Luke xxiv. 21.) Even
as we use to lament immoderately, when we lay the bodies of
our friends in the grave, because v/e see not whither, the soul is
gone, nor in what triumph and joy it is received unto Christ;
which if we saw it would moderate our griefs. And even so
we over pity ourselves and our friends in our temporal suffer-
ings, because we see not whither they tend and what will follow
them. We see Job on the dunghill, but look not. so far as his
restoration, " Behold we count them happy which endure: ye
have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the
Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." (Jam.
v. 11.) There is no judging by the present, but either by stay-
ing [for] the end, or believing God's predictions of it.
Use. It is allowable in Christ's disciples to grieve (in faith and
moderately) for any departure of his from them; they that have
had the comfort of communion with him in a life of faith and
grace, must needs lament any loss of that communion ; it is sad
with such a soul, when Christ seemeth strange, or when they pray
and seek, and seem not to be heard ! It is sad with a believer
when he must say, 'I had once access to the Father by the
Son ; I liad helps in prayer, and I had the lively operations of
the Spirit of grace, and some of the joy of the Holy Ghost, but
now, alas, it is not so.' And they that have had experience of
the fruit and comfort of his word, and ordinances, and discipline,
and the communion of saints, may be allowed to lament tlie loss
of this, if he take it from them. It was no unseemly thing in
David, when he was driven from the tabernacle of God, to make
that lamentation, " As the hart panteth after the water-brooks,
p 2
212 Baxter's farewell sermon.
so panteth my soul after thee, O God ; my soul thirsteth for
God, for the living God ; when shall I come and appear before
God ? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they
continually say unto me. Where is thy God ? O my God, my
soul is cast down within me,'' &c. (Psalm xlii. and xliii.) And,
" My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord ;
my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God ; yea, the
sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest,*' &c.
"Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they will be still
praising thee. For a day in thy courts is better than a
thousand ; I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my
God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." (Psalm Ixxxiv.
2 — 4.) It signifieth ill when men can easily let Christ go, or
lose his word, or helps, and ordinances. When sin provoketh
him to hide his face, and withdraw his mercies, if we can sense-
lessly let them go, it is a contempt which provoketh him much
more. If we are indifferent what he giveth us, it is just with
him to be indifferent too, and to set as little by our helps and
happiness, as we set by them ourselves. But we little know
the misery which such contempt prepareth for : " Be thou in-
structed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I
make thee desolate ; a land not inhabited." (Jer. vi. 8.) "Yea,
wo also unto them when I depart from them." (Hos. ix. 12.)
When God goeth,all goeth; grace and peace, help and hope, and
all that is good and comfortable is gone, when God is gone. Won-
der not, therefore, if holy souls cry after God, and fear the loss of
his grace and ordinances ; and if they lament the loss of that,
which dead-hearted sensualists are weary of, (Luke viii. 47,)
and would drive away 5 it will be the damning sentence, (Matt.
XXV. 41,) "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity." (Matt,
vii. 23.) And, therefore, all that is but like it, is terrible to them
that have any regard of God, or their salvation. (Luke xiii. 27.)
Doct. 3. The sorrows of Christ's disciples are but short. It
is but now that they have sorrow : and how quickly will this
now be gone !
Reas. 1. Life itself is but short, and, therefore, the sorrows of
this life are but short. Man that is born of a woman is of few
days, and full of trouble ; he cometh forth like a flower, and is
cut down ; he fleetli also as a shadow, and continuetli not. (Job
xiv. 1, 2.) Though our days are evil, they are but few. (Gen.
xlvii. 9.) As our time maketh haste, and posteth away, so also
do our sorrows, which will attain their period together witli our
Baxter's farewell sermon. 213
lives. As the pleasure of sin, so the sufferings of the godly, are
but for a season. (Heb. xi. 26.) " Now, for a season, if need be,
ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations." (I Pet. i. 6.)
The pleasures and the pains of so short a life, are but like a
pleasant or a frightful dream ; how quickly shall we awake, and
all is vanished. If we lived as long as they did before the flood,
then worldly interest, prosperity, and adversity, would be of
greater signification to us, and yet they should seem nothing in
comparison of eternity : for where now are all the fleshly pains
or pleasures of Adam or Methuselah ? Much more are they in-
considerable in so short a life as one of ours. Happy is the
man whose sorrows are of no longer continuance than this short
and transitory life !
Reas. 2. God's displeasure with his servants is but short,
and, therefore, his corrections are but short. (Psalm xxx. 5.)
*' His anger endureth but for a moment, but in his favour is
life." (Isa. liv. 7, 8.) " For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercy will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the
Lord thy Redeemer." (Isa. xxvi. 20.) " Come, my people,
enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee, hide
thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be
overpast." Thus even in judgment doth he remember mercy, and
consumeth us not, because his compassions fail not. (Lam. iii.)
" He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever;
for he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust."
(Psalm ciii. 9, 14.) His short corrections are purposely fitted
to prepare us for endless consolations.
Reas. 3. Our trial also must be but short, and, therefore, so
must be our sorrows. Though God will not have us receive the
crown, without the preparation of a conflict and a conquest,
yet will he not have our fight and race too long, lest it over-
match our strength, and his grace, and we should be overcome.
Though our faith and we must be tried in the fire, yet God will
see that the furnace be not over hot, and tliat we stay no longer,
but till our dross be separated from us. ( I Pet. i. 6, 7, 9.) God
putteth us not into the fire to consume us, but to refine us,
(Psalm cxix. 67, 75,) that when we come out we may say,
(Psalm cxxix. 1 — 3,) " It is good for us that we were afflicted,"
(Psalm cxix. 71 ; Isaiah xlix. 13,) and then he will save the
afflicted people. (Psalm xviii. 27.)
214 Baxter's farewell sermon.
Reas. 4. The power of those that afflict God's servants
wrongfully, is but short ; and therefore, the sorrows of such afflic-
tion can be but short ; though it be foreign churches of whom
I speak, I hope it is to such as take their case to be to them as
their own : while they are breathing out threatenings, they are
ready to breathe out their guilty souls. If a man in a dropsy or
consumption persecute us, we would not be over fearful of him,
because we see he is a dying man. And so little is the distance
between the death of one man and another, that we may well
say, ' All men's lives are in a consumption, and may bear their
indignation, as we would do the injuries of a dying man. How
short is the day of the power of darkness. Christ calleth it but
an hour ; ^' This is your hour, and the power of darkness." (Luke
xxii. 53.) How quickly was Herod eaten of worms, and many
another cut off in the height of their prosperity, when they have
been raging in the heat of persecution. Little thought Ahab
that he had been so near his woful day, when he had given order
that Micaiah should be fed with the bread and water of afflic-
tion, till he returned in peace. What persecutions have the
death of a Licinius, a Julian, a queen Mary, &c., shortened ?
While they are raging they are dying ; while they are condemn-
ing the just, they are going to be condemned by their most
just avenger. How quickly will their corpse be laid in dust, and
their condemned souls be put under the chains of darkness, till
the judgment of the great and dreadful day ? (2 Pet. xxiv.)
He is not only an unbeliever, but irrational or inconsiderate,
that cannot see their end, (Jude 6,) in the greatest of their
glory. How easy is it to see these bubbles vanishing, and to
foresee the sad and speedy period of all their cruelties and
triumphs ? " Knowest thou not this of old, since man was
placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment ? Though his
excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto
the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung. They
which have seen him, shall say, Where is he ? He shall fly away
as a dream, and shall not be found j yea, he shall be chased away
as a vision of the night. The eye also which saw him, shall see
him no more, neither shall his place behold him." (Job xx. 4 — 9.)
Though pride do compass them about as a chain, and violence
cover them as a garment, and they are corrupt, and speak op-
pression, or calumny, wickedly, they speak loftily, or from on
high. Though they set their mouth against the heavens, and
215
their tongue walketli through the earth, yet surely they are set
in slippery places. God doth cast them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation as in a moment ? They
are utterly consumed with terrors; as a dream* from one that
awaketh, so, O Lord, in awaking, (or raising up, that is, saith
the Chaldee paraphrase, in thy day of judging, or as all the
other translations, in civitate tua, in thy kingdom or govern-
ment,) thou shalt despise their image, that is, show them and
all the world how despicable that image of greatness, and power,
and felicity was which they were so proud of. If such a
bubble t of vain-glory, such an image of felicity, such a dream of
power and greatness be all that the church of God hath to be
afraid of, it may well be said, " Cease ye from man, whose breath
is in his nostrils. "| (Isa. ii. 22.) " For wherein is ho to be ac-
counted of." (Psalm cxlvi. 4.) His breath goeth forth, he re-
turneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish. And,
^' Behold the Lord God will help me, who is he that shall con-
demn me ? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment, the moth
shall eat them up." (Isa. I. 9.) And, " Hearken unto me, ye
that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law.
Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their
revilings, for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the
worm shall eat them like wood, but my righteousness shall be
for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation." (Isa,
li. 7, 8.) The sorrows which so short-lived power can inflict,
can be but short. You read of their victories and persecutions
in the news-books one year, and quickly after of their death.
Use. Hence, therefore, you may learn how injudicious they
are, that think religion is disparaged by such short and small
afflictions of believers, and how unexcusable they are who yield
unto temptation, and venture upon sin, and comply with the
ungodly, and forsake the truth, through the fear of so short and
momentary sorrows, when there is none of them but would
endure the prick of a pin, or the scratch of a briar, or the
biting of a flea to gain a kingdom, or the opening of a vein, or
* Or as Amyraldus Paraphras., " Cum olim evigilabunt, prffisens eorutn
feliciias erit instar somnii, quod somno discusso dissipatum est ; quin etiam
amequam evigilent, iu ipsa ilia ui-be in qua autea florebaiit vauam istam feli-
citatis potnpam, in qua antea volitabant, reddes coutetnnendam, tanquam
umbram aut iniaginein evauescentem ; in qua nihil solidi est."
t *' Nubecula est cito evanescit," said Athanasius of Julian,
X When Julian's death was told at Antioch, they all cried out, " Maxime
fatue 1 ubi sunt vaticiuia tua ? Vicit Deus etChristus ejtis." Abbas Uspar-
gens. page 91.
216 liAXTER's FAREWELL SERMON.
the griping of a purge to save their lives. Oh ! how deservedly
are ungodly men forsaken of God, for how short a pleasure do
they forsake him, and the everlasting pleasures. And how short
a trouble do they avoid by running into everlasting trouble. If
sin had not first subdued reason, men would never make it a
matter of question, whether to escape so small a suffering, they
should break the laws of the most righteous God, nor would
they once put so short a pain or pleasure into the balance
against the endless pain and pleasure. Nor would a temptation
bring them to deliberate on a matter, which should be past de-
liberation with a man that is in his wits. And yet, alas ! how
much do these short concernments prevail through all the world !
Unbelievers are short-sighted, they look only or chiefly to things
near and present. A lease of this empty world for a few years,
yea, an uncertain tenure of it, is preferred before the best se-
curity for eternal life. Its present pleasures which they must
have, and its present sorrows which they take care to escape.
As Christ hath taught us to say about these worldly things, so
the devil hath taught them to say about everlasting things,
*' Care not for to-morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for
the things of itself; sutficient to the day is the evil thereof.'*
(Matt. vi. 34.) Therefore when the day of their calamity shall
come, a despairing conscience will perpetually torment them,
and say, ' This is but the sorrow which thou choosest to endure,
or the misery which thou wouldest venture on, to escape a
present, inconsiderable pain.'
If there be any of you that shall think that present sufferings
are considerable things, to be put into the scales against eter-
nity, or that are tempted to murmuring and impatience under
such short afflictions, I desire them but to consider, 1. That your
suffering will be no longer than your sin. And if it endure but
as long, is it any matter of wonder or repining ? Can you expect
to keep your sickness, and yet to be wholly freed from the pain ?
Can sin and suffering be perfectly separated ? Do you think
to continue ignorant and proud, and selfish, and in so much re-
maining unbelief, carnality, worldliness, and sloth, and yet never
to feel the rod or spur, nor suffer any more than if you had been
innocent ? Deceive not yourselves, it will not be. (Gen. iv. 7-)
Sin lieth at the door, and be sure at last it will find you out.
(Numb, xxxii. 23.) "Behold the righteous shall be recompensed
in the earth, much more the ungodly and the sinner." (Prov.
xi. 31.) " Judgment must begin at the house of God, and
Baxter's farewell sermon. 217
the righteous are saved with much ado." (I Pet. iv, 17, 18.)
God is not reconciled to the sins of any man, and as he will show
by his dealings that he is reconciled to their persons, so will he
show that he is not reconciled to their sins. If God continue
your sufferings any longer than you continue your sin, and if
you can truly say, '^ I am afflicted though I am innocent,' then
your impatience may have some excuse.
2. Your sorrows shall be no longer than you make them
necessary, and will you grudge at your own benefit ? Or at the
trouble of your physic while you continue your disease ? It is
but " if need be that now for a season ye 'are in heaviness
through manifold temptations." (1 Peter i. 6.) And who maketh
the need ? Is it God or you ? Who maketh you dull, and
slothful, and sensual ? Who turneth your hearts to earthly
things, and deprives you of the sweetness of things spiritual and
heavenly ? Who maketh you proud, and unbelieving, and un-
charitable ? Is it he that doth this, that causeth the need of
your afflictions, and is to be blamed for the bitterness of them ?
but it is your physician that is to be^thanked and praised for
fitting them so wisely to your cure.
3. Your sorrows shall not be so long as you deserve. It is
strange ingratitude, for that man to grudge at a short affliction
that is saved from everlasting misery, and confesseth he hath
deserved the pains of hell. Confess with thankfulness, that
" it is his mercy that you are not consumed and condemned, be-
cause his compassions fail not. If God be your portion, hope in
him ; for the Lord is good to them that wait for him, to the
soul that seeketh him. It is good that you both hope and quietly
wait for the salvation of the Lord ; it is good for a man that he
bear the yoke in his youth ; he sitteth alone and keepeth silence,
because he hath borne it upon him ; he putteth his mouth in the
dust, if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him
that smiteth him, he is filled full with reproach ; for the Lord
will not cast off for ever, but though he cause grief, yet will he
have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.
(Lam. iii. 22—33.) All that is come upon us is for our evil
deeds, and for our great trespasses, and God hath punished us
less than our iniquities. (Ezr. ix. 13.)
4. Your sorrows shall not be so long as the sorrows of the
ungodly, nor as those that you must endure, if you will choose
sin to escape these present sorrows. Abel's sorrow is not so
long as Cain's ; nor Peter's or Paul's so long as Judas's. If the
218 Baxter's farewell sermon.
offering of a more acceptable sacrifice do cost a righteous man
his life, alas, what is that to the punishment that malignant,
envious Cainites, or treacherous Judases must endure. What
is the worst that man can do, or the most that God will here
inflict, to the reprobates, endless, hellish torments ? Oh, had you
seen what they endure, or had you felt those pains but a day or
hour, I can hardly think that you would ever after make so great
a matter of the sufferings of a Christian here for Christ, or that
you would fear such sufferings more than hell. It is disingenu-
ous to repine at so gentle a rod, at the same time whilst
millions are in. the flames of hell, and when these sufferings tend
to keep you thence.
5. Your sorrows shall not be so long as your following joys,
if you be persevering, conquering believers. What is a sickness,
or a scorn, or a prison, or banishment, or shame, or death,
when it must end in the endless joys of heaven. Oh, do but
believe these with a lively, sound, effectual faith, and you will
make light of all the sufferings in the way, " Nihil crus sentit in
nervo,'' saith Tertullian, " cum animus est in coelo." (Heb. xi.
25, 26, &c.) The mind that is in heaven, and seeth him that
is invisible, will easily bear the body's pains. Mistake not in
your accounts, and you will reckon that the sufferings of this pre-
sent time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us. (Rom. viii. IS.) "For^our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, doth work for us a far more exceed-
ing and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things that are not seen ; for the
things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are
not seen are eternal." (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18.)
Use 2. And if it be but for a now that you must have sorrows,
how reasonable is it that those sorrows be moderated and mixed
with joy ? And how just are those commands, " Rejoice ever-r
more." '' Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your re-
ward in heaven." (1 Thess. v. 16; Matt. v. 10—12.) "Re-
joicing in hope, patient in tribulation." (Rom. xii. 12.) How
rational was their joy, who being beaten and forbidden to
preach, " departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of
Christ." (Acts v. 42.) " Rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers
in Christ's sufferings. If ye be reproached for the name of
Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth
upon you ; on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part
Baxter's farewell sermon. 219
he Is glorified.'* (1 Pet. iv. 13, 14.) It is a shame to be dejected
under a short and tolerable pain, which is so near to the eternal
pleasure, and to suffer as if we believed not the end, and so to
sorrow as men that are without hope.
Doct. 4, Christ will again visit his sorrowful disciples. He
removeth not from them with an intent to cast them off. When
he hideth his face, he meaneth not to forsake them ; when he
taketh away any ordinances or mercies, he doth not give them
a bill of divorce. When he seemeth to yield to the powers of
darkness, he is not overcome, nor will he give up his kingdom
or interest in the world. When he letteth the boar into his
vineyard, it is not to make it utterly desolate, or turn it com-
mon to the barren wilderness : for,
1. He hath conquered the greatest enemies already, and,
therefore, there remaineth none to conquer him. He hath
triumphed over Satan, death, and hell ; he hath conquered sin,
and what is there left to depose him from his dominion ?
2. He retaineth still his relation to his servants ; whether he
be corporally present or absent, he knoweth his own, and it is
their care also that whether present or absent, they may be ac-
cepted of him. (2 Cor. v. 7 — 9.) He is their head while they
are suffering on earth; and, therefore, he feeleth their sufferings
and infirmities. (Heb. iv. 15.) And hence it is that he thus re-
buketh a persecuting zealot, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?" (Acts ix.4.)
3. He hath not laid by the least measure of his love; he
loveth us in heaven as much as he did on earth : " Having loved
his own which were in the world, to the end he loved them."
(John xiii. 1.) And as Joseph's love could not long permit him
to conceal himself from his brethren, but broke out the more
violently after a short restraint, so that he fell on their necks
and wept ; so will not the more tender love of Christ permit
him long to hide his face, or estrange himself from the people
of his love, and when he returneth, it will be with redoubled
expressions of endearment.
4. His covenant with his servants is still in force ; his pro-
mises are sure, and shall never be broken, though the perform-
ance be not so speedy as we desire. " Know, therefore, that
the Lord thy God he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth
420venant and mercy with them that love him and keep his
commandments, to a thousand generations ; and repayeth them
that hate him to their face to destroy them ; he will not be slack
220 Baxter's farewell sermon.
to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face." (Deut.
vii. 9.) "He keepeth covenant and mercy with his servants that
walk before him with all their heart." (1 Kings viii. 23 ; Dan.
ix, 4 ; Neh. i. 5, and ix. 32.) And it is the promise of Christ
when he departed from his servants, that " He will come again
and take them to himself, that where he is, there they may be
also. (John xiv. 3, and xii. 26.)
5. His own interest, and honour, and office, and preparations,
do engage him to return to his disconsolate flock ; his jewels
and peculiar treasure are his interest. (Mai. iii. 17 ; 1 Peter ii.
9; Exodus xix. 5.) He that hath chosen but a little flock,
(Luke xii. 32,) and confineth his interest and treasure into such
a narrow compass, will not forsake that little flock, but secure
them to his kingdom. He that hath made it his office to re-
deem and save them, and hath so dearly bought them, and gone
so far in the work of their salvation, will lose none of all his
cost and preparations ; but for his people, and his blood, and his
honour, and his Father's will, and love, will certainly finish
what he hath undertaken. And, therefore, his withdrawings
shall not be everlasting.
6. It is for their sakes that he withdraweth for a time ; though
the bitter part be for their sin, it is intended as medicinal for
their benefit ; sometimes he doth it to awake and humble them,
and stir them up to seek him, and call after him ; to show them
what they have done in provoking him to withdraw and hide
his face, that renewed repentance may prepare them for the
comforts of his return. Sometimes he hath such work for them
to do, which is not so agreeable to his presence ; as fasting, and
mourning, and confessing him in sufferings. (Matt. ix. 15.) And
sometimes he hath comforts of another kind to give them in
his seeming absence. " I tell you the truth, it is expedient for
you that 1 go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter will
not come unto you ; but if I depart, 1 will send him to you."
(John xvi. 7.) As there were comforts which the disciples were
fittest for in Christ's bodily absence, so when he will take away
his ordinances, or our prosperity or friends, there are comforts
of another sort, in secret communion with him, and in suflfering
for him, which his people may expect ; not that any can ex-
pect it, who on that pretence do reject these ordinances and
mercies no more than the disciples could have expected the Com-
forter, if they had rejected the corporal presence of Christ ; but
God hath such supplies for those that mourn for his departure.
Baxter's farewejx sermon. 221
Use 1 . Misunderstand not then the departings of your Lord.
It is too bad to say with the evil servant, " My Lord delayeth
his coming;" and worse to say he will never return. 1. He
will return at his appointed day to judge the world; to justify
his saints, whom the world condemned ; to answer the desires,
and satisfy all the expectations of believers ; and to comfort,
and everlastingly reward the faithful that have patiently waited
his return. And when he returneth with salvation, then shall
we also return from our calamities, and shall discern between
the righteous and the wicked, between him that served God,
and him that served him not. (Mai. iii. 18.) Undoubtedly our
"Redeemer liveth, and shall stand at the latter day upon the
earth, and though, after our skin, worms devour these bodies,
yet in our flesh we shall we see God. (Job xix. 25, 26.) " Be-
hold he Cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see him, and
they also which pierced him ; and all kindreds of the earth shall
wail because of him. Even so, Amen." (Rev. i. 7.) Though un-
believing scoffers, shall say, "Where is the promise of his com-
ing ?" (2 Pet. iii. 4.) Yet believers consider, "That a day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years but as
a day ; and that the Lord is not slack of his promise, but long-
suffering." (Ver. 8, 9.) " He will not leave us comfortless, but
will come unto us." (John xiv. 18.) "The patient expectation
of the just shall not be forgotten, nor in vain. (Psalm ix. 7, 8.)
" Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribu-
lation to them that trouble you ; and to you who are troubled rest
with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengence on them
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with everlasting destruction,
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ;
when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired
in all them that believe in that day." (2 Thess. i. 6 — 10.)
2. And he will return also to the seemingly forsaken flocks
of his disciples; he hath his times of trial, when the shepherds
being smitten, the sheep are scattered; and he hath his times
of gathering the scattered ones again together, and " giving
them pastors after his own heart, that shall feed them with
knowledge and understanding." (Jer. iii. 14', 15.) And shall say,
" What is the chaff unto the wheat." (Jer. xxiii. 28.) When we
cry, " Wo is me for my hurt ; my wound is grievous ! " We
must also say, " Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it ; my
222 Baxter's farewell sermon.
tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken ; my children
are gone forth of me, and they are not ; there is none to stretch
forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains ; for the
pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord. O
Lord correct me, but with judgment, not in thine anger, lest
thou bring me to nothing." (Jer. x. 19 — 21, 24.) " Many pas-
tors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion
under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate
wilderness : and being desolate it mourneth to me ; the whole
land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart." (Jer.
xii. 10, 11.) "But wo be unto the pastors that destroy and
scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord. Therefore,
thus saith the Lord, against the pastors that feed my people ;
ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have
not visited them ; behold I will visit upon you the evil of your
doings, and I will gather the remnant of my flock. And I will
set up shepherds over them which shall feed them, and they shall
fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking,
saith the Lord." (Ezek. xxxiv.) " Wo to the shepherds of Israel
that feed themselves ; should not the shepherds feed the flocks ?
Ye eat the fat, and clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that
are fed, but ye feed not the flocks. The diseased have ye not
strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick,
neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have
ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye
sought that which was lost ; but with force and with cruelty
have ye ruled them. Thus saith the Lord, Behold I am against
the shepherds, and I will require my flock at their hands, and
cause them to cease from feeding the flock ; neither shall the
shepherds feed themselves any more ; for I will deliver my flock
from their mouth. Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep
and seek them out, and will deliver them out of all places where
they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And as
for you, O my flock. Behold I judge between cattle and cattle,
between the rams and the he-goats. Is it a small thing to you
to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must tread down with
your feet the residue of your pastures ? and to have drank of the
deep waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet ? And
as for my flock, they eat that which you have trodden with your
feet, and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God unto themj Behold I, even I
will judge between the fat cattle and the lean ? Because ye have
Baxter's farewell sermon. 223
thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased
with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad," &c. Read
the rest. Particular churches may be scattered to dissolution,
but none of the faithful members.
3. And Christ hath his returning time, to the souls of his
servants which seem to be forsaken by him : "Weeping may
endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." (Psalm
XXX. 5.) When he seemeth their 'enemy, and writeth bitter
things against them, he is their surest friend, and will justify
them himself from their accusers. Though they may be trou-
bled when they remember God, and their spirit be overwhelmed
in them, and their souls refuse to be comforted, and say. Will
the Lord cast off for ever, and will he be favourable no more ? Is
his mercy clean gone for ever ? Doth his promise fail for ever-
more ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? Hath he in anger
shut up his tender mercies ? Yet must we rebuke this unbe-
lief, and say. This is my infirmity ; I will, remember the works of
the Lord ; surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will
meditate of thy works, and talk of thy doings." (Psalm Ixxvii.)
The long night that hath no day, the long winter that hath no
summer is the reward of the ungodly j but light ariseth to the
righteous in his darkness, and "joy to them that are upright in
heart." (Psalm xcii. 4.) Light is sown for them, and in season
will spring up. (Psalm xcvii. 1 1 .) The righteousness which
was hid from the world by false accusations, and from ourselves
by the terrors and mistakes of darkness, will God " bring forth
as light, and our judgment as the noon-day." (Psalm xxxvii. 6.)
Our eclipse will vanish when the sun returneth, and our sins no
longer interpose : and though all our inquiries and complainings
have not brought us out of the dark, yet " God is the Lord who
showeth us light;" (Psalm cxviii. 27;) "and in his light we
shall see light." (Psalm xxxvi. 9.) Say then, O distrustful,
trembling Christian, " Why art thou cast down, O my soul !
and why art thou thus disquieted within me ? Hope thou in
God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my coun-
tenance and my God." (Psalm xlii. 5, 1 1, and xliii. 5.) Though
now you " go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy,
God will send out his light and truth, and they shall lead you,
and bring you to his holy hill and tabernacle : and then you shall
go with praise to the altar of God, even of God your exceed-
ing joy." (Psalm xlii. 2 — 4.)
Use 2. Learn, then, how to behave yourselves in the absence
224 Baxter's farewell sermon.
of your Lord, till his return. If you ask me how; — Answer 1.
Be not content and pleased with his absence. You must bear
it, but not desire it. Else you are either enemies, or children
that have run themselves into such guilt and fears, that they
take their father for their enemy. 2. Nay, be not too indifferent
and insensible of your Lord's departure. Love is not regardless
of the company of our beloved. He may well take it ill, when
you can let him go, and be as merry without him, as if his
absence were no loss to you. If you care no more for him, he
will make you care, before you shall feel the comforts of his
presence. Such contempt is the way to a worse forsaking : call
after him till he return, if he hide his face. 3. Turn not aside
to the creature for content, and seek not to make up the loss
of his presence with any of the deceitful comforts of the world.
Let him not see you take another in his stead, as if riches, or
power, or worldly friends, or fleshly pleasure, would serve your
turn instead of Christ. If once you come to this, he may
justly leave you to your vain contents, and let them serve your
turn as long as they can, and see how well they will supply his
room. Oh, see that no idol be admitted into his place till Christ
return. 4. Be not emboldened, by his absence, to sin. Say
not as the evil servant, in your hearts, * My Lord delayeth his
coming,' and so begin to smite your fellow-servants, and to eat,
and drink with the drunken, lest your '^ Lord come in a day when
you look not for him, and cut you asunder, and appoint your
portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnash-
ing of teeth." (Matt. xxiv. 48 — 51.) Because Christ cometh
not to judge the wicked as soon as they have sinned, they are
emboldened to sin more fearlessly ; and because sentence against
an evil work is not speedily executed, therefore the hearts of the
sons of men are fully set in them to do evil." (Eccles. viii. 11.)
But, " behold the Judge is at the door." (James v. 9.) " He
that cometh will not tarry; and for all these things you must
come to judgment." (Eccles. xi. 9, and xii. 14.) .5. Be not dis-
couraged by your Lord's delay, but wait his coming in faith and
patience. Can you not wait for him so short a time ? Oh !
how quickly will it be accomplished. Sink not into despon-
dency of mind. Be not dismayed in the duties or sufferings
to which you are called. " Lift up the hands that hang down,
and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet,
lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it ra-
ther be healed." (Heb. xii. 1 2, 13.) " Be steadfast, unmoveable.
225
always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye
know that your labour is not vain in the Lord." (I Cor. xv. 58.)
"Be sober, and hope unto the end." (1 Pet. i. 13.) " Ye are
the house of Christ, if ye hold fast the confidence, and the re-
joicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Heb. iii. 6, 14, and vi.
11. "Ye have need of patience, that having done the will of
God, ye may inherit the promise." (Heb. x. 36, 1 1 .)
Doct. 5. " When. Christ shall again appear to his disciples,
their sorrows shall be turned into joy : when Christ returneth, joy
returneth," saith David. (Psal. xxx. 7.) " Thou didst hide thy
face, and I was troubled." But (v. 11, 12) " Thou hast turned
for me my mourning into dancing : thou hast put off my sack-
cloth, and girded me with gladness, to the end that my glory
may sing praise to thee, and not be silent : O Lord my God, I
will give thanks unto thee for ever." When the sun ariseth it
is day, and its approach dispelleth the winter frosts, and re-
viveth the almost dying creatures, and calleth up the life which
was hidden in the seed, or retired unto the root, after a sharp
and spending winter. How quickly doth the sun's return recover
the verdure and beauty of the earth, and clothe it in green, and
spangle it with the ornaments of odoriferous flowers, and enrich
it with sweet and plenteous fruits : th^ birds that were either
hid or silent, appear and sing, and the face of all things is
changed into joy. So is it with the poor deserted soul, upon
the return of Christ ; unbelieving doubts and fears then vanish :
the garments of sadness are laid aside, and those of gladness are
put on : the language of distrust and despairing lamentations
are first turned into words of peace, and then into joyful thank-
fulness and praise. The soul that was skilled in no spiritual
discourse, but complaining of a dead and frozen heart, of dull
and cold and lifeless duties, is now taken up in the rehearsals
of the works of infinite love, and searching into the mysteries of
redemption, and reciting the great and precious promises, and
magnifying the name and grace of its Redeemer, and expatiat-
ing in the praises of the everlasting kingdom, the heavenly
glory, the blessed society, and especially of the Lamb, and of the
eternal God. You would not think that this is the same per-
son, that lately could scarce think well of God, or thatdwelt'in
tears, and dust, and darkness, and could think of nothing but
sin and hell, and from every text and every providence, con-
cluded nothing, but undone, or damned : would you think
this joyful, thankful soul, were the same that lately was crying
VOL. XVI I U Q.
226 Baxter's farewell sermon.
on the cross, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?"
that could find nothing written on the tables of his heart, but
forsaken, miserable, and undone ; that daily cried out, 'It is
too late, there is no hope, I had a day of grace, but it is past
and gone/ When Christ returneth, and causeth his face to
sliine upon them, all this is turned into * Praise and honour and
glory unto the Lamb, and to the almighty and most holy God,
that liveth for ever, and is the everlasting joy and portion of
his saints.' And sooner or later, thus will it be with all the
upright, that wait on God in the day of trial, and deal not
falsely in his covenant. The Son who was brought up with the
Father, and was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him,
rejoicing also in the habitable parts of the earth, whose delights
were with the sons of men, doth bless the children of wisdom
with a participation of his delights ; for " blessed are they that
keep his ways."—" Blessed is the man that heareth him^
watching daily at his gates, waiting at the posts of his doors :
for he that findeth him findeth life, and shall obtain favour of
the Lord." (Prov. viii. 30—36.) Though Christ had left his
disciples so lately under fears and trouble, guilty of deserting
him, and seemingly now deserted by him, yet early on the third
day, he ariseth for their consolation, and presently sendeth them
these joyful words, in the first speech he uttereth, and that by
a woman that had been sorrowful and a sinner, " Go to my
brethen, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your
Father, and to my God and your God." (John xx. 17.) Those
that his ministers have long been comforting in vain, when
Christ returneth jie will revive and comfort them in a moment,
and with a word. The soul that now crieth ' Oh, it is impos-
sible, it will never be,' doth little know how easy it is with
Christ. It is but saying, " Lazarus, arise :" or, "Let there
be light," and there will be life and light immediately at his
command.
2. And so when he restoreth his ordinances and order to a
forsaken church, and restoreth their holy opportunities and ad-
vantages of grace, what gladness and praising their Redeemer
will there be ? As it was with the churches upon the death of
Julian, and after the heathen and the Arian persecutions, in
the hap|3y reign of Constantine, Theodosius, Marcian, &:c. How
joyfully did the English exiles return to worship God in their
native land, upon the death of queen Mary; and see the fall of
Bonu(^r and Gardiner, that had sacrificed so many holy Christ-
Baxter's farewell sermon. 22/
fans in the flames ! How gladly did they grow in the soil that
was manured with the blood and ashes of their faithful brethren,
and reap the fruit of their fortitude and sufferings ! When
Christ whipped the buyers and sellers out of the temple, and
would not let them make the house of prayer a place of mer-
chandise, what hosannahs were sounded in Jerusalem. (Matt,
xxi. 15, 16.) '^ When the salvation of Israel cometh out of
Zion, and the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people,
Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." (Psal. xiv. 7.)
" Blessed are they that dwell in his house, for they will be still
praising him. For a day in his courts is better than a thou-
sand." (Psal. Ixxxiv. 4, 10.) " Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy
countenance ; in thy namfe shall they rejoice all the day, and in
thy righteousness shall they be exalted : for the Lord is our
defence, and the Holy One of Israel is our king." (Psal. Ixxxix.
15 — 18.) What gladness was there at a private meeting of a
few Christians that met to pray for Peter, when they saw him
deHvered and come among them. (Acts xii. 12, and v. 14.)
When the churches had rest, they were edified, and walked in
the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.
(Acts ix. 31.)
3. But the great joy will be when Christ returneth in his
glory at the last day. What a multitude of sorrows will there
be ended ! And what a multitude of souls will then be com-
forted ! What a multitude of desires and prayers, and expec-
tations will then be answered ! How many thousand that have
sowed in tears, shall then reap in everlasting joy ! When the
creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into
the glorious liberty of the sons of God. (Rom. viii. 26, 27.)
When all the faith and labour, and patience of all the saints
from the beginning of the world, shall be rewarded with the
rivers of celestial pleasure, and the just shall enter into their
Master's joy. (Matt. xxv. 21.)
That you may the better understand the sweetness of all
these sorts of joy, which Christ's return will bring to saints, ob-
serve these following ingredients in them.
1. It is Christ himself that'is the object of their joy : he that
is the dearly beloved of their souls ; that for their sukes was
made a man of sorrows ; it is he who is their hope and help :
with whom they are in covenant as their only Saviour ; in
whom they have trusted, with whom they have deponed their
a 2
228 Baxter's farewell sermon.
souls ! If he should fail them, all would fail them ; and they
were of all men most miserable ; they would be comfortless if
he should not come unto them, and were not their comfort.
The world cannot help and comfort them, for it is empty, vain,
a transient shadow : it will not, for it is malignant, and our
professed enemy. For we know that we are of God, and the
whole world is in maligno positus, set on wickedness (or as some
think, because o frroy/jpo; is put for the devil in the foregoing
verse, and the article here also used,) is as it were planted into
the devil, or put under the devil, to war against Christ and the
holy seed : and indeed Satan seemeth in this war against the
church, to have somewhat like success as he had against Christ
himself: as Christ must be a man of sorrows and scorn, and be
crucified as a blasphemer and a traitor, before he rejoice the
hearts of his disciples by his resurrection, so the church was a
persecuted, scorned handful of men, for the first three hundred
years, and then it rose by christian emperors to some reputa-
tion, till Satan by another game overcame them by Judas his
successors 5 that for ' what will you give me' by pride and
worldliness betrayed them into that deplorable state, in which
they have continued these 900 years at least : so that the christ-
ian name is confined to a sixth part of the world ; and serious
sanctified believers are persecuted more by the hvpocrites that
wear the livery of Christ, than by heathens and infidels them-
selves. And when the church is so low, almost like Christ on
the cross and the grave, will not a resurrection be a joyful
change ? When itcrieth out on the cross, " My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me ? " will not Chiist appearing for
its deliverance be a welcome sight ?
It was when Adam had brought a curse on himself and his
posterity, and all the earth, that redemption by the holy seed
was promised; and when Satan had conquered man, that Christ
was promised to conquer him. It was when the world was de-
stroyed by the deluge that its reparation was promised to Noah:
It was when Abraham was a sojourner in a strange land, that
the peculiar promises were made to him and his seed. It was
when the Israelites were enslaved to extremity, that they were
delivered. And it was when the sceptre was departing from
Judah, and they and the world were gone from God, that Christ
the light of the world was sent. And when the Son of Man
Cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ? When we see how
vast the heathen and infidel kingdoms are, and what a poor
Baxter's farewell sermon. 229
despised people those are that set their chief hopes on heaven,
and how Satan seemeth every where to prevail against them,
and most by false and worldly Christians, what a trial is this to
our faith and hope ? As the disciples said of a crucified Christ,
we trusted it had been he that should have redeemed Israel ; we
are almost ready in the hour of temptation to say, we trusted
that God's name should have been hallowed, and his kingdom
come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven ? And
oh, how seasonable, and how joyful will the church's resurrec-
tion be after such low and sad distress ? Many a sad Christian
under the sentence of death, is going hence with fear and trou-
ble : when a moment shall transmit them into the joyful pre-
sence of their Lord, and the possession of that which with
weakness and fear they did but believe.
2. And Christ will not come or be alone : with him will
come the New Jerusalem : he will put glory on each member,
but much more on the whole. Oh, how many of our old com-
panions are now there ! Not under temptation, or any of the
tempter's power ! Not under the darkness of ignorance, error,
or unbelief ! Not under the pains of a languid, diseased, cor-
ruptible body ! Not under the fear of sin, or Satan, or wicked
men : not under the terror of death or hell, of an accusing con-
science, or the wrath of God : oh, with what joy shall we see
and enjoy that glorious society 1 To be translated thither from
such a world as this, from such temptations, sins, such fears and
sorrows, such perfidious malignant wickedness, what will it be
but to be taken as from a gaol unto a kingdom, and from the
suburbs of hell unto the communion of blessed saints and an-
gels, and into the joy of our Lord.
Doct. 6. Your joy shall no man take from you : the joy that
cometh at Christ's return will be a secure and everlasting joy.
Impregnable as heaven itself; Christ and his church will be
crucified no more. Look not then for Christ and his church
in the grave. He is not here 5 he is risen. Who can we fear
will deprive us of that joy ?
1. Not ourselves : and then we need to fear no other : our
folly and sin is our enemies' strength : they can do nothing
against us, without ourselves. The arrows that v/ound us are
all feathered from our own wings. But our trying time will
then be past, and confirmation will be the reward of conquest.
tie that hath kept us in the day of our trial, will keep us in our
state of rest and triumph. How the (now) fallen angels came
230 bax'ikr's fareweli. sermon.
to lose their first innocency and welfare, is unknown to us : but
we have a promise of being for ever with Christ.
2. Nor shall devils deprive us of that joy : neither by those
malicious temptations wherewith they liow molest and haunt
us : not by the unhappy advantages which we have given them
by our sin, to corrupt our imaginations and thoughts, and affec-
tions, or to disturb our passions, or pervert our understandings.
Nor by any terror or violence to molest us.
3. Nor shall any men take from us that joy ; the blessed will
increase it : their joy will be ours ; and the wicked will be ut-
terly disabled ; they will be miserable themselves in hell. They
will no more endanger us by flattering temptations ; nor terrify
us by threats ; nor tread us down by their power ; nor hurt us
in their malice ; nor render us odious by false accusations ; nor
triumph over us with pride and false reproach. They that said
of the church, as of Christ, "He trusted in God, let him deliver
him now if he will have him ; for he hath said, I am the Son of
God ;" (Matt, xxvii. 43 ;) they shall see that God hath deli-
vered his church, and he will have it.
Use 1, And will not a firm belief of all this rejoice the soul
under all disappointments and sufferings on earth ? And doth
not our dejectedness and want of joy declare the sinful weak-
ness of our faith ? O sirs, our sadness, our impatience, our
small desire to be with Christ, the little comfort that we fetch
from heaven do tell us, that Christianity, and a life of faith, is a
harder work than most imagine ; and the art and form, and
words of holiness are much more common than a holy, heavenly
mind and life, Christ speaketh many words of pity to his ser-
vants under sorrows and sinking grief, which some mistake for
words of approbation or command. '* Why are ye afraid, O ye
of little faith," were words both of compassion and reproof. I
am sure the great unbelief that appeareth in much of our de-
jectedness and sorrow, deserveth more reproof than our suffer-
ings deserve to be entertained with those sorrows.
Use 2. J will therefore take my farewell of you, in advising,
and charging you as from God, that you be not deceived by a
flattering world, nor dejected by a frowning world, but place
your hopes on those joys which no man can take from you. If
you cannot trust the love of God, and the grace and promises
of our Saviour, and the witness of the Holy Spirit, you must
despair; for there is no other trust.
So many of you seem to have chosen this good part, the one
Baxter's farewell sermon. 231
thing necessary which shall never be taken from you, that in the
midst of our sorrows, I must profess that I part with you with
thankfulness and joy. And I will tell you for what I am so
thankful, that you may know what I would have you be for the
time to come,
I. I thank the Lord, that chose for me so comfortable a sta-
tion, even a people whom he purposed to bless.
II. 1 thank the Lord that I have not laboured among you in
vain, and that he opened the hearts of so great a number of
yours, to receive his word with a teachable and willing mind,
III. I thank the Lord that he hath made so many of you as
helpful to your neighbours in your place, as I have been in
mine ; and that you have not been uncharitable to the souls
of others, but have with great success endeavoured the good
of all.
IV. I rejoice that God hath kept you humble, that you have
not been addicted to proud ostentation of your gifts ur wisdom;
nor inclined to invade any part of the sacred office, but to serve
God in the capacity where he hath placed you.
V. I rejoice that God hath made you unanimous, and kept
out sects and heresies, and schisms, so that you have served him
as with one mind and mouth; and that you have not been ad-
dicted to proud wranglings, disputings, and contentions, but have
lived in unity, love and peace, and the practice of known and
necessary truths.
VI. I rejoice that your frequent meetings in your houses,
spent only in reading, repeating your teacher's sermons, prayer
and praise to God, have had none of those effects which the
conventicles of proud opiniators and self- conceited persons use
to have, and which have brought even needful converse, and
godly communication into suspicion at least with some, that
argue against duty from the abuse.
Yea, I rejoice that hereby so much good hath been done by
you. You have had above forty years' experience of the great
benefit of such well ordered christian converse, increasing know-
ledge, quickening holy desires, prevailing with God, for marvel-
lous, if not miraculous answers of your earnest prayers, keeping
out errors and sects.
YU, I am glad that you have had the great encouragement
of so many sober, godly, able, peaceable minisLers, in all that
part of the country round about you, and mostly through that
and the neighbour countries : men that avoided vain. qn4 bitter
232 BAXTER S FAREWELL SERMON.
contentions, that engaged themselves in no sects or factions ;
that of a multitude, not above two that I know of, in all our
association, had ever any hand in wars ; but their principles and
practices were reconciling and pacificatory 5 they consented to
catechize all their parishioners, house by house, and to live in
the peaceable practice of so much church discipline, as good
Christians of several parties were all agreed in. And you have
lived to see what that discipline was, and what were the effects
of such agreement.
VIII. I am glad that you were kept from taking the solemn
league and covenant, and the engagement, and all consent to
the change of the constituted government of this kingdom. I
took the covenant myself, of which 1 repent, and I will tell you
why : I never gave it but to one man (that 1 remember) and he
professed himself to be a Papist physician newly turned Protes-
tant, and he came to me to give it him : I was persuaded that
he took it in false dissimulation, and it troubled me to think
what it was to draw multitudes of men by carnal interest so
falsely to take it : and I kept it and the engagement from being
taken in your town and country. At first it was not imposed
but taken by volunteers : but after that it was made a test of
such as were to be trusted or accepted. Besides the illegality,
there are two things that cause me to be against it.
1. That men should make a mere dividing engine, and pre-
tend it a means of unity : we all knew at that time when it was
imposed, that a great part, if not the greatest, of church and
kingdom were of another mind : and that as learned and wor-
thy men were for prelacy, as most the world had (such as
Usher, Morton, Hall, Davenant, Brownrig, &c.) And to make
our terms of union to be such, as should exclude so many and
such men, was but to imitate those church dividers and perse-
cutors, who in many countries and ages, liave still made their
own impositions the engines of division, by pretence of union.
And it seemeth to accuse Christ, as if he had not sufficiently
made us terms of concord, but we must devise our own forms
as necessary thereto.
2. And it was an imposing on the providence of God, to tie
ourselves by vows to tliat as unchangeable, which we knew not
but God might after change, as if we had been the masters of
his providence. No man then knew but that God might so
alter many circumstances, as might make some things sins, that
■were then taken for duty ; and some things to be duty, which
Baxter's farewell sermon. 233
then passed for sin. And when such changes come, we that
should have been content with God^s obHgations, do find our-
selves ensnared in our own rash vows.
And 1 wish that it teach no other men the way of dividing
impositions, either to cut the knot, or to be even with the cove-
nanters.
IX. I greatly rejoice, that family religion is so conscion-
ably kept up among you, that your children and apprentices,
seem to promise us a hopeful continuation of piety among
you.
X. And I thank God, that so great a number of persons,
eminent for holiness, temperance, humility and charity, are
safely got to heaven already, since I first came among you, and
being escaped from the temptations and troubles of this present
evil world, have left you the remembrance of their most imi-
table examples.
And having all this comfort in you, as to what is past, I
shall once more leave you some of my counsels and requests,
for the time to come, which I earnestly intreat you not to
neglect.
I. Spend most of your studies in confirming your belief of
the truth of the gospel, the immortality of the soul, and the
life to come, and in exercising that belief, and laying up your
treasure in heaven ; and see that you content not yourselves in
talking of heaven, and speaking for it ; but that your hopes,
your hearts, and your conversation be there 3 and that you live
for it, as worldlings do for the flesh.
II. Flatter not yourselves with the hopes of long life on earth,
but make it the sum of all your religion, care, and business, to
be ready for a safe and comfortable death ; for till you can
fetch comfort from the life to come, you can have no comfort
that true reason can justify.
III. Live as in a constant war against all fleshly lusts, and
love not the world, as it cherisheth those lusts. Take heed of
the love of money, as the root of manifold evils : think of riches
with more fear than desire ; seeing Christ hath told us, how
hard and dangerous it maketh our way to heaven. When
once a man falls deeply in love with riches, he is never to be
trusted, but becomes false to God, to all others, and to him-
self.
•IV. Be furnished beforehand with expectation and patience,
for all evils that may befal you 5 and make not too great a
834 Baxter's farewell sermon.
matter of sufferings, especially poverty, or wrong from menv
It is sin and folly in poor men, that they overvalue riches, and.
be not thankful for their peculiar blessings, I am in hopes,,
that God will give you more quietness than many others, be-
cause there are none of you rich; it is a great means of safety;
to have nothing that tempteth another man's desire, nor that he
envieth you for ; despised men live quietly, and he that hath an
empty purse, can sing among the robbers ; he that lieth on the
ground, feareth not falling. When Judea (and so when Eng"
land by Saxons, Danes, &c.) was conquered, the poor were let
alone to possess and till the land, and had more than before.
It was the great and rich that were destroyed, or carried;, or
driven away. Js it not a great benefit to have your souls saved
from rich men's temptations, and your bodies from the envy,
assaults, and fears, and miseries that they are under ?
V. Take heed of a self-conceited, unhumbled understanding,
and of hasty and rash conclusions ; it is the fool that rageth,
and is confident ; sober men are conscious of so much darkness
and weakness,^ that they are suspicious of their appre-
hensions : proud self-conceitedness, and rash, hasty con-
cluding, causeth most of the mischiefs in the world; which
might be prevented, if men had the humility and patience to
stay till things be thoroughly weighed and tried. Be not
ashamed to profess uncertainty, where you are indeed uncer-
tain. Humble doubting is much safer than confident erring.
VI. Maintain union and communion with all true Christians
on earth ; and therefore, hold to catholic principles of mere
Christianity, without which you must needs crumble into sects.
Love Christians as Christians, but the best most ; locally separate
from none, as accusing of them further than they separate from
Christ, or deny you their communion, unless you will sin. The
zeal of a sect as such, is partial, turbulent, hurtful to dissenters,
and maketh men as thorns and thistles ; but the zeal of Chris-
tianity as such, is pure and peaceable, full of mercy, and good
fruits, mellow, and sweet, and inclineth to the good of all. If
God give you a faithful, or a tolerable public minister; be thank-
ful to God, and love, honour, and encourage him ; and let not
the ipiperfections of the Common Prayer make you separate from
his communion ; prejudice will make all modes of worship dif-
ferent from that which we prefer, to seem some heinous, sinful
crime ; but humble Christians are most careful about the frame
of their own hearts, and conscious of so much faultiness in
235
theniwselves, and all their service of God, that they are not apt
to accuse and aggravate the failings of others, especially in
matters which God has left to our own determination.
Whether we shall pray with a book, or without, in divers short
prayers, or one long one ; whether the people shall sing God's
praise in tunes, or speak it in prose, &c., is left to be determined
by the general rules of concord, order, and edification. Yet do
not withdraw from the communion of soberly, godly non-con-
formists, though falsely called schismatics by others.
VII. Be sure that you maintain due honour and subjection to
your governors : ^' Fear the Lord and the king, and meddle not
with them that are given to change,^' (Prov. xxiv, 21.) And
that in regard of the oath of God, (Eccles, viii. 2,) " Curse not
the king, no not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy
bed-chamber ; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and
that which hath wings [^shall tell the matter." (Eccles. x, 20.)
Obey God with your first and absolute obedience, and no man
against him, but obey the just commands of magistrates, and
that out of obedience to God ; and suffer patiently when you
cannot obey. And if God should ever cast you under oppress-
ing and persecuting governors, in your patience possess your
souls; trust God and keep your innocency, and abhor all
thoughts of rebellion or revenge ; he that believeth will not
make haste. Do nothing but what God will own, and then
commit yourselves and your way to him. Repress wrath, and
hate unpeaceable counsels ; our way and our time must be only
God's way and time. Self-saving men are usually the de-
stroyers of themselves and others. Peter, that drew his sword
for Christ, denied him the same night, with oaths and curses.
Fools trust themselves, and wise men trust God : fools tear
the tree, by beating down the fruit that is unripe and harsh ;
and wise men stay till it is ripe and sweet, and will drop into
their hands : fools rip up the mother for an untimely birth ; but
wise men stay till maturity give it them. Fools take red-hot
iron to be gold, till it burn their fingers to the bone ; they rush
into seditions and blood, as if it were a matter of jest; but wise
men sow the fruit of righteousness in peace, and as much as in
them lieth, live peaceably with all men : all men are mortal,
both oppressors and oppressed : stay a little, and mortality will
change the scene; God's time is best. Martyrdom seldom
killeth the hundredth part so many as wars do : and he is no true
believer that taketh martyrdom to be his loss : and Christ is
236 Baxter's farewell sermon.
more interested in his gospel^ church, and honour than we.
Queen Mary's cruelties, and the bishops' bonfires, made reli-
gion universally received the more easily when her short reign
was ended. We may learn wit of the fool, that seeing great
guns and muskets, asked, what they were to do ; and the an-
swerer said to ' kill men :' saith he, ' Do not men die here
without killing ? In our country they will die of themselves.'
VIII. Be sure that you keep up family religion ; especially
in the careful education of youth. Keep them from evil com-
pany, and from temptations ; and especially of idleness, fulness,
and baits of lust. Read the Scripture and good books, and
call upon God, and sing his praise; and recreate youth with
reading the history of the church, and the lives of holy men
and martyrs : instruct them in catechisms and fundamentals.
IX. Above all, live in love to God and man ; and let not self-
ishness and worldliness prevail against it. Think of God's
goodness, as equal to his greatness and wisdom ; and take your-
selves as members of the same body with all true Christians.
Blessed are they that faithfully practise those three grand prin-
ciples which all profess, viz., 1. To love God as God above all,
(and so to obey him.) 2. To love our neighbours as ourselves.
3. And to do as we would be done by. Love is not envious,
malignant, censorious; it slandereth not; it persecuteth not; it
oppresseth not ; it defraudeth not ; it striveth not to gain by
another's loss : get men once to love their neighbours as them-
selves, and you may easily prognosticate peace, quietness,
and concord ; happiness to the land ; and salvation to the
people's souls.
Finally, brethren, live in love, and the God of love and peace
shall be among you. The Lord save you from the evils of
which I have here, and often warned you. Remember with
thankfulness, the many years of abundant mercy which we have
enjoyed, (though too much mixed with our sins, and vilified by
some.) " Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another,
even as also ye do ; and 1 beseech you, brethren, to know them
which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and
admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love, for their
work sake, and be at peace among yourselves." (I Thess. v.
11 — 13.) And the Lord deeply write on all our hearts these
blessed words, " We have known and believed the love that God
hath to us : God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dvvelleth
in Godj and God in him." (I John iv. 16.) And remember,
I
Baxter's farewell sermon. 237
" Seeing all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
looking for and hasting the coming of the day of God, wherein
the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat ; nevertheless we, according to his
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter iii. 11 — 13.)
I need not lengthen my comisels further to you now, having been
called by the will and providence of God to leave behind me a
multitude of books, which may remember you of what you
heard, and acquaint the world what doctrine I have taught you,
and if longer studies shall teach me to retract and amend many
failings, in the writings or practice of my unripe, and less un-
experienced age, as it will be to myself as pleasing as the cure
of bodily disease, 1 hope it will not seem strange or ungrateful
to you ; though we must hold fast the truth which we have re-
ceived, both you and 1 are much to be blamed, if we grow not
in knowledge, both in matter, words, and method : the Lord
grant that also we may grow in faith, obedience, patience in
hope, love, and desire to be with Christ.
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the
blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every
good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well-
pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory
for ever and ever. Amen. (Heb. xiii. 20, 21.)
MR. BAXTER'S
DYING THOUGHTS
UPON
PHILIPPIANS i. 23.
WRITTEN FOR HIS OWN USE IN THE LATTER TIMES OF HIS
CORPORAL PAINS AND WEAKNESS.
THE
PREFACE TO THE READER.
Readeii,
I HAVE no other use for a preface to this book, but to give you
a true excuse for its publication. I wrote it for myself, unre-
solved whether any one should ever see it, but at last inclined
to leave that to the will of my executors, to publish or suppress
it when I am dead, as they saw cause. But my person being
seized on, and my library, and all my goods distrained on by
constables, and sold, and I constrained to 'relinquish my house,
(for preaching and being in London,) I knew not what to do
with multitudes of manuscripts that had long lain by me ; hav-
ing no house to go to, but a narrow hired lodging with stran-
gers : wherefore I cast away whole volumes, which I could not
carry away, both controversies and letters practical, and cases of
conscience, but having newly lain divers weeks, night and day^
in waking torments, nephritic and colic, after other long
pains and languor, I took this book with me in my removal, for
my own use in my further sickness. Three weeks after, falling
into another extreme fit, and expecting death, where I had no
friend with me to commit my papers to, merely lest it should
be lost, I thought best to give it to the printer. I think it is so
much of the work of all men's lives to prepare to die with safety
and comfort, that the same thoughts may be needful for others
that are so for me. If any mislike the title, as if it imported
that the author is dead, let him know that I die daily, and that
which quickly will be, almost is : it is suited to my own use :
they that it is unsuitable to, may pass it by. If those men's
lives were spent in serious, preparing thoughts of death, who are
now studying to destroy each other, and tear in pieces a dis-
tressed land, they would prevent much dolorous repentance.
RICHARRD BAXTER.
VOL. XVI 11,
The exercise of three sorts of love, to God, to others^ and to
myself, afford me a threefold satisfaction, conjunct, to be will-
ing to depart.
I. I am sure my departure will be the fulfilling of that will
which is love itself, which I am bound, above all things, to love
and please, and which is the beginning, rule, and end of all.
Antonine could hence fetch good thoughts of death.
II. The world dieth not with me when I die; nor the church,
nor the praise and glory of God, which he will have in and from
this world unto the end : and if 1 love others as myself, their
lives and comforts will now be to my thoughts, as if I were to
live myself in them. God will be praised and honoured by pos-
terity when I am dead and gone. Were I to be annihilated,
this would comfort me. now, if I lived and died in perfect
love.
III. But a better and glorious world is before me, into which
I hope, by death, to be translated, whither all these three sorts
of love should wrap up the desires of my ascending soul ; even
the love of myself, that I may be fully happy ; the love of the
triumphant church, Christ, angels, and glorified man, and the
glory of all the universe, which I shall see ; and above all, the
love of the most glorious God, infinite life, and light, and love,
the ultimate, amiable object of man's love ; in whom to be per-
fectly pleased and delighted, and to whom to be perfectly plea-
sing for ever, is the chief and ultimate end of me, and of the
^ highest, wisest, and best of creatures. Amen.
THE INTRODUCTION
PHIL. i. 23.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, &c.
I WRITE for myself, and therefore, supposing the sense of the
text, shall only observe what is useful to my heart and practice.
It was a happy state into which grace had brought this apos-
tle, who saw so much, not only tolerable, but greatly desirable,
both in living and dying. To live, to him, was Christ, that is,
Christ's interest, or work. To die would be gain, that is, his
own interest and reward. His strait was not whether it would
be good to live or good to depart, both were good, but which
was more desirable was the doubt.
I. Quest. But was there any doubt to be made between
Christ's interest and his own ? Answ. No, if it had been a full
and fixed competition ; but by Christ, or Christ's interest, he
meaneth his work for his church's interest in this world; but
he knew that Christ also had an interest in his saints above, and
that he could raise up more to serve him here; yet, because
he was to judge by what' appeared, and he saw a defect of such
on earth, this did turn the scales in his choice; and for the work
of Christ and his church's good, he more inclined to the delay
of his reward, by self-denial ; yet knowing that the delay would
tend to its increase. It is useful to me here to note.
That, even in this world, short of death, there is some good
so much to be regarded, as may justly prevail with believers to
prefer it before the present hastening of their reward.
J the rather note this, that no temptation carry me into that
extreme, of taking nothing but heaven to be worthy of our
minding or regard, and so to cast off the world in a sinful sort,
on pretence of mortification, and a heavenly mind, and life,
I. As to the sense, the meaning is not that any thing on earth
is better than heaven, or simply, and in itself, to be preferred
before it. The end is better than the means as such, and per-
fection better than imperfection.
r2
244 INTRODUCTION.
But the present use of the means may be preferred sometimes
before the present possession of the end, and the use of means
for a higher end may be preferred before the present possession
of a lower end, and every thing hath its season. Planting, and
sowing, and building, are not so good as reaping, and fruit-
gathering, and dwelling, but in their season, they must be first
done.
II. Quest. But what is there so desirable in this life ?
Answ. I. While it continueth, it is the fulfilling of the will
of God, who will have us here ; and that is best which God
willeth.
II. The life to come dependeth upon this, as the life of man
in the world upon his generation in the womb ; or as the reward
upon the work ; or the runner's or soldier's prize upon his race
or fighting ; or as the merchant's gain upon his voyage. Heaven
is won or lost on earth. The possession is there, but the pre-
paration is here. Christ will judge all men according to their
works on earth. " Well done, good and faithful servant,"
must go before " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'' " I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,'* goeth
before " the crown of righteousness which God, the righteous
Judge, will give." All that ever must be done for salvation by
us, must here be done. It was on earth that Christ himself
wrought the work of our redemption, fulfilled all righteousness,
became our ransom, and paid the price of our salvation, and it
is here that our part is to be done.
And the bestowing of the reward is -God's work, who, we are
sure, will never fail. There is no place for the least suspicion
or fear of his misdoing, or failing, in any of his undertaken work.
But the danger and fear is of our own miscarrying, lest we be
not found capable of receiving what God will certainly give to
all that are disposed receivers. To distrust God is heinous sin
and folly, but to distrust ourselves we have great cause. So that
if we will make sure of heaven, it must be by giving all diligence
to make firm our title, our calling, and our election, here on
earth. If we fear hell, we must fear being prepared for it.
And it is great and difficult work that must be here done. It
is here that we must be cured of all damning sin ; that we must
be regenerate and new born ; that we must be pardoned and
justified by faith. It is here that we must be united to Christ,
made wise to salvation, renewed by his Spirit, and conformed
to his likeness. It is here that we must overcome all the tempt-
INTRODUCTION. 245
ations of the devil, the world, and the flesh, and perform all
the duties towards God and man, that must be rewarded. It
is here that Christ must be believed in with the heart to right-
eousness, and with the mouth confessed to salvation. It is here
that we must suffer with him, that we may reign with him, and
be faithful to the death, that we may receive the crown of life.
Here we must so run that we may obtain.
III. \ea, we have greater work here to do than mere securing
our own salvation. We are members of the world and church,
and we must labour to do good to many. We are trusted with
our Master's talents for his service, in our places to do our best
to propagate his truth, and grace, and church ; and to bring
home souls, and honour his cause, and edify his flock, and further
the salvation of as many as we can. All this is to be done on
earth, if we will secure the end of all in heaven.
Use 1. It is, then, an error (though it is but few, I think, that
are guilty of it,) to think that all religion lieth in minding only
the life to come, and disregarding all things in this present life,
all true Christians must seriously mind both the end and the
means, or way. If they mind not, believingly, the end, they will
never be faithful in the use of means. If they mind not, and
use not diligently, the means, they will never obtain the end.
None can use earth well that prefer not heaven, and none come
to heaven , at age, that are not prepared by well using earth.
Heaven must have the deepest esteem, and habituated love, and
desire, and joy ; but earth must have more'of our daily thoughts
for present practice. A man that travelleth to the most de-
sirable home, hath a habit of desire to it all the way, but his
present business is his travel ; and horse, and company, and inns,
and ways, and weariness, &c., may take up more of his sensible
thoughts, and of his talk, and action, than his home.
Use 2. I have oft marvelled to find David, in the Psalms, and
other saints, before Christ's coming, to have expressed so great
a sense of the things of this present life, and to have said so
little of another. To have made so great a matter of prosperity,
dominions, and victories, on one hand, and of enemies, success,
and persecution, on the other. But I consider that it was not for
mere personal, carnal interest, Ijut for the church of God, and
for his honour, word, and worship. And they knew that if things
go well with us on earth, they will be sure to go well in heaven.
If the militant church prosper in holiness, there is no doubt
but it will triumph in glory. God will be sure to do his part in
246 INTRODUCTION.
receiving souls, if they he here prepared for his receipt. And
Satan doth much of his damning work by men ; if we escape their
temptations, we escape much of our danger. If idolaters pros-
pered, Israel was tempted to idolatry. The Greek church is
almost swallowed up by Turkish prosperity and dominion. Most
follow the powerful and prosperous side. And, therefore, for
God's cause, and for heavenly, everlasting interest, our own state,
but much more the church's, must be greatly regarded here on
earth.
Indeed, if earth be desired only for earth, and prosperity
loved but for the present welfare of the flesh, it is the certain
mark of damning carnality, and an earthly mind. But to desire
peace, and prosperity, and power, to be in the hands of wise and
faithful men, for the sake of souls, and the increase of the church,
and the honour of God, that his name may be hallowed, his
kingdom come, and his will done on earth, as it is in heaven.
This is to be the chief of our prayers to God.
Use 3. Be not unthankful, then, O my soul, for the mercies
of this present life, for those to thy body, to thy friends, to the
land of thy nativity, and especially to the church of God.
1, This body is so nearly united to thee, that it must needs
be a great help, or hinderance. Had it been more afflicted, it
might have been a discouraging clog ; like a tired horse in a
journey, or an ill tool to a workman, or an untuned instrument
in music. A sick ot bad servant in an house is a great trouble,
and a bad wife much more, but thy body is nearer thee than
either, and will be more of thy concern.
And yet if it had been more strong and healthful, sense and
appetite would have been strong, and lust would have been
strong, and therefore danger would have been greater, and vic-
tory and salvation much more difficult. Even weak senses and
temptations have too oft prevailed. How knowest thou, then,
what stronger might have done ? When I see a thirsty man in
a fever or dropsy, and especially when I see strong and healthful
youths, bred up in fulness, and among temptations, how mad
they are in sin, and how violently they are carried to it, bearing
down God's rebukes, and conscience, and parents, and friends,
and all regard to their salvation, it tells me how great a mercy
I had, even in a body not liable to their case.
And many a bodily deliverance hath been of great use to my
soul, renewing my time, and opportunity, and strength, for ser*
vice, and bringing frequent and fresh reports of the love of God.
INTRODUCTION. 247
ff bodily mercies were not of great use to the soul, Christ
would not so much have showed his saving love, by healing all
manner of diseases, as he did. Nor would God promise us a
resurrection of the body, if a congruous body did not further the
welfare of the soul.
2. And 1 am obliged to great thankfulness to God for the
mercies of this life which he hath showed to my friends ; that
which furthers their joy should increase mine, f ought to re-
joice with them that rejoice. Nature and grace teach us to be
glad when our friends are well, and prosper, though all in order to
better things than bodily welfare.
3. i\nd such mercies of this life to the land of our habitation
must not be undervalued. The want of them are parts of
God's threatened curse ; and godliness hath the promise of this
life, and of that which is to come, and so is profitable to all
things. And when God sends on a land the plagues of famine,
pestilence, war, persecution, especially a famine of the word of
God, it is a great sin to be insensible of it. If any shall say,
' while heaven is sure, we have no cause to accuse God, or to
cast away comfort, hope, or duty,* they say well ; but if they
say, ' because heaven is all, we must make light of all that be-
falleth us on earth,' they say amiss.
Good princes, magistrates, and public-spirited men that pro-
mote the safety, peace, and true prosperity of the common-
wealth, do hereby very much befriend religion, and men's sal-
vation ; and are greatly to be loved and honoured by all. If the
civil state, called the commonwealth, do miscarry, or fall into
ruin and calamity, the church will fare the worse for it, as the
soul doth by the ruins of the body. The Turkish, Muscovite,
and such other empires, tell us, how the church consumeth, and
dwindles away into contempt, or withered ceremony and form-
ality, where tyranny brings slavery, beggary, or long persecution
on the subjects. Doubtless, divers passages in the Revelations
contain the church's glorifying of God, for their power and
prosperity on earth, when emperors became Christians : what
else can be meant well by Rev. ix. 10, " Hath made us kings
and priests to God, and we shall reign on the earth". But
that Christians shall be brought from under heathen persecu-
tion, and have rule and sacred honour in the world, some of them
being princes ; some honoured church guides ; and all a peculiar,
honoured people. And had not Satan found out that cursed
way of getting wicked men, that hate true godliness and peace.
248 INTRODUCTION.
into the sacred places of princes and pastors, to do his work
against Cluist, as in Chijst's name ; surely no good Christians
would have grudged at the power of rulers of state, or church.
Sure I am, that many, called fifth-monarchy-men, seem to make
this their great hope, that rule shall be in the hands of righte-
ous men ; and I think, most religious parties would rejoice if
those had very great power, whom they take to be the best and
trustiest men ; which shows that it is not the greatness of power
in most princes, or sound bishops, that they dislike, but the
badness, real or supposed, of those whose power they mislike :
who will blame power to do good ?
Sure the three first and great petitions of the Lord's prayer
include some temporal welfare of the world and church, with-
out which the spiritual rarely prospereth extensively, (though
intensively in a few it may,) since miracles ceased.
4. Be thankful, therefore, for all the church's mercies here
on earth; for all the protection of magistracy ; the plenty of
preachers ; the preservation from enemies ; the restraint of per-
secution 5 the concord of Christians ; and increase of godliness ;
which in this land it hath had in our ages ; notwithstanding all
Satan's malignant rage, and all the bloody wars that have in-
terrupted our tranquillity. How many psalms of joyful thanks-
giving be there for Israel's deliverances, and the preservation of
Zion, and God*s worship in his sanctuary : pray for the peace
of Jerusalem : they shall prosper that love it ; especially, that
the gospel is continued, while so many rage against it, is a
mercy not to be made light of.
Use 4. Be specially thankful, O my soul, that God hath
made any use of thee, for the service of his church on earth.
My God, my soul for this doth magnify thee, and my spirit re-
joiceth in the review of thy great undeserved mercy ! Oh ! what
am I, whom thou tookest up from the dunghill or low obscurity,
that 1 should live, myself, in the constant relish of thy sweet and
sacred truth, and with such encouraging success communicate
it to others ? That I must say now my public work seems
ended, that these forty-three or forty-four years, I have no rea-
son to think that ever I laboured in vain ! O with what grati-
tude must I look upon all places where I lived and laboured ;
hut, above all, that place that had my strength. I bless thee
for the great numbers gone to heaven, and for the continuance
of piety, humility, concord, and peace among them.
And for all that by my writings have' received any saving
INTBODUCTION. 249
light and grace. O my God ! let not my own heart be barren
while I labour in thy husbandry, to bring others unto holy
fruit. Let me not be a stranger to the life and power of that
saving truth which I have done so much to communicate to
others. O let not my own words and writings condemn me as
void of that divine and heavenly nature and life, which 1 have
said so much for to the world.
Use 5. Stir up, then, O my soul, thy sincere desires, and
all thy faculties, to do the remnant of the work of Christ ap-
pointed thee on earth, and then joyfully wait for the heavenly
perfection in God's own time.
Thou canst truly say, *^ To live, to me, is Christ." It is his work
for which thou livest : thou has no other business in the world ;
but thou dost his work with the mixture of many oversights and
imperfections, and too much troublest thy thoughts distrust-
fully about God's part, who never faileth ; if thy work be done,
be thankful for what is past, and that thou art come so near
the port of rest : if God will add any more to thy days, serve
him with double alacrity, now thou art so near the end : the
prize is almost within sight : time is swift, and short. Thou
hast told others that there is no working in the grave, and that
it must be now or never. Though the conceit of meriting of
commutative justice be no better than madness, dream not that
God will save the wfcked, no, nor equally reward the slothful
and the diligent, because Christ's righteousness was perfect.
Paternal justice maketh difference according to that worthiness
which is so denominated by the law of grace ; and as sin is its
own punishment, holiness and obedience is much of its own re-
ward : whatever God appointeth thee to do, see that thou do it
sincerely, and with all thy might : if sin dispose men to be angry
because it is detected, disgraced, and resisted, if God be pleased,
their wrath should be patiently borne, who will shortly be far
more angry with themselves. If slander and obloquy survive,
so will the better effects on those that are converted ; and there
is no comparison between these. I shall not be hurt, when I
am with Christ, by the calumnies of men on earth ; but the
saving benefit will, by converted sinners, be enjoyed everlast-
ingly : words and actions are transient things, and, being once
past, are nothing ; but the effect of them, on an immortal
soul, may be endless. All the sermons that I have preached
are nothing now ; but the grace of God, on sanctified souls, is
the beginning of eternal life. It is unspeakable mercy to be
250 INTRODUCTION.
sincerely thus employed with success ; therefore, I had reason,
all this while, to be in Paul's strait, and make no haste in my
desires to depart. The crov/n will come in its due time -, and
eternity is long enough to enjoy it, how long soever it be de-
layed : but if 1 will do that which must obtain it for myself
and others, it must be quickly done, before my declining sun
be set.
O that I had no worse causes of my unwillingness yet to die,
than my desire to do the work of life for my own and other
men's salvation ; and to finish my course with joy, and the mi-
nistry committed to me by the Lord.
Use 6. And as it is on earth that I must do good to others,
so it must be in a manner suited to their state on earth. Souls
are here closely united to bodies, by which they must receive
much good or hurt : do good to men's bodies, if thou wouldest
do good to their souls ; say not, things corporeal are worthless
trifles, for which the receivers will be never the better ; they are
things that nature is easily sensible of; and sense is the pas-
sage to the mind and will. Dost not thou find what a help it
is to thyself to have, at any time, any ease and alacrity of body?
And what a burden and hinderance pains and cares are ?
Labour, then, to free others from such burdens and temptations,
and be not regardless of them. If thou must rejoice with them
thai, rejoice, and mourn with them that mourn, further thy own
joy in furthering theirs ; and avoid thy own sorrows, in avoid-
ing or curing theirs.
But, alas I what power hath selfishness in most. How
easily do we bear our brethren's pains, reproaches, wants, and
afflictions, in comparison of our own : how few thoughts, and
how little cost or labour, do we use for their supply, in com-
parison of what we do for ourselves. Nature, indeed, teacheth
us to be most sensible of our own case; but grace tells us, that
we should not make so great a difference as we do, but should
love our neighbours as ourselves.
Use 7. And now, O my soul, consider how mercifully God
hath dealt with thee, that thy strait should be, between two
conditions, so desirable. I shall either die speedily, or stay yet
longer upon earth j whichever it be, it will be a merciful and
comfortable state ; that it is desirable to depart and be with
Christ, I must not doubt, and shall anon more copiously con-
sider. And if my abode on earth yet longer be so great a
mercy as to be put in the balance against my present posses-
INTRODUCTION. 261
sioii of heaven, surely it must be a state which obligeth me to
great thankfuhiess to God, and comfortable acknowledgment;
and surely it is not my pain, or sickness, my sufferings from
malicious men, that should make this life on earth unaccepta-
ble, while God will continue it. Paul had his prick or thorn in
the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buifet him, and suffered
more from men (though less in his health) than I have done ;
and yet he gloried in such infirmities, and rejoiced in his tribu-
lations, and was in a strait between living and dying, yea,
rather chose to live yet longer.
Alsisl it is another kind of strait that most of the world are
in : the strait of most is between the desire of life for fleshly
interest, and the fear of death, as ending their felicity : the
strait of many is, between a tiring world and body, which
maketh them weary of living, and the dreadful prospect of fu-
ture danger, which makes them afraid of dying ; if they live, it
is in misery ; if they must die, they are afraid of greater misery.
Which way ever they look, behind or before them, to this
world or the next, fear and trouble is their lot; yea, many an
upright Christian, through the weakness of their trust in God,
doth live in this perplexed strait; weary of living, and afraid
of dying; between grief and fear, they are pressed continually;
but Paul's strait was between two joys ; which of them he
should desire most : and if that be my case, what should much
interrupt my peace or pleasure ? If I live, it is for Christ ;
for his work, and for his church ; for preparation ; for my own
and others' everlasting felicity : and should any suffering, which
maketh me not unserviceable, make me impatient with such a
work, and such a life ? If I die presently, it is my gain ; God
who appointeth me my work, doth limit my time, and sure his
glorious reward can never be unseasonable, or come too soon,
if it be the time that he appointeth. When I first engaged my-
self to preach the gospel, I reckoned (as probable) but upon one
or two years ; and God hath continued me yet above forty-four :
(with such interruptions as others in these times have had;) and
what reason have I now to be unwilling, either to live or die ?
God's service hath been so sweet to me, that it hath overcome
the trouble of constant pains, or weakness, of the flesh, and all
that men have said or done against me.
But the following crown exceeds this pleasure, more than 1
am here capable to conceive. There is some trouble in all this
pleasant work, from which the soul and flesh would rest ; and
252 INTRODUCTION.
blessed are the dead, that die in the Lord ; even so saith the
Spirit ; for they rest from their labours, and their works follow
them.
But, O my soul, what needest thou be troubled in this kind
of strait ? It is not left to thee to choose whether or when
thou wilt live or die. It is God that will determine it, who is
infinitely fitter to choose than thou. Leave, therefore, his
own work to himself, and mind that which is thine ; whilst
thou livest, live to Christ ; and when thou diest, thou shalt die
to Christ ; even into his blessed hands ; so live that thou mayest
say, " It is Christ liveth in me, and the life that I live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave himself for me ;'" and then, as thou hast lived in the comfort
of hope, thou shalt die unto the comfort of vision and fruition.
And when thou canst say, " He is the God whose I am, and
whom I serve," thou mayest boldly add, * and whom I trust, and
to whom I commend my departing soul 5 and I know whom I
have trusted.*
MR. BAXTER^S
DYING THOUGHTS,
PHIL. i. 23.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and
to be with Christ, which is far better, {Or, for this is much
rather to be preferred, or better. J
Sect. 1. " Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and
full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down :
he fleeth also as a shadow, and eontinueth not. And dost thou
open thine eyes upon such a one, and bringest me into judgment
with thee ?" saith Job, xiv. I — 3. As a watch when it is wound
up, or as a candle newly lighted, so man, newly conceived or
born, beginneth a motion, which incessantly hasteth to its ap-
pointed period : and an action, and its time that is past, is no-
thing ; so vain a thing would man be, and so vain his life, were
it not for the hopes of a more durable life, which this referreth
to ; but those hopes, and the means, do not only difference a
believer from an infidel, but a man from a beast. When Solo-
mon describeth the difference, in respect to the time and things,
of this life only, he truly tells us, " that one end here befalling
both, doth show that both are here but vanity, but man's vexa-
tion is greater than the beasts'." And Paul truly saith of Chris-
tians, " That if our hope were only in this life, (that is, in the
time and things of this life and world,) we were, of all men, the
most miserable." Though even in this life, as related to a better,
and as we are exercised about things of a higher nature than
the concerns of temporal life, we are far happier than any
worldlings.
Sect. 2. Being to speak to myself, I shall pass by all the rest
of the matter of this text, and suppose its due explication, and
spread before my soul only the doctrine and uses of these two
254 Baxter's dying thoughts.
propositions contained in it. I. That the souls of believers, when
departed hence, shall be with Christ. II. That so to be with
Christ is far better for them than to be here in the body.
Sect. 3. I. Concerning the first, my thoughts shall keep this
order. 1. I shall consider the necessity of believing it.
2. Whether it be best believing it, without consideration of
the proofs or difficulties. 3. The certainty of it manifested
for the exercise of faith.
Sect. 4. I. Whether the words signify that we shall be in the
same place with Christ (which Grotius groundlessly denieth) or
only in his hand, and care, and love, I will not stay to dispute.
Many other texts concurring, do assure us that " we shall be
with him where he is." (John xii. 26, and xvii. 24, &c.) At
least, "with him," can mean no less than a state of communion,
and a participation of felicity. And to believe such a state of
happiness for departed souls, is of manifold necessity, or use.
Sect. 5. I. If this be not soundly believed, a man must live
besidcwS, or below, the end of life. He must have a false end, or
be uncertain what should be his end.
I know it may be objected, that if I make it my end to
please God, by obeying him, and doing all the good I can, and
trust him with my soul and future estate, as one that is utterly
uncertain what he will do with me, I have an end intended^
which will make me godly, charitable, and just, and happy, so
far as I am made for happiness ; for the pleasing of God is the
right end of all.
But, 1. Must I desire to please him no better than I do in
this imperfect state, in which I have and do so much which is
displeasing to him ? He that must desire to please him, must
desire to please him perfectly; and our desire of our ultimate end
must have no bounds, or check. Am I capable of pleasing God
no better than by such a sinful life as this ?
2. God hath made the desire of our own felicity so necessary
to the soul of man, that it cannot be expected that our desire
to please him should be separated from this.
3. Therefore, both in respect of God, as the end, and of our
felicity, as our second end, we must believe that he is the beati-
fying rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
For, 1. If we make such an ill description of God, as that he
will turn our pleasing him to our loss, or will not turn it to our
gain and welfare, or that we know not whether he will do so or
not, it will hinder our love, and trust, and joy, in him, by which
Baxter's dying thoughts. 255
we must please him, and, consequently, hinder the alacrity, and
soundness, and constancy, of our obedience.
2. And it will much dismiss that self-love which must excite
us, and it will take off part of our necessary end. And I think
the objectors will confess, that if they have no certainty what
God will do with them, they must have some probability and
hope before they can be sincerely devoted here to please him.
Sect. 6. And, 1. If a man be but uncertain what he should
make the end of his life, or what he should live for, how can he
pitch upon an uncertain end ? And if he waver so as to have
no end, he can use no means ; and if end and means be all laid
by, the man liveth not as a man, but as a brute : and what a
torment must it be to a considering mind to be uncertain what
to intend and do in all the tenour and actions of his life ? Like
a man going out at his door, not knowing whither or what to
do, or which way to go : either he will stand still, or move as
brutes do, by present sense, or as a windmill, or weathercock, as
he is moved.
Sect. 7. 2. But if he pitch upon a wrong end, it may yet be
worse than none ; for he will but do hurt, or make work for re-
pentance : and all the actions of his life must be formally wrong,
how good soever, materially, if the end of them be wrong.
Sect. 8. 2. And if I fetch them not from this end, and be-
lieve not in God as a rewarder of his servants, in a better life,
what motives shall I have, which, in our present difficulties,
will be sufficient to cause me to live a holy, yea, or a truly honest,
life ? All piety and honesty, indeed, is good, and goodness is
desirable for itself: but the goodness of a means is its aptitude
for the end; and we have here abundance of impediments,
competitors, diversions, and temptations, and difficulties, of
many sorts; and all these must be overcome by him that will
live in piety or honesty : and our natures, we find, are diseased,
and greatly indisposed to unquestionable duties ; and will they
ever discharge them, and conquer all these difficulties and
temptations, if the necessary motive be not believed ? Duty to
God and man is accidentally hard and costly to the flesh,
though amiable in itself. It may cost us our estates, our liber-
ties, our lives. The world is not so happy as commonly to
know good men from bad, or to encourage piety and virtue, or
to forbear opposing them. And who will let go his present
welfare, without some hope of better, as a reward ? Men use
256 Baxter's idying thoughts.
not to serve God for nought 3 nor that think it will be their loss
to serve him.
Sect. 9. A life of sin will not be avoided upon lower ends
and motives : nay, those lower ends, when alone, will be a con-
stant sin themselves. A preferring vanity to glory, the creature
to God, and a setting our heart on that which will never make
us happy : and when lust and appetite incline men, strongly and
constantly, to their several objects, what shall sufficiently restrain
them, except the greater and more durable delights or motives
fetched from preponderating things ? Lust and appetite distin-
guish not between lawful and unlawful. We may see in the
brutish politics of Benedictus Spinosa, in his Tractat. Theolog.
Polit., whither the principles of infidelity tend. If sin so over-
spread the earth, that the whole world is as drowned in wicked-
ness, notwithstanding all the hopes and fears of a life to come,
what would it do were there no such hopes and fears ?
Sect. 10. 3. And no mercy can be truly known and esti-
mated, nor rightly used and improved, by him that seeth not
its tendency to the end, and perceiveth not that it leadeth to
a better life, and useth it not thereunto. God dealeth more
bountifully with us than worldlings understand. He giveth us
all the mercies of this life, as helps to an immortal state of
glory, and as earnests of it. Sensualists know not what a soul
is, nor what soul mercies are ; and, therefore, not what the soul
of all bodily mercies are, but take up only with the carcass,
shell, or shadow. If the king would give me a lordship, and
send me a horse, or coach, to carry me to it, and I should only
ride about the fields for my pleasure, and make no other use of
it, should I not undervalue and lose the principal benefit of my
horse, or coach ? No wonder if unbelievers be unthankful, when
they know not at all that part of God's mercies which is the
life and real excellency of them.
Sect. 11. 4. And, alas! how should I bear with comfort
the suflferings of this wretched life, without the hopes of a life
with Christ ? What should support and comfort me under my
bodily languishings and pains, my weary hours, and my daily
experience of the vanity and vexation of all things under the
sun, had I not a prospect of a comfortable end of all ? 1 that
have lived in the midst of great and precious mercies, have all
my life had something to do to overcome the temptation of
wishing that 1 had never been born, and had never overcome it
Baxter's dying thoughts. 257
but by the belief of a blessed life hereafter. Solomon's sense
of vanity and vexation hath long made all the business,
and wealth, and honour, and pleasure, of this world, as such,
appear such a dream and shadow to me, that were it not for the
end, I could not have much differenced men's sleeping and their
waking thoughts, nor have much more valued the waking than
the sleeping part of life, but should have thought it a kind of
happiness to have slept from the birth unto the death. Chil-
dren cry when they come into the world ; and I am often sorry
when I am awakened out of a quiet sleep, especially to the busi-
ness of an unquiet day. We should be strongly tempted, in our
considering state, to murmur at our Creator, as dealing much
hardlier by us than by the brutes, if we must have had all those
cares, and griefs, and fears, by theknowledge of what we want, and
the prospect of death, and future evils, which they are exempted
from, and had not, withal, had the hopes of a future felicity to
support us. Seneca and his stoics had no better argument to
silence such murmurers who believed not a better life, than to
tell them, that if this life had more evil than good, and they
thought God did them wrong, they might remedy themselves by
ending it when they would. But that would not cure the re-
pinings of a nature which found itself necessarily weary of the
miseries of life, and yet afraid of dying. And it is no great
wonder that many thought that pre-existent souls were put into
these bodies as a punishment of something done in a former
life, while they foresaw not the hoped end of all our fears and
sorrows. ' O how contemptible a thing is man !' saith the
same Seneca, ' unless he lift up himself above human things.*
Therefore, saith Solomon, when he had glutted himself with
all temporal pleasures, " 1 hated life, because the work that is
wrought under the sun is grievous to me ; for all is vanity and
vexation of spirit." (Elccles. ii. 17-)
Sect. 12. I[. I have often thought whether an implicit belief
of a future happiness, without any search into its nature, and
thinking of any thing that can be said against it, or the search-
ing, trying way, be better. On the one side, 1 have known many
godly women that never disputed the matter, but served God,
comfortably, to a very old age, (between eighty and one hundred,)
to have lived many years in a cheerful readiness and desire of
death, and such as few learned, studious men do ever attain to
in that degree, who, no doubt, had this as a divine reward of
their long and faithful service of God^ and trusting in him. On
VOL. XViH. s '
258 Baxter's dying thoughts.
the other side, a studious man can hardly keep off all objections^
or secure his mind against the suggestions of difficulties and
doubts ; and if they come in, they must be answered, seeing we
give them half a victory if we cast them off before we can
answer them. And a faith that is not upheld by such evidence
of truth as reason can discern and justify, is oft joined with
much secret doubting, which men dare not open, but do not,
therefore, overcome, and its weakness may have a weakening
deficiency, as to all the graces and duties which should be
strengthened by it. And who knoweth how soon a temptation
from Satan, or infidels, or our own dark hearts, may assault us,
which will not, without such evidence and resolving light, be
overcome ? And yet many that try, and reason, and dispute
most, have not the strongest, or most powerful faith.
Sect. 13. And my thoughts of this have had this issue.
1. There is a great difference between that light which showeth
us the thing itself, and that artificial skill by which we have
right notions, names, definitions, and formed arguments, and
ansiwers to objections. This artificial, logical, organical kind
of knowledge is good and useful in its kind, if right; like
speech itself: but he that hath much of this, may have little
of the former: and unlearned persons that have little of
this, may have more of the former, and may have those
inward perceptions of the verity of the promises and rewards of
God, which they cannot bring forth into artificial reasonings to
themselves or others ; who are taught of God, by the effective sort
of teaching which reacheth the heart, or will, as well as the un-
derstanding, and is a giving of what is taught, and a making us
such as we are told we must be.* And who findeth not need
to pray hard for this effective teaching of God, when he hath
got all organical knowledge, and words and arguments in them-
selves most apt, at his fingers' ends, as we say ? When 1 can
prove the truth of the word of God, and the life to come, with
the most convincing, undeniable reasons, I feel need to cry and
pray daily to God, to increase my faith, and to give me that
light which may satisfy the soul, and reach the end.
Sect. 14. 2. Yet man, being a rational Wight, is not taught by
mere instinct and inspiration, and therefore this effective teach-
ing of God doth ordinarily suppose a rational, objective, orga-
nical teaching and knowledge. And the foresaid unlearned
* This is the true mean between Georg'e Keith the Quaker's doctrine of
coatinued inspiralion and intuition, and that on the other extreme.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 259
Christians are convinced, by good evidence, that God's word is
true, and his rewards are sure, though they have but a confused
conception of this evidence, and cannot word it, nor reduce it
to fit notions. And to drive these that have fundamental evi-
dence, unseasonably and hastily to dispute their faith, and so to
puzzle them by words and artificial objections, is but to hurt
them, by setting the artificial, organical, lower part, which is
the body of knowledge, against the real light and perception
of the thing, (which is as the soul,) even as carnal men set the
creatures against God, that should lead us to God, so do they
by logical, artificial knowledge.
Sect. 15. But they that are prepared for such disputes, and
furnished with all artificial helps, may make good use of them
for defending and clearing up the truth to themselves and others,
so be it they use them as a means to the due end, and in a right
manner, and set them not up against, or instead of, the real and
effective light.
Sect. 16, But the revealed and necessary part must here be
distinguished from the unrevealed and unnecessary. To study
till we, as clearly as may be, understand the certainty of a future
happiness, and wherein it consisteth, (in the sight of God's glory,
and in perfect, holy, mutual love, in union with Christ, and all
the blessed,) this is of great use to our holiness and peace. But
when we will know more than God would have us, it doth but
tend (as gazing on the sun) to make us blind, and to doubt of
certainties, because we cannot be resolved of uncertainties. To
trouble our heads too much in thinking how souls out of the
body do subsist and act, sensitively or not, by organs, or without ;
how far they are one, and how far still individuate, in what
place they shall remain, and where is their paradise, or heaven ;
how they shall be again united to the body, whether by their
own emission, as the sunbeams touch their objects here, and
whether the body shall be restored, as the consumed flesh of
restored, sick men, aliunde , or only from the old materials. A
hundred of these questions are better left to the knowledge of
Christ, lest we do but foolishly make snares for ourselves. Had
all these been needful to us, they had been revealed. In respect
to all such curiosities and needless knowledge, it is a believer's
wisdom implicitly to trust his soul to Christ, and to be satisfied
that he knoweth what we know not, and to fear that vain,
vexatious knowledge, or inquisitiveness into good and evil, which
260 Baxter's dying thoughts.
is selfish, and savoureth of a distrust of God, and is that sin, and
fruit of sin, which the learned world too little feareth.
Sect. 17. 111. That God is the rewarder of them that diligently
seek him, and that holy souls shall be in blessedness with Christ,
these following evidences, conjoined, do evince, on which my
soul doth raise its hopes.
Sect. 18. I. The soul, which is an immortal spirit, must be
immortally in a good or bad condition ; but man's soul is an
immortal spirit, and the good are not in a bad condition. Its
immortality is proved thus : A spiritual, or most pure, invisible
substance, naturally endowed with the power, virtue, or faculty
of vital action, intellection, and volition, which is not annihil-
ated nor destroyed by separation of parts, nor ceaseth, or loseth,
either its power, species, individuation, or action, is an immortal
spirit. But such is the soul of man, as shall be manifested by
parts.
Sect. 19. I. The soul is a substance, for that which is nothing
can do nothing ; buC it doth move, understand, and will. No
man will deny that this is done by something in us, and by some
substance, and that substance is it which we call the soul. It
is not nothing, and it is within us.
Sect. 20. As to them that say, .it is the temperament of vseveral
parts conjunct, I have elsewhere fully confuted them, and proved,
1. That it is some one part that is the agent on the rest, which
all they confess that think it to be the material spirits, or fiery
part. It is not bones and flesh that understand, but a purer
substance, as all acknowledge. 2. What p^rt soever it be, it
can do no more than it is able to do, and a conjunction of many
parts, of which no one hath the power of -vitality, intellection,
or volition, formally, or eminently, can never by contemperation
do those acts, for there can be no more in the effect than is in
the cause, otherwise it were no effect.
The vanity of their objections that tell us, a lute, a watch,
a book, perform that by co-operation which no one part can
do, I have elsewhere manifested. 1 . Many strings, indeed, have
many motions, and so have many effects on the ear and fantasy,
which in us are sound, and harmony : but all is but a percussion
of the air by strings, and were not that motion received by a
sensitive soul, it would be no music or melody; so that there is
nothing done but what each part had power to do. But intel-
lection and volition are not the conjunct motions of all parts of
Baxter's dying thoughts. 261
the body, receiving their form in a nobler intellective nature, as
the sound of the strings maketh melody in man : if it were so,
that receptive nature still would be as excellent as the effect
importeth. 2. And the watch, or clock, doth but move according
to the action of the spring, or poise ; but that it moveth in such
an order as becometh to man a sign and measure of time, this
is from man who ordereth it to that use. But there is nothing
in the motion but what the parts have their power to cause ;
and that it signifieth the hour of the days to us, is no action,
but an object used by a rational soul as it can use the shadow
of a tree, or house, that yet doth nothing. 3. And so a book
doth nothing at all, but is a mere objective ordination of passive
signs, by which man's active intellect can understand what the
writer or orderer did intend; so that here is nothing done
beyond the power of the agent, nor any thing in the effect
which was not in the cause, either formally or eminently. But
for a company of atoms, of which no one hath sense or reason,
to become sensitive and rational by mere conjunct motion, is
an effect beyond the power of the supposed cause.
Sect. 21. But as/Some think so basely of our noblest acts as to
think that contempered agitated atoms can perform them, that
have no natural intellective, or sensitive, virtue or power in
themselves, so others think so highly of them, as to take them
to be the acts only of God, or some universal soul, in the body
of man ; and so that there is no life, sense, or reason in the
world but God himself (or such an universal soul) ; and so that
either every man is God, as to his soul, or that it is the body
only that is to be called man, as distinct from God. But this is
the self-ensnaring and self-perplexing temerity of busy, bold,
and arrogant heads, that know not their own capacity and
measure. And, on the like reasons, they must at last come, with
others, to say, that all passive matter also is God, and that God
is the universe, consisting of an active soul, and passive body.
As if God were no cause, and could make nothing, or nothing
with life, or sense, or reason.
Sect. 22. But why depart we from things certain, by such
presumptions as these ? Is it not certain, that there are baser
creatures in the world tlian men or angels ? Is it not certain
that one man is not another? Is it not certain that some men
are in torment of body and mind ? And will it be a comfort to
a man in such torment to tell him that he is God, or that he
is part of an universal soul ? . Would not a man on the rack, or
262 Baxter's dying thoughts.
in the stone, or other misery, say, * Call me by what name you
please, that easeth not my pain. If I be a part of God, or an
universal soul, I am sure 1 am a tormented, miserable part. And
if you could make me believe that God hath some parts which
are not serpents, toads, devils, or wicked or tormented men, you
must give me other senses, and perceptive po^vers, before it will
comfort me to hear that I am not such a part. And if God had
wicked and tormented parts on earth, why may he not have such,
and I be one of them, hereafter ? And if I be a holy and happy
part of God, or of an universal soul on earth, why may not 1 hope
to be such hereafter ?'
Sect. 23. We deny not but that God is the continued, first
cause of all being whatsoever ; and that the branches and fruit
depend not, as effects, so much on the causality of the stock and
roots, as the creature doth on God ; and that it is an impious
conceit to think that the world, or any part of it, is a being in-
dependent, and separated totally from God, or subsisting with-
out his continued causation. But cannot God cause, as a crea-
tor, by riiaking that which is not himself? This yieldeth the
self-deceiver no other honour nor happiness but what equally
belongeth to a devil, to a fly, or worm, to a dunghill, or to the
worst and miserablest man !
Sect. 24. II. As man^s soul is a substance, so is it a sub-
stance differenced formally from all inferior substances, by an
innate (indeed essential) power, virtue, or faculty, of vital ac-
tion, intellection, and free-will : for we find all these acts per-
formed by it, as motion, light, and heat are by the fire or sun.
And if any should think that these actions are like those of a
musician, compounded of the agents (principal and organical
several) parts, could he prove it, no more would follow, but that
the lower powers (the sensitive, or spirits) are to the higher as a
passive organ, receiving its operations ; and that the intellec-
tual soul hath the power of causing intellection and volition by
its action on the inferior parts, as a man can cause such motions
of his lute, as shall be melody (not to it, but) to himself : and
consequently, that as music is but a lower operation of man,
(whose proper acts of iptellection and volition are above it,) so
intellection and volition in the body are not the noblest acts of
the soul, but it performed them by an eminent power, which
can do greater things. And if this could be proved, what
would it tend to the unbeliever's ends, or to the disadvantage
of our hopes and comforts ?
Baxter's dying thought&. 263
Sect. 25. III. That man's soul, at death, is not annihilated,
even the atomists and epicureans will grant, who think that no
atom in the universe is 'annihilated : and we that see, not only
the sun and heavens continued, but every grain of matter, and
that compounds are changed by dissolution of parts, and rare-
faction, or migration, &c., and not by annihilation, have no rea-
son to dream that God will annihilate one soul (though he can
do it if he please, yea, and annihilate all the world) : it is a
thing beyond a rational expectation.
Sect. 26. IV. And a destruction, by the dissolution of the
parts of the soul, we need not fear. For, 1. Either an intel-
lectual spirit is divisible and partible, or not ; if not, we need
not fear it ; if it be, either it is a thing that nature tendeth to,
or not; but that nature doth not tend to it, is evident. For, 1.
There is naturally so strange and strong an inclination to unity,
and averseness to separation in all things, that even earth and
stones, that have no other (known) natural motion, have yet an
aggregate motion in their gravitation : but if you will separate
the parts from the rest, it must be by force. And water is yet
more averse from partition without force, and more inclined to
union than earth, and air than water, and fire than air ; so he
that will cut a sunbeam into pieces, and make many of one,
must be an extraordinary agent. And surely spirits, even intel-
lectual spirits, will be no less averse from partition, and in-
clined to keep their unity, than fire, or a sunbeam is ; so that
naturally it is not a thing to be feared, that it should fall into
pieces.
2. And he that will say, that the God of nature will change,
and overcome the nature that he hath made, must give us good
proofs of it, or it is not to be feared. And if he should do it
as a punishment, we must find such a punishment somewhere
threatened, either in his natural or supernatural law, which we
do not, and therefore need not fear it.
Sect. 27. 3. But if it were to be feared, that souls were
partible, and would be broken into parts, this would be no de-
struction of them, either as to their substance, powers, form, or
action, but only a breaking of one soul into many : for being
not compounded of heterogeneal parts, but, as simple elements,
of homogeneal only, as every atom of earth is earth, and every
drop of water in the sea is water, and every particle of air and
fire is air and fire, and have all the properties of earth, water,
air, and fire ; so would it be with every particle of an intellectual
264 Baxter's dying thoughts.
spirit. But who can see cause to dream of such a partition,
never threatened by God ?
Sect. 28. V. And that souls lose not their formal powers, or
virtues, we have great reason to conceive ; because they are
their natural essence, not as mixed, but simple substances : and
though some imagine that the passive elements may, by attenu-
ation or incrassation, be transmuted one into another, yet we
see that earth is still earth, and water is water, and air is air;
and their conceit hath no proof : and, were it proved, it would
but prove that none of these are a first or proper element : but
what should an intellectual spirit be changed into? how
should it lose its formal power ? Not by nature ; for its nature
hath nothing that tendeth to deterioration, or decay, or self-
destruction. The sun doth not decay by its wonderful motion,
light, and heat : and why should spirits ? Not by God's de-
stroying them, or changing their nature : for, though all things
are in constant motion or revolution, he continueth the natures
of the simple beings, and showeth us, that he delighteth in a
constancy of operations, insomuch that, hence, Aristotle thought
the world eternal. And God hath made no law thatthreateneth
to do it as a penalty. Therefore, to dream that intellectual spi-
rits shall be turned into other things, and lose their essential,
formal powers, which specify them, is without and against all
sober reason. Let them first but prove that the sun loseth mo-
tion, light, and heat, and is turned into air, or water, or earth.
Such changes are beyond a rational fear.
Sect. 29. VI. But some men dream that souls shall sleep,
and cease their acts, though they lose not their powers. But
this is more unreasonable than the former. For it must be re-
membered that it is not a mere obediential, passive power that
we speak of; but an active power consisting in as great an in-
clination to act, as passive natures have to forbear action. So
that if such a nature act not, it must be because its natural in-
clination is hindered by a stronger : and who shall hinder it ?
1. God would not continue an active power, force, and inclin-
ation in nature, and forcibly hinder the operation of that na-
ture which he himself continueth; unless penally for some spe-
cial cause ; which he never gave us any notice of by any threat-
ening, but the contrary.
2. Objects will not be wanting, for all the world will be still
at hand, and God above all. It is, therefore, an unreasonable
conceit to think that God will continue an active, vital, intellec-
BAXTER S DYING THOUGHTS. 265
tive, volitive nature, form, power, force, inclination, in a noble
substance, which shall use none of these for many hundred or
thousand years, and so continue them in vain.
Nay, 3. Tt is rather to be thought that some action is their
constant state, without which the cessation of their very form
would be inferred.
Sect. 30. But all that can be said with reason is, that sepa-
rated souls, and souls hereafter in spiritual bodies, will have
actions of another mode, and very different from these that we
now perceive in flesh : and be it so. They will yet be,' radi-
cally, of the same kind, and they will be formally or eminently
such as we now call, vitality, intellection, and volition ; and they
will be no lower or less excellent, if not far more ; and then
what the difference will be, Christ knoweth, whom I trust, and in
season I shall know. But to talk of a dead life, and an unactive
activity, or a sleeping soul, is fitter for a sleeping than a waking
man.
Sect. 31. It is true that diseases or hurts do now hinder the
soul's intellectual perceptions in the body, and in infancy and
sleep they are imperfect. Which proveth, indeed, that the acts,
commonly called intellection and volition, have now something
in them also of sensation, and that sensitive operations are di-
versified by the organs of the several senses. And that bare
intellection and volition, without any sensation is now scarce to
be observed in us, though the soul may have such acts intrin-
sically, and in its profundity. For it is now so united to this
body, that it actethon it as our form; and, indeed, the acts ob-
served by us cannot be denied to be such as are specified, or
modified, at least, by the agents, and the recipients, and sub-
agents' parts conjunct. But, 1. As the sun would do the same
thing ex parte sui, if in vacuo only it sent forth its beams,
though this were no illumination, or calefaction, because there
were no recipient to be jlluminated and heated by it. And it
would lose nothing by the want of objects ; so the soul, had it
no body to act on, would have its profound immanent acts of
self-living, self-perceiving, and self-loving ; and all its external
acts on other objects, which need not organs of sense for their
approximation. And, 2. Its sensitive faculty is itself, or such
as it is not separated from, though the particular sorts of sensa-
tion may be altered with their uses : and therefore it may still
act on or with the sense ; and if one way of sensation be hin-
dered, it hath another. 3. And how far this lantern of flesh
2(56 Baxter's dying thoughts.
doth help, or hinder, its operations, we know not yet, but shall
know hereafter. Sondius de Orig. Animce, (though an here-
tical writer), hath said much to prove that the body is a hinder-
ance, and not a help, to the soul's intuition. And if ratiocina-
tion be a compound act, yet intuition may be done for ever by
the soul alone. 4. But as we are not to judge what powers the
soul hath when the acts are hindered, but when they are done ;
nor what souls were made by God for, by their state in the
womb, or infancy, or diseases, but by our ordinary, mature state
of life ; so we have little reason to think that the same God who
made them for life, intellection, and volitions here, will not
continue the same powers to the same, or as noble uses here-
after, whether with organs, or without, as pleaseth him. If in
this flesh our spirits were not inactive and useless, we have no
reason to think that they will be so hereafter, and that for
ever.
Sect. 32. This greatest and hardest of all objections, doth
make us confess (with Contarenus, contra Pomponatium de
Anim. Immortalit.,) that though, by the light of nature, we may
know the immortality of souls, (and that they lose not their
powers or activity,) yet, without supernatural light, we know not
what manner of action they will have in their separated state,
or in another world, because here they act according to object-
ive termination, and the receptivity of the sense and fantasy,
and recipitur ad modum recipientis ; and in the womb we per-
ceive not that it acteth intellectually at all.
But we know, That, 1 . If even then it differed not in its for-
mal power from the souls of brutes, it would not so much after-
ward differ in act : and it would never be raised to that which
was not virtually in its nature at the first. 2. And we find
that even very little children have quick and strong knowledge
of such objects as are brought within their reach ; and that their
ignorance is not for want of an intellectual power, but for want
of objects, or images of things, which time, and use, and con-
versation among objects, must furnish their fantasies and me-
mories with. And so a soul in the womb, or in an apoplexy,
hath not objects of intellection within its reach to act upon ;
but is as the sun to a room that hath no windows to let in its
light. 3. And what if its profound vitality, self-perception, and
self-love, be by a kind of sensation and intuition, rather than by
discursive reason : I doubt not but some late philosophers make
snares to themselves and others, by too much vilifying sense and
Baxter's dying thoughts. 267
sensitive souls, as if sense were but some loseable accident of
contempered atoms : but sensation (though diversified by or-
gans and uses, and so far mutable) is the act of a noble, spiri-
tual form and virtue. And as Chambre, and some others, make
brutes a lower rank of rationals, and man.another higher spe-
cies, as having his nobler reason for higher ends; so for man
to be the noblest order (here) of sensitives, and to have an in-
tellect to order, and govern sensations, and connect them and
improve them, were a noble work, if we had no higher. And
if intellection and volition were but a higher species of internal
sensation than imagination, and the fantasy and memory are,
it might yet be a height that should set man specifically above
the brutes. And I am daily more and more persuaded, that
intellectual souls are essentially sensitive and more, and that
their sensation never ceaseth. 4. And still I say, that it is to
nature itself a thing unlikely, that the God of nature will long
continue a soul that hath formally or naturally an intellective
power, in a state in which it shall have no use of it. Let others
that will inquire whether it shall have a vehicle or none to act
in, and whether aerial, or igneous, and ethereal, and whether it
be really an intellectual sort of fire, as material as the solar fire,
whose (not compounding, but) inadequate -conceptus objectivi
are, an igneous substance, and formal virtue of life, sense, and
intellection, with other such puzzling doubts ; it satisfieth me,
that God will not continue its noblest powers in vain ; and how
they shall be exercised, is known to him ; and that God's word
tells us more than nature. And withal, life, intuition, and
love (or volition) are acts so natural to the soul, (as motion,
light and heat, quoad actum to fire) that I cannot conceive how
its separation should hinder them, but rather that its incorpo-
ration hindereth the two latter, by hiding objects, whatever be
said of abstractive knowledge and memory.
Sect, 33. VII. But the greatest difficulty to natural know-
ledge is, whether souls shall continue their individuation, or
rather fall into one common soul, or return so to God that gave
them, as to be no more divers (or many) individuals as now ; as
extinguished candles are united to the illuminated air, or to the
sunbeams ; but of this I have elsewhere said much for others ;
and for myself, I find I need but this : 1. That, as I said before,
either souls are partible substances or not ; if not partible, how
are they unible ? If many may be made one, by conjunction of
substances, then that one may (by God) be made many again
268 BAXTER S DYING THOUGHTS.
by partition. Either all (or many) souls are now but one, (in-
dividuate only by matter, as many gulfs in the sea, or many
candles lighted by the sun,) or not ; if they are not one now in
several bodies, what reason have we to think that they will be
one hereafter, any more than now ? Augustine [de Anim.) was
put on the question, 1 . Whether souls are one, and not many.
And that he utterly denieth. 2. Whether they are many, and
not one. And that it seemeth he could not digest. 3. Whe-
ther they were at once both one and many. Which he thought
would seem to some ridiculous, but he seemeth most to incline
to. And as God is the God of nature, so nature (even of the
devils themselves) dependeth on him, as I said, more than the
leaves of fruit do on the tree ; and we are all his offspring, and
live, and move, and are in him. (Acts xvii.) But we are cer-
tain for all this, 1. That we are not God. 2. That we are
yet many individuals, and not all one soul, or man. If our
union should be as near as the leaves and fruit on the same
tree, yet those leaves and fruit are numerous, and individual
leaves and fruits, through parts of the tree. And were this
proved of our present or future state, it would not alter our
hopes or fears ; for as now, though we all live, move, and be in
God, (and, as some dream, are parts of a common soul,) yet it
is certain, that some are better and happier than others; some
wise and good ; and some foolish and evil ; some in pain and
misery ; and some at ease, and in pleasure ; and (as 1 said) it
is now no ease to the miserable, to be told that, radically, all
souls are one; no more will it be hereafter, nor can men rea-
sonably hope for, or fear such an union, as shall make their state
the same. We see in nature, (as I have elsewhere said,) that if
you graft many sorts of scions, (some sweet, some bitter, some
crabs,) on the same stock, they will be one tree, aad yet have
diversity of fruit. If souls be not unible, nor partible sub-
stances, there is no place for this doubt : if they be, they will
be still what they are, notwithstanding any such union with a
common soul. As a drop of water in the sea is a separable
part, and still itself; and as a crab upon the foresaid stock, or
tree. And the good or bad quality ceaseth not by any union
with others.
Sure we are, that all creatures are in God, by close depend-
ence, and yet that the good are good, and the bad are bad ;
and that God is good, and hath no evil ; and that when man is
tormented, or miserable, God suffereth nothing by it, (as the
Baxter's dying thoughts. 269
whole man doth, when but a tooth doth ache,) for he would not
hurt himself were he passive. Therefore, to dream of any such
cessation of our individuation by any union with a creature, as
shall make the good less good or happy, or the bad less bad
or miserable, is a groundless folly.
Sect. 34. Yet it is very probable, that there will be a nearer
union of holy souls with God and Christ, and one another, than
we can here conceive of : but this is so far from being to be
feared, that it is the highest of our hopes. 1. God himself
(though equally every where in his essence) doth operate very
variously on his creatures. On the wicked he operateth as the
first cause of nature, as his sun shineth on them. On some
he operateth by common grace : to some he givetli faith to
prepare them for the in-dwelling of his spirit. In believers he
dwelleth by love, and they in him 3 and if we may use such a
comparison, as Satan acteth on some only by suggestions, but
on others so despotically, as that it is called his possessing
them; so God's Spirit worketh on holy souls, so powerfully
and constantly, as is called his possessing them. And yet, on
Xhe huipan nature of Christ, the divine nature of the second per-
son hath such a further, extraordinary operation, as is justly
called a personal union ; which is not by a more essential pre-
sence, (for that is everywhere,) but by a peculiar operation and
relation : and so holy souls being under a more felicitating oper-
ation of God, may well be said to have a nearer union with him
than now they have.
Sect. 35. 2. And I observe that (as is aforesaid) all things
have naturally a strong inclination to union and communion
with their like : evei y clod and stone inclineth to the earth :
water would go to water, air to air, fire to fire ; birds and beasts
associate with their like: and the noblest natures are most
strongly thus inclined ; and therefore I have natural reason to
think that it will be so with holy souls.
Sect. 36. 3. And 1 find, that the inordinate contraction of
man to himself, and to the interest of this individual person,
with the defect of love to all about us, according to every crea-
ture's goodness, and especially to God, the infinite good, whom
we should love above ourselves, is the very sum of all the pra-
vity of man. And all the injustice and injury to others ; and
all the neglect of good works in the world; and all our daily
terrors, and self-distracting, self-tormenting cares, and griefs,
and fears, proceed from this inordinate love and adhesion to
270 Baxter's dying thoughts.
ourselves ; therefore I have reason to think, that in our better
state, we shall perfectly love others as ourselves, and the selfish
love will turn into a common and a divine love, which must
be by our preferring the common, and the divine good and
interest.
Sect. 37. And I am so sensible of the power and plague of
selfishness, and how it now corrupteth, tempteth, and disquieteth
me, that when 1 feel any fears, lest individuation cease, and my
soul fall into one common soul, (as the stoics thought all souls
did at death,) 1 find great cause to suspect, that this ariseth
from the power of this corrupting selfishness ; for reason seeth
no cause at all to fear it, were it so.
Sect. 3S. 4. For I find also, that the nature of love is to de-
sire as near a union as possible ; and the strongest love doth
strongliest desire it. Fervent lovers think they can scarce be
too much one : and love is our perfection, and therefore so is
union.
Sect. 39. 5. And I find, that when Christians had the first
and full pourings out of the Spirit, they had the ferventest love,
and the nearest union, and the least desire of propriety and
distance.
Sect 40. 6. And I find, that Christ's prayer for the felicity
of his disciples, is a prayer for their unity. (John xvii. 22, 23.)
And in this he placeth much of their perfection.
Sect. 41. 7. And I find also, that man is of a sociable nature,
and that all men find by experience, that conjunction in so-
cieties is needful for their safety, strength, and pleasure.
Sect. 42. 8. And I find, that my soul would fain be nearer
God, and that darkness and distance is my misery, and near
communion is it that would answer all the tendencies of my
soul ; why then, should I fear too near a union.
Sect. '43. I think it utterly improbable, that my soul should
become more nearly united to any creature than to God; (though
it be of the same kind with other souls, and infinitely below
God ;) for God is as near me, as I am to myself; I still depend
on him, as the effect upon its total, constant cause ; and that
not as the fruit upon the tree, which borroweth all from the
earth, water, air, and fire, which it communicateth to its fruit;
but as a creature on its Creator, who hath no being but what it-
receiveth totally from God, by constant communication. Hence
Antonine, Seneca, and the rest of the stoics, thought that all
the world was God^ or one great animal, consisting of divine
Baxter's dying thoughts. 271
spirit and matter, as man of soul and body ; sometimes calling
the supposed soul of the world, God ; and sometimes calling
the whole world, God ; but still meaning that the universe was
but one spirit and body united, and that we are all parts of God,
or of the body of God, or accidents, at least.
Sect. 44. And even the popish mystical divines, in their pre-
tensions to the highest perfection, say the same in sense ; such
as Benedict. Anglus, in his Regula Perfectionis, (approved by
many doctors,) who placed much of his supereminent life in
our believing verily that there is nothing but God, as the beams
are to the sun, and as the heat is to the fire; (which really is it-
self ;) and so teachingus torestinall things as good, as beingno-
thing but God's essential will, which is himself (resolving even
our sins and imperfections accordingly into God, so that they
are God's, or none).
Sect. 45. And all these men have as fair a pretence for the
conceits of such an union with God now, as for such an union
after death: for their reason is, 1. That God being infinite,
there can be no more beings than his own ; but God and the
smallest being distinct, would be more entity *than God alone;
but infinity can have no addition. 2. Because ens et bonum
convertuntur ; but God only is good.
And if we are, notwithstanding all this, distinct beings from God
now, we shall not be so advanced as to be deified, and of crea-
tures, or distinct beings, turned into a being infinitely above us.
If we be not parts of God now, we shall not be so then.
But if they could prove that we are so now, we should quickly
prove to them, 1. That then God hath material, divisible parts
(as the stoics thought). 2. And that we are no such parts
as are not distinct from one another ; but some are tormented,
and some happy. And, 3. That (as is said) it will be no abate-
ment of the misery of the tormented, nor of the felicity of the
blessed, to tell them that they are all parts of God ; for, though
the manner of our union witR him, and dependence on him, be
past our comprehension ; yet that we are distinct arid dis-
tant from each other, and have each one a joy or misery of his
own, is past all doubt. Therefore, there is no union with God
to be feared by holy souls, but the utmost possible to be high-
liest desired.
Sect. 46. And if our union with God shall not cease our
individuation, or resolve us into a principle to be feared, we may
say also of our union with any common soul, or many : if we
272 Baxter's dying thoughts.
be unible, we are partible, and so have a distinct, though not a
divided substance, which will have its proper accidents. All
plants are parts of the earth, really united to it, and radicated
in it, and live, and are nourished by it ; and yet a vine is a vine;
and an apple is an apple ; and a rose is a rose ; and a nettle
is a nettle. And few men would be toiled horses, or toads,
if it were proved that they are animated by a common soul.
Sect. 47. But God letteth us see, that though the world be
one, yet he delighteth in a wonderful diversity, and multiplicity
of individuals. How various and numerous are they in the sea,
and on the land, and in the air. And are there none in the
other world? How come the stars therein to be so numerous,
which are of the same element ? And though, perhaps, Saturn,
or some other planets, or many stars, may send forth their ra-
diant effluvia, or parts, into the same air, which the sunbeams
seem totally to fill and illuminate, yet the rays of the sun, and
of other stars, are not the same, how near soever in the same
air.
Sect. 48; Were there now no more contraction by egoity, or
propriety among men, nor mine and thine did signify no more,
nor the distance were greater than that of the several drops of
water in the sea, or particks of light in the illuminated air, but
I had all my part in such a perfect unity and communion with
all others, and knew that all were as happy as I, so that there
were no divisions by cross interests or minds, but all were one,
certainly it would make my own comforts greater by far, than
they are now ? Are not an hundred candles set together and
united, as splendid a flame as if they were all set asunder ? So
one soul, one love, one joy would be.
Sect. 49. Object. But it is only the fomes that individuateth
lights : as when the same sun, by a burning glass, lighteth a
thousand candles, they are individuate only by the matter con-
tracting, being still all united parts of the same sunbeams.
And when they are extinct, they are nothing, or all one again.
Answ. They were, before they were extinct, both one and
many, none but fools think that extinction annihilateth them,
or any part of them ; they are after as much substance, and as
much solar fire, though diffused, and as much and no more one
than before, but not, indeed, many as before, but parts of one.
Nature hath made the equal diffused sunbeams to be to the
air and surface of the earth as the blood equally moving in the
body ; and our candles and fires seem to be like the same blood
Baxter's dying thoughts. 273
contracted in a bile or inflammation, which indeed is more felt
than the equally diffused blood, but it is as the pain of a disease;
and so when our fires go out, they are but like a healed, scat-
tered inflammation, and the same substance is more naturally
and equally diffused. And if the individuation of souls were
only by corporeal matter, and the union thus as great at their
departure, it would not diminish, if it did not too much increase,
their perfection and felicity ; for there would be no diminution
of any substance, or power, or activity, or perfection what-
soever.
Sect. 50. And this would confute their fond opinion, who
think that separated souls sleep in nudd poteritid, for want of an
organized body to operate in ; for no doubt, but if all holy souls
were one, this world, either in heaven or earth, hath a common
body, enough for such a soul to operate in. Even those stoics
that think departed souls are one, do think that that one soul
hath a nobler operation than ours, in our narrow bodies, and that
when our souls cease animating this body, they have the nobler
and sweeter work, in part, of animating the whole world ; and
those that thought several orbs had their several souls, of
which the particular wights participated, said the like of sepa-
rated souls, as animating the bodies of their globes and orbs.
And though all these men trouble their heads with their own
vain imaginations, yet this much the nature of the matter tells
us, which is considerable, that whereas the utmost fear of the
infidel is, that souls departed lose their individuation or activity,
and are resolved into one common soul, or continue in a sleepy
potentiality, for want of a body to operate in, they do but con-
tradict themselves, seeing it is a notorious truth, 1. That if all
holy souls were one, no one would be a loser by the union, but
it would be a greater gain than we must hope for ; for a part of
one is as much and as noble, and as active a substance, as if it
were a separated person (and annihilation, or loss of specific
powers, is not to be rationally feared). 2. And that one soul
is now either self-subsisting without a body, or animateth a suit-
able body (as some ancients thought the angels stars). If that
one soul can act without a body, so may ours, wliether as parts
of it, or not ; if that one soul animate a suitable body, ours,
were they united parts of it, would have part of that employ-
ment ; so that hereby they confute themselves.
Sect. 51. Obj. But this would equalize the good and bad, or
VOL. XVI 11. T
^74 Baxter's dying thoughts"
at least, those that were good in several degrees ; and where
then were the reward and punishment?
Atisw. It would not equal them at all, any more than dis^
tinct personality would do : for, 1 . The souls of all holy persons
may be so united, as that the souls of the wicked shall have no
part in that union. Whether the souls of the wicked shall be
united in one sinful, miserable soul, or rather but in one sinful
society, or be greatlier separate, disunited, contrary to each
other, and militant, as part of their sin and misery, is nothing
to this case. 2. Yet natural and moral union must be differ-
enced. God is the root of nature to the worst, and however in
one sense it is said, that there is nothing in God but God, yet
it is true, that in him all live, and move, and have their being ;
but yet the wicked's in- being in God doth afford them no
sanctifying or beatifying communion with him, as experience
showeth us in this life ; which yet holy souls have, as being
made capable recipients of it. As I said, different plants,
briars, and cedars, the stinking and the sweet, are implanted
parts (or accidents) of the same world or earth. 3. And the
godly themselves may have as different a share of happiness iit
one common soul, as they have now of holiness, and so as dif-
ferent rewards (even as roses and rosemary, and other herbs,
differ in the same garden, and several fruits in the same
orchard, or on the same tree). For if souls are unible, and so
partible substances, they have neither more nor less of sub-
stance or holiness for their union ; and so will each have his proper
measure. As a tun of water cast into the sea will there still
be the same, and more than a spoonful cast into it.
Sect. 52. Obj. But spirits are not as bodies extensive and
quantitative, and so not partible or divisible, and therefore your
supposition is vain.
Answ. 1. My supposition is but the objectors': for if they
confess that spirits are substances, (as cannot with reason be
denied ; for they that specify their operations by motion only,
yet suppose a pure proper substance to be the subject or thing
moved,) then when they talk of many souls becoming one, it
must be by conjunction and increase of the substance of that
one : or when they say, that they were always one, they will
confess withal that they now differ in number, as individuate in
the body. And who will say, that millions of millions are no
more than one of all those millions? Number is a sort of
Baxter's dying thoughts. 275
quantity; and all souls in the world are more than Cain's or
AbePs only ; onefeeleth not what another feeleth; one knoweth
not what another knoweth. And indeed, though souls have not
snch corporeal extension, as passive, gross, bodily matter hath,
yet, as they are more noble, they have a more noble sort of ex-
tension, quantity, or degrees, according to which all mankind
conceive of all the spiritual substance of the universe ; yea, all
the angels, or all the souls on earth, as being more, and having
more substance than one man's soul alone. 2. And the fathers,
for the most part, especially the Greeks, (yea, and the second
council of Nice,) thought that spirits created, had a purer sort
of material being, which Tertullian called a body; and doubt-
less, all created spirits have somewhat of passiveness ; for they
do recipere velpati from the divine influx; only God is wholly
impassive. We are moved when we move, and acted when we
act ; and it is hard to conceive, that (when matter is commonly
called passive) that which is passive should have no sort of
matter in a large sense taken ; and if it have any parts distin-
guishable, they are by God divisible. 3. But if the contrary
be supposed, that all souls are no more than one, and so that
there is no place for uniting or partition, there is no place then
for the objection of all souls becoming one, and of losing indi-
viduation, unless they mean by annihilation.
Sect. 53. But that God who (as is said) delighteth both in
the union, and yet in the wonderful multiplicity of creatures,
and will not make all stars to be only one ; though fire have a
most uniting or aggregative inclination, hath further given ex-
perimental notice that there is individuation in the other world
as well as here, even innumerable angels and ^devils, and not
one only : as apparitions and witches, and many other evidences
prove, of which more anon. So that, all things considered,
there is no reason to fear that the souls shall lose their indivi-
duation or activity, (though they change their manner of ac-
tion,) any more than their being or formal power : and so it
is naturally certain that they are immortal.
Sect. 54. And if holy souls are so far immortal, I need not
prove that they will be immortally happy ; for their holiness
will infer it; and few will ever dream that it shall there go ill
with them that are good, and that the most just and holy God
will not use those well whom he maketh holy.
Sect. 1. II. That holy souls shall be hereafter happy, seem-
eth to be one of the common notices of nature planted in the
t2
276 Baxter's dying thoughts.
consciences of mankind ; and it is therefore acknowledged by
the generaHty of the world that freely use their understandings.
Most, yea almost all the heathen nations at this day believe it,
besides the Mahometans ; and it is the most barbarous cannibals
and Brazilians that do not, whose understandings have had the
least improvement, and who have rather an inconsiderate nesci-
ence of it, than a denying opposition. And though some phi-
losophers denied it, they were a small and contemned party :
and though many of the rest were somewhat dubious, it was
only a certainty which they professed to want, and not a pro-
bability or opinion that it was true; and both the vulgar and
the deep-studied men believed it, and those that questioned it
were the half-studied philosophers, who, not resting in the natu-
ral notice, nor yet reaching full intellectual evidence of it by
discourse, had found out matter of difficulty to puzzle them,
and came not to that degree of wisdom as would have resolved
them.
Sect. 2. And even among apostates from Christianity, most, or
many, still acknowledge the soul's immortality, and the felicity and
reward of holy souls, to be of the common notices, known by
nature to mankind. Julian was so much persuaded of it, that,
on that account, he exhorteth his priests and subjects to great
strictness and holiness of life, and to see that the Christians did
not exceed them : and, among us, the Lord Herbert de Veritate,
and many others that seem not to believe our supernatural reve-
lations of Christianity, do fully acknowledge it. Besides, those
philosophers wlio most opposed Christianity, as Porphyrins,
Maximus, Tyrius, and such others.
Sect. 3. And we find that this notice hath so deep a root in
nature, that few of those that study and labour themselves into
bestiality (or sadducism) are able to excuse the fears of future
misery, but conscience overcometh, or troubleth them much at
least, when they have done the worst they can against it. And
whence should all this be in man and not in beasts, if man had
no further reason of hopes and fears than they ? Are a few Sad-
ducees wiser by their forced or crude conceits, than all the world
that are taught by nature itself.
Sect. I. III. If the God of nature have made it every man's
certain duty to make it his chief care and work in this life, to
seek for happiness hereafter, then such a happiness there is for
them that truly seek it. But the antecedent is certain, as 1 have
elsewhere proved. Ergo^ &:c.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 277
Sect. 2. As to the antecedent. The world is made up of
three sorts of men, as to the belief of future retribution,
1. Such as take it for a certain truth 5 such are Christians, Ma-
hometans, and most heathens. 2. Such as take it for uncertain,
but most probable or likeliest to be true. 3. Such as take it for
uncertain, but rather think it untrue. For as none can be cer-
tain that it is false, which indeed is true, so I never yet met with
one that would say he was certain it was false : so that I need
not trouble you with the mention of any other party or opinion ;
but if any should say so, it is easy to prove that he speaketh
falsely of himself.
Sect. 3. And that it is the duty of all these, but especially
of the two former sorts, to make it their chief care and work
to seek their happiness in the life to come, is easily proved thus :
natural reason requireth every man to seek that which is best
for himself, with the greatest diligence ; but natural reason
saith that a probability or ppssibility of the future everlasting
happiness is better and more worthy to be sought, than any
thing attainable in this present life (which doth not suppose it).
Ergo, &c.
Sect. 4. The major is past doubt. Good and felicity being
necessarily desired by the will of man, that which is best, and
known so to be, must be most desired.
And the minor should be as far past doubt to men that use
not their sense against their reason. For, 1. In this life there
is nothing certain to be continued one hour. 2. It is certain
that all will quickly end, and that the longest life is short. 3. It
is certain that time and pleasure past are nothing, properly no-
thing ; and so no better to us than if they had never been.
4. And it is certain that, while we possess them, they are poor,
unsatisfactory things, the pleasure of the flesh being no sweeter
to a man than to a beast, and the trouble that accompanieth it
much more. Beasts have not the cares, fears, and sorrows, upon
foresight, which man hath. They fear not death upon the fore-
knowledge of it, nor fear any misery after death, nor are put
upon any labour, sufferings, or trials, to obtain a future happi-
ness, or avoid a future misery. All which considered, he speak- '
eth not by reason, who saith this vain, vexatious life is better
than the possibility or probability of the everlasting glory.
Sect. 5. Now, as to the consequence, or major, of the first
argument, it is evident of itself, from God's perfection, and the
nature of his works. God maketh it not man's natural duty
278 Baxter's dying thoughts,
to lay out his chief care and labour of all his life, on that which
is not, or to seek that which man was never made to attain :
for then, 1. All his duty should result from mere deceit and
falsehood, and God should govern all the world by a lie, which
cannot be his part who wanteth neither power, wisdom, nor love,
to rule them by truth and righteousness, and who hath printed
his image both on his laws and on his servants ; in which laws
lying is condemned, and the better any man is, the more he
hateth it ; and liars are loathed by all mankind. 2. And then
the better any man is, and the more he doth his duty, the more
deluded, erroneous, and miserable should he be. For he should
spend that care and labour of his life upon deceit, for that
which he shall never have, and so should lose his time and
labour : and he should deny his flesh those temporal pleasures
which bad men take, and suffer persecutions and injuries from
the wicked, and' all for nothing, and on mistake : and the more
wicked, or more unbelieving, any man is, the wiser and happier
should he be, as being in the right, when he denieth the life to
come, and all duty and labour in seeking it, or in avoiding future
punishment j and while he taketh his utmost pleasure here, he
hath all that man was made for. . But all this is utterly unsuit-
able to God's perfection, and to his other works : for he maketh
nothing in vain, nor can he lie, much less will he make holiness
itself, and all that duty and work of life which reason itself
obligeth all men, to be not only vain but hurtful to them. But
of this argument I have been elsewhere larger.
Sect. 1. IV. Man differeth so much from brutes in the
knowledge of God, and of his future possibilities, that it proveth
that he differeth as much in his capacity and certain hopes.
I. As to the antecedent, man knoweth that there is a God by his
works. He knoweth that this God is our absolute Lord, our
niler, and our end. He knoweth that, naturally, we owe him
all our love and obedience. He knoweth that good men use not
to let their most faithful servants be losers by their fidelity; nor
do they use to set them to labour in vain. He knoweth that
man's soul is immortal, or, at least, that it is far more probable
that it is so ; and therefore that it must accordingly be well or
ill for ever, and that thfs should be niost cared for. 2. And
why should God give him all this knowledge more than to the
brutes, if he were made for no more enjoyment than the brutes,
of what he knoweth. Every wise man maketh his work fit for
the use that he intendeth it to : and will not God ? So that the
Baxter's dying thoughts. 279
consequence also is proved from the divine perfection ; and if
God were not perfect, he were not God. The denial of a God,
therefore, is the result of the denial of man's future hopes.
Sect. 2. And, indeed, though it be but an analogical reason
that brutes have, those men seem to be in the right who place
the difference between man and brutes more in the objects, ten-
dency, and work of our reason/ than in our reason itself as such,
and so make animal religiosum to be more of his description
than animal rationale. About their own low concerns, a fox, a^
dog, yea, an ass, and a goose, have such actions as we know not
well how to ascribe to any thing below some kind of reasoning,
or a perception of the same importance. But they think not of
God, and his government, and laws, nor of obeying, trusting, or
loving him, nor of the hopes or fears of another life, nor of the
joyful prospect of it. These are that work that man was made
for, which is the chief difference from the brutes : and shall we
unman ourselves ?
Sect. 1. V» The justice of God, as governor of the world,
inferreth different rewards hereafter, as 1 have largely else-
where proved. 1. God is not only a mover of all that moveth,
but a moral ruler of man by laws, and judgment, and executions,
else there were no proper law of nature, which few are so unn£^-
tural as to deny ; and man should have no proper duty, but only
motion as he is moved. And then, how cometh a government
by laws to be set up undc_r God by men ? And then there were
no sin or fault in any ; for if there were no law and duty, but
only necessitated motion, all would be moved as the mover
pleased, and there could be no sin ; and then there would be no
moral good, but forced or necessary motion. But all this is
most absurd ; and experience telleth us that God doth de facto ^
morally govern the world ; and his right is unquestionable.
Sect. 2. And if God were not the ruler of the world, by law
and judgment, the world would have no universal laws, for there
is no man that is the universal ruler : and then kings and other
supreme powers would be utterly lawless and ungoverned, as
having none above them to give them laws, and so they would
be capable of no sin or fault, and of no punishment ; which yet
neither their subjects' interest, nor their own consciences will
grant, or allow them thoroughly to believe.
Sect. 3. And if God be a ruler, he is just ; or else he were
not perfect, nor so good, as he requireth princes and judges on
earth to be. An unjust ruler or judge is abominable to all man-
280 BAXTKB*S DYING THOUGHTS.
kind. Righteousness is the great attribute of the universal
King.
Sect. 4. But how were he a righteous ruler, 1. If he drew all
men to obey him by deceit ? 2. If he obliged them to seek and
expect a felicity or reward which he will never give them? 3. If
he make man's duty his misery? 4. If he require him to labour
in vain? 5. If he suffer the wicked to prosecute his servants to
the death, and make duty costly, and give no after recompense?
6. If he let the most wicked on the earth pass unpunished, or
to escape as well hereafter as the best, and to live in greater
pleasure here ? The objections fetched from the intrinsical good
of duty I have elsewhere answered.
Sect. I. VI. But God hath not left us to the light of mere
nature, as being too dark for men so blind as we. The gospel
revelation is the clear foundation of our faith and hopes. Christ
hath brought life and immortality to light. One from heaven
that is greater than an angel was sent to tell us what is there,
and which is the way to secure our hopes. He hath risen, and
conquered death, and entered before as our captain and fore-
runner into the everlasting habitations. And he hath all power
in heaven and earth, and all judgment is committed to him,
that he might give eternal life to his elect. He hath frequently
and expressly promised it them, that they shall live because he
liveth, and shall not perish but have everlasting life. (Matt,
xxviii. 18 ; John v. 22, xvii. 2, xii. 26, iii. 16 ; Rom. viii. 35 —
38.) And how fully he hath proved and sealed the truth of his
word and office to us, I have so largely opened in my ^ Reasons
of the Christian Religion,' and ' Unreasonableness of Infidelity,'
and in my ' Life of Faith,' &c. ; and since, in my ' Household
Catechising,' that I will not here repeat it.
Sect. 2. And as all his word is full of promises of our future
glory at the resurrection, so we are not without assurance that
at death the departing soul doth enter upon a state of joy and
blessedness. " They that died to (or in) the flesh according to
men, do live in the Spirit according to God.** (1 Pet. iv, 6.)
For,
1. He expressly promised the penitent, crucified thief, " This
day shaltthou be with me in paradise." (Luke xxiii. 43.)
2. He gave us the narrative or parable of the damned sensu-
alist, and of Lazarus, (Luke xvi.,) to instruct us, and not to
deceive us.
3. He tells the Sadducees that God is not the God of the dead
Baxter's dying thoughts. 281
(as his subjects and beneficiaries) but of the living. (Matt.
xxii. 32.)
4. Enoch and Elias were taken up to heaven, and Moses
that died, appeared with Elias on the mount. (Matt, xvii,)
5. He tellethus, (Luke xii. 4,) that they that kill the body,
are not able to kill the soul. Indeed, if the soul were not
immortal, the resurrection were impossible. It might be a new
creation of another soul, but not a resurrection of the same,
if the same be annihilated. It is certain that the Jews believed
the immortality of the soul, in that they believed the resurrec-
tion and future life of the same man.
6. And Christ's own soul was commended into his Father's
hands, (Luke xxiii. 46,) and was in paradise, when his body
was in the grave, to show us what shall become of ours. '
7. And he hath promised, that where he is, there shall his
servants be also. (John xii. 26.) And that the life here begun
in us is eternal life, and that he that believeth in him shall not
die, but shall live by him, as he liveth by the Father, for he
dwelleth in God, and God in him, and in Christ, and Christ in
him. (John xvii. 3, and vi. 54, and iii. 16, 36, and vi. 47, 50,
56, 57 ; 1 John iv. 12, 13 ; Luke xvii. 21 ; Rom. xiv. 17.)
8. And accordingly, Stephen that saw heaven opened, prayed
the Lord Jesus to receive his Spirit. (Acts vii. 55, 59.)
9. And we are come to Mount Sion, &c., to an innumerable
company of angels, and to the spirits of the just made perfect.
(Heb. xii. 22, 23.)
10. And Paul here desireth to depart and be with Christ as
far better. And to be absent from the body, and be present
with the Lord. (2 Cor. v. 8.)
1 1 . And the dead that die in the Lord are blessed, from
henceforth, that they may rest from their labours, and their
works follow them.
12. And if the disobedient spirits be in prison, and the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah suffer the vengeance of eternal fire,
(1 Pet. iii. 19; Jude 7,) then the just have eternal life. And
if the Jews had not thought the soul immortal, Saul had not de-
sired the witch to call up Samuel to speak with him. The rest
I now pass by. We have many great and precious promises on
which a departed soul may trust.
13. And (Luke xvi. 9) Christ expressly saith, that when we
fail, (that is, must leave this world,) we shall be received into
the everlasting habitations.
282 Baxter's dying thoughts. ~
Sect. 1 . VII. And it is not nothing to encourage us to hope
in him that hath made all these promises, when we find how
he heareth prayers in this life, and thereby assureth his servants
that he is their true and faithful Saviour. We are apt in our
distress to cry loud for mercy and deliverances, and when
human help faileth, to promise God, that if he now will save us,
we will thankfully acknowledge it his work, and yet when we
are delivered, to return not only to security, but to ingratitude,
and think that our deliverance came but in the course of
common providence, and not indeed as an answer to our
prayers. And therefore God in mercy reneweth both our dis-
tresses and our deliverances, that what once or twice will not
convince us of, many and great deliverances may. This is my
own case. Oh, how oft have I cried to him when men and means
were nothing, and when no help in second causes did appear,
and how oft, and suddenly, and mercifully hath he delivered
me 1 What sudden ease, what removal of long afflictions have
I had ! such extraordinary changes, and beyond my own and
others' expectations, when many plain- hearted, upright Christ-^
ians have, by fasting and prayer, sought God on my behalf, a$
have over and over convinced me of special providence, and
that God is indeed a hearer of prayers. And wonders I have
seen done for others also, upon such prayers, more than for
myself, yea, and wonders for the church and public societies.
Though I and others are too like those Israelites, (Psalm Ixxviii.,)
who cried to God in their troubles, and he oft delivered them
out of their distress, but they quickly forgot his mercies, and
their convictions, purposes, and promises, when they should have
praised the Lord for his goodness, and declared his works with
thanksgiving to the sons of men.
And what were all these answers and mercies but the fruits
of Christ's power, fidelity, and love, the fulfil lings of his pro-
mises, and the earnest of the greater blessings of immortality,
which the same promises give me title to.
I know that no promise of hearing prayer setteth up our
wills in absoluteness, or above God's, as if every will of ours
must be fulfilled if we do but put it into a fervent or confident
prayer; but if we ask any thing through Christ, according tp
his will, expressed in his promise, he will hear us. If a sinful
love of this present life, or of ease, or wealth, or honour, should
cause me to pray to God against death, or against all sickness,
want, reproach, or other trials, as if I must live here in pros-
Baxter's dying thoughts. 383-
perity for ever If I ask it, this sinful desire and expectation is
not the work of faith, but of presumption. What if God will
not abate me my last, or daily pains ? What if he will continue
my life no longer, whoever pray for it, and how earnestly soever ?
Shall I therefore forget how oft he hath heard prayers for me ?
and how wonderfully he hath helped both me and others ? My
faith hath oft been helped by such experiences, and shall I
forget them ? or question them without cause at last ?
Sect. 1. VIII. And it is a subordinate help to my belief of
immortality with Christ, to find so much evidence that angels
have friendly communion with us here, and therefore we shall
have communion with them hereafter. (Psalm xxxiv. 7, and
xci. 11, 12; Luke xv. 10; 1 Cor. xi. 10; Heb. i. 14, and xii.
22, and xiii. 2 ; Matt, xviii. 10, and xxv. 31, and xiii. 39, 49 ;
Acts V. 19, and viii. 26, and xii. 7, 23.) They have charge of
us, and pitch their tents about us ; they bear us up ; they re»
joice at our repentance; they are the regardful witnesses of our
behaviour ; they are ministering spirits for our good ; they are
our angels beholding the face of our heavenly Father. They
will come with Christ in glorious attendance at the great and
joyful day, and, as his executioners, they will separate the just
from the unjust.
And it is not only the testimony of Scripture by which we
know their communion with us, but also some degree of expe*
rience. Not only of old did they appear to the faithful as mes-
sengers from God, but of late times there have been testimonies
of their ministration for us. Of which see Zanchy de Angelis,
and Mr. J. Ambrose, of our communion with angels. Many a
mercy doth God give us by their ministry, and they that are now
so friendly to us, and suitable to our communion and help, and
make up one society with us, do hereby greatly encourage us
to hope that we are made for the same region, work, and com-
pany with these our blessed, loving friends. They were once
in a life of trial, it seems, as we are now, though not on earth.
(Jude 6 ; 2 Pet. ii. 4.) And they that overcame and are con-
firmed rejoice in our victory and confirmation. It is not an
uninhabited world which is above us, nor such as is beyond our
capacity and hope. We are come to an innumerable company
of angels, and to the spirits of the perfected just, who together
have discreet quantity, or numerical difference, notwithstanding
their happy union and communion.
Sec. 1. JX. And Satan himself, though unwillingly, hatl;
284 Baxter's dying thoughts.
many ways helped my belief of our immortality and future hopes.
1. 1 have had many convincing proofs of witches, the contracts
they have made with devils, and the power which they have re-
ceived from them.* Beside the volumes of Remigius and BodiUy
and the Mallei Maleficorum, Danceus, and others, we had many
score of them detected, and many executed in one year in
Suffolk and Essex, f about 1644. And I have at this present a
flint-stone, which was one of about 160, which was voided by
the urinary passage, by a bewitched child in Evesham, yet
living, some of near an ounce weight, which was fully proved,
the witch executed, and the child, upon her imprisonment,
freed. To pass by many others.
Sect. 2. 2. And 1 have had convincing testimony of apparitions,
besides that famous one, the devil of Mascon, and that in the
shape of lieutenant-colonel Bowen, in Wales, mentioned else-
where, and besides many;}; testimonies of haunted houses, (how-
ever many, or most such reports, are but deceits).
Sect. 3. From both these I gather, 1. That there are indivi-
dual inhabitants of the invisible world, and that spirits have their
numerical differences, whatever unity is among them, and
therefore we have reason to judge the same of separated souls.
2. That our souls are designed to future happiness or misery,
which is implied in the foresaid contracts and endeavours of
devils for our ruin. 3. That faith and holiness are the way of
life, and unbelief and sin the way to misery, which also is in
these implied.
Sect. 4. 3. And 1 have both read, and partly seen, convincing
evidence, that there is such an exercise of diabolical power as
we commonly call possession. Whether all, or most madmen
are under such a power, as some think, I determine not, but
that some are under it is evident. The motions of the body,
which 1 have seen, seem beyond man's natural power. The
telling of secrets and things absent, the speaking of languages
never learned, the vomiting of nails, glass, hairs, &c., and other
such effects, which the most learned, sober, impartial physicians
profess to have seen, are credible testimonies.
Sect. 5. 4. And I have felt, and heard, and known from
others, of such sorts of temptations, as show themselves to be
* Of this see the second edition, by Dr. More, of Mr. Glanvil's book of
apparitions called jltheismus Triumphotus.
t For the truth of this read Mr. Fairciough's life.
J See what I have said of particular testimonies in my ' Saint's Rest,' and
* Unreasonableness of Infidelity.'
Baxter's dying thoughts. 285
the acts of malicious spirits, enemies to mankind. The advan-
tages that Satan taketh of a corrupted fancy, which hath once
taken in such an image as may be his matter to work upon, is
very remarkable. 1 have known a worthy, learned, pious per-
son, who from his youth to old age, upon such an advantage,
hath been so tempted, with pleasure, to torment himself, even
his own flesh, as that for many years together, in a partial me-
lancholy, at divers fits he was not able (though conscience also
tormented him for it) to forbear. Many, by an immodest look
or touch, have given Satan such a power upon their fancies, as
no reason, conscience, or resolution could of a long time over-
come. Few men, I think, that observe themselves, have not
at some time had experience of such inward temptations, as show
that the author of them is an invincible enemy. All which tells
us, I. That there are individual spirits. 2. Yea, devils that
seek man's misery. 3. And that by the way of sin, and conse-
quently that a future happiness or misery must be expected by
us all.
Sect. 1. X. But the great and sure prognostics of our immortal
happiness, is from the renewing operations of the Spirit of ho-
liness on the soul. 1. That such a renewing work there is, all
true believers in some measure feel, 2. And that it is the
earnest of heaven, is proved thus.
Sect. 2. 1. If it be a change of greatest benefit to man.
2. And if heaven be the very sum and end of it. 3. And if it
overcome all fleshly, worldly opposition. 4. And can be wrought
by none but God. 5. And was before promised by Jesus
Christ to all sound believers. 6. And is universally wrought in
them all, either only, or eminently above all others. 7. And
was promised them as a pledge and earnest of glory ; then it
can be no less than such a pledge and earnest ; but the former
are all true, &;c.
Sect. 3. 1 . That the change is of grand importance unto man,
appeareth in that it is the renovation of his mind, and will, and
life. It repaireth his depraved faculties, it causeth man to live
as man, who is degenerated to a life too like to brutes. By
God's permitting many to live in blindness, wickedness, and
confusion, and to be tormenters of tliemselves and one another,
bv temi)tations, injuries, wars, and cruelty, we the fuller see
what it is that grace doth save men from, and wliat a difl^er-
ence it maketh in the world. Those that have lived unholy in
their youth, do easily find the ditference in themselves when
Baxter's dying thoughts.
they are renewed. But to them that have been piously inclined
from their childhood, it is harder to discern the difference, unless
they mark the case of others. If man be worth any thing, it is for
the use that his faculties were made, and if he be not good for
the knowledge, love, and service of his Creator, what is he good
for ? And certainly the generality of ungodly worldlings are
undisposed to all such works as this, till the Spirit of Christ
effectually change them. Men are slaves to sin till Christ thus
make them free. (John viii. 32, 33, 36 ; Rom. vi. 18; Acts
xxvi, 18 ; Rom. viii. 2.) But where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty. (2 Cor. iii. 17.) If the divine nature and
image, and the love of God shed abroad on the heart, be not
our excellency, health, and beauty, what is ? And that which is
born of the flesh, is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. (John iii. 6.) Without Christ and his Spirit, we can
do nothing. Our dead notions and reason, when we see the
truth, have not power to overcome temptations, nor to raise up
man's soul to its original and end, nor to possess us with the love
and joyful hopes of future blessedness. It were better for us to
have no souls, than that those souls should be void of the Spirit
of God.
Sect. 4. 2. And that heaven is the sum and end of all the
Spirit's operations, appeareth in all that are truly conscious of
them in themselves, and to them and others by all God's pre-
cepts, which the Spirit causeth us to obey, and the doctrine
which it causeth us to believe, and by the description of all
God's graces which he worketh in us. What is our knowledge
and faith, but our knowledge and belief of heaven, as consisting
in the glory and love of God there manifested, and as purchased
by Christ, and given by his covenant ? What is our hope but
the hope of glory. (See Heb. xi. 1, and throughout; 1 Pet. i.
3,21; Heb. vi.* 11, 18, 19, and iii. 6; Tit. ii. 13, and iii. 7;
Col. i. 5, 23, 27.) And through the Spirit, we wait for all this
hope. (Gal. v. 5.) What is our love but a desire of commu-
nion with the blessed God initially here, and perfectly hereafter ?
As the sum of Christ's gospel was, " Take up the cross, forsake
all here, and follow me, and thou shalt have a reward in heaven."
(Luke xiv. 26, 33, and xviii. 22, 23.) And the consolation of
his gospel is, " Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your
reward in heaven.'* (Matt. v. 1 1, 12.) So the same is the sum
of his Spirit's operations, for what he teacheth and command-
eth that he worketh. For he worketh by that word, and the
Baxter's dying thoughts. 28>^
impress must be like the signet, what arm soever set it on.
He sendeth not his Spirit to make men craftier than others for
this world, but to make them wiser for salvation, and to make
them more heavenly and holy. For the children of this world
are wiser in their generation than the children of light. Heaven-
linessis the Spirit's special work.
Sect. 5. 3. And in working this it conquereth the inward
undisposedness and averseness of a fleshly, worldly mind and
will, and the customs of a carnal life ; and the outward temp-
tations of Satan, and all the allurements of the world. Christ
first overcame the world, and teacheth and causeth us to over-
come it ; even its flatteries and its frowns : our faith is our vic-
tory. Whether this victory be easy, and any honour to the
Spirit of Christ, let our experience of the wickedness of the un-
godly world, and of our own weakness, and of our falls when
the Spirit of God forsaketh us, be our informer.
Sect. 6. 4. And that none but God can do this work on the
soul of man, both the knowledge of causes and experience
prove. The most learned, wise, and holy teachers cannot (as
they confess and show) ; the wisest and most loving parents
cannot, and therefore must pray to him that can ; the greatest
princes cannot; evil angels neither can nor will. What good
angels can do on the heart we know not ; but we know that
they do nothing, but as the obedient ministers of God. And
(though we have some power on ourselves, yet) that we our-
selves cannot do it : that we cannot quicken, illuminate, or
sanctify ourselves, and that we have nothing but what we have
received, conscience and experience fully tell us.
Sect. 7. 5. And that Christ promised this Spirit in a special
measure to all true believers, that it should be in them his ad-
vocate, agent, seal, and mark, is yet visible in the gospel ; yea,
and in the former prophets. (Isa. xliv. 34 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 26, and
xxxvii. 14 ; Joel ii. 28, 29 ; Ezek. xi. 19, andxviii. 31 ; Eph. i.
13 ; John iii. 5, and iv. 23, 24, and vi. 63, and vii. 39 ; John i.
33, and xiv. 16, 26; Acts i. 5, 8; John xv. 26, and xvi. 7 — 9,
&c.) indeed the Spirit here, and heaven hereafter, are the
chief of all the promises of Christ.
Sect. 8. 6. And that this Spirit is given (not to hypocrites
that abuse Christ, and do not seriously believe him, nor to mere
pretending, nominal Christians, but) to all that sincerely believe
the gospel, is evident not only to themselves in certainty, (if
they are in a condition to know themselves,) but to others in
288 Baxter's dying thoughts.
part by the effects : they have other ends, other affections,
other lives, than the rest of mankind have ; though their hea-
venly nature and design be the less discerned and honoured in
the world, because their chiefest difference is out of the sight of
man, in the heart, and in their secret actions, and because their
imperfections blemish them, and because the malignant world
is by strangeness and enmity an incompetent judge, yet it is
discernible to others, that they live upon the hopes of a better
life, and their heavenly interest is it that over-ruleth all the ad-
verse interests of this world, and that in order thereunto they
live under the conduct of divine authority, and that God's will
is highest and most prevalent with them, and that to obey and
please him as far as they know it is the greatest business of
their lives, though ignorance and adverse flesh do make their
holiness and obedience imperfect. The universal noise and op-
position of the world against them, do show that men discern
a very great difference, which error, and cross interests, and car-
nal inclinations, render displeasing to those who find them con-
demned by their heavenly designs and conversations.
Sect. 9. But whether others discern it, or deny it, or detest
it, the true believer is conscious of it in himself: even when he
groaneth to be better, to believe, and trust, and love God more,
and to have more of the heavenly life and comforts, those very
desires signify another appetite and mind, than worldlings have;
and even when his frailties and weaknesses make him doubt of
his own sincerity, he would not change his governor, rule, or
hopes, for all that the world can offer him. He hath the wit-
ness in himself, that there is in believers a sanctifying Spirit,
calling up their minds to God and glory, and warring victori-
ously against the fiesh; (1 John v. 9 — 11 ; Gal. v. 17i Rom.
vii.j Phil. iii. 7 — 15 ;) so that to will is present with
them; and they love and delight in a holy conformity to their
rule, and it is never so well and pleasant with them, as when
thev can trust and love God most ; and in their worst and weak-
est condition, they would fain be perfect. This Spirit, and its
renewing work, so greatly different from the temper and desires
of worldly men, is given by Christ to all sound believers.
Sect. 10. It is true, that some that know not of an incarnate
Saviour, have much in them that is very laudable ; whether it be
real saving holiness, and whether Abraham were erroneous in
thinking that even the Sodoms of the world were likely to have
had fifty righteous persons in them, I am not now to inquire :
Baxter's dying thoughts. 289
but It is sure, 1. That the world had really a Saviour, about
four thousand years before Christ's incarnation ; even the God
of pardoning mercy, who promised and undertook what after
was performed, and shall be to the end. 2. And that the Spi-
rit of this Saviour did sanctify God's elect from the beginning;
and gave them the same holy and heavenly dispositions (in
some degree) before Christ's incarnation, as is given since ; yea,
it is called " The Spirit of Christ," which was before given.
(I Pet. i. 1 1, 3.) That this Spirit was then given to more than
the Jews. 4. That Christ hath put that part of the world that
hear not of his incarnation into no worse a condition than he
found them in : that as the Jews' covenant of peculiarity was no
repeal of the universal law of grace, made by God with fallen
mankind, in Adam and Noah; so the covenant of grace of the
second edition, made with Christ's peculiar people, is no repeal
of the foresaid law in the first edition,, to them that hear not of
the second. 5. That all that wisdom and goodness, that is in
any without the christian church, is the work of the Spirit of
the Redeemer ; as the light which goeth before sun-rising, and
after sun-setting, and in a cloudy day, is of the same sun which
others see, even to them that see not the sun itself. 6. That
the liker any without the church are to the sanctified believers,
the better they are, and the more unlike the worse ; so that all
these six things being undeniable, it appeareth, that it is the
same Spirit of Christ, which now giveth all men what real good-
ness is any where to be found. But it is notorious that no part
of the world is, in heavenliness and virtue, comparable to true
and serious Christians.
Sect. 11. 7. And let it be added, that Christ, (Eph. i. 14;
2 Cor. i. 22, and v. 5. ; Rom. viii. 23 ; 2 Tim. ii. 19 ; Eph. i.
13, and iv. 30; 1 John v. 9, 10; Heb. x. 15,) who promised
the greatest measures of the Spirit, (which he accordingly hath
given,) did expressly promise this, as a means and pledge, first-
fruits, and earnest, of the heavenly glory : and, therefore, it is a
certain proof, that such a glory we shall have. He that can and
doth give us a spiritual change or renovation, which in its na-
ture and tendency is heavenly, and sets our hopes and hearts
on heaven, and tunieth the endeavours of our lives to the seek-
ing of a future blessedness, and told us, before-hand, that he
would give us this preparatory grace, as the earnest of that fe-
licity, may well be trusted to perform his word in our actual
glorification.
VOL. XVIH. U •
290 Baxter's dying thoughts.
Sect. 12. And now, O weak and fearful soul ! why shouldest
thou draw back, as if the case were yet left doubtful ? Is not
thy foundation firm? Is not the way of life, through the
valley of death, made safe by him that conquereth death ? Art
thou not yet delivered from the bondage of thy fears, when the
gaoler and executioner, who had the power of death, hath, by
Christ, been put out of his power, as to thee ? Is not all this
evidence true and sure? Hast thou not the witness in thyself?
Hast thou not found the motions, the effectual operations, the
renewing changes, of this spirit in thee, long ago ? And is he
not still the agent and witness of Christ, residing and operating
in thee ? Whence else are thy groanings after God; thy
desires to be nearer to his glory; to know him better; to
love him more ? Whence came all the pleasure thou hast had
in his sacred truth, and ways, and service ? Who else over-
came thy folly, and pride, and vain desires, so far as they are
overcome ? Who made it thy choice to sit at the feet of Christ,
and hear his word, as the better part, and to despise the
honours and preferments of the world, and to account them all
as dung and dross ? Who breathed in thee all those requests
that thou hast sent up to God ? Overvalue not corrupted na-
ture, it bringeth not forth such fruits as these : if thou doubt of
that, remember what thou wast in the hour of temptation, even
of poor and weak temptations. And how small a matter hath
drawn thee to sin, when God did but leave thee to thyself.
Forget not the days of youthful vanity : overlook not the case
of the miserable world, even of thy sinful neighbours, who, in
the midst of hght still live in darkness, and hear not the loudest
calls of God: look about on thousands that, in the same land,
and under the same teaching, and after the greatest judgments
and deliverance, run on to all excess of riot, and, as past feel -
ing, as greedily vicious and unclean. Is it no work of Christ's
Spirit that hath made thee to differ ? Thou hast nothing to
boast of, and much to be humbled for; but thou hast also much
to be thankful for. Thy holy desires are, alas ! too weak ; but
they are holy : thy love hath been too cold; but it is holiness,
and the most holy God, that thou hast loved. Thy hopes in
God have been too low; but it is God thou hast hoped in, and
his love and glory that thou hast hoped for. Thy prayers have
been too dull and interrupted; but it is holiness and heaven
that thou hast most prayed for. Thy labours and endeavours
have been too slothful; but it is God, and glory, and the good
291
of mankind, that thou hast laboured for. Though thy motion
were too weak and slow, it hath been Godward ; and, therefore,
it was from God. O bless the Lord, that hath not only given
thee a word that beareth the image of God, and is sealed by
uncontrolled miracles, to be the matter of thy belief, but hath
also fulfilled his promises so oft and notably to thee, in the
answer of prayers, and in great and convincing deliverances of
thyself and many others ; and hath, by wonders, oft assisted thy
faith ! Bless that God of light and love, who, besides the uni-
versal attestation of his word, long ago given to all the church,
hath given thee the internal seal, the nearer in-dwelling attesta-
tion, the effects of power, light, and love, imprinted on thy na-
ture, mind, and will, the witness in thyself, that the word of
God is not a human dream, or lifeless thing ; that by regenera-
tion hath been here preparing thee for the light of glory, as by
generation he prepared thee to see this light, and converse with
men. And wilt thou yet doubt and fear against all this evi-
dence, experience, and foretaste ?
Sect. 13. I think it not needless labour to confirm my soul
in the full persuasion of the truth of its own immortal nature,
and of a future life of joy or misery to mankind, and of the
certain truth of the christian faith; the being of God, and his
perfection, hath so great evidence, that I find no great tempta-
tion to doubt of it, any more than whether there be an earth,
or a sun ; and the atheist seemeth to me to be in that no better
than mad. The christian verity is known only by supernatural
revelation ; but by such revelation it is so attested externally to
the world, and internally to holy souls, as maketh faith the
ruling, victorious, consolatory principle, by which we must live,
and not by sight ; but the soul's immortality and reward here-
after is of a middle nature, viz., of natural revelation, but in-
comparably less clear than the being of a God ; and therefore,
by the addition of evangelical (supernatural) revelation, is made
to us much more clear and sure. And J find among the in-
fidels of this age, that most who deny the christian verity, do
almost as much deny or question the retribution of a future
life. And they that are fully satisfied of this, do find Chris-
tianity so excellently congruous to it, as greatly facilitateth the
work of faith. Therefore, I think, that there is scarce any
verity more needful to be thoroughly digested into a full assur-
ance, than this of the soul's immortality, and hope of future
happiness.
u2
292 Baxter's dying thoughts.
Sect. 14. And when I consider the great unlikeness of men's
hearts and lives to such a beHef, as we all profess, I cannot but
fear, that not only the ungodly, but most that truly hope for
glory, have a far weaker belief (in habit and act) of the soul's
immortality, and the truth of the gospel, than they seem to take
notice of in themselves. Can I be certain, or fully persuaded,
(in habit and act) of the future rewards and punishments of
souls, and that we shall be all shortly judged, as we have lived
here, and yet not despise all the vanities of this world, and set
my heart, with resolution and diligence, to the preparation
which must be made by a holy, heavenly, fruitful life, as one
whose soul is taken up with the hopes and fears of things of
such unspeakable importance. Who could stand dallying, as
most men do, at the door of eternity, that did verily believe his
immortal soul must be shortly there? Though such an one had
no certainty of his own particular title to salvation, the cer-
tainty of such a grand concernment (that joy or misery is at
hand) would surely awaken him to try, cry, or search ; to beg,
to strive, to watch, to spare no care, or cost, or labour, to make
all sure in a matter of such weight; it could not be but he
would do it with speed, and do it with a full resolved soul, and
do it with earnest zeal and diligence. What man, that once
saw the things which we hear of, even heaven and hell, would
not afterwards, (at least in deep regard and seriousness,) ex-
ceed the most resolved believer that you know. One would
think, in reason, it should be so thought : I confess a wicked
heart is very senseless.
Sect. 15. I do confess, that there is much weakness of the
belief of things unseen, where yet there is sincerity ; but surely
there will be some proportion between^our belief and its effects.
And where there is little regard, or fear, or hopes, or sorrow, or
joy, or resolved diligence, for the world to come, I must think
that there is (in act at least) but little belief of it, and that such
persons little know themselves, how much they secretly doubt,
whether it be true. I know that most complain, almost alt©-
gether, of the uncertainty of their title to salvation, and little
of their uncertainty of a heaven and hell ; but were they more
certain of this, and truly persuaded of it at the heart, it would
do more to bring them to that serious, resolved faithfulness in
religion, which would help them more easily to be sure of their
sincerity, than long examinations, and many, marks talked of,
without this, will do.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 293
Sect. 16. And I confess, that the great wisdom of God hath
not thought meet, that in the body we should have as clear, and
sensible, and lively apprehensions of heaven and hell, as sight
would cause. For that would be to haye too much of heaven
or hell on earth ; for the gust would follow the perception, and
so full a sense would be some sort of a possession, which we are
not fit for in this world. And, therefore, it must be a darker
revelation than sight would be^ that it may be a lower per-
ception, lest this world and the next should be confounded; and
faith and reason should be put out of office, and not duly tried,
exercised, and fitted for reward; but yet faith is faith, and
knowledge is knowledge ; and he that verily believeth such great,
transcendent things, though he see them not, will have some
proportionable affections and endeavours.
Sect. 17. I confess also, that man's soul, in flesh, is not fit to
bear so deep a sense of heaven and hell as sight would cause ;
because it here operateth on and with the body, and according
to its capacity, which cannot bear so deep a sense without dis-
traction, by screwing up the organs too high, till they break,
and so overdoing, would undo all; but yet there is an overruling
seriousness, which a certain belief of future things must needs
bring the soul to, that truly hath it: and he that is careful and
serious for this world, and looketh after a better, but with a
slight, unwilling, half-regard, and, in the second place, must
give me leave to think, that he believeth but as he liveth, and
that his doubting, or unbelief, of the reality of a heaven and
hell, is greater than his belief.
Sect. 18. O, then, for what should my soul more pray, than
for a clearer, and stronger faith ? I believe. Lord, help my un-
belief ! I have many a thousand times groaned to thee under
the burden of this remnant of darkness and unbelief; I have
many a thousand times thought of the evidences of the chris-
tian verity, and of the great necessity of a lively, powerful,
active faith: I have begged it; I have cried to thee night and
day. Lord increase my faith ! I have written and spoken that
to others which might be most useful to myself, to raise the
apprehensions of faith yet higher, and make them liker those
of sense ; but yet, yet Lord, how dark is this world ! What a
dungeon is this flesh ! How little clearer is my sight, and
little quicker are my perceptions, of unseen things, than long
ago ! Am I at the highest that man on earth can reach, and
that when 1 am so dark and low ? Is there no growth of these
204 HAXTER S DYING THOUGHTS.
apprehensions more to be expected ? Doth the soul cease its
increase in vigorous perception, when the body ceaseth its in-
crease, or vigour, of sensation ? Must I sit down in so low a
measure, while 1 am drawing nearer to the things believed;
and am almost there, where belief must pass into sight and
love ? Or must I take up with the passive silence and inac-
tivity? which some friars persuade us is nearer to perfection 5
and, under pretence of annihilation and receptivity, let niy
sluggish heart alone, and say, that in this neglect I Wait for thy
operations? O let not a soul, that is driven from this world,
and weary of vanity, and can think of little else but immortality,
that seeks and cries both night and day for the heavenly light,
and fain would have some foretaste of glory, and some more of
the first-fruits of the promised joys, let not such a soul either
long, or cry, or strive in vain ! Punish not my former grieving
of thy Spirit, by deserting a soul that crieth for thy grace, so
near its great and inconceivable change. Let me not languish
in vain desires, at the door of hope; nor pass with doubtful
thoughts and fears, from this vale of misery. Which should be
the season of triumphant faith, and hope, and joy, if not when
I am entering on the world of joy ? O thou that hast left us so
many consolatory words of promise, that our joy may be full ;
send, oh ! send, the promised Comforter, without whose ap-
proaches and heavenly beams, when all is said, and a thousand
thoughts and strivings have been assayed, it will still be night
and winter with the soul.
Sect. 19. But have I not expected more particular and more
sensitive conceptions of heaven, and the state of blessed souls,
than I should have done, and remained less satisfied, because
1 expected such distinct perceptions to my satisfaction, which
God doth not ordinarily give to souls in flesh ? I fear it hath
been too much so ; a distrust of God, and a distrustful desire to
know much (good and evil) for ourselves, as necessary to our
quiet and satisfaction, was that sin which hath deeply corrupted
man's nature, and is more of our common pravity, than is
commonly observed ; I find that this distrust of God, and my
Redeemer, hath had too great a hand in my desires of a dis-
tincter and more sensible knowledge. I know that I should
implicitly, and absolutely, and quietly, trust my soul into my
Redeemer's hands; (of which I must speak more anon;) and it
is not only for the body, but also for the soul, that a distrustful
care is our great sin and misery. But yet we must desire that
Baxter's dying thoughts. 295
our knowledge and belief may be as distinct and particular as
God's revelations are; and we can love no further than we know;
and the more we know of God and glory, the more we shall love,
desire, and trust him. It is a known, and not merely an un-
known God and happiness, that the soul doth joyfully desire ;
and if I may not be ambitious of too sensible and distinct per-
ceptions here, of the things unseen ; yet must I desire and beg
the most fervent and sensible love to them that I am capable
of. I am willing (in part) to take up with that unavoidable
ignorance, and that low degree of such knowledge, which God
confineth us to in the flesh, so be it he will give me but such
consolatory foretastes in love and joy, which such a general,
imperfect knowledge may consist with, that my soul may not
pass with distrust and terror, but with suitable, triumphant hopes
to the everlasting pleasures.
Father of lights ! who givest wisdom to them that ask it of
thee, shut not up this sinful soul in darkness 1 leave me not to
grope in unsatisfied doubts, at the door of the celestial light !
or, if my knowledge must be general, let it be clear and power**
ful ; and deny me not now the lively exercise of faith, hope, and
love, which are the stirrings of the new creature, and the dawn-
ings of the everlasting light, and the earnest of the promised
inheritance.
Sect. 20. But we are oft ready to say, with Cicero, when he
had been reading such as Plato, that, while the book is in our
hands, we seem confident of our immortality, and when we lay it
by, our doubts return ; so our arguments seem clear and cogent,
and yet when we think not of them with the best advantage,
we are oft surprised with fear, lest we should be mistaken, and
our hopes be vain ; and hereupon (and from the common fear
of death, that even good men too often manifest) the infidels
gather, that we do but force ourselves into such a hope as we
desire to be true, against the tendency of man's nature, and
that we were not made for a better world.
Sect. 21. But this fallacy ariseth from men's not distinguish-
ing, 1 . Sensitive fears from rational uncertainty, or doubts. 2.
And the mind that is in the darkness of unbelief, from that
which hath the light of faith.
1 find in myself too much of fear, when I look into eternity,
interrupting and weakening my desires and joy. But 1 find
that it is very much an irrational, sensitive fear, which the dark-
ness of man's mind, the greatness of the change, the dreadful
296 Baxter's dying thoughts.
majesty of God, and man's natural averseness to die, do, in
some degree, necessitate, even when reason is fully satisfied that
such fears are consistent with certain safety. If I were bound
with the strongest chains, or stood on the surest battlements,
on the top of a castle or steeple, I could not possibly look down
without fear, and such as would go near to overcome me; and
yet 1 should be rationally sure that I am there fast and safe, and
cannot fall. So is it with our prospect into the life to come :
fear is oft a necessitated passion : when a man is certain of his
safe foundation, it will violently rob him of the comfort of that
certainty : yea, it is a passion that irrationally doth much to
corrupt our reason itself, and would make us doubt because we
fear, though we know not why : and a fearful man doth hardly
trust his own apprehensions of his safety, but, among other fears,
is still ready to fear lest he be deceived : like timorous, melan-
choly persons about their bodies, who are ready still to think
that every little distemper is a mortal symptom, and that worse
is still nearer them than they feel, and they hardly believe any
words of hope.
Sect. 22. And Satan, knowing the power of these passions,
and having easier access to the sensitive than to the intellective
faculties, doth labour to get in at this backdoor, and to frighten
poor souls into doubt and unbelief : and in timorous natures he
doth it with too great success, as to the consolatory acts of
faith. Though yet God's mercy is wonderfully seen in preserv-
ing many honest, tender souls from the damning part of unbe-
lief, and, by their fears, preserveth them from being bold with
sin : when many bold and impudent sinners turn infidels, or
atheists, by forfeiting the helps of grace.
Sect. 23. And, indeed, irrational fears have so much power
to raise doubts, that they are seldom separated ; insomuch that
many scarce know, or observe, the difference between doubts and
fears : and many say they not only fear but doubt, when they
can scarce tell why, as if it were no intellectual act which they
meant, but an irrational passion.
Sect. 24. If, therefore, my soul see undeniable evidence of im-
mortality ; and if it be able, by irrefragable argument, to prove
the future blessedness expected ; and if it be convinced that
God's promises are true, and sufficiently sealed and attested by
him, to warrant the most confident belief; and if I trust my soul
and all my hopes upon this word, and evidences of truth, it is
not, then, our averseness to die, nor the sensible fears of a soul
Baxter's dying thoughts. 297
that looketh into eternity, that invalidate any of the reasons of
my hope, nor prove the unsoundness of my faith.
Sect. 25. But yet these fears do prove its weakness; and
were they prevalent against the choice, obedience, resolutions,
and endeavours of faith, they would be prevalent against the
truth of faith, or prove its nullity; for faith is trust; and trust
is a securing, quieting thing. ^' Why are ye fearful, O ye of little
faith ?" was a just reproof of Christ to his disciples, when sen-
sible dangers raised up their fears. For the established will
hath a political or imperfect, though not a despotical and abso-
lute, power over our passions. And therefore our fears do show
our unbelief, and stronger faith is the best means of conquering
even irrational fears; *' Why art thou cast down, O my soul,
and why art thou so disquieted in me ? trust in God,"' &c.
(Psalm xlii.,) is a needful way of chiding a timorous heart.
Sect. 26. And though many say that faith hath not evidence,
and think that it is an assent of the mind, merely commanded
by the empire of the will, without a knowledge of the verity of
the testimony ; yet, certainly, the same assent is ordinarily in
the Scriptures called, indifferently, knowing and believing : and,
as a bare command, will not cause love, unless we perceive an
amiableness in the object, so a bare command of the law, or of
the will, cannot alone cause belief, unless we perceive a truth
in the testimony believed : for it is a contradiction ; or an act
without its object. And truth is perceived only so far as it is
some way evident : for evidence is nothing but the objective
perceptibility of truth ; or that which is metaphorically called
light. So that we must say that faith hath not sensible evi-
dence of the invisible things believed ; but faith is nothing else
but the willing perception of the evidence of truth in the word
of the assertor, and a trust therein. We have, and must have,
evidence that Scripture is God's word, and that his word is true,
before, by any command of the word or will, we can believe it.
Sect. 27. I do, therefore, neither despise evidence as unneces-
sary, nor trust to it alone as the sufficient total cause of my be-
lief : for if God's grace do not open mine eyes, and come down
in power upon my will, and insinuate into it a sweet acquaint -
ance with the things unseen, and a taste of their goodness to
delight my soul, no reasons will serve to stablish and comfort
me, how undeniable soever : reason is fain first to make use of
notions, words, or signs ; and to know terms, propositions, and
298 Baxter's dying thoughts.
arguments, which are but means to the knowledge of things, is
its first employment, and that, alas ! which multitudes of learned
men do take up with : but it is the illumination of God that
must give us an effectual acquaintance with the things spiritual
and invisible, which these notions signify, and to which our or-
ganical knowledge is but a means.
Sect. 28. To sum up all, that our hopes of heaven have a
certain ground appeareth, I. From nature: II. From grace:
III. From other works of gracious providence.
1. From the ilature of man: 1. Made capable of it. 2.
Obliged, even by the law of nature, to seek it before all. 3. Na-
turally desiring perfection, 1. Habitual: 2. Active: And, 3.
Objective.
2. And from the nature of God. 1. As good and commu-
nicative. 2. As holy and righteous. 3. As wisej making
none of his works in vain.
Sect. 29. II. From grace, 1. Purchasing it. 2. Declaring it
by a messenger from heaven, both by word, and by Christ's own
(and others') resurrection. 3. Promising it. 4. Sealing that
promise by miracles there. 5. And by the work of sanctifica-
tion, to the end of the world.
Sect. 30. III. By subordinate providence. 1. God's actual
governing the world by the hopes and fears of another life. 2.
The many helps which he giveth us for a heavenly life, and for
attaining it (which are not vain). 3. Specially the ministra*
tion of angels, and their love to us, and communion with us.
^. And, by accident, devils themselves convince us. 1. By the
nature of their temptations. 2. By apparitions, and haunting
houses. 3. By witches. 4. By possessions ; which though it
be but a satanical operation on the body, yet is so extraordi-
nary an operation, that it differeth from the more usual, as (if
I may so compare them) God's Spirit's operations on the saints,
that are called his dwelling in them, or possessing them, are
different from his lower operations on others.
Sect. 1 . II. Having proved that faith and hope have a cer-
tain, future happiness to expect, the text directeth me next to
consider why it is described by " being with Christ ;" viz. I.
What is included in our " being with Christ." II. That we
shall be with him. III. Why we shall be with him.
Sect. 2. To be with Christ, includeth, 1. Presence. 2.
Union. 3, Communion, or participation of felicity with him.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 299
Sect. 3. 1. Quest. Is it Christ's godhead, or his human
soul, or his human body, that we shall be present with, and
united to, or all ? Answ. It is all, but variously.
Sect. 4. 1. We shall be present with the divine nature of
Christ. Quest. But are we not always so ? And are not all
creatures so ? Answ. Yes, as his essence comprehendeth all
place and beings ; but not as it is operative, and manifested in
and by his glory. Christ directeth our hearts and tongues to
pray "Our Father, which art in heaven :" and yet he knew that
all place is in and with God ; because it is in heaven that he
gloriously operateth and shineth forth to holy souls : even
as man's soul is eminently said to be in the head, because it un-
derstandeth and reasoneth in the head, and not in the foot, or
hand, though it be also there. And as we look a man in the
face when we talk to him, so we look up to heaven when we
pray to God. God who is, and operateth as, the root of nature^
in all the works of creation, (for in him, we live, and move, and
are,) and by the way of grace in all the gracious, doth operate,
and is, by the works and splendour of his glory, eminently in
heaven : by which glory, therefore, we must mean some created
glory : for his essence hath no inequality.
Sect. 5. 2. We shall be present with the human nature of
Christ, both soul and body : but here our present narrow
thoughts must not too boldly presume to resolve the difficul-
ties which, to a distinct understanding of this, should be over-
come : for we must not here expect any more than a dark and
general knowledge of them : as, 1. What is the formal differ-
ence between Christ's glorified body, and his flesh on earth ?
2. Where Christ's glorified body is, and how far it extendeth.
3. Wherein the soul and the glorified body differ, seeing it is
called a spiritual body : these things are beyond our present
reach.
Sect. 6. 1 . For what conceptions can we have of a spiritual
body, save that it is pure, incorruptible, invisible to mortal
eyes, and fitted to the most perfect state of the soul ? How near
the nature of it is to a spirit, (and so to the soul,) and how far
they agree, or differ, in substance, extensiveness, divisibility, or
activity, little do we know.
Sect. 7. 2. Nor do we know where and how far Christ's
body is present by extent. The sun is commonly taken for a
body, and its motive, illuminative, and calefactive beams, are,
by the most probable philosophy, taken to be a real emanant
300 Baxter's dying thoughts.
part of Its substance, and so that it is essentially as extensive
as those beams ; that is, it at once filleth all our air, and touch-
eth the surface of the earth ; and how much further it extendeth
we cannot tell. And what difference there is between Christ's
glorified body and the sun, in purity, splendour, extent, or ex-
cellency of nature, little do poor mortals know : and so of the
rest.
Sect. 8. Let no man, therefore, cavil, and say, ' How can a
whole world of glorified bodies be all present with the one body
of Christ, when each must possess its proper room?' for, as the
body of the solar beams, and the extensive air, are so compre-
sent, as that none can discern the difference of the places which
they possess, and a world of bodies are present with them both,
so may all our bodies be with Christ's body, and that without
any real confusion.
Sect. 9. 2. Besides presence with Christ, there will be such an
union as we cannot now distinctly know. A political, relative
union is past doubt, such as subjects have in one kingdom with
their king ; but little know we how much more. We see that
there is a wonderful, corporeal continuity, or contract, among the
material works of God; and the more spiritual, pure, and noble,
the more inclination each nature hath to union. Every plant on
earth hath an union with the whole earth in which it liveth; they
are the real parts of it. And what natural conjunction our
bodies shall have to Christ's, and what influence from it, is past
our knowledge. Though his similitudes in John xv. and vi., and
Eph. v., and Cor. xii., seem to extend far, yet being but simili-
tudes, we cannot fully know how far.
Sect. 10. The same, variatis variandis, we may say of our
union with Christ's human soul. Seeing souls are more in-
clinable to union than bodies, when we see all vegetables to be
united parts of one earth, and yet to have each one its proper
individuating form and matter, we cannot, though animals seem
to walk more disjunct, imagine that there is no kind of union
or conjunction of invisible souls; though they retain their seve-
ral substances and forms : nor yet that our bodies shall have a
nearer upion with Christ's body than our souls with his soul.
But the nature, manner, and measure of it, we know not.
Sect. 11. Far be it from us to think that Christ's glorified,
spiritual body, is such in forms, parts, and dimensions, as his
earthly body was. That it hath hands, feet, brains, heart, sto-
mach, liver, intestines, as on earth : or, that it is such a com-
BAXTER*S DYING THOUGHTS. 301
pound of earth, water, and air, as here it was, and of such con-
fined extent : for then, as his disciples and a few Jews only were
present with him, and all the world besides were absent, and
had none of his company, so it would be in heaven. But it is
such as not only Paul, but all true believers in the world, from
the creation to the end, shall be with Christ, and see his glory :
and though inequality of fitness, or degrees of holiness, will
make an inequality of glory, no man can prove an inequality,
by local distance, from Christ ; or, if such there be, for it is be-
yond our reach, yet none in heaven are at such a distance from
him as not to enjoy the felicity of his presence.
Sect. 12. Therefore, when we dispute against them that hold
transubstantiation, and the ubiquity of Christ's body, we do
assuredly conclude that sense is judge, whether there be real
bread and wine present, or not; but it is no judge, whether
Christ's spiritual body be present or not, no more than whether
an angel be present. And we conclude that Christ's body is not
infinite, or immense, as is his godhead; but what are its dimen-
sions, limits, or extent, and where it is absent, far be it from us
to determine, when we cannot tell how far the sun extendeth
its secondary substance, or emanant beams; nor well what
locality is as to Christ's soul, or any spirit, if to a spiritual body.
Sect. 13. Their fear is vain and carnal, who are afraid lest
their union with Christ, or one another, will be too near ; even
lest thereby they lose their individuation, as rivers that fall into the
sea, or extinguished candles, whose fire is after but a sunbeam,
or part of the common element of fire in the air, or as the vege-
tative spirits which, in autumn, retire from the leaves into the
branches and trunk of the tree. 1 have proved before, that our
individuation, or numerical existence, ceaseth not ; and that no
union is to be feared, were it never so sure, which destroyeth
not the being, or formal powers, or action of the soul ; and that
it is the great radical disease of selfishness, and want of holy
love to God and our Saviour, and one another, which causeth
these unreasonable fears, even that selfishness which now maketh
men .so partially desirous of their own wills and pleasure in
comparison of God's, and their own felicity in comparison of
others, and which maketh them so easily bear God's injuries,
and the sufferings of a thousand others, in comparison of their
own. But he that put a great desire of the body's preservation
into the soul, while it is its form, will abate that desire when the
302 BAXTER S DYING THOUGHTS.
time of separation is come, because there is then no use for it
till the resurrection ; else it would be a torment to the soul.
Sect. 14. 3. And as we shall have union, so also commu-
nion, with the divine and human nature of Christ respectively;
both as they will be the objects of our soul's most noble and
constant acts, and as they will be the fountain or communicative
cause of our receptions.
Sect. 15. 1. We find now that our various faculties have
various objects, suitable to their natures. The objects of sense
are things sensible, and the objects of imagination things ima-
ginable, and the objects of intellection things intelligible, and
the objects of the will things amiable. The eye, which is a
nobler sense than some others, hath light for its object, which,
to other senses, is none : and so of the rest. Therefore we have
cause to suppose, that as far as our glorified souls and our spi-
ritual, glorified bodies will differ, so far Christ's glorified soul
and body will, respectively, be their several objects; and be-
holding the glory of both will be part of our glory.
Sect. 16. Yet is it not hence to be gathered, that the sepa-
rated soul, before the resurrection, shall not have Christ's glori-
fied body for its objects; for the objects of the body are also
the objects of the soul, or, to speak more properly, the objects
of sense are also the objects of intellection and will, though all
the objects of the intellect and will are not objects of sense.
The separated soul can know Christ's glorified body, though
our present bodies cannot see a soul. But how much our spi-
ritual bodies will excel in capacity and activity these passive
bodies, that have so much earth and water, we cannot tell.
Sect. 17. And'though now our souls are as a candle in a lan-
tern, and must have extrinsic objects admitted by the senses be-
fore they can be understood, yet it followeth not that therefore a
separated soul cannot know such objects: 1. Because it now
knoweth them abstractively, per species, because its act of ra-
tiocination is compound as to the cause (soul and body). But it
will then know such things intuitively, as now it can do itself,
when then the lantern is cast by. 2. And whatever many of
late, that have given themselves the title of ingenious, have
said to the contrary, we have little reason to think that the sen-
sitive faculty is not an essential, inseparable power of the same
soul that is intellectual, and that sensation ceaseth to separated
«ouls, however the modes of it may cease with their several uses
BAXTER*S DYING THOUGHTS. 303
and organs. To feel intellectually, or to understand, and will
feelingly, we have cause to think, will be the action of separate
souls : and if so, why may they not have communion with
Christ's body and soul, as their objects in their separated state?
3. Besides that, we are uncertain whether the separated soul
have no vehicle or body at all. Things unknown to us must not
be supposed true or false. Some think that the sensitive soul
is material, and, as a body to the intellectual, never separated.
I am not of their opinion that make them two substances 3 but
1 cannot say I am certain that they err. Some think that the soul
is material, of a purer substance than things visible, and that
the common notion of its substantiality meaneth nothing else
but a pure, (as they call it,) spiritual materiality. Thus thought
not only Tertullian, but almost all the old Greek doctors of the
church that write of it, and most of the Latin, or very many,
as I have elsewhere showed, and as Faustus reciteth them in the
treatise answered by Mammertus. Some think that the soul,
as vegetative, is an igneous body, such as we call ether, or solar
fire, or rather of a higher, purer kind ; and that sensation and
intellection are those formal faculties which specifically differ-
ence it from inferior mere fire, or ether. There were few of the
old doctors that thought it not some of these ways material ;
and, consequently, extensive and divisible per potentiam divi-
nam, though not naturally, or of its own inclination, because
most strongly inclined to unity : and if any of all these uncertain
opinions should prove true, the objections in hand will find no
place. To say nothing of their conceit, who say, that as the
spirit that retireth from the falling leaves in autumn, continueth
to animate the tree, so man's soul may do when departed, with
that to which it is united, to animate some more noble, universal
body. But as all these are the too bold cogitations of men that
had better let unknown things alone, so yet they may be men-
tioned to refel that more perilous boldness which denieth the
soul's action, which is certain, upon, at best, uncertain reasons.
Sect. 18. I may boldly conclude, notwithstanding such objec-
tions, that Christ's divine and human nature, soul and body,
shall be the felicitating objects of intuition and holy love to the
.separated soul before the resurrection 5 and that to be with
Christ is to have such communion with him, and not only to be
present where he is.
Sect. 19. 2. And the chief part of this communion will be that
in which we are receptive ; even Christ's communications to
304 Baxter's dying thoughts,
the soul. And as the infinite, incomprehensible Deity is the
root, or first cause, of all communication, natural, gracious, and
glorious, to being, motion, life, rule, reason, holiness, and hap-
piness; and the whole creation is more dependent on God, than
the fruit on the tree, or the plants on the earth, or the members
on the body ; (though yet they are not parts of the Deity, nor
deified, because the communication is creative ;) so God useth
second causes in his communication to inferior natures. And
it is more than probable, that the human soul of Christ, pri-
marily, and his body, secondarily, are the chief second cause of
influence and communication both of grace and glory, both to
man in the body, and to the separated soul. And as the sun is
first an efficient, communicative, second cause of seeing to the
eye, and then is also the object of our sight, so Christ is to
the soul.* For as God, so the Lamb is the light and glory of
the heavenly Jerusalem, and in his light we shall have light.
Though he give up the kingdom to the Father, so far as that
God shall be all in all, and his creature be fully restored to his
favour, and there shall be need of a healing government no
more, for the recovering of lapsed souls to God; yet sure he
will not cease to be our Mediator, and to be the church's head,
and to be the conveying cause of everlasting life, and light, and
love, to all his members. As now we live because he liveth,
even as the branches in the vine, and the Spirit that quickeneth,
enlighteneth, and sanctifieth us, is first the Spirit of Christ
before it is ours, and is communicated from God, by him, to us;
so will it be in the state of glory, for we shall have our union and
communion with him perfected, and not destroyed, or dimi-
nished. And unless I could be so proud as to think that I am,
or shall be, the most excellent of all the creatures of God, and
therefore nearest him, and above all others, how could I think
that I am under the influence of no second cause, but have
either grace or glory from God alone ?
Sect. 20. So far am I from such arrogancy, as to think I
shall be so near to God, as to be above the need and use of
Christ and his communications, as that I dare not say that I
shall be above the need and help of other subordinate causes ;
* This one truth will give great light into the controversies about God's
gracious operations on the soul ; for when he useth second causes, we see he
operateth according to their limited aptitude ; and Christ's human nature,
and all other second causes, are limited, and operate variously and resistibly,
according to the recipient's capacity.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 305
as 1 am now lower than angels, and need their help, and as I am
under the government of my superiors, and, as a poor weak
member, am little worth in comparison of the whole body, the
church of Christ, and receive continual help from the whole,
so, how far it will be thus in glory, I know not; but that God
will still use second causes for our joy, I doubt not, and also
that there will not be an equality ; and that it will be consistent
with God's all-sufficiency to us, and our felicity in him, that we
shall for ever have use for one another, and that to sit down
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, and
to be in Abraham's bosom, and sit at Christ's right and left
hand, in his kingdom, and to be ruler over ten cities, and to
join with the heavenly host, or choir, in the joyful love and
praise of God, and of the Lamb, and many such like, are not
false nor useless notes and notions of our celestial glory.
Sect. 2 1 . And, certainly, if I be with Christ, I shall be with
all that are with Christ ; even with all the heavenly society.
Though these bodies of gross, passive matter must have so much
room, that the earth is little enough for all its inhabitants; and
those at the antipodes are almost as strange to us as if they were
in another world ; and those of another kingdom, another pro-
vince, or county, and oft another parish, yea, another house, are
strangers to us ; so narrow is our capacity of communion here.
Yet we have great cause to think, by many Scripture expres-
sions, that our heavenly union and communion will be nearer,
and more extensive ; and that all the glorified shall know each
other, or, at least, be far less distant, and less strange, than now
we are. As I said before, when I see how far the sunbeams do ex-
tend, how they penetrate our closest glass, and puzzle them that
say that all bodies are impenetrable ; when I see how little they
hinder the placing or presence of other creatures, and how in-
timately they mix themselves with all, and seem to possess the
whole region of the air, when yet the air seemeth itself to fill it ,
&c., I dare not think that glorified spirits, (no, nor spiritual bo-
dies,) will be such strangers to one another, as we are hereon earth.
Sect. 22. And I must needs say, that it is a pleasant thought
to me, and greatly helpeth my willingness to die, to think that I
shall go to all the holy ones, both Christ and angels, and de-
parted, blessed souls. For, 1. God hath convinced me that they
are better than I (each singly), and therefore more amiable than
myself. 2. And that many are better than one, and the whole
than a poor, sinful part, and the New Jerusalem is the glory of
VOJ.. XVIU. X
306 Baxter's dying thoughts.
the creation. 3. God hath given me a love to all his holy ones,
as such. 4. And a love to the work of love and praise, which
they continually and perfectly perform to God. 5. And a love
to the celestial Jerusalem, as it is complete, and to his glory
shining in them. 6. And my old acquaintance, with many a
holy person gone to Christ, doth make my thoughts of heaven
the more familiar to me. O, how many of them could I name I
7. And it is no small encouragement to one that is to enter
upon an unseen world, to think that he goeth not an untrodden
path, nor enters into a solitary or singular state ; but followeth
all from the creation to this day, that have passed by death to
endless life. And is it not an emboldening consideration, to
think that I am to go no other way, nor to no other place or
state, than all the believers and saints have gone to before me,
from the beginning to this time ? Of this more anon.
TO DEPART.
Sect. 1. But I must be loosed, or depart, before I can thus be
with Christ. And I must here consider, I. From what I must
depart. JI. And how, or in what manner : and I must not re-
fuse to know the worst.
Sect. 2. I. And, 1 . I know that I must depart from this body
itself, and the life which consisteth in the animating of it. These
eyes must here see no more; this hand must move no more; these
feet must walk no more ; this tongue must speak no more. As
much as I have loved and over-loved this body, I must leave it to
the grave. There must it lie and rot in darkness, as a neglected
and a loathed thing.
Sect. 3. This is the fruit of sin, and nature would not have it
so : I mean the nature of this compound man ; but what, though
it be so ? 1 . It is but my shell, or tabernacle, and the clothing
of my soul, and not itself. 2. It is but an elementary compo-
sition dissolved ; and earth going to earth, and water to water,
and air to air, and fire to fire, into that union which the ele-
mentary nature doth incline to.
3. It is but an instrument laid by when all its work is done,
and a servant dismissed when his service is at an end. And
what should I do with a horse, when I shall need to ride or travel
no more, or with a pen, when I must write no more ? It is but
the laying by the passive receiver of my soul's operations, when
the soul hath no more to do upon it ; as I cast by my lute, or
other instrument, when I have better employment than music to
take up my time.
307
4. Or, at most, it is but as flowers die in the fall, and plants in
winter, when the retiring spirits have done their work, and are
undisposed to dwell in so cold and unmeet a habitation, as the
season maketh their former matter then to be. And its retire-
ment is not its annihilation, but its taking up a fitter place.
5. It is but a separation from a troublesome companion, and
putting off a shoe that pinched me^ many a sad and painful
hour I have had in this frail and faltering flesh ; many a weary
night and day : what cares, what fears, what griefs, and what
groans, hath this body cost me I Alas 1 how many hours of
my precious time have been spent to maintain it, please it,
or repair it ! How considerable a part of all my life hath been
spent in necessary sleep and rest ; and how much in eating,
drinking, dressing, physic ; and how much in labouring, or
using means, to procure these and other necessaries ! Many a
hundred times I have thought, that it costeth me so dear to live,
yea, to live a painful, weary life, that were it not for the work and
higher ends of life, I had little reason to be much in love with it,
or to be loth to leave it. And had not God put into our nature
itself a necessary, unavoidable, sensitive love of the body, and of
life, as he puts into the mother, and into every brute, a love of
their young ones, how unclean, and impotent, and troublesome
soever, for the propagation and continuance of man on earth ?
Had God but left it to mere reason, without this necessary pre-
engagement of our natures, it would have been a matter of more
doubt and difficulty than it is, whether this life should be loved
and desired ; and no small number would daily wish that they
had never been born : a wish that I have had much ado to for-
bear, even when I have known that it is sinful, and when the
work and pleasure of my life have been such to overcome the
evils of it as few have had.
6. Yea, to depart from such a body, is but to be removed from
a foul, uncleanly, and sordid habitation. I know that the body
of man and brutes is the curious, wonderful work of God, and
not to be despised, nor injuriously dishonoured, but admired, and
well used ; but yet it is a wonder to our reason, that so noble a
spirit should be so meanly housed ; and we may call it " our
vile body," as the apostle doth. (Phil. iii. 21.) It is made up
of the airy, watery, and earthly parts of our daily food, subacted
and actuated by the fiery part, as the instrument of the soul. The
greater part of the same food which, with great cost, and pomp,
and pleasure, is first upon our tables, and then in our mouths, to-
X 2
308 liAXTEfl's DYING THOUGHTS.
day, is to-morrow a foetid, loathsome excrement, and cast out into
the draught, that the sight and smell of that annoy us not, which
yesterday was the sumptuous fruit of our abundance, and the
glory of that which is called great housekeeping, and the plea-
sure of our eyes and taste. And is not the rest that turneth
into blood and flesh, of the same general kind with that which
is turned into loathsome filth ? The difference is, that it is fit-
ter for the soul by the fiery spirits, yet longer to operate on and
keep from corruption ; our blood and flesh are as stinking and
loathsome a substance as our filthiest excrements, save that they
are longer kept from putrefaction. Why then should it more
grieve me, that one part of my food, which turneth into flesh,
should rot and stink in the grave, than that all the rest should
daily stink in the draught ? Yea, while it is within me, were it
not covered from my sight, what a loathsome mass would my
intestines appear ! If I saw what is in the guts, the mesentery,
the ventricles of the brain, what filth, what bilious or mucous
matter, and, perhaps, crawling worms, there are in the most
proud or comely person, I should think that the cover of a
cleaner skin, and the borrowed ornaments of apparel, make no
great difference between such a body and a carcass (which may
be also covered with an adorned coffin and monument, to de-
ceive such spectators as see but outsides) ; the change is not so
great of corruptible flesh, replete with such foetid excrements,
into corrupted flesh, as some fools imagine,
7. Yet more : to depart from such a body is but to be loosed
from the bondage of corruption, and from a clog and prison
of the soul. I say not that God put a pre- existent soul into
this prison penally, for former faults ; I must say no more than
I can prove, or than I know ; but that body which was an apt
servant to innocent man's soul, is become as a prison to him
now ; what alteration sin made upon the nature of the body, as
whether it be more terrene and gross than else it would have
been, I have no reason to assert : of earth or dust it was at first,
and to dust it is sentenced to return. But no doubt but it hath
its part in that dispositive deprivation which is the fruit of sin.
AVe find that the soul, as sensitive, is so imprisoned, or shut up, in
flesh, that sometimes it is more than one door that must be
opened before the object and the faculty can meet. In the eye,
indeed, the soul seemeth to have a window to look out at, and
to be almost itself visible to others ; and yet there are many in-
terposing tunicles, and a suffusion, or winking, can make the
Baxter's dying thoughts, 309
clearest sight to be as useless for the time as if it were none ;
and if sense be thus shut up from its object, no wonder if reason
also be under difficulties from corporeal impediments ; and if
the soul that is yoked with such a body can go no faster than
its heavy pace.
8. Yet further : to depart from such a body, is but to be
separated from an accidental enemy, and one of our greatest
and most hurtful enemies ; though still we s^ay, that it is not by
any default in the work of our Creator, but by the effects of sin,
that it is such ; what could Satan, or any other enemy of our
souls, have done against us without our flesh ? What is it but
the interest of this body, that standeth in competition against
the interest of our souls and God ? What else do the profane
sell their heavenly inheritance for, as Esau his birthright ? No
man loveth evil, as evil, but as some way a real or seeming good ;
and what good is it but that which seemeth good for the body ?
What else is the bait of ambition, covetousness, and sensuality,
but the interest and pleasure of this flesh ? What taketh up the
thoughts and care which we should lay out upon things spiritual
and heavenly, but this body and its life ? What pleasures are
they that steal away men's hearts from the heavenly pleasures
of faith, hope, and love, but the pleasures of this flesh ? This
draweth us to sin ; this hindereth us from and in our duty. This
body hath its interest which must be minded, and its inordinate
appetite which must be pleased ; or else what murmurings and
disquiet must we expect. Were it not for bodily interest, and
its temptations, how much more innocently and holily might I
live ! J should have nothing to care for, but to please God, and
to be pleased in him, were it not for the care of this bodily life.
What employment should my will and love have, but to delight
in God, and love him and his interest, were it not for the love
of the body, and its concerns ? By this the mind is darkened^
and the thoughts diverted; by this our wills are perverted and
corrupted, and, by loving things corporeal, contract a strange-
ness and aversation from things spiritual ; by this, heart and
time are alienated from God ; our guilt is increased, and our
heavenly desire and hopes destroyed; life made unholy and un-
comfortable, and death made terrible ; God and our souls separa-
ted, and life eternal set by, and in danger of being utterly lost.
I know that it is the sinful soul that is in all this the chief cause
and agent ; but what is it but bodily interest that is its tempta-
tion, bait, and end ? What but the body, and its life, and its
310 Baxter's dying thoughts.
pleasure, is the chief, objective, alluring cause of all this sin and
misery ? And shall I take such a body to be better than heaven,
or be loth to be loosed from so troublesome a yoke- fellow, or
to be separated from so burdensome and dangerous a com-
panion ?
Sect. 3. Obj. But I know this habitation, but the next I know
not. I have long been acquainted with this body, and this
world, but the next I am unacquainted with.
Ans. 1. If you know it, you know all that of it which I have
mentioned before; you know it to be a burden and snare ; I am
sure I know, by long experience, that this flesh hath been a
painful lodging to my soul, and this world as a tumultuous ocean,
or like the uncertain and stormy region of the air. And well
he deserveth bondage, pain, and enmity, who will love them be-
cause he is acquainted with them, and is loth to leave them
because he hath had them long, and is afraid of being well be-
cause he hath been long sick.
2. And do you not know the next and better habitation ? Is
faith no knowledge ? If you believe God's promise, you know
that such a state there is ; and you know, in general, that it is
better than this world ; and you know that we shall be in holi-
ness and glorious happiness with Christ : and is this no know-
ledge ? 3. And what we know not, Christ, that prepareth and
promiseth it, doth know ; and is that nothing to us, if really we
trust our souls to him ? He that knoweth not more good by
heaven than by earth is yet so earthly and unbelieving, that it
is no wonder if he be afraid and unwilHng to depart.
Sect. 4, II. In departing from this body and life, I must
depart from all its ancient pleasures ; I must taste no more
sweetness in meat, or drink, or rest, or sport, or any such thing,
that now delighteth me ; house and lands, and goods, and wealth,
must all be left ; and the place where I live must know me no
more. All my possessions must be no more to me, nor all that
I laboured for, or took delight in, than if they had never been
at all.
And what though it must be so ? Consider, O my soul ! 1 .
Thy ancient pleasures are all past already ; thou losest none of
them by death, for they are all lost before, if immortal grace
have not, by sanctifying them, made the benefits of them to be-
come immortal. All the sweet draughts, and morsels, and
sports, and laughters ; all the sweet thoughts of thy worldly
possessions, or thy hopes, that ever thou hadst till this present
Baxter's dying thoughts. 311
hour, are passed by, dead, and gone already. All that death
doth to such as these is, to prevent such, that on earth thou
shalt have no more.
2. And is not that the case of every brute, that hath no
comfort from the prospect of another life, to repair his loss ;
and yet as our dominion diminisheth their pleasure while they
live, by our keeping them under fear and labour, so, at our will,
their lives must end. To please a gentleman's appetite for half
an hour, or less, birds, beasts, and fishes, must lose life itself, and
all the pleasure which light might have afforded them for many
years ; yea, perhaps many of these (birds and fishes at least)
must die to become but one feast to a rich man, if not one ordi-
nary meal. And is not their sensual pleasure of the same nature
as ours ? Meat is as sweet to them, and ease as welcome, and
lust as strong (in season) ; and the pleasure that death depriveth
our flesh of, is such as is common to man with brutes ; why
then should it seem hard to us to lose that in the course of
nature, which our wills deprive them of at our pleasure ? When,
if we are believers, we can say, that we do but exchange these
delights of life for the greater delights of a life with Christ,
which is a comfort which our fellow creatures (the brutes^ have
not.
3. And, indeed, the pleasures of life are usually embittered with
so much pain, that to a great part of the world doth seem to ex-
ceed them ; the vanity and vexation is so great and grievous as
the pleasure seldom countervaileth. It is true, that nature de-
sireth Hfe, even under sufferings that are but tolerable, rather
than to die ; but that is not so much from the sensible pleasure
of life, as from mere natural inclination ; which God hath laid,
so deep, that free-will hath no power against it. As before I
said, that the body of man is such a thing, that could we see
through the skin (as men may look through a glass hive upon
the bees) and see all the parts and motion, the filth and excre-
ments, that are in it, the soul would hardly be willing to actuate,
love, and cherish such a mass of unclean matter, and to dwell in
such a loathsome place, unless God had necessitated it by nature
(deeper than reason or sense) to such a love and such a labour,
by the pondus or spring of inclination ; even as the cow would
not else lick the unclean calf, nor women themselves be at so
much labour and trouble with their children, while there is little
of them to be pleasing, but uncleanness, and crying, and helpless
impatiency, to make them wearisome, had not necessitating in-
312 Baxter's dying thoughts.
clination done more hereto than any other sense or reason ; even
so I now say of the pleasure of living, that the sorrows are so
much greater to multitudes than the sensible delight, that life
would not be so commonly chosen and endured under so much
trouble, were not men determined thereto by natural necessitat-
ing inclination ; (or deterred from death by the fears of misery
to the separated soul ;) and yet all this kept not some, counted
the best and wisest of the heathens, from taking it for the valour
and wisdom of a man to make away his life in time of extremity,
and from making this the great answer to them that grudge at
God for making their lives so miserable, ' If the misery be greater
than the good of life, why dost thou not end it ? Thou mayest
do that when thou wilt/
Our meat and drink is pleasant to the healthful, but it costeth
poor men so much toil, and labour, and care, and trouble to
procure a poor diet for themselves, and theii* families, that, I
think, could they live without eating and drinking, they would
thankfully exchange the pleasure of it all, to be eased of their
care and toil in getting it. And when sickness cometh, even
the pleasantest food is loathsome.
4. And do we not willingly interrupt and lay by these plea-
sures every night, when we betake ourselves to sleep ? It is pos-
sible, indeed, a man may then have pleasant dreams ; but I think
few go to sleep for the pleasure of dreaming ; either no dreams,
or vain, or troublesome dreams, are much more common. And
to say that rest and ease is my pleasure, is but to say, that my
daily labour and cares are so much greater than my waking
pleasure, that I am glad to lay by both together. For what is
ease but deliverance from weariness and pain ? For in deep
and dreamless sleep there is little positive sense of the pleasure
of rest itself. But, indeed, it is more from nature's necessitated
inclination to this self-easing and repairing means, than from
the positive pleasure of it. that we desire sleep. And if we can
thus be contented every night to die, as it were, to all our
waking pleasures, why should we be unwilling to die to them at
once?
5. If it be the inordinate pleasures forbidden of God, which
you are loth to leave, those must be left before you die, or else
it had been better for you never to have been born, yea, every
wise and godly man doth cast them off with detestation. You
must be against holiness on that account, as well as against
death, and, indeed, the same cause which maketh men unwilling
Baxter's dying thoughts. 313
to live a holy life, hath a great hand in making them unwilling
to die, even because they are loth to leave the pleasure of sin.
If the vi^icked be converted, he must be gluttonous and drunken
no more ; he must live in pride, vain-glory, worldliness, and
sensual pleasures, no more, and therefore he draweth back from
a holy life, as if it were from death itself. And so he is the
lother to die, because he must have no more of the pleasures of
his riches, pomp, and honours, his sports, and lust, and pleased
appetite, for ever. But what is this to them that have mortified
the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof ?
6. Yea, it is these forbidden pleasures which are the great
impediments both of our holiness and our truest pleasures; and
one of the reasons why God forbiddeth them, is, because they
hinder us from better. And if for our own good we must forsake
them when we turn to God, it must be supposed that they should
be no reason against our willingness to die, but rather that to
be free from the danger of them, we should be the more willing.
7. But the great satisfying answer of this objection is, that
death will pass us to far greater pleasures, with which all
these are not worthy to be compared. But of this more in due
place.
Sect. 5. III. When I die, I must depart, not only from sen-
sual delights, but from the more manly pleasures of my studies,
knowledge, and converse with many wise and godly men, and
from all my pleasure in reading, hearing, public and private ex-
ercises of religion, &c. I must leave my library, and turn over
those pleasant books no more. I must no more come among
the living, nor see the faces of my faithful friends, nor be seen
of man. Houses, and cities, and fields, and countries, gardens,
and walks, will be nothing as to me. 1 shall no more hear of
the affairs of the world, of man, or wars, or other news, nor see
what becomes of that beloved interest of wisdom, piety, and
peace, which I desire may prosper, &c. ,. :
Answ. 1. Though these delights are far above those of sen-
sual sinners, yet, alas ! how low and little are they ! How small
is our knowledge in comparison of our ignorance ! And how
little doth the knowledge of learned doctors differ from the
thoughts of a silly child ! For from our childhood we take it
in by drops, and as trifles are the matter of childish knowledge,
so words, and notions, and artificial forms, do make up more
of the learning of the world, than is commonly understood, and
many such learned men know little more of any great and ex-
314 Baxter's dying thoughts,
eel lent things themselves, than rustics that are contemned by
them for their ignorance. God, and the life to come, are little
better known by them, if not much less, than by many of the
unlearned. What is it but a child-game, that many logicians,
rhetoricians, grammarians, yea, metaphysicians, and other phi-
losophers, in their eagerest studies and disputes, are exercised
in ? Of how little use is it to know what is contained in many
hundred of the volumes that fill our libraries ! Yea, or to know
many of the most glorious speculations in physics, mathema-
tics, &c., which have given some the title of Virtuosi, and In-
geniosi, in these times, who have little the more wit or virtue to
live to God, or overcome temptations from the flesh and world,
and to secure their everlasting hopes. What pleasure or quiet
doth it give to a dying man to know almost any of their trifles ?
2. Yea, it were well if much of our reading and learning did
us no harm, nay, more than good, I fear lest books are to some
but a more honourable kind of temptation than cards and dice,
lest many a precious hour be lost in them, that should be
employed on much higher matters, and lest many make such
knowledge but an unholy, natural, yea, carnal pleasure, as world-
lings do the thoughts of their lands and honours, and lest they
be the more dangerous by how much the less suspected. But
the best is, it is a pleasure so fenced from the slothful with
thorny labour of hard and long studies, that laziness saveth
more from it than grace and holy wisdom doth. But, doubtless,
fancy and the natural intellect may, with as little sanctity, live
in the pleasure of reading, knowing, disputing, and writing,
as others spend their time at a game at chess, or other ingc
nious sport.
For my own part, I know that the knowledge of natural
things is valuable, and may be sanctified, much more theologi-
cal theory, and when it is so, it is of good use ; and 1 have little
knowledge which I find not some way useful to my highest ends.
And if wishing or money could procure more, I would wish and
empty my purse for it ; but yet if many score or hundred books
which I have read, had been all unread, and 1 had that time
now to lay out upon higher things, I should think myself much
richer than now I am. And I must earnestly pray, the Lord
forgive me the hours that I have spent in reading things less
profitable, for the pleasing of a mind that would fain know all,
which I should have spent for the increase of holiness in myself
and others ! and yet I must thankfully acknowledge to God, that
Baxter's dying thoughts. 315
fi-om my youth he taught me to begin with things of greatest
weight, and to refer most of my other studies thereto, and to
spend my days under the motives of necessity and profit to
myself, and those with whom I had to do. And I now think
better of the course of Paul, that determined to know nothing
but a crucified Christ, among the Corinthians, that is, so to
converse with them as to use, and glorying as if he knew nothing
else, and so of the rest of the apostles and primitive ages. And
though I still love and honour, (and am not of Dr. Colet's mind,
who, as Erasmus saith, most slighted Augustine,) yet I less
censure even that Carthage council which forbade the reading of
the heathens' books of learning and arts, than formerly I have
done. And I would have men savour most that learning in their
health, which they will, or should, savour most in sickness, and
near to death.
8. And, alas ! how dear a vanity is this knowledge ! That
which is but theoretic and notional, is but a tickling delectation
of the fancy or mind, little differing from a pleasant dream.
But how many hours, what gazing of the wearied eye, what
stretching thoughts of the impatient brain must it cost us, if we
will attain to any excellency ? Well saith Solomon, " Much
reading is a .weariness to the flesh, and he that increaseth know-
ledge, increaseth sorrow." How many hundred studious days
and weeks, and how many hard and tearing thoughts, hath my
little, very little knowledge, cost me ; and how much infirmity
and painfulness to my flesh, increase of painful diseases, and loss
of bodily ease and health ! How much pleasure to myself of
other kinds, and how much acceptance with men have I lost by
it, which 1 might easily have had in a more conversant and plau-
sible way of life ! And when all is done, if I reach to know any
more than others of my place and order, I must differ so much
(usually) from them, and if I manifest not that difference, but
keep all that knowledge to myself, I sin against conscience and
nature itself. The love of man, and the love of truth, oblige me
to be soberly communicative. Were I so indifferent to truth
and knowledge, as easily to forbear their propagation, I must
also be so indifferent to them, as not to think them worth so
dear a price as they have cost me (though they are the free giflts
of God). As nature is universally inclined to the propagation of
the kind by generation, so is the intellectual nature to the com-
munication of knowledge, which yet hath its lust and inordi-
316 BAXTER*S DYING THOUGHTS.
nacy in proud, ignorant, hasty teachers and disputers, as the
generating faculty hath in fornicators and adulterers.
But if I obey nature and conscience in communicating that
knowledge which containeth my difference aforesaid, the dis^
senters too often take themselves disparaged by it, how peace-
ably soever I manage it; and as bad men take the piety of the
godly to be an accusation of their impiety, so many teachers
take themselves to be accused of ignorance, by such as con-
demn their errors by the light of truth : and if you meddle not
with any person, yet take they their opinions to be so much their
interest, as that all that is said against them they take as said
against themselves. And then, alas ! what envyings, what
whispering disparagements, and what backbitings, if not mali-
cious slanders and underminings, do we meet with from the car-
nal clergy ! And O that it were all from them alone ! and that
among the zealous and suffering party of faithful preachers,
there were not much of such iniquity, and that none of them
preached Christ in strife and envy ! It is sad that error should
find so much shelter under the selfishness and pride of pious
men, and that the friends of truth should be tempted to reject
and abuse so much of it in their ignorance, as they do : but the
matter of fact is too evident to be hid.
But, especially, if we meet with a clergy that are high, and
have a great deal of worldly interest at the stake : or, if they
be in councils and synods, and have got the major vote, they
too easily believe that either their grandeur, reverence, names, or
numbers, must give them the reputation of being orthodox, and
in the right, and will warrant them to account and defame him
as erroneous, heretical, schismatical, singular, factious, or proud,
that presumeth to contradict them, and to know more than they.
Of which not only the case of Nazianzen, Martin, Chrysostom,
are sad proofs, but also the proceedings of too many general
and provincial councils. And so our hard studies and darling
truth must make us as owls, or reproached persons, among those
reverend brethren, who are ignorant at easier rates, and who
find it a far softer kind of life to think and say as the most or
best-esteemed do, than to purchase reproach and obloquy so
dearly.
And the religious people of the several parts will say as
they hear their teachers do, and be the militant followers of
their too militant leaders: and it will be their house talk, their
Baxter's dying thoughts. 317
shop talk, their street talk, if not their church talk, that such
an one is an erroneous, dangerous man, because he is not as igno-
rant and erroneous as they, especially if they be the followers of
a teacher much exasperated by confutation, and engaged in the
controversy; and also if it should be suffering confessors that
are contradicted, or men most highly esteemed for extraordinary
degrees of piety: then, what cruel censures must he expect,
who ever so tenderly would suppress their errors ?
Oh ! what sad instances of this are, 1 , The case of the con-
fessors in Cyprian's days, who, as many of his epistles show,
became the great disturbers of that church. 2. And the Egyp-
tian monks at Alexandria, in the days of Theophilus, who
turned Anthropomorphites, and raised abominable tumults, with
woful scandal, and odious bloodshed. 3. And O that this age
had not yet greater instances to prove the matter than any of
these !
And, now, should a man be loth to die, for fear of leaving
such troublesome, costly learning and knowledge, as the wisest
men can here attain ?
4. But the chief answer is yet behind. No knowledge is
lost, but perfected, and changed for much nobler, sweeter, greater
knowledge. Let men be never so uncertain in particular de
modo, whether acquired habits of intellect and memory die with
us, as being dependent on the body; yet, by what manner
soever^ that a far clearer knowledge we shall have than is here
attainable, is not to be doubted of. And the cessation of our
present mode of knowing, is but the cessation of our ignorance
and imperfection: as our wakening endeth a dreaming know-
ledge, and our maturity endeth the trifling knowledge of a
child: for so saith the Holy Ghost. (1 Cor. xiii. 8 — 12.) Love
never faileth, and we can love no more than we know ; but whe-
ther there be prophecies they shall fail (that is, cease) : whether
there be tongues they shall cease : whether there be know-
ledge, notional and abstractive, such as we have now, it shall
vanish away : " When I was a child I spake as a child, under-
stood as a child, I thought as a child ; but when I became a
man, I put away childish things : for now we see through a
glass {per species) darkly," as men understand a thing by a me-
taphor, parable, or riddle, " but then face to face ;" even crea-
tures intuitively, as in themselves naked and open to our sight.
"Now, I know in part;" (not 7'em sed aliquid 7'ei', in which
sense Sanchez truly saith, ^ nihil scitu7' f) "but then I shall
318 Baxter's dying thoughts.
know, even as I am known ; not as God knoweth us :" for our
knowledge and his must nqj^ be so comparatively likened ; but
as holy spirits know us both now and for ever, we shall both
know and be known by immediate intuition.
If a physician be to describe the parts of a man, and the
latent diseases of his patient, he is fain to search hard, and be-
stow many thoughts of it, besides his long reading and con-
verse, to make him capable of knowing : and when all is done,
he goeth much upon conjectures, and his knowledge is mixed
Avith many uncertainties, yea, and mistakes; but when he open-
eth the corpse, he seeth all, and his knowledge is more full,
more true, and more certain ; besides that, it is easily and quickly
attained, even by a present look. A countryman knoweth the
town, the fields, and rivers, where he dwelleth, yea, and the
plants and animals, with ease and certain clearness, when h6
that must know the same things by the study of geographical
writings and tables, must know them but with a general, an un-
satisfactory, and oft a much mistaking kind of knowledge.
Alas ! when our present knowledge hath cost a man the study
of forty, or fifty, or sixty years, how lean and poor, how doubt-
ful and unsatisfactory is it after all ! But when God will show
us himself, and all things, and when heaven is known as the sun
by its own light, this will be the clear, sure, and satisfactory
knowledge : " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God}" (Matt, v.;) " And without holiness none can see him."
(Heb. xii. 14.) This sight will be worthy the name of wisdom,
when our present glimpse is but philosophy, a love and desire
of wisdom. So far should we be from fearing death, through the
fear of losing our knowledge, or any of the means of know-
ledge, that it should make us rather long for the world of glori-
ous light, that we might get out of this darkness, and know all
that with an easy look, to our joy and satisfaction, which here
we know with troublesome doubtings, or not at all. Shall we be
afraid of darkness in the heavenly light, or of ignorance, when
we see the Lord of glory ?
Sect. 6. And as for the loss of sermons, books, and other
means, surely it is no loss to cease the means when we have at-
tained the end. Cannot we spare our winter clothes, as trouble-
some, in the heat of summer, and sit by the hot fire without our
gloves ? Cannot we sit at home without a horse or a coach,
or set them by at our journey's end ? Cannot we lie in bed
without boots and spurs ? Is it grievous to us to cease our
Baxter's dying thoughts. 319
physic when we are well. Even here, he is happier that hath least
of the creature, and needeth least, than he that hath much and
needeth much ; because all creature commodities and helps
have also their discommodities and troublesomeness; and the
very applying and using so many remedies of our want is
tedious of itself: and as God only needeth nothing, but is self-
sufficient, and therefore only perfectly and essentially happy, so
those are likest God that need least from without, and have
the greatest plenitude of internal goodness. What need we to
preach, hear, read, pray, to bring us to heaven, when we are
there ?
Sect.. 7. And as for our friends, and our converse with them,
as relations, or as wise, religious, and faithful to us, he that be-
lie veth not that there are far more, and far better, in heaven,
than are on earth, doth not believe, as he ought, that there is a
heaven. Our friends here are wise, but they are unwise also ;
they are faithful, but partly unfaithful ; they are holy, but also,
alas 1 too sinful ; they have the image of God, but blotted and
dishonoured by their faults ; they do God and his church much
service, but they also do too much against him, and too much
for Satan, even when they intend the honour of God; they pro-
mote the gospel, but they also hinder it : their weakness, igno-
rance, error, selfishness,, pride, passion, division, contention,
scandals, and remissness, do oft so much hurt, that it is hard to
discern, whether it be not greater than their good to the church,
or to their neighbours. Our friends are our helpers and com-
forters; but how oft also are they our hinderers, troubles, and
grief? But in heaven they are altogether wise, and holy, and
faithful, and concordant, and have nothing in them, nor there
done by them, but what is amiable to God and man.
And, with our faithful friends, we have here a mixture, partly
of useless and burdensome persons, and partly of unfaithful
hypocrites, and partly of self-conceited factious wranglers, and
partly of malicious, envious underminers, and partly by implacable
enemies; and how many of all these, set together is there for
one worthy, faithful friend ! And how great a number is there to
trouble you, for one that will indeed comfort you ! But in
heaven there are none but the wise and holy; no hypocrites, no
burdensome neighbours, no treacherous, or oppressing, or per-
secuting enemies are there. And is not all good and amiable
better than a little good, with so troublesome a mixture of noi-
some evils ?
320 Baxter's dying thoughts.
Christ loved his disciples, his kindred ; yea, and all mankind,
and took pleasure in doing good to all, and so did his apostles;
but how poor a requital had he or they from any but from God?
Christ's own brethren believed not in him, but wrangled with
him, almost like those that said to him on the cross, *' If thou
be the Son of God, come down, and we will believe." Peter
himself was once a Satan to him; (Matt, xvi, ;) and after, with
cursing and swearing, denied him : and all his disciples for-
sook him, and fled; and what, then, could be expected from
others ?
No friends have a perfect suitableness to each other; and
roughness and inequalities that are nearest us are most trouble-
some. The wonderful variety and contrariety of apprehensions,
interest, educations, temperaments, and occasions, and tempta-
tions, &c., are such, that while we are scandalised, at the dis-
cord and confusions of the world, we must recall ourselves, and
admire that all-ruling providence, which keepeth up so much
order and concord as there is: we are, indeed, like people in
crowded streets, who, going several ways, molest each other with
their jostling oppositions ; or, like boys at football, striving to
overthrow each other for the ball ; but it is a wonder of divine
power and wisdom, that all the world is not continually in
mortal war.
If I do men no harm, yet if I do but cross their wills, it goeth
for a provoking injury; and when there are as many wills as
persons, who is it that can please them all ? Who* hath money
enough to please all the poor that need it, or the covetous that
desire it ? Or, who can live with displeased men, and not feel
some of the fruits of their displeasure ? What day goeth over
my head, in which abundance desire not, or expect not, imj)os-
sibilities from me ? And how great is the number of them that
expect unrighteous things ! By nothing do I displease so many,
as by not displeasing God and my conscience; and for nothing
am I so deeply accused of sin as for not sinning. And the
world will not think well of any thing that crosseth their opinion
and carnal interest, be it never so conform to God's commands;
I must confess, that while I suffer from all' sides, few men have
more common and open praises from their persecutors, than I:
but while they praise me in general, and for other particulars,
they aggravate my non-conformity to their opinions and wills,
and take me to be so much the more hurtful to them. The
greatest crimes that have been charged on me, have been for
321
the things which I thought to be my greatest duties; and for
those parts of my obedience, to my conscience and God, which
cost me dearest; and where I pleased my flesh least, I pleased
the world least. At how cheap a rate to my flesh could I have
got the applause of factious men, if that had been my end and
business. Would I have conformed to their wills, and taken a
bishopric, and the honours and riches of the world, how good
a man had I been called by the diocesan party. And oh, what
praise I should have with the papists, could I turn papist ; and
all the backbiting and bitter censures of the antinomians, ana-
baptists, and separatists, had been turned into praise, could I
have said as they, or not contradicted them. But otherwise
there is no escaping their accusations ; and is this tumultuous,
militant, yea, malignant world, a place that I should be loth to
leave ?
Alas! our darkness, and weakness, and passions are such,
that it is hard for a family, or a few faithful friends, to live so
evenly in the exercise of love, as not to have oft unpleasant
jars. What, then, is to be expected from strangers, and from
enemies ? Ten thousand persons will judge of abundance of
my words and actions, who never knew the reasons of them.
Every one's conceptions are as the report and conveyance of the
matter to them is; and while they have a various light, and
false reports, (and defectiveness will make them false,) what
can be expected, but false injurious censures ?
Sect. 8. And though no outward thing on earth is more pre-
cious than the holy word, and worship, and ordinances of God,
yet even here I see that which pointeth me up higher, and
telleth me it is much better to be with Christ. 1. Shall I love
the name of heaven better than heaven itself? The holy
Scriptures are precious, because I have there the promise of
glory; but is not the possession better than the promise ? If a
light and guide thither through this wilderness be good, surely
the end must needs be better. And it hath pleased God, that
all things on earth, and therefore, even the sacred Scriptures
should bear the marks of our state of imperfection : imperfect
persons were the penmen; and imperfect human language is
the conveying, signal, organical part of the matter ; and the
method and phrase (though true and blameless) are far short of
the heavenly perfection. Else so many commentators had not
found so hard a task of it to expound innumerable difficulties,
and reconcile so many seeming contradictions; nor would in-»
Yor. XVI II. Y
322 Baxter's dying thoughts.
fidelsfind matter of so strong temptation, and so much cavil as
they do ; nor would Peter have told us of the difficulties of Paul's
epistles, and such occasions of men's wresting them to their own
destruction. Heaven will not be made, to perfect spirits, the
occasion of so many errors, and controversies, and quarrels, as
the Scriptures are to us imperfect men on earth; yea, heaven is
the more desirable, because there 1 shall better understand the
Scriptures, than here 1 can ever hope to do. All the hard pas-
sages, now misunderstood, will be there made plain, and all the
seeming contradictions reconciled; and, which is much more,
that God, that Christ, that new Jerusalem, that glory, and that
felicity of souls, which are now known but darkly and enigma-
tically in the glass, will then be known intuitively as we see the
face itself, whose image only the glass first showed us. To
leave my bible, and go to the God and the heaven that is re-
vealed, will be no otherwise a loss to me, than to lay by my
crutches, or spectacles, when I need them not, or to leave his
image for the presence of my friend.
2. Much less do I need to fear the loss of all other books, or
sermons, or other verbal informations. Much reading hath oft
been a weariness to my flesh; and the pleasure of my mind is
much abated by the great imperfection of the means. Many
books must be partly read, that I may know that they are
scarce worth the reading ; and many must be read, to enable us
to satisfy other men's expectations, and to confute those who
abuse the authority of the authors against the truth : and many
good books must be read, that have little to add to what we
have read in many others before ; and many that are blotted
with ensnaring errors; which, if we detect not, we leave snares
for such as see them not ; and if we detect them, (never so ten-
derly, if truly,) we are taken to be injurious to the honour of
of the learned, godly authors, and proudly to overvalue our own
conceits. And so lamentable is the case of all mankind, by the
imperfections of human language, that those words which are
invented for communication of conceptions, are so little fitted to
their use, as rather to occasion misunderstanding and con-
tentions; there being scarce a word that hath not many signi-
fications, and that needeth not many more words to bring us to
the true notice of the speaker's mind ; and when every word is a
signum, that hath three relations, 1 . To the matter spoken of.
2. To the mind of the speaker, as signifying his conceptions of
that matter. 3. And to the mind of the hearer, or reader.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 323
v/Iiich is to be informed by it, it is so hard to find and use words
that are fitted indeed to all these uses, and to have store of such,
and mix no other, that few, if any, in the world were ever so
happy as to attain it. 1. And if words be not fitted to the
matter or things, they are false as to their first and proper use;
and yet the penury of apt words, and the redundancy of others,
and the authority of the masters of sciences, imposing arbitrary
terms and notions on their disciples, and the custom of the
vulgar, who have the empire, as to the sense of words, have all
conspired to make words inapt, and of very uncertain significa-
tion. So that when students have learned words by long and
hard studies, they are oft little the nearer the true knowledge of
the things ; and too oft, by their inaptitude, misled to false con-
ceptions. And so their saying is too often true, that a great
book is a great evil, while it containeth so great a number of
uncertain words, which become the matter of great conten-
tions.
2. And when the mind of the speaker or writer is no better
informed by such notions, but his conceptions of things are
some false, some confused and undigested, what wonder if his
words do no otherwise express his mind to others, when even
men of clearest understanding find it, difficult to have words still
ready to communicate their conceptions with truth and clear-
ness. To form true sentiments of things into apt, significant
words, is a matter of mere art, and requireth an apt teacher,
and a serious learner, and long use (and too many take their
art of speaking, in prayer, conference, or preaching, to have
more in it of wisdom and piety, than it hath ; and some too
much condemn the unaccustomed that want it).
3. And if we could fit our words well to the matter, and to
our minds, (with that double verity,) yet still it is hard to fit
them to the reader or hearer ; for want of which they are lost as.
to him J and his information being our end, they are therefore so
far lost to us. And that which is spoken most congruously to
the matter, is seldom fitted to the capacity of the receiver.
And recipitur ad modum recipientis, et pro captu lectoris, 8fC.
Some readers or hearers, (yea, almost all,) are so used to unapt
words and notions, obtruded on mankind, by the master of
words, that they cannot understand us if we change their terms
and oifer them fitter, and yet least understand those which they
think that they best understand ; and all men must have long
time to learn the art of words, before they can understand
y2
324 BAXTER S DYIN« THOUGHTS,
ihem as well as before they can readily use them. And the
duller any man is, and of less understanding, the more words
are necessary to make him understand ; and yet his memory is the
less capable of retaining many. This is our difficulty, not only
in catechising, but in all other writings and teaching, a ^hort
catechism, or a short style, the ignorant understand not : and a
long one they remember not. And he that will accommodate
one judicious reader or hearer, with profound matter, or an ac-
curate style, must incommodate multitudes that are incapable
of it ; and, therefore, such must be content with few approvers,
and leave the applause of the multitude to the more popular,
unless he be one that can seasonably suit himself to both.
A man that resolveth not to be deceived by ambiguous words,
and maketh it his first work, in all his readings and disputings,
to difference between words, and sense, and things, and strictly
to examine each disputed term, till the speaker's meaning be dis-
tinctly known, will see the lamentable case of the church, and all
mankind, and what shadows of knowledge deceive the world, and
in what useless dreams the greatest part of men, yea, of learned
men, do spend their days : much of that which some men unweari-
edly study, and take to be the honour of their understandings, and
their lives ; and much of that, which multitudes place their piety
and hopes of salvation in, being a mere game at words, and use-
less notions; and as truly to be called vanity and vexation, as is
the rest of the vain show, that most men walk in. My sad and
bitter thoughts of the heathen, infidel, Mahometan world, and
of the common corruptions of rulers and teachers, cities and
countries, senates and councils, I will not here open to others,
lest they offend; nor cry out as Seneca, Omnes malt sumus,
or Stultorum plena sunt omnia, nor describe the furious spirits
of the clergy, and their ignorance, and unrighteous calumnies
and schisms, as Gregory Nazianzen and others do, nor volumin-
ously lament the seeming hopeless case of earth, by the bold-
ness, blindness, and fury of men that make use of such sad
considerations, to loosen my love from such a world, and make
me willing to be with Christ.
9. And if other men's words and writings are blemished with
so much imperfection, why should I think that my own are
blameless ? I must for ever be thankful for the holy instruc*
tions and writings of others, notwithstanding human frailty,
and contentious men's abuse of words : and so 1 must be thank-
ful that God halh made any use of my own, for the good of
325
souls, and his church's edification. But with how many allays
are such comforts here mixed ? We are not the teachers of a
well-ruled school, where learners are ranked into several forms,
that every one may have the teaching which is agreeable to his
capacity ; but we must set open the door to all that will crowd
in, and publish our writings to all sorts of readers ; and there
being as various degrees of capacity as there are men and wo-
men, and consequently great variety and contrariety of appre-
hensions, it is easy ab antecedente to know what various recep-
tion we must expect:' we cast out our doctrine almost as a
foot-ball is turned out among boys in the street, in some con-
gregations : few understand it, but every one censureth it. Few
come as learners, or teachable disciples, but most come to sit
as judges on their teacher's words ; and yet have not either the
skill, or the patience, or the diHgence, which is necessary in a
just trial, to a righteous judgment. But as our words agree or
disagree with the former conceptions of every hearer, so are they
judged to be wise or foolish, sound or unsound, true or false, fit
or unfit. Few sermons that 1 preach, but one extolleth them,
and wisheth they were printed, and another accuseth them of
some heinous fault : some men are pleased with clearness and
accurateness of doctrine ; and others account it too high, and
say we shoot over the hearers' heads, and like nothing but the
fervent application of what they knew before : most hearers are
displeased with that which they most need : if they err, they
reproach that doctrine as erroneous that would cure them : if
they are guilty of any prevailing distemper and sin, they take
that application to be injurious to them, which would convince
them, and save them from that guilt. Most are much pleased
with plain and zealous reproof of sin 5 but it must be other
men's sins, and not their own. The poor love to hear of the
evil of oppression and unmercifulness, of pride, fulness, and idle-
ness, and all the sins of the rich : subjects love to hear of their
ruler's faults, and say, O this man is no flatterer ; he dares tell
the greatest of their sins : but if they hear of their own, they
take it for an injury. Rulers like a sermon for submission and
obedience, but how few love to hear of the evil of injustice and
oppression, or pride and sensuality, or to read Luke xvi. or
xiir or James v.; to hear of the necessity of holiness, justice,
and temperance, and of death, and judgment, and the life to
come ! Every sectary and dogmatist delighteth to have his own
opinion cried up, and his party praised as the chiefest saints :
326 JJAXtEIl's DYlNCx THOUCtHTS.
but all that teiideth to the praise of those that he (Tissenteth
from, and accounteth adversaries to the truth^ is distasteful to
him, as a complying with iniquity, and a strengthening of the
enemies of Christ : and all that uncharitableness which he ex-
pecteth from us against others, is as much expected .by others
against him, and such as he.
This day, while I am writing these words, my pockets are full
of letters sent me, on one side importunately charging it on me
as my duty to conform to the oaths, declarations, covenants,
and practices, now imposed, or else to give over preaching
(which would please them) ; and on the other side vehemently
censuring me as guilty of grievous sin, for declaring my judg-
ment for so much of conformity as I have done ; and charging
me by predictions as guilty of the sufferings of all that are
otherwise minded, for communicating in the sacrament, and the
common prayers of the church ; and others in the mid- way,
persuading me equally to bear my testimony against unjust se-
paration and persecution, and to endeavour still, if possible, to
save a self-destroying people from the tearing fury of these two
extremes. And how should I answer these contrary expecta-
tions, or escape the censures of such expectants ?
And it hath pleased God, who thirty years and more had
tried me by human applause, of late in this city (where multi-
tudes of persons of contrary minds are, like passengers in
crowded streets, still jostling and offending one another) to ex-
ercise me with men's daily backbitings and cavils : and so many
have chosen me for the subject of their discourse, that I may
say as Paul, (1 Cor. iv. 9, 10, &c.,) " We are made a spectacle
(or theatre) to the world, and to angels, and to men : we are
fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ," &c. Did I
not live out of the noise in retirement, taken up with pain, and
expectations of my change, what an annoyance to me would it
be to hear religious persons, that have a God, a Christ, a hea-
ven, to talk of, to abuse their time and tongues in so much
talking of one so inconsiderable, and that hath so little to do
with them, or they with him ; while with some overvaluing me,
and others still quarrelling, I am the matter of their idle, sinful
talk. The persecutors, for divers years after, first silencing, (if
not still,) and the separatists for two or three years last past,
have been possessed with so strange a jealousy and quarrelsome
a disposition against me, that they seem to take it for their in-
terest to promote my defamation, and for uiuch of their work to
Baxter's dying thoughts. 327
search what may afford them any matter of accusation in every
sermon that I preach, and every book that I write. And though
the fury of the persecutors be such as maketh them much inca-
pable of such converse and sober consideration as is needful to
their true information and satisfaction ; yet most of the more
religious cavillers are satisfied as soon as I have spoken with
them, and all endeth in a putarem or non putarem : for want
of accurateness and patience, they judge rashly before they un-
derstand, and when they understand, confess their error j and
yet many go on and take no warning after many times convic-
tion of their mistake. Even in books that are still before their
eyes (as well as in transient words and sermons) they heedlessly
leave out, or put in, or alter and misreport plain words, and,
with confidence, affirm those things to have been said that never
were said, but, perhaps, the contrary. And when all people
will judge of the good or evil of our words, as they think we
have reason to use them or forbear them, how can we satisfy
men that are out of our hearing, and to whom we cannot tell
our reasons ? Most men are of private, narrow observation, and
judge of the good or hurt that our words do by those that they
themselves converse with : and when I convince them that my
decisions of many questions (which they are offended at) are
true, they say, it is an unseasonable and a hurtful truth : and
when I have called them to look further abroad in the world,
and told them my reasons; they say, ' Had these been all set
down, men would have been satisfied.' And on how hard
terms do we instruct such persons, whose narrow understand-
ings cannot know obvious reasons of what we say till they are
particularly told them ? And so to tell men the reasons of all
that such can quarrel with, will make every book to swell with
commentaries to such a bigness as they can neither buy nor
read : and they come not to us to know our reasons ; nor have
we leisure to open them to every single person : and thus sus-
picious men, when their understandings want the humbling ac-
quaintance with their ignorance, and their consciences that
tenderness which should restrain them from rash judging, go on
to accuse such needful truths of which they know not the use
and reason. And what man living hath the leisure and oppor-
tunity to acquaint all the ignorant persons in city and country
with all the reasons of all that he shall say, write, or do ? Or
who, that writeth not a page instead of a sentence, can so write
that every unprepared reader shall understand him ? and what
328 Baxter's dying thoughts.
hopes hath that tutor or schoolmaster of preserving his reputa-
tion, who shall be accounted erroneous, and accused of unsound
or injurious doctrine, by every scholar that understandeth not
his words, and all the reasons of them ?
But God in great mercy to me hath made this my lot (not
causing, but permitting, the sins of the contentious) that I
might before death be better weaned from all below ; had my
temptations from inordinate applause had no allay, they might
have been more dangerously strong. Even yet while church-
dividers, on both extremes, do make me the object of their
daily obloquy, the continued respects of the sober and peace-
able, are so great, as to be a temptation strong enough, to so
weak a person, to give a check to my desires to leave the world.
It is long since riches and worldly honour appeared to me as
they are, as not rendering the world much lovely or desirable.
But the love and concord of religious persons hath a more ami-
able aspect ; there is so much holiness in these, that I was loth
to call them vanity and vexation : but yet as flesh and blood
would refer them to selfish ends, and any way value them as a
carnal interest, I must so call them, and number them with the
things that are loss and dung. (Phil. iii. 7, 8.) Selfishness can
serve itself upon things good and holy: and if good men, and
good books, and good sermons, would make the world seem
over- lovely to us, it will be a mercy of God to abate the tempt-
ation : and if my soul, looking toward the heavenly Jerusalem,
be hindered as Paul was in his journey to Jerusalem, (Acts xx,
and xxi.,) by the love of ancient friends and hearers, I must say,
* What mean you to weep and break my heart ! I am ready to
leave the dearest friends on earth, and life, and all the pleasures
of life, for the presence of far better friends with Christ, and
the sweeter pleasures of a better life.* That little amiableness
which is in things below, is in godly men as life in the heart,
which dieth last: when that is all gone, when we are dead to
the love of the godly themselves, and to learning, books, and
mediate ordinances, so far as they serve a selfish interest, and
tempt down our hearts from heavenly aspirings, the world is
then crucified to us, indeed, and we to it. I rejoice to tread in
the footsteps of my Lord, who had some, indeed, weeping about
his cross, but was forsaken by all his disciples, while in the hour
of temptation they all fled ! But my desertion is far less, for
it is less that I am fit to bear. If God will justify, who shall
condemn ? If he be for me, who shall be against me ? O may
Baxter's dying thoughts. 329
I not be put to that dreadful case, to cry out, " My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And may nothing sepa-
rate me from his love ! And then were I forsaken of the sober
and peaceable, as I am, in part, of some quarrelsome dividers,
how tolerable a trial would it be ? Man is as dust in the ba-
lance, that addeth little to it, and signifieth nothing when God
is in the other end. But I suspect still that I make too much
account of man, when this case hath taken up too much of my
observation.
1. And of all things, surely a departing soul hath least
cause to fear the losing of its notice of the affairs of the
world ; of peace, or wars, or church, or kingdoms ? For, 1 .
If the sun can send forth its material beams, and operate by
motion, light, and heat, at such a distance as this earth, why
should I think that blessed spirits are such local, confined, and
impotent substances, as not to have notice of the things of
earth ? Had I but bodily eyes, J could see more from the top
of a tower or hill, than any one that is below can do. And shall
1 know less of earth from heaven than I do now ? It is unlike
that my capacity will be so little, and if it were, it is unlike
that Christ and all the angels will be so strange to me, as to
give me no notice of things that so much concern my God and
my Redeemer, (to whom I am united,) and the holy society of
which I am a part, and myself as a member of Christ and that
society ! I do not think that the communion of the celestial
inhabitants is so narrow and slow, as it is of walking clods of
earth, and of souls that are confined to such dark lanterns as
this body is. Stars can shine one to another, and we on earth
can see them so far off in their heaven. And sure then if they
have a seeing faculty each of them can see many of us ; even
the kingdoms of the world. Spirits are most active, and of
powerful and quick communication. They need not send
letters, or write books to one another, nor lift up a voice to
make each other hear ; nor is there any unkindness, division,
or unsociable selfishness among them, which mav cause them to
conceal their notices or their joys ; but as activitv, so unity is
greatest where there is most perfection ; they will so be many,
as yet to be one ; and their knowledge will be one knowledge,
and their love one love, and their joy one joy. Not by so per-
fect a unity as in God himself, who is one and but one ; but
such as is suitable to created imperfection, which participate of
the perfection of the Creator, as the effect doth of the virtue
330 Baxter's dying thougeits.
of the cause, and therefore hath some participation of his
unity. (O foolish soul ! if 1 shall fear this unity with God,
Christ, and all the holy spirits, lest 1 should lose my present
separate individuation, when perfection and union are so near
a-kin.) In a word, 1 have no cause to think that my celestial
advancement will be a diminution of any desirable knowledge,
even of things on earth j but contrarily, that it will be incon-
ceivably increased.
2. But if indeed I shall know less of things below, it will be
because that the knowledge of them is a part of vanity and
vexation, which hath no place 'n heaven. So much knowledge
of good and evil in lower matters, as came to us by sin, is un-
worthy of our fond tenaciousness, and fear of losing it. Surely
the sad tidings which we have weekly in our news books, our
lamentable notices of heathen and infidel kingdoms, of the
overspreading prevalency of barbarousness, idolatry, ignorance,
and infidelity ; of the rage and success of cruel tyrants ; of the
bloody wars of proud, unquiet, worldly men ; of the misery of
the oppressed, desolate countries, the dissipated churches, the
persecuted, innocent Christians, are no such pleasing things as
that we should be afraid to hear of such no more. To know or
hear of the poor in famine, the rich in folly, the church dis-
tracted, the kingdom discontented, the godly scandalous by the
effects of their errors, imperfections, and divisions ; the wicked
outrageous, and waxing worse, the falseness, or miscarriages,
or sufferings of friends, the fury or success of enemies. Is this
an intelligence which I cannot spare ? What is the daily tidings
that I hear, but of bloody wars, the undone countries, the per-
secuted churches, the silenced, banished, or imprisoned
preachers ; of the best removed in judgment from an unworthy
world by death, and worse succeeding in their rooms, of the
renewed designs and endeavours of the church's enemies; the impla-
cable rage of the worldly and unquiet clergy, and the new divisions
of self- conceited sectaries, and the obloquy and backbitings of
each party against the other ? How oft hear I the sad tidings of
this friend's sickness or death, and that friend's discontent, and
of another's fall, and of many, very many's sufferings ? My
ears are daily filled with the cries of the poor, whom I cannot
relieve ; with the endless complaints of fearful, melancholy,
despairing persons ; with the wranglings of the ignorant and
proud professors, and contentious divines, who censure most
boldly where they are most erroneous or dark; or with the
Baxter's dying thoughts. 331
troublesome discontents of those that I converse with ; and
should I be afraid of the ending of so sad a tragedy, or of
awaking out of such an unpleasant dream ? Have I not many
times thought of the privilege of the deaf, that hear not these
troublesome and provoking things ; and of the blind that see
not the vanities and temptations of this world. It is one part
of the benefit of solitude, or a private life and habitation, to
free me from many of these unpleasing objects ; and a great
part of the benefit of sleep, that with my clothes I may lay
by these troublesome thoughts.
Sect. 1 1. But other men tell me, the church cannot yet spare
you ; there is yet this and that necessary work to be done ;
there is this and that need, &c.
But, 1. Is it we or God that must choose his servants, and
cut out their work ? Whose work am I doing ? Is it my own
or his ? If his, is it not he that must tell me what, and when,
and how long ? And will not his will and choice be best? If
I believe not this, how do I take him for my God ? Doth God
or I know better what he hath yet to do ? And who is fittest
to do it ? The church's service and benefits must be measured
out by our Master and Benefactor, and not by ourselves.
2. What am I to those more excellent persons whom, in all
ages, he hath taken out of the world ? And would men's
thoughts of the church's needs detain them? The poor
heathen, infidel, Mahometan nations have no preachers of the
Gospel. And if their need prove not that God will send them
such, no country's need will prove that God will continue them
such. Many more useful servants of Christ have died in their
youth : John Janeway preached but one sermon ; Joseph Allen
(and many other excellent men) died in the midst of his
vigorous, successful labours ; both of them far more fit for God's
work, and likely to win souls, and glorify God, than I am, or
ever was, however their greater light was partly kindled from
my lesser. Yet did both these, under painful consuming lan-
guishings of the flesh, die as they had long lived, in the lively
triumphant praises of their Redeemer, and joyful desires and
hopes of glory. And shall I, at seventy-six years of age, after
such a life of unspeakable mercies, and almost fifty-three
years of comfortable help in the service of my Lord, be now
afraid of my reward, and shrink at the sentence of death, and
still be desiring to stay here, upon pretence of further service ?
We know not what is best for the church as God doth ; the
332 Baxter's dying thoughts;
church and the world are not ours but his ; not our desires, but
his will must measure out its mercies. We are not so merciful
as he is. It is not unmeet for us to desire many things which
God will not give, nor seeth it meet to grant the particulars of
such desires. Nothing ever lay so heavy on my heart, as the
sin and misery of mankind, and to think how much the world
lieth in folly and wickedness ! And for what can I pray so
heartily as for the world's recovery ? and it is his will that I
should show a holy and universal love by praying, '^ Let thy name
be hallowed, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it
is done in heaven ;" and yet alas, how unlike is earth to heaven,
and what ignorance, sin, confusions, and cruelties, here reign
and prosper ! And unless there be a wonderful change to be
expected, even as by a general miracle, how little hope appeareth
that ever these prayers should be granted in the things ! It
maketh us better to desire that others may be better ; but God
is the free disposer of his own gifts : and it seemeth to be his
will, that the permitted ignorance and confusions of this world
should help us the more to value and desire that world of light,
love, and order, which he calleth us to prefer and hope for.
And if I am any way useful to the world, it is undeserved
mercy that hath made me so, for which I must be thankful; but
how long I shall be so, is not my business to determine, but my
Lord's. My many sweet and beautiful flowers arise and appear
in their beauty and sweetness, but for one summer's time, and
they murmur not that they flourish for so short a space. The
beasts, and birds, and fishes, which I feed on, do live till I will
have them die ; and as God will be served and pleased by won-
derful variety at once of animals and vegetables, &c., so will
he by many successive generations. If one flower fall or die,
it sufiiceth that others shall, summer after summer, arise from the
same root : and if my pears, apples, plums, &c., fall or serve me
when they are ripe, it sufficeth that, not they, but others, the
next year, shall do the same ; God will have other generations to
succeed us. Let us thank him that we have had our time : and
could we overcome the grand (too little observed) crime of self-
ishness, and could love others as ourselves, and God, as God,
above all the world, it would comfort us at death,' that others
shall survive us, and the world shall continue, and God will be
still God, and be glorified in his works : and love will say, I shall
live in mv successors, and I shall more than live in the life of
the world, and yet most of all in the eternal life and glory of God.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 333
And God, who made us not gods, but poor creatures, as it
pleased him, doth know best our measures, and he will not try
us with too long a life of temptations^ lest we should grow too
familiar where we should be strangers, and utterly strangers to
our home. No wonder if that world was ready for a deluge,
by a deluge of sin, in which men lived to six, seven, eight, and
nine hundred years of age. Had our great sensualists any hope
of so long a life, they would be more like incarnate devils, and
there would be no dwelling near them for the holy seed. If
angels were among them, they would, like the Sodomites, seek
furiously to abuse them.
Nor will God tire us out with too long a life of earthly suf-
ferings. We think short cares, and fears, and sorrows, persecu-
tions, sickness, and crosses to be long, and shall we grudge at
the wisdom and love which shorteneth them ? Yea, though holy
duty itself be excellent and sweet, yet the weakness of the flesh
maketh us liable to weariness, and abateth the willingness of
the spirit, and our wise and merciful God will not make our
warfare, or our race, too long, lest we be wearied and faint, and
fall short of the prize. By our weariness, and complaints, and
fears, and groans, one would think that we thought this life too
long, and yet when we should yield to the call of God, we
draw back as if we would have it everlasting.
Sect. 12. Willingly submit, then, O my soul. It is not thou,
but this flesh, that must be dissolved; this troublesome, vile,
and corruptible flesh. It is but the other half of thy meat and
drink, which thy presence kept longer uncorrupted, going after
the excremental part. Thou diest not when man (the compo-
situm) dieth, by thy departure. And as thou iivest not to thy-
self, thou diest not to thyself; whether I live or die, I am, the
Lord's ; he that set up the candle, knoweth how long he hath
use for the light of it. Study thy duty, and work while it is
day, and let God choose thy time, and willingly stand to his
disposal. The gospel dieth not when I die. The church dieth
not. The praises of God die not. The world dieth not, and
perhaps it shall grow better, and those prayers shall be answered
which seemed lost. Yea, and it may be some of the seed that
I have sown, shall spring up to some benefit of the dark un-
peaceable world when I am dead. And is not this much of the
end of life ? And is not that life good which attaineth its end ?
If my end was to do good and glorify God, if good be done,
334 Baxter's dying thoughts.
and God glorified when I am dead, yea, though 1 were annihi-
lated, is not my end attained ? Feign not thyself to be God^
whose interest (that is, the pleasing of his will) is the end of
all things, and whose will is the measure of all created good.
Feign not thyself to be all the world : God hath not lost his
work; the world is not dissolved when I am dissolved. Oh, how
strong and unreasonable a disease is this inordinate selfishness !
Is not God's will infinitely better than mine, and fitter to be
fulfilled ? Choose the fulfilling of his will, and thou shalt always
have thy choice. If a man be well that can always have his
will, let this always be thy will, that God's will may be done,^
and thou shalt always have it.
Lord, let thy servant depart in peace ', even in thy peace,
which passeth understanding, and which Christ, the prince of
peace, doth give, and nothing in the world can take away. Oh,
give me that peace which beseemeth a soul, which is so near
the harbour, even the world of endless peace and love, where
perfect union (such as I am capable of) will free me from all
the sins and troubles which are caused by the convulsions, di-r
vulsions, and confusions of this divided, selfish world. Call home
this soul by the encouraging voice of love, that it may joyfully
hear, and say, ' It is my Father's voice/ Invite it to thee by
the heavenly messenger. Attract it by the tokens and the fore-
tastes of love. The messengers that invited me to the feast of
grace, compelled me to come in without constraint. Thy effec-
tual call did make me willing, and is not glory better than pre-
paring grace ? Shall I not come more willingly to the celestial
feast ? What was thy grace for, but to make me willing of
glory, and the way to it ? \V1iy didst thou dart down thy beams
of love, but to make me love thee, and to call me up to the
everlasting centre ? Was not the feast of grace as a sacrament
of the feast of glory ? Did I not take it in remembrance of my
Lord until he come ? Did not he that told me, " All things are
ready," tell me also that " he is gone to prepare a place for us ?"
and it is his will that we shall be with him, and see his glory.
They that are given him, and drawn to him by the Father on
earth, do come to Christ. Give, now, and draw my departing
soul to my glorified Head ; and, as 1 have glorified thee on earth,
in the measure that thy grace hath prevailed in me, pardon the
sins by which I have offended thee, and glorify me in the be-
holding and participation of the glory of my Redeemer. Come,
Baxter's dying thoughts, 335
Lord Jesus, come quickly, with fuller life, and light, and love,
into this too dead, and dark, and disaffected soul, that it may
come with joyful willingness unto thee.
Sect. 13. Willingly depart, O lingering soul ! It is from a
Sodom, though in it there be righteous Lots, who yet are not
without their woful blemishes ! Hast thou so oft groaned for
the general blindness and wickedness of the world, and art
thou loth to leave it for a better ? How oft wouldest thou have
rejoiced to have seen but the dawning of a day of universal
peace and reformation ? And wouldest thou not see it where
it shineth forth in fullest glory? Would a light at midnight
have pleased thee so well ? Hast thou prayed and laboured for
it so hard ? A nd wouldest thou not see the sun ? Will the
things of heaven please thee no where but on earth, where they
come in the least and weakest influences, and are terminated in
gross, terrene, obscure, and unkind recipients ? Away, away,
the vindictive flames are ready to consume this sinful world 1
Sinners that blindly rage in sin must quickly rage in the effects
of sin and of God's justice. The pangs of lust prepared for these
pangs ! They are treasuring up wrath against this day. Look
not, then, behind thee. Away from this unhappy world! Press on
unto the mark. (Phil, iii.) " Looking towards, and hastening
to the coming of the day of God." (2 Pet. iii. 10 — 12.)
As this world hath used thee, it would use thee still, and it
will use others. If thou hast sped well in it, no thanks to it,
but unto God. If thou hast had manifold deliverances, and
marvellous preservations, and hast been fed with angel's food,
love not this wilderness for it, but God and his angel, which was
thy guide, protector, and deliverer.
And hath this troublesome flesh been so comfortable a com-
panion to thee, that thou shouldest be so loth to leave it ? Have
thy pains, thy weariness, thy languishings, thy labours, thy
cares and fears about this body, been pleasing to thee ? And
art thou loth that they should have an end ? Didst thou not
find a need of patience to undergo them ? And of greater pa-
tience than mere nature gave thee ? And canst thou hope now
for better when nature faileth, and that an aged, consumed,
more diseased body, should be a pleasanter habitation to thee
than it was heretofore ? If from thy youth up it hath been both
a tempting and a troublesome thing to thee, surely, though it
be less tempting, it will not be less troubling, when it is falling
to the dust, and above ground savoureth of the grave ! Had
336 Baxter's dying thoughts.
things sensible been never so pleasant in thy youth, and hadst
thou glutted thyself in health with that sort of delight, in age
thou art to say by nature, " I have no pleasure in them/' Doth
God in great mercy make pain and feebleness the harbingers
of death, and wilt thou not understand their business ? Doth
he mercifully, beforehand, take away the pleasure of all fleshly
things, and worldly vanities^ that there may be nothing to relieve
a departing soul, (as the shell breaketh when the bird is hatched,
and the womb relaxed when the infant must be born,) and yet
shall we stay when nothing holdeth us, and still be loth to
come away ? Wouldest thou dwell with thy beloved body in
the grave, where it will rot and stink in loathsome darkness ?
If not, why should it now, in its painful languor, seem to thee a
more pleasant habitation than the glorious presence of thy
Lord ? In the grave it will be at rest, and not tormented as
now it is, nor wish at night, oh, that it were morning ! nor say
at morning, when will it be night ? And is this a dwelling fit
for thy delight ? Patience in it, while God will so try thee, is
thy duty, but is such patience a better and sweeter life than
rest and joy ?
Sect. 14. But, alas! how deaf is flesh to reason. Faith hath
the reason which easily may shame all contrary reasoning, but
sense is unreasonable, and especially this inordinate, tenacious
love of present life. I have reason enough to be willing to depart,
even much more willing than I am. Oh, that I could be as
willing as I am convinced that I have reason to be ! Could I
love God as much as I know that I should love him, then I
should desire to depart, and to be with Christ, as much as I
know that I should desire it. But God, in nature, hath there
laid upon me some necessity of aversation, (though the inordi-
nateness came from sin,) else Christ had not so feared, and
deprecated the cup. Death must be a penalty, even where it is
a gain, and therefore it must meet with some unwillingness :
because we willingly sinned, we must unwillingly suffer. The
gain is not the pain or dissolution in itself, but the happy con-
sequents of it. All the faith and reason in the world will not
make death to be no penalty, and therefore will not take away
all unwillingness. No man ever yet reasoned or believed himself
into a love of pain and death, as such, but seeing that the gain
is unspeakably greater than the pain and loss, faith and holy
reason may make our willingness to be greater than our un-
willingness, and our hope and joy than our fear and sorrow.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 337
And it is the deep and effectual notice of goodness, which is
God's way, in nature and grace, to change and draw the will of
man. Come then, my soul, and think, believingly, what is best
for thee. And wilt thou not love and desire most that which is
certainly the best ? . .
To depart and, to be with Christ is far better, or rather to be
chosen.
Sect. 1. To say and hear that it is far better to be with
Christ, is not enough to make us willing. Words and notions
are such instruments as God useth to work on souls, but the con-
vincing, satisfying, powerful light, and the inclining love, are
other things. The soul now operate th ut forma hominis, on and
with the corporeal spirits and organs, and it perceiveth now its
own perceptions, but it is a stranger to the mode of its future
action, when separated from the body, and can have no formal
conception of such conceptions as yet it never had. And there-
fore, its thoughts of its future state must be analogical and
general, and partly strange. But general notices, when certain,
may be very powerful, and satisfy us in so much as is needful
to our consent, and to such a measure of joy as is suitable to this
earthly state. And such notices we have from the nature of the
soul, witli the nature of God, the course of Providence, and go-
vernment of mankind, the internal and external conflicts which
we perceive about men's souls, the testimony and promises of
the word of God, the testimony of conscience, with the witness
of the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, and in it tlie earnest and the
foretaste of glory, and the beginnings of life eternal here, all
which 1 have before considered.
Sect. 2. The Socinians, who would interpret this of the state
of resurrection only, against plain evidence, violate the text :
seeing Paul expressly speaketh of his gain by death, which will
be his abode with Christ, and this upon his departure hence:
which (in 2 Cor. v. 7, 8) he calleth, his being absent from the
body, and present with the Lord : and Christ, to the penitent
thief, calleth his being with him in Paradise : and (Luke xvi.)
in the parable of the steward, Christ intimateth to us, that wise
preparers, when they go hence, are received into t^e everlasting
habitations ; as he there further tells us Lazarus was in Abra-
ham's bosom.
Sect. 3. Goodness is jorimarm et mens^irans, vel secundaria
et mensurata : the first is God's perfect essence and will ; the
VOL. XV m. z
338 BAXTER S DYING THOUGHTS.
second is either properly and simply good, or analogical. The
former is the creature's conformity to the will of God, or its
pleasingness to his will : the latter is, 1. The greater, which is
the welfare or perfection of the universe. 2. The lesser, which
is the several parts of the universe, either, 1. In the nobler res-
pect, as they are parts contributing to the perfection of the
whole ; or, 2. In the lower respect, as they are perfect or happy
in themselves , or, 3. In the lowest respect of all, as they are
good to their fellow-creatures which are below themselves.
Sect. 4. Accordingly, it is far better to be with Christ, I.
Properly and simply, as it is the fulfilling of God's will. II.
Analogically, as it tendeth to the perfection of the universe and
the church. III. And as it will be our own good or felicity.
IV. And as it will be good to our inferior fellow-creatures ;
though this last be most questionable, and seemeth not included
in the meaning of this text. Somewhat of these in order.
Sect. 5. I. It is an odious effect of idolatrous selfishness, to
acknowledge no goodness above our own felicity, and, accord-
ingly, to make the goodness of God to be but formally his use-
fulness, benevolence, and beneficence, to his creatures, which is
by making the creature the ultimate end, and God but the
means; to make the creature to be God, and deny God, indeed,
while we honour his name: as also it is to acknowledge no
higher goodness formally in the creature, than in its own feli-
city as such : as if neither the pleasing of God's will, nor the
perfection of the church and world, were better than we are :
we are not of ourselves, and therefore we are not chiefly for our-
selves ; and, therefore, we have a higher good to love.
That is simply best which God willeth. Therefore, to live
here is best whilst I do live here ; and to depart is best when
the time of my departure cometh : that is best which is, for
it is the work of God : the world cannot be better at this in-
stant than it is, nor any thing better, which is of God, be-
cause it is as he willeth it to be : but when God hath changed
them, it will then be best that they are changed. Were there
no other good in my departure hence, but this simple good, the
fulfilling of God's will, my reason telleth me that I should
be fully satisfied in it : but there is also a subordinate sort of
good.
Sect. 6. II. For my change will tend to the perfection of the
universe ; even that material good or perfection, which is its
aptitude for the use to which God hath created, and doth pre-
Baxter's dying thoughts. 339
serve it : as all the parts, the modes, the situation, the mo-
tions, of a clock, a watch, or other engine, do to the ends of the
artificer. Though God hath not told me particularly, why
every thing, and mode, and motion, is as it is, T know it is all
done in perfect wisdom, and suited to its proper use and end :
if the hen or bird knoweth how to make her nest, to lay her
eggs secretly together, when and how to sit on them till they
are hatched, and how to feed them and preserve them, and
when to forsake them, as sufficient for themselves without her
help, &c. If the bee knoweth when, a;nd whence, and how, to
gather her honey and wax, and how to form the repository
combs, and how to lay it up, and all the rest of her marvellous
economy, shall I think that God doth he knoweth not what, or
what is not absolutely the best ? Doth he want either skill, or
will, or power?
And should the stone grudge to be hewed, the brick to be
burnt, the trees to be cut down, and sawed and framed, the lead
and iron to be melted, &c., when it is but to form an useful edi-
fice, and to adapt and compose every part to the perfecting of
the whole ? >
Shall the waters grudge that they must glide away, and the
plants that they must die, and half die every winter, and the
fruits and flowers that they must fall, or the moon that it must
have its changing motions, or the sun that it must rise and set
so oft, &c., when all is but the action and order which maketh
up that harmony and perfection which was designed by the
Creator, and is pleasing to his will ?
Sect. 7. HI. But lawful self-love is yet further herein grati-
fied : the goodness expressed in the text is that analogical, sub-
ordinate good, which is mihi bonum, my own felicity, and that
which tendeth thereunto : it is most reasonable to love God
best, and that next which is likest him (if known), and why
should it not be the easiest and the sweetest ? But experience
findeth it so easy to love ourselves, that certainly, if I firmly be-
lieve that it is best for me, 1 shall desire to depart, and to be
with Christ. And have I not reason to believe it ?
Sect. 8. The reasons of it I will consider in this order : I. The
general reason from the efficients and the means. II. The final
reasons. HI. The constitutive reasons from the state of my
intellect, and its action and fruition there. IV. The constitu-
tive reasons from the state of my will. V. The constitutive
340 Baxter's dying thoughts.
reasons from my practice there, leaving out those which the
resurrection will give me, because 1 am speaking but of my pre-
sent departure unto Christ.
Sect. 9. And, 1 . That is best for me, which love itself, my
heavenly Father designeth, and chooseth, for my good. I hope
I shall never dare to think, or say, that he is mistaken, or that
he wanted skill or love, or that 1 could have chosen better for
myself than he doth, if he had left all to my choice. Many a
time the wise and good will of God hath crossed my foolish, re-
bellious will on earth ; and afterward I have still perceived that
it was best ; usually for myself, but always for a higher good
than mine. It is not an enemy, nor a tyrant, that made me,
that hath preserved me, and that calls me hence. He hath not
nsed me as an enemy : the more J have tried him, the better I
have found him : had I better obeyed his ruling will, how happy
had I been ! And is not his disposing and rewarding will as
good ? Man's work is like man, and evil corrupteth it ; but
God's work is like God, and uncorrupted : if I should not die till
my dearest friend would have it, much more till I myself would
choose it, (not constrained by misery,) I should rejoice, and
think my life were safe ! O foolish, sinful soul ! if I take it not
to be far better to be at God's choice, than at my own, or any
man's ! and if I had not rather that he choose the time than f .
Be of good cheer, then, O my soul ! it is thy Father's voice that
calleth thee hence : his voice that called thee into the world,
and bid thee live ^ that called thee out of a state of sin and
death, and bid thee live hereafter unto him ; that called thee
so oft from the grave, and, forgiving thy sins, renewed thy
strength, restored thee to the comforts of his house and service ;
and that so graciously led thee through this howling wilderness,
and brought thee almost to the sight of the promised land. And
wilt thou not willingly go, when infinite, fatherly love doth call
thee ? art thou not desirous of his presence ? art thou afraid to
go to him who is the only cure of thy fears ? What was it but this
glory to which he did finally elect thee ? Where dost thou read
that he elected thee to the riches arid honours of this world, or to
the pleasures of the flesh ? But he elected us in Christ to the
heavenly inheritance. (Eph. i. 3, 4, Sec.) Indeed, he elected
thee also to bear the cross, and to manifold sufferings here :
but is it that which thou preferrest before the crown ? That
was but as a means unto the kingdom, that thou mightest be
Baxter's dying xHouGHts. 341
conformed to Christ, and reign with him when thou hast suf-
fered with him. If God choose thee to blessedness, refuse it not
thyself, nor behave thyself like a refuser.
Sect. 10. 2. And surely that state is my best which my Sa-
viour purchased and promi^^ed me as best : as he bought me
not with silver and gold, so neither to silver and gold : did he
live and die to make me rich or advanced in the world ? Surely
his incarnation, merits, sacrifice, and intercession, had a low
design, if that were all 1 And who hath more of these than
they that have least of Christ ? But he purchased us to an in-
corruptible crown ; to an iqheritance undefiled, that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for lis, that are kept, by God's power,
through faith unto salvation. (1 Pet. i.) And is it heaven that
cost so dear a price for me, and is the end of so wonderful
a design of grace, and shall I be unwilling now to receive the
gift?
Sect. 11. 3. That sure is best for me, for which God's holy
Spirit is preparing me ; that for which he is given to believers ;
and that which is the end of all his holy operations on my soul.
But it is not to love this world that he is persuading me from
day to day ; but to come oflf from such love, and to set my
heart on the things above. Is it to love this life and fleshly in-
terest, this vanity and vexation, or rather to love the invisible
perfection, that this blessed Spirit hath done so much to work
my heart ? And would I now undo all, or cross and frustrate
all his operations ? Hath grace been so long preparing me for
glory, and shall I be loth to take possession of it ? If I am not
willing, I am not yet sufficiently prepared.
Sect. 12. 4. If heaven be not better for me than earth, God's
word and ordinances have been all in vain ? Surely that is my
best which is the gift of the better covenant, and which is se-
cured to me by so many sealed promises, and which I am
directed to by so many sacred precepts, doctrines, and exam-
ples ; and for which 1 have been called to hear, and read, and
meditate, and pray, and watch so long. Was it the interest of
the flesh on earth, or a longer life of worldly prosperity, which
the gospel covenant secured to me; which the sacraments and
Spirit sealed to me ; which the bible was written to direct me
to ; which ministers preached to me ; which my books were
written for ; which I prayed for ; and for which 1 served God ?
Or was it not for his grace on earth, and glory in heaven ? And
is it not better for me to have the end of all these means, than
342 Baxter's dying thoughts.
lose them all^ and lose my hopes ? Why have I used them, if
I would not attain their end ?
Seet. 13. 5. That is my best state, which all the course of
God's fatherly providences tend to : all his sweeter mercies, and
all his sharper corrections, are to make me partaker of his holi-
ness, and to lead me to glory in the way that my Saviour and
all his saints have gone before me : all things work together for
the best to me, by preparing me for that which is best, indeed.
Both calms and storms are to bring me to this harbour : if I
take them but for themselves, and this present life, I mistake
them, and understand them not, but unthankfuUy vilify them,
and lose their end, and life, and sweetness : every word and
work of God ; every day's mercies, and changes, and usages, do
look at heaven, and intend eternity. God leadeth me no other
way : if I follow him not, I forsake my hope in forsaking him :
if I follow him, shall I be unwilling to be at home, and come to
the end of all this way ?
Sect. 14. 6. Surely that is best for me which God hath re-
quired me principally to value, love, and seek, and that as the
business of all my life, referring all things else thereto : that
this is my duty, 1 am fully certain, as is proved elsewhere, and
before. Is my business in the world only for the things of this
world ? How vain a creature, then, were man ; and how little
were the difference between waking and sleeping ! Life and
death : no wonder if he that believeth that there is no life but
this to seek or hope for do live in uncomfortable despair, and
only seek to palliate his misery with the brutish pleasures of a
wicked life, and if he stick at no villany which his fleshly lusts
incline him to ; especially tyrants and multitudes who have none
but God to fear. It is my certain duty to seek heaven with all
the fervour of my soul, and dihgence of my life j and is it not
best to find it ?
Sect. 15. 7. That must needs behest for me, which all other
things must be forsaken for: it is folly to forsake the better for
the worse : but Scripture, reason, and conscience, tell me, that
all this world, when it stands in competition, or opposition,
should be forsaken for heaven ; yea, for the least hopes of it : a
possible, everlasting glory should he preferred before a certainly
perishing vanity. I am sure this life will shortly be nothing to
me ', and therefore it is next to nothing now. And must I for-
sake all for my everlasting hopes, and yet be unwilling to pass
unto the possession of them.
LtAXTER's DYING THOUGHTS. 343
Sect. 16. 8. That is like to be our best which is our maturest
state. Nature carrieth all things towards their perfection : our
apples, pears, grapes, and every fruit, are best when they are ripe;
and though they then hasten to corruption, that is, through the
incapacity of the corporeal materials, any longer to retain the
vegetative spirit, which is not annihilated at its separation ;
and being not made for its own felicity, but for man's, its ripe-
ness is the state in which man useth it, before it doth corrupt
of itself, and that its corruption may be for his nutriment; and
the spirits and best matter of his said food doth become his very
substance. And doth God cause saints to grow up unto ripe-
ness, only to perish and drop down unto useless rottenness? It
is not credible. Though our bodies become but like our filthi-
est excrements, our souls return to God that gave them : and
though he need them not, he useth them in their separated
state ; and that to such heavenly uses as the heavenly maturity
and mellowness hath disposed them to. Seeing, then, love hath
ripened me for itself, shall I not willingly drop into its hand ?
Sect. 17. 9. That is like to be the best which the wisest and
holiest, in all ages of the world, have preferred before all, and
have most desired : and which also almost all mankind do
acknowledge to be best at last. It is not like that all the best
men in the world should be most deceived, and be put upon
fruitless labours and sufferings by this deceit, and be undone by
their duty ; and that God should, by such deceits, rule all (or
almost all) mankind : and also that the common notices of hu-
man nature, and conscience's last and closest documents, should
be all in vain. But it is past all doubt, that no men usually
are worse than those that have no belief or hopes of any life but
this : and that none are so holy, just, and sober, so charitable
to others, and so useful to mankind, as those that firmliest be-
lieve and hope for the state of immortality : and shall I fear that
state which all that were wise and holy, in all ages, have pre-
ferred and desired ?
Sect. IS. 10. And it is not unlike that my best state is that
which my greatest enemies are most against : and how much
Satan doth to keep me and other men from heaven ; and how
much worldly honour, and pleasure, and wealth, he could afford
us to accomplish it, I need not here again be copious in reciting,
having said so much of it in the ' Treatise of Infidelity.' And
shall I be, to wards| myself, so much of Satan's mind? He
would not have me come to heaven : and shall I also be
344 liAXTKSl S DYING THOUGHTS.
unwilling ? All these things tell me that it ivS best to be with
Christ.
II. The Final Reasons.
Sect. 1. II. 1. Is it not far better to dwell with God in glory,
than with sinful men, in such a world as this ? Though he be
every where, his glory, which we must behold to our felicity,
and the perfecting operations and communications of his love
are in the glorious world, and not on earth. As the eye is made
to see the light, and then to see other things by the light, so is
man's mind made to see God, and to love him ; and other things,
as in, by, and for him. He that is our beginning is our end ;
and our end is the first motive of all moral action, and for it it
is that all means are used : and the end attained is the rest of
souls. How oft hath my soul groaned under the sense of dis-
tance, and darkness, and estrangedness from God ! How oft
hath it looked up, and gasped after him, and said, ' Oh ! when
shall I be nearer and better acquainted with my God?' " As the
hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee, O God : my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God :
when shall I come and appear before God?" (Psalm xlii. I.)
And would I not have my prayers heard, and my desires grant-
ed? What else is the sum of lawful prayers, but God himself?
If I desire any thing more than God, what sinfulness is in those
desires, and how sad is their signification. How oft have I
said, "Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none on
earth that I desire besides thee ? It is good for me to draw
near to God." (Psalm Ixxiii. 25, 28.) Wo to me, if I did dis-
semble ! If not, why should my soul draw back ? Is it because
that death stands in the way ? Do not my fellow-creatures die
for my daily food ; and is not my j)assage secured by the love of
my Father, and the resurrection and intercession of my Lord ?
Can I see the light of heavenly glory in this darksome shell and
womb of flesh?
Sect. 2. All creatures are more or less excellent and glorious,
as God is more or less operative and refulgent in them, and,
by that operation, communicateth most of himself unto them.
Though he be immense and indivisible, his operations and com-
munications are not equal : and that is said to be nearest to
him which hath most of those operations on it; and that with-
out the intervenient causality of any second, created cause j and
so all those are in their order near unto him, as they have noblest
natures, and fewest intervenient causes. Far am I from pre-
I
Baxter's dying thoughts. 345
suming to think that I am, or shall be, the best and noblest of
God's creatures, and so that 1 shall be so near him as to be
under the influx of no second or created causes, of which more
anon. But to be as near as my nature was ordained to ap-
proach, is but to attain the end and perfection of my nature.
Sect. 3. And as 1 must not look to be the nearest to him, as
he is the first efficient, no more must I, as he is the first diri-
gent, or governing cause. As now I am under the government
of his officers on earth, I look for ever to be under sub-govern-
ors in heaven. My glorified Saviour must be my Lord and
ruler, and who else under him 1 know not. If angels are not
equal in perfection, nor, as is commonly supposed, equal in
power, nor without some regimental order among themselves, I
must not conclude that no created angel or spirit shall have any
government over me, but it will be so pure and divine, as that
the blessed effects of God's own government will be sweetly
powerful therein. If the law was given by angels, and the angel
of God was in the burning bush, and the angel conducted the
people through the wilderness, and yet all these things are
ascribed to God, much more near and glorious will the divine
regiment there be, whoever are the administrators.
Sect. 4. And as 1 must expect to be under some created, effi-
cient and dirigent causes there, so must I expect to have some
subordinate ends : else there would not be a proportion and
harmony in causalities. Whatever nobler creatures are above
me, and have their causalities upon me, I must look to be finally
for these nobler creatures. When I look up and think what a
world of glorious beings are now over me, 1 dare not presume
to think that I shall finally, any more than receptively, be the
nearest unto God, and that I am made for none but him. I find
here that I am made, and ruled, and sanctified, for the public
or common good of many as above my own, of which I am
past doubt; and I am sure that I must be, finally, for my glori-
fied Redeemer; and for what other spiritual beings, or intelli-
gences, that are above me, little do I know : and God hath so
ordered all his creatures, as that they are mutually ends and
means for and to one another, though not in an equality, nor in
the same respects. But whatever nearer ends there will be, I
am sure that he who is the first efficient, and dirigent, will be the
ultimate, final cause : and I shall be, in this respect, as near him
as is due to the rank and order of my nature. I shall be useful
to the ends which are answerable to my perfection.
346 Baxter's dying thoughts.
Sect. 5. And if it be the honour of a servant to have an
honourable master, and to be appointed to the most honourable
work^ if it be some honour to a horse above swine, or a worm,
or fly, that he serveth more nearly for the use of man, yea, for
a prince, will it not be also my advancement to be ultimately for
God, and subordinately for the highest created natures, and this
in such sei-vices as are suitable to my spiritual and heavenly
state?
Sect. 6. For I am far from thinking that I shall be above
service, and have none to do, for activity will be my perfection
and my rest : and all such activity must be regular in harmony,
and order of causes, and for its proper use ; and what, though I
know not now fully what service it is that I must do, 1 know
it will be good and suitable to the blessed state which i shall be
in ; and it is enough that God and my Redeemer know it ; and
that I shall know it in due time, when I come to practise it ;
of which more afterward.
Sect. 7. The inordinate love of this body and present com-
position seduceth souls to think that all their use and work is
for its maintenance and prosperity, and when the soul hath
done that, and is separated from flesh, it hath nothing to do,
but must lie idle, or be as nothing, or have no considerable
work or pleasure. As if there were nothing in the whole world,
but this little fluid mass of matter, for a soul to work upon; as if
itself, and all the creatures, and God, were nothing, or no fit
objects for a soul : and why not hereafter, as well as now: or,
as if that which, in our compounded state, doth operate on and
by its organs, had no other way of operation without them; as
if the musician lost all his power, or were dead, when his in-
trument is out of tune, or broken, and could do nothing else
but play on that : as if the fiery part of the candle were anni-
hilated, or transmutate, as some philosophers imagine, when the
candle goelh out, and were not fire, and in action still : or as
if that sunbeam which I shut out, or which passeth from our
horizon, were annihilated, or did nothing, when it shineth not
with us. Had it no other individual to illuminate, or to termi-
nate its beams or action, were it nothing to illuminate the com-
mon air ? Though 1 shall not always have a body to operate in
and upon, 1 shall always have God, and a Saviour, and a world
of fellow- creatures ; and when I shine not in this lantern, and
see not by these spectacles, nor imaginarily in a glass, I shall yet
see things suitable intuitively, and as face to face. That which
Baxter's dying thoughts. 347
is essentially life, as a living principle, will live ; and that which
is essentially an active, intellective, volitive principle, force, and
virtue, will still be such while it is itself, and is not annihilated,
or changed into another thing (which is not to be feared) ; and
that which is such can never want an object till all things be
annihilated.
Sect. 8. Reason assureth me, that were tny will now what it
should be, and fully obsequious herein to my understanding, to
fulfil God's will would be the fulfilling my own will, for my will
should perfectly comply with his, and to please him perfectly
would be my perfect pleasure : and it is the unreasonable adhe-
sion to this body, and sinful selfishness, which maketh any one
think otherwise now. I am snre that my soul shall live, for it is
life itself; and I am sure that I shall live to God, and that I
shall fulfil and please his blessed will j and this is, as such, in-
comparably better than my felicity, as such : and yet so far as I
am pleased in so doing, it will be my felicity.
Sect. 9. I begin now to think, that the strange love which
the soul hath to this body (so far as it is not inordinate) is
put into us of God, partly to signify to us the great love which
Christ hath to his mystical, political body, and to every member
of it, even the least: he will gather all his elect out of the world,
and none that come to him shall be shut out, and none that are
given him shall be lost: as his flesh is to them meat indeed, and
his blood is to them drink indeed, and he nourisheth them for
life eternal: (his Spirit in them, turning the sacrament, the
word, and Christ himself, in esse ohjectivo, as believed in, into
spirit and life to us, as the soul and our natural spirits turn our
food into flesh, and blood, and spirits, v/hich, in a dead body,
or any lifeless repository, it would never be:) so as we delight
in the ease and prosperity of our body, and each member, and
have pleasure in the pleasant food that nourisheth it, and other
pleasant objects which accommodate it ; Christ also delighteth
in the welfare of his church, and of all the faithful, and is
pleased when they are fed with good and pleasant food, and
when hereby they prosper: Christ loveth the church, not only
as a man must love his wife, but as we love our bodies; and
no man ever hated his own flesh. (Eph. v. 27, &c.) And
herein I must allow my Saviour the pre-eminence, to overgo me
in powerful, faithful love : he will save me better from pain and
death than I can save my body: and will more inseparably
hold me to himself. If it please my soul^to dwell in such a
348 Baxter's dying thoughts.
house of clay, and to operate on so mean a thing as flesh, how
greatly will it please my glorified Lord, to dwell with his glo-
rified body, the triumphant church, and to cherish and bless
each member of it ! It would be a kind of death to Christ to
be separated from his body, and to have it die. Whether
Augustine, and the rest of the fathers, were in the right or no,
who thought, that as our bodies do not only shed their hairs,
but, by sicknesses and waste, lose much of their very flesh; so
Christ's militant body doth not only lose hypocrites, but also
some living, justified members; yet, certain it is, that confirmed
members, and most certain, that glorified members, shall not be
lost : heaven is not a place for Christ or us to suffer such loss in.
And will Christ love me better than I love my body ? Will he
be more loth to lose me than I am to lose a member, or to
die? Will he not take incomparably greater pleasure in ani-
mating and actuating me for ever, than my soul doth in
animating and actuating this body? O, then, let me long to
be with him ! And though I am naturally loth to be absent
from the body, let me be by his Spirit more unwilling to be
absent from the Lord; and though I would not be unclothed,
had not sin made it necessary, let me not groan to be clothed
upon with my heavenly habitation, and to become the delight
of my Redeemer, and to be perfectly loved, by love itself.
Sect. 10. And even this blessed receptivity of my soul, in
terminating the love and delight of my glorified Head, must
needs be a felicity to me. The insensible creatures are but
beautified by the sun's communication of its light and heat; but
the sensitives have also the pleasure of it. Shall my soul be
senseless? Will it be a clod or stone? Shall that, which is
now the form of man, be then more lifeless, senseless, or unca-
pable, than the form of brutes is now ? Doubtless, it will be a
living, perceiving, sensible recipient of the felicitating love of
God, and my Redeemer; I shall be loved as a living spirit, and
not as a dead and senseless thing, that doth not comfortably
perceive it.
Sect. 11. And if I must rejoice with my fellow-servants that
rejoice, shall 1 not be glad to think that my blessed Lord will
rejoice in me, and in all his glorified ones ? Union will make
his pleasure to be much mine ; and it will be aptly said by him
to the faithful soul, " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
(Matt. XXV. 21.) His own active joy will objectively be ours,
as ours will be efficiently his, or from him. Can that be an ill
BAXTER*S DYING THOUGHTS. 349
condition to me, in which my Lord will most rejoice ? it is best
to him, and, therefore, best to me.
Sect. 12. And the heavenly society will joyfully welcome a
holy soul. If there be now " Joy in heaven among the angels,
for one sinner that repenteth," (Luke xv. 10,) who hath yet so
little holiness, and so much sin; what joy will there be over a
perfected, glorified soul? Surely, if our angels there behold our
Father's face, they will be glad, in season, of our company.
The angels that carried Lazarus to Abraham^s bosom, no doubt
rejoiced in their work, and their success. And is the joy of
angels, and the heavenly host, as nothing to me ? Will not love
and union make their joy to be my own ; if love here must make
all my friends and neighbours comforts to become my own?
And as their joy, according to their perfection, is greater than
any that I am now capable of, so the participation of so great
a joy of theirs will be far better than to have my little sepa-
rated apartment. Surely, that will be my best condition,
which angels and blessed spirits will be best pleased in, and I
shall rejoice most in that which they most rejoice in.
in. The constitutive Reasons from the intellective State,
III. Sect. 1 . Though the tempter would persuade men, be-
cause of the case of infants in the womb, apoplectics, &c., that
the understanding will be but an unactive power, when sepa-
rated from these corporeal organs, I have seen before sufficient
reasons to repel this temptation. I will suppose, that it will
not have such a mode of conception, as it hath now by these
organs; but, 1. The soul will be still essentially a vital, intellec-
tive substance, disposed to act naturally; and that is to those
acts which it is formally inclined to, as fire to illuminate and
heat. And as it cannot die, (while it is what it is in essence,)
because it is life itself, that is, the vital substance; so it cannot
but be intellective, (as to an inclined power,) because it is such
essentially; though God can change, or annihilate any thing, if
he would. 2. And it will be among a world of objects. 3.
And it will still have its dependence on the first cause, and re-
ceive his continual, actuating influx. 4. And no man can give
the least show of true reason, to prove that it shall cease sen-
sation, (whether the sensitive faculties be in the same substance
which is intellective, which is most probable, or in one con-
junct, as some imagine,) though the species and modes of sen-
sation cease, which are denominated from the various organs.
350 Baxter's dying thoughts.
5. Yea, no man can prove that the departing soul doth not
carry with it its igneous spirits, which, in the body, it did im-
mediately actuate. If it were ever so certain that those
Greek fathers were mistaken, (as well as hypocrites,) who took
the soul itself to be a sublime, intellectual fire.
And as to the objection some hold, that the soul pre-existed
before it was in the body; others, and most, that it then re-
ceived its first being: if the first were true, it would be true
that the soul had its intellectual activity before, though the soul
itself, incorporate, remember it not, because it operateth but
ut forma hominis, (and its oblivion they take to be part of its
penalty,) and they that think it a radius of the anima mundi vel
systematis, must think that then it did intellectually animate
hunc mundum, vel mundi partem : and to do so again, is the
worst they can conjecture of it. As the rays of the sun, which
heat a burning glass, and by it set a candle on fire, are the
same rays still diffused in the air, and illuminating, heating, and
moving it, and terminated on some other body, and not annihi-
lated, or debilitated, when their contracted operation ceaseth by
breaking the glass, or putting out the candle; and as the spirit
of a tree still animateth the tree, when it retires from the
leaves, and lets them fall. But this being an unproved imagin-
ation of men's own brains, we have no further use of it, than to
confute themselves. But if the soul existed not till its incor-
poration, what wonder if it operate but ut forma, when it is
united to the body for that use? What wonder if its initial
operations, like a spark of fire in tinder, or the first lighting of
a candle, be weak, and scarce by us perceptible ? What
wonder if it operate but to the uses that the creation did ap-
point it; and first, as vegetative, fabricate its own body, as the
maker's instrument, and then feel, and then understand ? And
what wonder if it operate no further than objects are admitted?
And, therefore, what wonder if, in apoplexies, &c., such opera-
tions are intercepted? But the departing soul is, 1. In its
maturity. 2. No more united to this body, and so not con-
fined to sense and imagination in its operations, and the admis-
sion of its objects. 3. And it is sub raiione meriti, and as a
governed subject is ordinate to its reward ; which it was not
capable of receiving in the womb, or in an apoplexy. And as
we have the reasons before alleged to hold, 1. That it shall
not be annihilated. 2. Nor dissolved. 3. Nor lose its essen-
tial faculties or powers. 4. Nor those essential powers be con-
Baxter's dying thoughts. 351
tlnued uselefes by the wise and merciful Creator, though, by
natural revelation, we know not in what manner they shall act;
whether on any other body, and by what conjunction, and how
far; so by supernatural revelation we are assured, that there is a
reward for the righteous, and that holy souls are still members
of Christ, and live because he liveth, and that in the day of their
departure they shall be with him in Paradise, and being absent
from the body, shall be present with the Lord ; and that Christ,
therefore, died, rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of
the dead and of the living, that is, of those that, being dead,
hence do live with him, and of those that yet live in the body;
for he that said, " God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living," that is, stands not related to them as his people, as a
king to his subjects, is not himself the Lord of the absolute
dead, but of the living.
Therefore, (as Co7itarenus against Pomponatius de Immortal.
Anim. saith,) the immortality of the soul is proveable by the
light of nature, but the manner of its future operation must be
known by faith. And blessed be the Father of spirits, and our
Redeemer, who hath sent and set up this excellent light, by
which we see further than purblind infidels can do 1
Sect. 2. But 1 deny not but even the Scripture itself doth tell
us but little of the manner of our intellection when we are out
of the body; and it is not improbable that there is more imper-
fection in this mode of notional, organical, abstractive knowledge
which the soul exerciseth in the body, than most consider of.
And that as the eye hath the visive faculty in sleep, and when
we wink, and an internal action of the visive spirits, (no doubt,)
and yet seeth not any thing without till the eyelids are opened,
(and was not made to see its own sight,) so the soul in the body
is as a winking eye to all things that are not, by the sense and
imagination, intromitted, or brought within its reach. And whe-
ther fsicut non video visum, neque facuUatem neque substari'
tiam videntem, videndo tamen certo percipio me videre,&o it may
be said, Non intelligo immediate ipsam intellectionem, neque
facuUatem, aut substantiam intelligentem. Intelligendo tamen
certo percipio me intelligere, quia actus intellectus in spiritus
sensitivos operans sentitur ; or whether we must further say,
with Ockam, that Intellectus turn intuitivh tum abstractive se
intelligit, I leave to wiser men to judge, but f am very suspicious
that the body is more a lantern to the soul than some will
admit ; and that this Lusus notionum secundarum, or abstractive
352 Baxter's dying thoughts.
knowledge of things by organical images, na;mes, and notions, is
occasioned by the union of the soul with the body ut fonme,
and is that childish knowledge which the apostle saith shall be
done away. And how much of man's fall might consist in such
a knowing of good and evil, I cannot tell, or in the overvaluing
such a knowledge. And I think that when vain philosophy at
Athens had called the thoughts and desires of mankind from
great realities to the logical and philological game at words and
notions, it was Socrates' wisdom to call them to more con-
cerning studies, and Paul's greater wisdom to warn men to take
heed of such vain philosophy, and to labour to know God and
Jesus Christ, and the things of the Spirit, and not to over-value
this ludicrous, dreaming, worldly wisdom. And if I have none
of this kind of notional, childish knowledge when -I am absent
from the body, the glass and spectacles may then be spared,
when 1 come to see with open face, or as face to face. Our
future knowledge is usually, in Scripture, called seeing. " Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." (Matt. v. 8.)
« We shall see face to face." (1 Cor. xiii. 12.) " We shall
see him as he is." (1 John iii. 2.) " Father, 1 will that those
which thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory which thou hast given me," &c. (John
xvii. 24.) An intuitive knowledge of all things, as in them-
selves immediately, is a more excellent sort of knowledge than
this, by similitudes, names, and notions, which our learning now
consisteth in, and is but an art acquired by many acts and use.
Sect. 3. If the sun were, as the heathens thought it, an in-
tellective animal, and its emitted rays were vitally visive, and
when one of those rays were received by prepared seminal
matter (as in insects) it became the soul of an inferior animal,
in this case, the said- ray would operate in that insect, or animal,
but according to the capacity of the recipient matter ; whereas
the sun itself, by all its emitted rays, would see all things intel-
lectually, and with delight, and when that insect were dead,
that rav would be what it was, an intellective, intuitive emana-
tion. And though the soul in flesh do not know itself how it
shall be united to Christ, and to all other holy souls, and to God
himself, nor how near, or just of what sort that union will be,
yet united it will be, and therefore will participate accordingly
of the universal light or understanding to which it is united.
The soul now, as it is, or operateth, in the foot or hand, doth not
understand, but only as it is, and operateth, in the head. And
jjaxter's dying thoughts. 353
yet the same soul which is in the hand, understandeth in the
head, and the soul operateth not so selfishly or dividedly in the
hand as to repine there because it understandeth not there ; but
it is quiet in that it understandeth in the head, and performeth
its due operation in the hand. But this diversity of operations
seemeth to be from the organs, and body's use, or need, but
souls dismissed from the body seem to be as all eye,- or intuitive
light. Therefore, though it might content us to say that our
Head seeth all things, and we are united to him, yet we may say
further, that we ourselves shall see God, and all things that are
meet for us to see.
Sect. 4. And seeing it is most certain that the superior glo-
rious regions are full of blessed spirits, who do see God and one
another, having much more perfect operations than we have,
(>vhose effects we mortals find here below,) why should I, that
find an intellective nature in myself, make any doubt of my more
perfect operations when I am dismissed hence, being satisfied
that a soul will not lose its simple essence ? Either those su-
perior spirits have ethereal bodies to act in (or are such them-
selves) or not. If they are, or have such, why should 1 doubt
of the like, and think that my substance or vehicle will not be
according to the region of my abode ? If not, why should I
think that my departed soul may not know or see without an
igneous or ethereal body or vehicle, as well as all those worlds
of spirits. And the certainty of apparitions, possessions, and
witches, do tell us, not only that there are such inhabitants of
other regions, ordinarily invisible to us, but also that we are in
the way to that happiness or misery which is in our invisible state.
Sect. 5. These things reviewed, (being partly mentioned
before,) assuring me that I shall have actual intellection in my
separated state, the region, with the objects, but, above all, the
holy Scriptures, will tell me as much as it is meet that I should
here know, what it is that I shall intuitively understand. The
apostle (I Cor.xiii. 10 — 12.) doth distinguishourknowingin part,
and knowing perfectly, knowing as a child, and as a man, knowing
darkly and enigmatically, as in a glass, and knowing face to face as
we are known. The great question is, when this time of perfec-
tion is? Whether he mean at dealh, or at the resurrection. If
the observation of Dr. Hanmiond and Mr. Beverly, in his
' Great Soul of Man,' hold, that dvd^aa-i; in Scripture, when
* the flesh or body' is not joined with it, signifies that life which
the soul doth enter upon immediately alter our death, and so
VOL. XVI 11. _ A A
354 Baxter's dying thoughts.
that the soul hath that (after Hving) which is signified by the
very word which we translate resurrection^ then it will lead men
to think that there is less difference between man's state at his
first departure, and at his last resurrection, than most think,
even than Calvin himself thought. But the difference between
our first and last state of after-life or resurrection cannot be
now distinctly known. What difference there is now between
Enoch, Elias, and those who rose at Christ's resurrection, and
the rest of the saints, even the spirits of the perfected just, and
whether the first have as much greater glory than the rest, as
it is conceived that we shall have at the resurrection above that
which immediately foUoweth death, what mortal man can tell ? I
am past doubt that flesh and blood (formally so called, and not
only ab accidente, as sinful) shall not inherit the kingdom of
God, {vid. Hammond in loc.,)' but that our natural bodies shall
be made spiritual bodies : and how a spiritual body differeth
from a spirit or soul, I pretend not well to understand, but must
stay till God, by exjjerience, or fuller light, inform me. But
surely the difference is not like to be so great, as that a soul in
flesh shall know in part, and a soul in a spiritual body shall know
perfectly, and a soul between both shall not know at all. If
it be perfection which we shall have in our spiritual body, it is
like that we are nearer to that perfection, in knowledge and fe-
licity, while we are between both, than when we are in the flesh.
Sect. 6. And sure a soul that (even Solomon saith) goeth
upward, and to God that gave it, is liker to know God than that
which is terminated in flesh, and operateth ut forma, according
to its capacity and state ; and a soul that is with Christ, is liker
to know Christ, and the Father in him, than that which is
present with the body, and absent from the Lord. What less
can the promise of being with him signify ?
Sect. 7. And, 1. As to the kind of knowledge, how excellent
and more satisfactory a way will that of intuition, or intellective
sense, be, than is our present way of abstraction, similitudes, and
signs. What abundance of time, thoughts, and labour, doth it
cost us now to learn our grammar, our rhetoric, and our logic.
Our artes loquendi, dicendi and disserendi; to learn our wordy
rules and axioms, in metaphysics, physics, &c. And when we
have learned them all, (if all can be learned,) how little the nearer
are many to the knowing of the signified realities. \^^e oft get
but a set of words to play with, to take up our time, and divert
us from the matter ', even as carnal men use the creatures which
Baxter's dying thohghts. 355
signify God, and are made to lead them up to him, to entangle
them, and be the greatest and most pernicious diversion of their
souls from God; so do too many learned men do by their or-
ganical, signal knowledge. They use it as men do cards, and
romances, and plays^ to delight their fancies, but they know less
of the things that are worth their knowing, than many unlearned
persons do, as I said before. Had not much of the Athenian
learning been then a mere game, for men to play away their
precious time at, and to grow proud of, while they were ignorant
of saving realities, Christ and his apostles had not so much ne-
glected it as they did, nor Paul so much warned men to take
heed of being deceived by that vain kind of philosophy, in which
he seemeth to me to have greater respect to the universally es-
teemed Athenian arts, than, as Dr. Hammond thought, to the
mere gnostic pretensions.
This poor, dreaming, signal, artificial knowledge is, 1 . Costly.
2. Uncertain. 3. Contentious. 4. Unsatisfactory, in compa-
rison of intuitive knowledge.
1. It is costly, as to the hard labour and precious time
which must be laid out for it, as aforesaid. We grow old in get-
ting us horses, and boots, and spurs, for our journey, and it is
well if we begin it at the last; like a man that would study the
new-found planets, and the shape of Saturn's and Jupiter's
satellites, and the Viam Lacteam, &c.; and he spends his whole
life in getting him the best tubes, or telescopes, and never useth
them to his ends; or like one that, instead of learning to write,
doth spend his life in getting the best ink, paper, and pens ; or
rather like one that learneth to write and print exactly, and not
to understand what any of his words do signify. Men take
their spectacles instead of eyes.
2. And when this learning is got, how uncertain are we
whether the v/ords have no ambiguity; whether they give us
the true notice of the speaker's mind, and of the matter spoken
of. As 1 said before, what penury, and yet redundancy of
words have we: of how various and uncertain signification;
changed by custom, or arbitrary design; sometimes by the vulgar
use, and sometimes by learned men that, being conscious of the
defectiveness of the speaking art, are still tampering, and at-
tempting to amend it. And some men speak obscurely on pur-
pose, to raise in their readers a conceit of their subtle and sub-
lime conceptions. And he that understandeth things most
clearly, and speaketh them most plainly, (which are the parts of
A A 2
356 Baxter's dying thoughts.
true learning,) shall have much ado to get the matter out of
dark and bewilderhig uncertainties, and to make others under-
stand both it and him.
3. And hence come the greatest part of the contentions of
the world, which are hottest among men that most pretend to
wordy knowledge; as in traffic and converse, the more men and
business we have to do with, usually the more quarrels and dif-
ferences we have; so the more of this wordy learning, instead
of realities, men pretend to, the more disputes and controver-
sies they make; and the instruments of knowledge prove the
instruments of error and contention. And, alas ! how many
applauded volumes are the snares and troublers of the world !
and how great a part of our libraries are vain j anglings, and
strife of words, and traps for the more ingenious sort, that will
not be taken with cards and dice, robbing us of our time, de-
stroying dur love, depressing our minds, that should ascend to
God, and diverting them from the great and holy things which
should be the matter of our thoughts and joys; and filling the
church with sects and strife, while every one striveth for the
pre-eminence of his wit and notions, and few strive for holy
love, and unity, and good works.
4. And all this while, alas ! too many learned men do but
lick the outside of the glass, and leave the wine within untasted.
To know God, and Christ, and heaven, and holiness, do give the
soul a nourishing and strengthening kind of pleasure, like that
of the appetite in its food; but this game at words is but a
knowing of images, signs, and shadows, and so is but an image
and shadow of true knowledge. Jt is not that grace which
Austin's definition saith. Nemo male utitur ; but it is that which
the sanctified use well, and the unsanctified are puffed up by,
and use to the opposition of truth, the ostentation of a foolisli
wit, and the deceit of their own souls. And if it be sanctified
knowledge, it is but mediate, in order to our knowledge of
things thus signified; and it is the real good which contenteth
and beatifieth, though the notions may be a subordinate recre-
ation J and intuition feasteth on these realities.
Sect. 9. II. And as to the objects of this intuition, their ex-
cellency will be the excellency of our knowledge. I. I shall
know God l)etter. II. I shall know the universe better. III. I
shall know Christ better. IV. I shall know the church, his
body, better, with the holy angels. V. I shall better know the
methods and perfection of the Scripture, and all God's dirigent
Baxter's dying thoughts. 357
word and will. VI. I shall know the methods and sense of
disposing providence better. VII. I shall know the divine be-
nefits, which are the fruits of love, better. VIII. I shall know
myself better. IX. I shall better know every fellow-creature,
which I am concerned to know. X. And I shall better know
all that evil, sin, -Satan, and misery, from which I am de-
livered.
Sect. 10. I. Aquinas, and many others, took it for the chief^ '
natural proof of the soul's immortality, that man, by nature,
desireth not only to know effects, and second causes, but to
rise up to the knowledge of the first cause ; and, therefore, was
made for such knowledge in the state of his perfection; but
grace hath much more of this desire than nature. Not that
we must not be content to be without a great deal of knowledge,
which would be unmeet for us, useless, troublesome, or danger-
ous to us ; nor must we aspire to that which is above our capa-
city, and to know the unsearchable things of God ; but not to
know God, is to know nothing, and to have an understanding
worse than none. I presume not to pry into the secrets of the
Almighty, nor to pretend to know more of God than, indeed, I
do ; but, O that I might know more of his glorious perfections,
of his will, and love, and ways, with that knowledge which is
eternal life I Blessed be that love that sent the Son of God
from heaven, to reveal him to us in the gospel, as he hath done 5
but all that hear the same words, and believe them, have not the
same degree of light or faith. If an angel from heaven came
down on earth to tell us all of God that we would know, and
might lawfully desire and ask him, who would not turn his back
on libraries, and universities, and learned men, to go and dis-
course with such a messenger? What travel should I think
too far, what cost too great, for one hour's talk with such a
messenger ? But we must have here but such intimations as
will exercise faith, and excite desire, and try us under the
temptations of the world and flesh. The glorious light is the
reward of the victory obtained by the conduct of the light of
grace. God, in great mercy, even here beginneth the reward.
They that are true to the initial light, and faithfully follow on to
know the Lord, do find, usually, such increase of light (not of
vain notions, but of quickening and comforting knowledge of
God) as greatly encourageth them still on to seek for more.
It is very pleasant here to increase in holy knowledge, though
it usually bring an increase of malignant opposition, and so cf
358 Baxter's dying thoughts.
sorrows to the flesh. The pleasure that the mind hath in
common knowledge, brings men through a great deal of labour
to attain it. How many years' travel over land and sea do
some men take, to see and know more of this lower world ;
though it is little that they bring home, but more acquaintance
with sin, and vanity, and vexation. How many more years do
thousands spend in the reading multitudes of tedious volumes,
that they may know what others knew before them. Printers
and booksellers live by our desire of knowledge. What soul,
then, on earth can possibly conceive how great a pleasure it
will be for a glorified soul to see the Lord ? Though I cannot
now conceive what that intuition of God himself will be, and
whether it will not be a glorious kind of concluding or ab-
stractive knowledge ; whether the glory which we shall see
be only a created appearance of God, or be his very essence, it
satisfieth me that it will be as perfect a knowledge as is fit for
me to desire; and I shall then desire no more than is fit: and
what it is I shall then know by itself, for it is not otherwise to
be clearly known. And all the pleasure that I shall have in
heaven, in knowing any of the works of God, will be in my be-
holding God himself, his being, his vital power and action, his
wisdom, and his love and goodness, in those works ; for he is
the life and glory of them all. " Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God/'
II. And, doubtless, it will be no small part of my delight to
see and know God's perfect works, I mean the universe itself.
I cannot say that I shall have so large a capacity as to compre-
hend all the world, or know it perfectly, and with an adequate
knowledge ; but I shall know it in such perfection as is suitable
to my capacity. It is exceeding pleasant to know the least
particles of the works of God. With what diligence and de-
light have men endeavoured to anatomise a body, yea, a small
part of a carcass, and to know and describe poor worms and
insects, plants and minerals ; and no man ever yet perfectly
knew the least of them all. No herbalist or physician ever yet
knew the nature and uses of any one herb with an adequate
knowledge. With what delight and diligence are physical
searches carried on in the world, though still we are all but
groping in the dark, and ignorant of many things for one that
we know, and, therefore, know no one perfectly, because we are
ignorant of the rest. But if, indeed, we were above our dream-
ing, erroneous hypothesis, and saw the nature of everv creature,
Baxter's J)Ying thoughts. 359
even in sea and land — this little spot of God's creation, and the
compages of all, oh ! what a delightful spectacle would it be !
How much more to see the whole creation, yea, or one vortex
or system of the globes, and to know their union and communion,
and to behold their beauteous symmetry, and hear them, in con-
cord and melodious harmony, praising the glory of their great,
wise, amiable Creator. This were a delectable sight indeed. 1
shall have as much of this as 1 shall be capable of; and the
wonders and glories of the works of God shall wrap up my soul in
admiring, joyful praise for ever : and though here it be but little
of God's works that we know, I have great reason to think that
it will be far otherwise there. 1. Because the state of perfec-
tion must far excel our dark and infant state of imperfection.
We have now desires after such a knowledge. His works are
great, sought out of them that have pleasure therein : and these
desires, being of God, shall not be frustrate. 2. Because there
will be a proportionableness of the parts of our perfection ; and
therefore, as our love to God and his works will be there per-
fected, so will be our knowledge. 3. Because we shall know
God himself as much as we are capable, and therefore we shall
know his works in him, or by a subordinate knowledge, the
less being in the greater. 4. Because God hath made his
works to be known to his glory : but it is little that is here
known of them by mortals ; therefore they are known by them
in heaven, who are fitted to improve that knowledge to his
praise.
If Christ, who is the wisdom of God, will teach me the true
philosophy, how to love God, and live here in all well-pleasing
unto him, I shall quickly, in heaven, be a perfect philosopher j
and experience will tell me that the surest way to be truly
learned, and know the wonderful works of God, was to know,
love, and serve the great Creator; and in him we shall have all,
and without him we know nothing, and have nothing at all.
Satan tempted Christ, by showing him the " kingdoms and
glory of the world," and promising them all to him if he would
have worshipped him : but God will show me more than Satan
could show, and give me more of that which is best, than Satan
could give.
III. And that in heaven I shall better know Jesus Christ, and
all the mystery of our redemption by him, will not be the least
of my felicity; for in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom :
and to know the mystery of his eternal godhead, in the second
360 Baxter's dying thoughts.
j)erson5 and his created nature, and the union of these, and to
see God's wonderful design and work of grace in him laid open
to our clearest view, O what heatifying knowledge would this he !
All dark texts concerning his person, his office, and his works,
will then he expounded and fully understood. All those strange
and difficult things which were the great exercise and honour of
faith, will then he plain. Difficulties will no more be Satan's
advantage to tempt us to unbelief, or doubting. The sight of
the glory of my Lord will be my glory. (John xvii. 24.) If
Paul had not then attained to perfection in the knowledge of
Christ, and the power of his resurrection, but was pressing for-
ward to reach that crown in the life to come, which he calleth
"the resurrection of the dead,"' (Phil. iii. 9 — 12,) such as I
must not expect here to attain it ; but when that which Is per-
fect is come, this imperfect knowledge of faith will be done
avva\^, as childish knowledge is in manhood: and the glass and
riddle shall be laid aside, when we " shall see face to face, and shall
know as we are known,'^ (1 Cor. xiii. 10 — 12,) as to our sight
and knowledge of Christ and his triumphant body: for I dare
not apply that phrase to the sight and knowledge of the divine
essence, nor yet deny it.
If now, though we see not Christ, yet, believing, we love him,
and rejoice in him with unspeakable, glorying joy. What love
and joy will the everlasting sight of our blessed Head excite
there in the souls of all the glorified !
IV. I shall better, oh ! much better, know the heavenly
Jerusalem, the triumphant church, the blessed angels, and glo-
rified saints ; and as my love to them, so my knowledge of
them, will not be the least part of my heavenly delight. As
strangely as I now look upward to that world, because I cannot
see it with these eyes, it shall be my well-known everlasting
habitation. Oh ! what a sight, what a joyful sight, will death
show me by drawing aside the veil, or rather the Lord of Life,
by turning death to my advantage ! When I am there at home,
I shall no more think with confusion, fear, or doubting, of that
blessed place or state. My fears, which now come from the
smallness of my faith, will end when faith is turned into vision.
As I know the several rooms in my house, and houses in the
street, and streets- in the city, so shall I then know the many
mansions which Christ hath said are in his Father's house.
AVords now give me so poor, imperfect a conception of the-
world and things which I never saw, as that sometimes I can.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 361
scarcely tell whether the joy of my faith, or the trouble of my
dark apprehensions, be the greater. But when I shall see the
place and persons, the glory which I heard of, that will be the
delightful satisfying and possessing kind of knowledge. If Nehe-
miah, and the godly Jews, made so great a matter of seeing
the walls of Jerusalem repaired^ and others, of the imperfect
re-edifying of the temple, O what a joyful sight to me will the
heavenly Jerusalem then be I The most glorious sight will be
at the great marriage-day of the Lamb, when Christ shall come
to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that now
believe : but the next to that will be the day of my particular
deliverance, when I shall come to Christ, and see the saints ad-
miring him in glory.
If I were of the opinion of those Greek fathers, who thought
that stars were angels, or had intellectual souls, (matters un-
known to us,) I should love them as my guardians, and take
it to be yet more of my concernment to be advanced to
the fuller knowledge of them. But seeing I know that
angels love us, and by office do attend and keep us, and re-
joice at our good, and at our repentance, and, which is far
more, are more holy and excellent creatures than we are,
it is, therefore, my comfort to think that 1 shall better know
them, and live in near and perpetual acquaintance and commu-
nion with them, a more sensible and sweet communion than we
can have with them here. Devils are aerial, and near to this
dark and sinful world, and oftener appear to men than angels.
But the angels affect not such descending appearances, till love
and obedience to their Lord make it pleasing to them : and
therefore we have but little knowledge, even of those that know,
and love, and keep us. But when we come bome to their near-
est society and converse, to know them will be sweet and joyful
knowledge: for they are more excellent creatures than the
most glorious that are below the intellective nature. They are
full of light,-and full of love to God and man. Had God bid
me pray to them, I would not have refused it, but taken it for
my honour; but seeing he hath not, I will do that which he
hath bid me, even love them, and rejoice in my relation to the
innumerable company of them, in the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, (Heb. xii. 22,) and long to know and
love them more ; expecting, ere long, to bear my part in the
praises of God and of the Lamb, in the same choir where they
are the precentors.
362 Baxter's dying tuoughxs.
And that 1 shall know the spirits of the jDcrfected just, and
be of their communion, will be no small addition to my joy.
How sweet hath one wise and holy, though weak and blemished,
companion been to me here on earth ! And how lovely have
God's graces in such, though sullied, appeared to me. Oh ! then,
what a sight wilUt be when we shall seethe millions of souls that
shine in perfect wisdom and holiness with Christ. To see a gar-
den that hath some beautiful flowers in it, is something : but if
you saw whole fields and countries shining with them, it would
be a glory, though fading, to the earth. A well-built city is a
pleasanter sight than a single house, and a navy than a ship,
and an army than one man. And if this poor, low world did
all consist of wise, and just, and holy persons, O what an or-
derly, lovely world would it be ! If one kingdom consisted
(prince, magistrates, pastors, and people) all of such, what a
blessed kingdom would that be. The plague of wicked men's
deceits, and falsehoods, oppressions, and iniquities, may help to
make us sensible of this. It would be a great temptation to us
to be loth to die, and leave such a country, were it not that the
more the beauty of goodness appeareth, the more the state of
perfection is desired. It is pleasant to me to pray in hope, as
Christ hath commanded me, that earth may be made liker unto
heaven, which now is become so like to hell. But when I shall see
the society perfected in number, in holiness, in glory, in hea-
venly employment, the joyful praises of Jehovah, the glory of
God, and the Lamb shining on them, and God. rejoicing over
them as his delight, and myself partaking of the same, that
will be the truly blessed day. And why doth my soul, impri-
soned in flesh, no more desire it ?
V. I shall better understand all the word of God, the mat-
ter, and the method of it: though I shall not have that use for
it as I have now in this life of faith, yet 1 shall see more of
God's wisdom and his goodness, his love, mercy, and justice,
appearing in it, than ever man on earth could do ! As the
creatures, so the Scriptures, are perfectly known only by per-
fect spirits. 1 shall then know how to solve all doubts, and re-
concile all seeming contradictions, and to expound the hardest
prophecies : that liglit will show me the admirable methods of
those sacred words, where dark minds now suspect confusion!
How evident and clear then will every thing appear to me ?
Like a small print when the light comes in, which 1 could not
lead in the glimmering twilight. How easily shall 1 then con-
lUXTEll's DYING THOUGHTS. 363
fute the cavils of all our present unbelievers ! and how joy-
fully shall I praise that God and Saviour that gave his church
so clear a light to guide them through this darksome world, and
so sure a promise to support them till they came to life eternal !
How joyfully shall 1 bless him that by that immortal seed did
regenerate me to the hopes of glory, and that ruled me by so
holy and just a law !
VI. In that world of light I shall better understand God's,
present and past works of providence, by which he ordereth the
matters of this world : the wisdom and goodness of them is lit-
tle understood in little parcels ; it is the.union and harmony of
all the parts which showeth the beauty of them, when the single
parcels seem deformed, or are not understood. And no one
can see the whole together but God, and they that see it in the
light of his celestial glory: it is a prospect of that end, by
which we have here any true understanding of such parcels as
we see. Then I shall know clearly why, or to what use, God
prospered the wicked, and tried the righteous by so many afflic-
tions: I shall know why he set up the ungodly, and put the
humble under their feet ; why he permitted so much ignorance,
ungodliness, pride, lust, oppression, persecution, falsehood, de-
ceit, and other sins in the world : I shall know why the faithful
are so few; and why so many kingdoms of the world are left in
heathenism, Mahometanism, and infidelity. The strange per-
missions which now so puzzle me, and are the matter of my
astonishment, shall all be then as clear as day : I shall know
why God disposed of me as he did through all my life ; and
why I suffered what 1 did ; and how many great deliverances I
had, which 1 understood not here, and how they were a?ccom-
plished. All our misinterpretations of God's works and per-
missions will be then rectified : and all our controversies about
them, which Satan hath made so great advantage of, (by a pre-
tended zeal for some truths of God,) will then be reconciled, and
at an end : and all the works of Divine Providence, from the be*
ginning of the world, will then appear a most delectable, beau-
teous frame.
Vlf. And among all these works, I shall specially know more
the nature and excellency of God's mercies and gifts of love,
which here we too unthankfully undervalued and made light of.
The special works of love should be the matter of our most con-
stant, sweet, and serious thoughts, and the fuel of our constant
love and gratitude : the lively sense of love and mercy maketh
364 Baxter's dying thoughts
lively Christians, abounding in love to God, and mercy to
others : but the enemy of God and man most laboureth to ob-
scure, diminish, and disgrace God's love and mercies to us, or
to make us disrelish them, that they may be unfruitful, as to
their excellent ends and uses. Little do most Christians know
how much they wrong God and themselves, and how much they
lose by the diminutive, poor thoughts which they have of God's
mercies : , ingratitude is a grievous misery to the sinner, as gra-
titude is a very pleasant work. Many a thousand mercies we
now receive, which we greatly undervalue. But wh«n I come
to the state and work of perfect gratitude, I shall have a more
perfect knowledge of all the mercies which ever I received in my
life, and which my neighbours, and friends, and God's church,
and the world, did ever receive : for though the thing be past,
the use of it is not past. Mercies remembered must be the mat-
ter of our everlasting thanks : and we cannot be perfectly
thankful for them, without a perfect knowledge of them : the
worth of a Christ, and all his grace, the worth of the gospel, the
worth of our church privileges, and all God's ordinances, the
worth of our books and friends, and helps of our life and health,
and all conveniences, will be better understood in heaven than
the most holy and thankful Christian here understandeth them.
VIII. And it will be some addition to my future happiness,
that I shall then be much better acquainted with myself; both
with my nature, and with my sin and grace. I shall then bet-
ter know the nature of a soul, and its formal faculties (three in
one) : I shall know the nature and way of its operations, and
how far its acts are simple, or compound, or organical. I shall
know how far memory, fancy, and sense, internal and external,
belong to the rational soul, and whether the sensitive and ra-
tional are two or one ', and what senses will perish, and what
not. I shall know how the soul doth act upon itself, and what
acts it hath that are not felt in sleep, in apoplexies, and in the
womb. I shall know whether tlie vegetative nature be any thing
else than fire ; and whether it be of the same essence with the
soul (sensitive or rational) ; and whether fire emine7iter be a
common fundamental substance of all spirits, diversely specified
by the forms, (mental, sensitive, and vegetative,) or whether it
be as a body or vehicle to spirits, or rather a nature made for
the copulation of spirits and bodies, and the operation of the
former on the latter, as between both : and whether fire (and
of what sort) be the active /on?ia telhms, and of other globes:
BAXTER^S DYING THOUGHTS. 365
I shall know how far souls are one, and yet many, and how they
are individuate ; and whether their g'waw^e^as discreta, m hemg
numerically many, do prove that they have any quantitatem
continuam, and whether they are a purer sort of bodies, as the
Greek fathers, Tertullian, and others, thought, and what imma-
teriality signifieth ; and what substantiality of spirits ; and how
substantia and materia differ ; and how far they a/e penetra-
ble and indivisible; and whether a soul be properly ^«r* ; and
whether individual souls are parts of any common soul ; and
how far the individuation doth continue ; and whether, sepa-
rated from the body, they operate in and by any other vehicle,
or without, and how 3 and whether they take with them any of
the fiery nature, as a vehicle, or as a constitutive part. I shall
know how God produceth souls; and how his production by
emanation or creation does consist with generation ; and how
forms are multiplied ; and what causality the parent's soul hath
to the production of the child's ; whether by communication of
substance, or only by disposing the recipient matter. 1 shall
know whether all souls came from Adam's own substantiality ;
and whether there be more substance in all than in that one ;
and whether one substance cause more by generation ; or whe-
ther it be so as to tlie souls of brutes ; or whether any anima
communis inform many organical bodies of the brutes, as the
sun lighteth many candles which are individuate by matter to
which (as parts of one) they variously are contracted, and on
which they operate 5 and whether they were individuate in pre-
existencc, or shall be individuate after separation : I shall know
how far the semen in generation is animated ; and how the
animated semina of two make one ; and if animated, what be-
comes of the anima seminis 2^^'diti, and of an abortive ; and
whether the body be animated as vegetative or sensitive before
the entrance of the rational soul ; or rather the same soul which
in its faculty is rational, being one with the sensitive and vege-
tative, be the constitutive form of the first animated body, and
the fabricator of its own domicilium. I shall know how far the
soul is receptive, and what the causa finalis doth to it ; and
what each object is to the constitution or production of the act ;
yea, and what an act is, and what a habit ; and how a soul, act-
ing or habited) differeth from itself not acting or habited ; and
how its acts are many, and yet but one ; or its faculties at least.
Many other such difficulties will all be solved, which now philo-
366 Baxter's dying thoughts.
sophers contend about in the dark, and pass but under doubtful
conjectures ; or, at least, are known to very few.
And I shall know how God's Spirit operjiteth on souls 5 and
how it is sent from Christ's human nature to work on man ;
and whether grace be properly, or only metaphorically, called a
nature (a new nature, a divine nature) in us. I shall know what
free-will is, and how man's will can be the first determiner of
any act of its own in specie morali (good or evil) without being
such a causa prima, as none but God can be : and so how far
free acts are necessitated or not. I shall know what power the
intellect hath on the will, and the will on the intellect ; and
what power the sense and fancy hath on either ; and what
any iniellectus agens doth ; whether it be to our intellection as
the sun is to our sight. I shall know what is meant by the de-
grees of acts and habits in the soul ; and whether there be di-
vers degrees of substantiality, or of the virtus vel facultas for-
malts of several souls : I shall know better the difference of
■habits called acquired and infused ; and what common grace
is, and what it doth ; and what nature can do of itself, or by
common grace, without that which is proper to the justified ;
and how far any degrees of grace are lost.
I shall know what measure of grace 1 had myself; and how
far I was mistaken in myself 3 and what acts were sincere ; and
how much that was not sound was mixed ; and what was of
myself and sin.
I shall know much more of my sins than here I ever knew,
the number and the greatness of them ; that so I may know, with
greatest thankfulness and love, how much 1 am beholden to
pardoning and healing grace.
Yea, 1 shall know more of my body, as it was the habitation
of my soul, or the organical matter on which unitedly it worked*
I shall know how far it helped or hindered me; and what were
all those obscure diseases that puzzled all the physicians, and
myself; and how marvellously God sustained, preserved, and
oft delivered me ; and what of my actions was to be imputed
to the body, and what of them to the soul.
IX. And every fellow-creature, which I am concerned to
know, I shall know far better than now I do, both things and
persons : the good and bad, the sincere and the hypocrites, will
be there discerned : and many an action that here went for ho-
nourable, covered or coloured with wit or worldly advantages.
BAXTER S IJYING THOUGHTS. 367
or false pretences, will then be found to be odious and unjust :
and wickedness will be flattered or extenuated no more : and
many a good and holy work which false men, through wicked-
ness and worldly interest, reproached as some odious crime,
will there be justified, honoured, and rewarded. All sciences are
there perfect, without our ambiguous terms, or imperfect axioms,
and rules of art.
X. And, lastly, I shall better know from what enemies, what
sins, what dangers, I was here delivered : what contrivances and
malicious endeavours of Satan and his instruments God defeat-
ed ; how many snares I escaped : and 1 shall better know how
great my deliverance is by Christ from the wrath to come.
Though we shall not know hell by painful sense, we shall know
it so far as is necessary to fill us with gratitude to our Redeem-
er : yea, we shall know much of it far better than the damned
spirits that feel it. For we shall know, by sweet and full fruition,
what the joy and blessedness is which they have lost 3 when
they have no such kind of knowledge of it.
All this knowledge will be thus advanced to my glorified soul
beyond what I can here conceive in flesh : and is it not then
far better to be with Christ ?
IV. The constitutive reasons from the state of my will.
Sect. 1. But it is the will that is to the soul what the heart
is to the body: as it is the prime seat of morality, so is it the
chief seat of felicity. My greatest evil is there ; and my great-
est subjective good will be there. Satan did most against it,
and God will do most for it. And will it not be better to be
with Christ than here ?
1.' It will not there be tied to a body of cross interests and
inclinations, which is now the greatest snare and enemy to my
soul ; which is still drawing my love, and care, and fears, and
sorrows, to and for itself, and turning them from my highest
interest. How great a deliverance will it be to be freed from
the temptations, and the inordinate love, and cares, and fears
for this corruptible flesh 1
2. My will shall not there be tempted by a world of inferior
good, which is the bait and provision for the flesh, where meat,
and sleep, and possessions, house, lands, and friends, are all
become my snares and danger. God's mercies will not be made
there the tempter's instruments. I shall not there have the flat-
teries or frowns, promises or threatenings, of the tyrants of the
368 Baxter's dying thoughts.
world, to tempt nje : bad company will not infect me, nor di-
vert me : the errors of good men will not seduce me ; nor repu-
tation or reverence of the wise, learned, or religious, draw me
to imitate them in any sin.
3. I shall there have none of Satan's solicitations, to pervert
my will : he will not have that advantage by my sense and
fancy, nor that access unto me, as now he hath. But of this
I spake before.
Sect. 2. My will shall there be better than here, I. Negatively,
because, 1. There will be nothing in it that is displeasing to
God : no sinful inclination, habit, or act : nothing to strive
against God's Spirit ; nor grudge at any word or work of God :
no principles of enmity or rebellion left. 2. There will be no-
thing that is against the good of others : no inclinations to in-
jury, or any thing that is against my neighbour's or the com-
mon good. 3. There will be nothing in it that is cross to it-
self; no more war or striving in me; not a law in my mind,
and a law in my members, that are contrary to each other : no
crossness between sense and reason, nor between the sensi-
tive appetite and the rational : all will be at unity and peace
within.
Sect. 3. II. Positively, Christ will have finished his cure on
my will. The work of sanctification will be perfect, and, I. My
will shall there, byunion and communion, be- made comformable
to the will of Christ, and so unto the Father's will. This must
needs be meant (whatever more) in the prayer of Christ, where
he prayeth, " That they may be one, as thou. Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they may be one in us, that they may be
one, even as we are one." (John xvii. 21, 22.) The will of
Christ, and of the Father, will be my will, that is, I shall love
and will (dispositively and actually) the same that God loveth
and willeth (in the measure of a creature, infinitely below him).
And if so, 1. How can the will of man have greater honour,
than to be the same with the will of God ? Assimilation to a
king, among us poor mortals, goeth for honour ; assimilation to
angels is much more. That we shall be like, or equal to, angels,
is a high part of the blessed's praise ; but how much more is it,
to be thus far like to God. Indeed, God's image, and the di-
vine in us here, can be no less than this similitude to God's will
in the degree that we have it. But, alas ! that degree is so
very low, as that we can hardly tell whether our similitude or
dissimilitude be the more; I mean, whether our wills are i'ov
BAXTEll's DYING THOUGHTS. 369
more, that God willeth, or against more. Oh, how many thou-
sand wishes and desires have we had, which are against the will
of God ! But there we shall have the full impression of God's
will, upon our wills, as face answereth face in a glass, or as the
wax answereth the seal ; as the finger on the outside answereth
to the motion of the clock within, so, in all things which belong
to our duty and perfection, we shall answer the will of God.
As the echo answereth the voice, defectively, but truly, without
contradiction or discord, so will our wills be as the echo of
God's will.
2. And then I am sure that there will be nothing in my
will but good ; for God willeth no evil.
3. And this will be virtually all obedience ; for all sin is vo-
luntary, and all mortal good is primarily in the will.
4. And then there can be no matter of disquiet in me, but
all will be in perfect peace; for all that is like God will be
pleasing, both to God and me; no troubling crossness will
remain.
5. And how easy and sweet then will all my obedience be,
when I shall perfectly will it, without any reluctancy or averse-
ness ? All will be my very pleasure that I do.
Sect. 4. II. And seeing my will shall be the same with the
will of God, it followeth that it shall never be frustrate, but I
shall have all whatsoever I would have, and shall be and do
whatsoever I would be and do. For I shall desire nothing but
what God willeth, and God's will shall certainly be done. 1 shall
have as much love and joy as I would have ; 1 shall be as happy
as I would be ; I shall desire nothing for others but it shall
be done. Indeed, if God's will were there unknown to me, I
might ignorantly go against it, as 1 do here ; but there, before
I will or desire any thing, I shall know whether it be God's will
or not, so thai I shall never wish any thing which shall not be
accomplished. And as it is God's perfection to have his will
always done, (though all his laws be not obeyed,) so my perfec-
tion shall consist in this likeness unto God, that my will shall be
still fulfilled. And then Christ's promises will be perfectly per-
formed, " Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name, he will
give it you. Ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done
unto you." (John xv. IG, and xvi. 23, and xiv. 13, 14, and
XV. 7.) While their will was the same with the will of Christ:
but he saith not that it shall all be given us here. VVe ask for
perfection, and we shall have it, but not here.
B T»
370 Baxter's dying thoughts.
Sect. 5. III. Yea, my will itself shall be my fruition, for it
shall not be the will of one in need; a desire of what I want,
for I shall want nothing; therefore, it is said that we shall
thirst no more : but it will be a complacency in what I do pos-
sess, and in this also my perfection will be the image of God's
perfection : not but that all creatures still receive from God,
and in that sense may be said to need, in that they have nothing
of themselves, but all by gift and communication from him; but
being still and full possessors, they cannot properly be said to
want. Complacency in that which we possess is love and
pleasure in one act; and, indeed, pleasure and love are the same
thing. To love any thing, is to have that thing to be pleasing
to my mind. Even when it is wanted, it is thought on as a
pleasing thing, and therefore desired, so that the desiring act
of the will is but a second act occasioned by want, and follow-
ing the first act, which is complacency, or simple love. I desire
it because I love it. Rightly, therefore, is the will itself called
love, for in the first act, love, will, and rational appetite, are
all words of the same signification. My will, therefore, must
needs be perpetually full of perfect joy, when enjoying love and
pleasure will be my w\\\ itself. Thus shall 1 have in me the
spring of living waters, and the comforter will then perfectly do
his work, when my constant will itself shall be comfort. Well,
therefore, is glory said to be the perfection of sanctifying grace,
when this grace is the beginning of that love and joy which
glory is the perfection of; and perfection is the Spirit's work.
Sect. 6. IV. And it will be much of my felicity that my will
shall be confirmed and fixed in this conformity to the will of
God, and holy love will be its nature. Now both understanding
and will are so lamentably mutable, that further than God pro-
miseth to uphold us, we know not one day what we shall think,
judge, or will the next. But when love is as a fixed nature in
us, we shall be still the same, adhering to amiable goodness,
without intermission or cessation. It will be as easy to us (and
more) to love God and holiness, as it is to the hungry and
thirsty to love meat and drink, or to the proud to love praise or
domination, yea, or to any man to love his life. And we shall
be no more weary of loving, than the sun is of shining, or than
the hungry is of feasting, or a friend of friendly love and
converse. Nfiy, the comparison is quite too low, for all creatures
here have a fading vanity which wearieth the satiated or failing
appetite, but there is no such thing in heaven.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 371
Sect. 7. !!• And as from the nature of that act, so much more
from the nature of the ohject, my love will appear to be my
happiness. The objects (which are the matter of the act) will
be these : —
1. God himself will be the full and everlasting object of my
love. And he that could but understand as well as those in
heaven do, what this word signifieth, ' to love God, and be be-
loved of him,* would say, that there needs no other description
of perfect happiness : perfect, joyful complacency in God is the
heaven which I desire and hope for. This is my felicity, and
much more. As I am the agent of love to God, and the object
of God's love to me, it is my felicity. As God is the ultimate
object of my love, and the agent of his love to me, (that is, of
the effects of it,) so it is unspeakably more high and excellent
than to be my felicity. Love is the closure of the wills of God
and man, and as it is God's part or interest, (efficiently or ob-
jectively) it is infinitely more excellent than as it is my part and
interest.
Sect. 8. In God there is all that love can desire for its full,
everlasting feast. 1. He is infinitely good in himself, that is,
most amiable: and the nature of man's will is to love good as
good. Could we love God with a love that is adequate to the
object, we should be God ourselves, which is impossible, none
but God can adequately know God or love him. In God's love
to himself, both the act and object are infinite, and, indeed, are
both one, there being not that formally which we know by the
name of act and object ; but ^ act and object' are our analogical,
inadequate conceptions of that act of God which is his essence.
But in our love to God the act is finite, and infinitely below the
object; yea, the object, which in reality is itself infinite, yet
proximately as the esse cognitwn is the object of our love, is
finite there. It is the conception or idea of God in the intellect,
which is the proper and nearest object of the will, and this is as
a face in a glass, a shadow, even the finite little shadow of an
infinite Being. The same infinite good is a felicity to divers
persons in divers degrees, according as they diversely love him,
and are receptive of his love.
Sect. 9. 2. God, who is infinitely good in himself, will be that
most suitable good to me, and meetest for the dearest embrace-
ments of my will. For, 1. He hath all in himself that I need or
can desire. There is no room, nothing above him, or beyond
him, or without him, for love to cleave to. Though below him
B B 2
372 Baxter's dying thoughts.
the creature, though not being without him, is loved without
him, by the deception of the mind.
Sect. 10. 2. He is willing to be loved by me. He disdaineth
not my love. He might have refused to be embraced by such
affections as have so oft and sinfully polluted themselves by
embracing vanity and filth. As persons of state, and stately
cleanliness, will not be touched by filthy hands, much less let
dogs or dirty swine leap on them which come from wallowing
in the mire. God might have driven me away from the happi-
ness of loving him, and have denied me the leave for so high a
work, but he commandeth my love, and maketh it my greatest
duty. He inviteth and entreateth me, as if he were a gainer by
my happiness. He seeketh to me to seek to him, and as he is
the first, so is he the most earnest suitor. He is far readier to
receive my love than I am to give it him. All the compas-
sionate invitations which I have had from him here, by his word
and mercies, assure me that he will there receive me readily ;
he that so valued my poor, cold, imperfect love tohim on earth,
will not reject my perfect love in heaven. He that made it the
great work of his Spirit to effect it, will not refuse it when it is
made perfect by himself.
Sect. 11. 3. And he is near to me, and not a distant God out
of my reach, and so unsuitable to my love. Blind unbelievers
may dream that he is far off, but he is as near us, even now, as
we are to ourselves. He is not far from any of us, for in him we
live, and move, and have our being. The light of the sun is not
so near my eyes, as God will be for ever to my mind. When he
would sanctify us to love him, he bringeth us nigh to him in
Christ. As we love ourselves easily as being, as they say, the
nearest to ourselves, so we shall as easily love God as ourselves,
when we see that he is as near us as we are to ourselves, as well
as that he is infinitely more amiable in himself.
Sect. 12. 4. And because of the imparity of the creature and
the Creator, he hath provided such means to demonstrate to us
his nearness, as are necessary to the exercise of our love. We
shall see his glory, and taste his love, in our glorified Mediator,
and in the glory of the church and world. God will condescend
to show himself to us according to our capacities of beholding
him. Here we see him in his works and word, and there we
shall see him in the glory of all his perfect works. But this
leadeth me to the second object of my love.
Sect. 13. U, Under God, as i shall see, so I shall delightfully
Baxter's dying thoughts. 373
love, the glorious perfection of the universe, even the image of
God in all the world ; as my love will be my delight, so I shall
love best that which is best, and most delight in it : and the
whole is better than any part; and there is a peculiar beauty
and excellency in the whole world, as perfect, compaginate,
harmonious, which is not to be found in any part, no, not in
Christ himself, as man, nor in his church.
The marvellous inclination that all things have to union, even
the inanimates, might persuade me, if 1 felt it not certainly in
myself, that it is most credible that man also shall have the
like inclination, and such as is agreeable to the nature of his
faculties ; and therefore our love and delight in all things is
that uniting inclination in man.
Sect. 14. III. And I shall have a special love to the holy so-
ciety, the triumphant, universal church, consisting of Christ,
angels, and saints, as they are specially amiable in the image
and glory of God. God himself loveth them more than his
inferior works ; that is, his essence, which is love, and hath no
degrees or change, doth send forth fuller streams of good upon
them, or maketh them better and happier than the rest. And
my love will imitate the love of God, in my capacity. And if
societies on earth, more holy and wise than others, though im-
perfectly, are very amiable, what then will the heavenly society
be ? Of this I spake before (of knowing them) .
Sect. 15. 1. Think here, O my soul, how sweet a state unto
thee it will be to love the Lord Jesus, thy glorified Head, with
perfect love ! When the glory of God, which shineth in him,
will feast thy love with full and everlasting pleasure, the highest
created perfection of power, wisdom, and goodness, refulgent in
him, will not give leave to thy love to cease, or intermit, or abate
its fervour. When thou shalt see in the glorified church the
precious fruits of Christ's redemption, grace, and love, this also
will feed thy love to him, from whom this heavenly glory conieth.
And when thou shalt feel thyself possessed of perfect happiness,
by his love to thee, will not this also do its part ? Yea, the
remembrance of all his former love, what he did for thee, and
what he did in thee here on earth, how he called thee with an
holy calling ; how he washed thee in his blood from all thy sins ;
how he kindled in thee those desires which tended to that perfect
glory; how he renewed thy nature; how he instructed, and
guided, and preserved thee from thy childhood ; and how many
and how great sins, enemies, dangers, and sufferings, he saved
374 Baxter's dying thoughts.
thee from ; all this will constrain thee everlastingly to love him.
Thus, (though he give the kingdom to the Father, as ceasing
his mediatory, healing, saving work of acquisition,) he will be
to thee the Mediator of fruition. God in him will be accessible,
and condescend to a suitable communion with us. (John xvii.
24.) And as Christ is thy life, radically and efficiently, as he
is the giver of grace and Spirit of love, so he will be objectively
thy life as he is lovely, and it will be formally thy life to love
him, and God in him, for ever.
Sect. 16. 2. Think, also, O my soul, how delectable it will
be to love (as well as to know) those angels that most fervently
love the Lord I They will be lovely to thee as they have loved
thee, and more as they have been lovers and benefactors to the
church and to mankind; but far more as they are so many re-
fulgent stars, which continually move and shine, and burn in
purest love to their Creator, O blessed difference between that
amiable society of holy spirits, and this dark, mad, distracted,
wicked world 1 Here devils tempt me within, and devils incar-
nate persecute me without. Blaspheming of God, reviling god-
liness, deriding the sacred Scriptures, and sacred exercises, ma-
lignant slandering of the servants of God, hating, persecuting,
silencing, and saying all manner of evil falsely of them, for their
righteousness' sake, while such crimes are pretended, as they
once falsely charged on Christ himself. This is the conversation
of those that I have long dwelt with in the world : atheism,
infidehty, papal church tyranny, bloody wars, destroying the
righteous, oppressing the poor, adultery and fornication, stigma-
tising perjury, ambition, violence, covetousness, deceit, sottish
ignorance, wilfulness in sin, hatredof reproof, revengeful malice ;
these, and such like, are the fruits of the soil where I have long
sojourned (though, through the grace of Christ, among the
faithful, there have been better fruits). And is not the company
of holy angels better than this ? With whom God is all j who
are even made up of shining wisdom, and holy love, and benefi-
cent activity; who are the blessed choir that melodiously sing
forth the high praises of their Maker. Among whom God
dwelleth as in his presence-chamber, or his temple, and in whom
he taketh his great delight. With these 1 shall see or hear no
evil. No mixture of fools or wicked ones do pollute or trouble
their society. There will be no false doctrine, no evil example,
no favouring wickedness, no accusing goodness, no hurtful vio-
lence, but holy, powerful; operative love, will be all, and do all.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 375
as their very nature, life, and work. And is it not better to be
a door-keeper there, than to dwell in the palaces of wick-
edness ? And is not a day with them better than a thousand
here ?
Sect. 17. 3. And with the holy angels I shall love holy
souls that are made like unto them, and joined with them in
the same society; and it is likely with them judge, that is, rule
the world. All their ^infirmities are there put off with the flesh ;
they also are spirits made up of holy life, and light, and love.
There is none of their former ignorance, error, imprudence,
selfishness, contentiousness, impatience, or any other troubling,
hurtful thing. When I think with what fervent love to God,
to Jesus Christ, and to one another, they will be perfectly
united there, alas, how sad and how shameful is it, that they
should here be prone to disaffections and divisions, and hardly
agree to call each other the servants of God, or to worship God
in the same assemblies ; but the remnants of dividing principles,
viz,, pride, error, and uncharitableness ; will be all left behind.
Society with imperfect saints is sweet ; the imperfect image of
God upon them is amiable ; but their frailties here are so vexa-
tious, that it is hard to live with some of them in peace. But
perfect love will make them one 3 and oh, how delightful will
that communion of saints be ! I can never forget how sweet
God hath made the course of my pilgrimage, by the fragrancy
and usefulness of his servants' graces ; how sweet have my
bosom friends been, though mutable ! How sweet have the
neighbourhood of the godly been ! How sweet have the holy
assemblies been ; and how many hours of comfort have I there
had ! How profitable have their writings, their conference,
and their prayers been ! What then will it be, to live in the
union of perfect love with perfect saints in heaven for ever, and
with them concordantly to love the God of love ?
Sect. 18. IIL And as the act and the object of love will
constitute my felicity, so will my reception from the love of
God and his creatures, be sweeter to me than my own activity
can be; for it is mutual love that makes it up. 1 shall not be
the fountain of my own delights ; nor can 1 act till I am acted,
nor offer any thing to God, but what 1 have first received from
him. And receive 1 shall abundantly and continually, and from
thence shall overflow to God, and receiving and returning are
now, and will be, the circular, endless motion, and our true
perpetual life and happiness.
376 Baxter's dying thoughts.
Sect. 19. I. All my receivings shall be from God. His love
is not a mere immanent will, nor a wish which toucheth not the
object ; but it is what heat is in, or from, the sun or fire ; it is
an efflux of goodness : it is the most powerful, sweet, commu-
nicating principle, or work. All love is communicative ; but
none in comparison of God's ; as there is none primitively and
simply good but God. How much doth love in the affairs of
men ? All that is pleasant in the world is it, or its effects.
Were it not for sensual love, there would be no generation of
man or brutes ; God hath made it a generating principle.
Hatred causeth not congress, but fighting with, or flying from,
one another. Were it not for natural love, mothers would
never endure the pain, and trouble, and care, which is necessary
to human birth and education ; were it not for love, parents
would never labour all their lives to leave their children well
instructed, and well provided for, when they are gone. My
food would not please me did I not love it, and I should neglect
it to the neglect of my life. Did 1 not love my books, and
learning itself, I should never have bestowed so much of seventy
years in poring on them, and searching for knowledge, as I
have done ; did I not love my house, my conveniences and
necessaries, I should neglect them, and they would be to me of
small use ; did I not love my friends, I should be less profitable
to them, and they to me ; did I not love my life, I should
neglect it, and never have endured the labour and cost about
it as I have done. If a man love not his country, posterity,
and the common good, he will be as a burdensome drone in the
hive, or as pernicious vermin. What is done in the world that
is good, but by love ?
And if created love be so necessary, so active, so communi-
cative, how much more will the infinite love of the Creator be !
His love is now the Hfe of the world ; his love is the life of
nature in the living, the life of holiness in saints, and the life
of glory in the blessed. In this infinite love it is that I, and
all the saints, shall dwell for evermore. And if I dwell in love,
and love in me, surely I shall have its sweet and plenteous com-
munication, and shall ever drink of the rivers of pleasure. It
is pleasant to nature to be i)eloved of others, especially of the
great, and wise, and good ; much more to have all the commu-
nications of love, in converse and gifts, in plenty and conti-
nuance, which maybe still expressing it to our greatest benefit!
Had I a friend now that did for me but the hundredth part of
Baxter's dying thoughts. 377
what God doth, how dearly should I love him I Think then,
think believingly, seriously, constantly, O my soul, what a life
thou shalt live for ever in the presence, the face, the bosom of
infinite, eternal love. He now shineth on me by the sun, and
on my soul by the Son of righteousness ; but it is as through a
lantern, or the crevices of my darksome habitation ; but then
he will shine on me, and in me, openly, and with the fullest
streams and beams of love.
Sect. 20. God is the same God in heaven and earth, but I
shall not be the same man. Here I receive comparatively little,
but live in darkness, doubtful and frequent sorrows, because my
receptivity is less ; the windows of my soul are not open to his
light j sin hath raised clouds, and consequently storms, against
my comforts ; the entrances to my soul by the straits of flesh
and sense are narrow; and they are made narrower by sin than
they were by nature. Alas, how often would love have spoken
comfortably to me, and 1 was not at home to be spoken with,
but was abroad among a world of vanities, or was not at leisure,
or was asleep, and not willing to be awaked ! How oft would
love have come in and dwelt with me, and I have unkindly shut
my doors against him ; how oft would he have been with me
in secret, where he freely would embrace me, but I had some
pleasing company or business which I was loth to leave ; how
oft would he have feasted me, and had made all ready, but
I was taken up and could not come. Nay, when his table hath
been spread before me, Christ, grace^, and glory, have been
offered to me, my appetite hath been gone, or dull, and all hath
been almost neglected by me, and hath scarce seemed pleasant
enough to be accepted, or to call off my mind from luscious
poison. How oft would he have shined upon me, and I have
shut my windows or mine eyes ; he was jealous indeed, and
liked not a partner ; he would have been all to me, if I would
have been all for him. But I divided my heart, my thoughts,
my love, my desires, and my kindnesses ; and, alas, how much
did go besides him, yea against him, to his enemies, even when
I knew that all was lost, and worse than lost, which was not
his. What wonder then, if so foolish and unkind a sinner had
little pleasure in his love; and if so great ingratitude and neglect
of sovereign goodness were punished with such strangeness, and
fears, and faintings, as I have long with groans lamented.
Recipitur ad moclum recipientis.
But in heaven I shall have none of these obstructions ; all old
378 baxier's dying thoughts.
unkindness and ingratitude will be forgiven ; the great Recon-
ciler in whom I am beloved will then have perfected his work ;
I shall then be wholly separated from the vanity which here
deceived me ; my open soul will be prepared to receive the
heavenly influx 5 with open face I shall behold the open face of
glorifying love ; I shall joyfully attend his voice, and delight-
fully relish the celestial provisions. No disease will corrupt my
appetite ; no sluggishness will make me guilty again of my old
neglects ; the love of the Father, by the grace of the Son, and
the communion of the Holy Spirit, will have got the victory
over all my deadness, folly, and disaffection, and my -God-dis-
pleasing and self-undoing averseness and enmity will be gone
for ever. The perfect love, which God doth first effect in me,
will be my everlasting receptivity of the fullest love of God.
Benevolent love will make me good ; that is, a holy lover of
God ; and then pleased love will make me his delight, and
benevolence will still maintain me in my capacity.
Study this heavenly work of love, O my soul ; these are not
dead or barren studies, these are not sad, unpleasant studies, it
is only love that can relish love and understand it ; the will here
hath its gust, so like to an understanding, as make some phi-
losophers say, that voluntas percipit is a proper phrase. What
can poor, carnal worldlings know of glorious love, who study it
without love ? What sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, a
lifeless voice, are they that preach of God, and Christ, and
heavenly glory, without love ; but gazing upon the face of love
in Christ, and tasting of its gifts, and looking up to its glorious
reign, is the way to kindle the sacred fire in thee. Look
upwards, if thou wouldest see the light that must lead thee
upwards. It is not for nothing that Christ hath taught us to
begin our prayers with " Our Father, which art in heaven ; "
it is fatherly love that must win our hearts, and that must
comfort them; and it is in heaven where this is gloriously
manifested. As I said before, as the soul is in all the body,
but yet understandeth not in the hand as it doth in the head,
and rejoiceth not in the foot as it doth in the heart ; so God,
that is everywhere, doth not everywhere glorify his love as he
doth it in heaven. Thither, therefore, the mind and eye are
even by nature taught to look up as to God, as we look a man
in the face when we speak to him, rather than to his feet,
though his soul be also there.
My sinful heart hath needed sorrow. My careless, rash, pre-
Baxter's dying thoughts. 379
sumptuous soul hath needed fears ; and 1 have had some part.of
these. Mercy saw it good for me, as necessary to prevent my
dangerous deceits and lapses : and O that in the hour of sen-
sual temptations I had feared more, and departed from evil. But
it is holy love that must be my life; or else I am dead notwith-
standing fear.
Oh, come, then, and study the life of love. It is more of a
holy nature than of art ; but yet study must do much to pre-
pare thee to receive it. This is the great use of a heavenly
conversation. It is the contemplation, belief, and hope of the
glorious state of love hereafter, that must make us like it, and
kindle it in us here. The burning glass must be turned directly
to the sun, if you will have it set any thing on fire. There is a
carnal or common love to God, which is kindled in men by car-
nal pleasures ; but a holy love, like that in heaven, must be
studiously fetched from heaven, and kindled by the foresight of
what is there, and what we shall be there for ever. Faith must
ascend, and look within the veil. Thou must not live as a
stranger to thy home, to thy God, and Saviour, and thy hopes.
The fire that must warm thee is in heaven, and thou must come
near it, or open thyself to its influence, if thou wilt feel its
powerful efficacy. It is night and winter with carnal minds,
when it is day and summer with those that set their faces
heavenward.
Sect. 21. II. But, though all my receivings will be from
God, they will not be from him alone. We must live in perfect
union also with one another, and with all the heavenly society 5
and therefore as we must love them all, so shall we be beloved
by them all : and this will be a subordinate part of our blessed-
ness. God there will make use of second causes, even in com-
municating his love and glory.
Sect. 22. 1. The Lord Jesus Christ will not only be the
object of our delightful love, but will also love us with an effec-
tual, operative love for ever. His love will be as the vital heat
and motion of the heart to all the members, the root of our
life and joy. The love of our Redeemer will flow out into us
all as the vital spirits, and his face of glory will be the sun of the
heavenly Jerusalem, and will shine upon us, and show us God ;
and in his light we shall have light. Did his tears for a dead
Lazarus make men say, ' Behold how he loved him !' O, then,
what will the reviving beams of heavenly life make us say of that
love which filleth us with the pleasures of his presence, and
380 Baxter's dying thoughts.
turneth our souls into joy itself. He comforteth us now by the
teaching of his word ; but, surely, the fruition of salvation will
be more gladdening than the tidings of it. When he that told
us of glory, in his gospel, shall" give it us, we shall not only
believe, but feel that he loveth us.
Sect. 23. Believe, O my soul, thy Saviour's love, that thou
mayest foretaste it, and be fit to feel it. We were incapable, in
sinful flesh, of seeing him otherwise than as clothed with flesh,
and his consolations were administered by a word of promise
suitable to his appearance ; but when he withdrew his bodily
presence, the Comforter was sent with a fuller consolation.
But all that was but the earnest, and the first-fruits, of what he
will be to us for ever. Be not seldom, nor unbelieving, nor
slight, in the thoughts of thy Saviour's love, for it is he that is
the way to the infinite love. Let thy believing be so much of
thy daily work, that thou mayest say that he " dwelleth in thy
heart by faith;" (Eph. iii. 17;) and that while thou livest here
it is Christ that liveth in thee ; and that thy life in the flesh
is not a fleshly life, but by the faith of the Son of God that
hath loved thee, and given himself for thee. (Gal. ii. 20.)
And that though thou see him not, yet, believing, thou lovest
him also with unspeakable joy, as believing the unspeakable per-
fect joy which his love will communicate to thee for ever.
Look upon the sun, and think thus with thyself: 'How won-
derful is the emanation of this sun : its motion, light, and heat,
communicated to so many millions of creatures all over the
earth, and in the seas. What, if all these beams of light and
heat were proportionable beams of perfect knowledge, love, and
joy ; and that all creatures that are under the sun had, from its
influx, as much wisdom, love, and joy, as they have light, heat,
and motion. Would not then this earth be as a world of angels,
and a heaven? O what a blessed world would it be; and
what a benefactor would the sun be to the world ! Wliy, even
such will Jesus Christ be to the celestial world. He is the sun
of glory. His influence will send forth life and light, and joy-
ful love upon all the blessed, from the face of God, as the sun
sends forth from God its motion, light, and heat, upon this
world. Now, therefore, begin, and live upon him: live upon
the influence of his grace, his teaching, love-kindling, and
quickening grace, that thou mayest have his name and mark, and
he may find in thee something of himself, or of his own, when
thou comest to his righteous trial. His grace is not in mv
BAXTER S DYING THOUGHTS. 381
power, nor at my command. It is not meet it should be so;
but he hath not bid me seek and beg in vain. If he had never
told me that he will give it me, it is equal to a promise if he do
but bid me seek and ask. But I have more. He teacheth me
to pray: he maketh my prayers: he writeth me out a prayer-
book on my heart : he giveth me desires, and he loveth to be
importuned by them : his Spirit is first a spirit of supplication,
and after of consolation, and in both a spirit of adoption. So
far is he from being loth to be troubled with my importunity,
that he seeketh me to seek his grace, and is displeased with me
that I will ask and have no more.
All this is true: but how then cometh my soul to be yet so
low, so dark, so fond of this wretched flesh and world, and so
backward to go home, and dwell with Christ ? Alas ! a taste of
heaven on earth is a mercy too precious to be cast away upon
such as have long grieved and quenched the Spirit, and are not,
by diligent and patient seeking, prepared to receive it. He that
proclaimeth a general peace, will give peace only to the sons of
peace. If, after such unkind neglects, such wilful sins as I have
been guilty of, I should expect to be suddenly in my Saviour's
arms, and to be feasted presently with the first-fruits of heaven,
I should look that the Most Holy should too little manifest his
hatred of my sin. My conscience remembereth the follies of
my youth, and many a later odious sin; and telleth me that if
heaven were quite hid from my sight, and I should never have a
glimpse of the face of glorious, eternal love, it were but just.
I look upward from day to day; I groan to see his pleased face,
and better to know my God and my home. I cry to him daily,
' My God, this little is better than all the pleasures of sin. My
hopes are better than all the possessions of this world. Thy
gracious looks have oft revived me, and thy mercies have been
immeasurable to my soul and body. But, oh, how far short
am I of what, even fifty years ago, I hoped sooner to have
attained ! Where is the peace that passeth understanding, that
should keep my heart and mind in Christ ? Oh ! where is the
seeing, the longing, the rejoicing, and triumphing faith? Where
is that pleasant familiarity above, that should make a thought
of Christ and heaven to be sweeter to me than the thoughts of
friends, or health, or all the prosperity and pleasure of this
world? Do those that dwell in God, and God in them, and
have their hearts and conversations in heaven, attain to no
more clear and satisfying perceptions of that blessed state than
382 Baxter's dying thoughts.
I have yet attained ? Is there no more acquaintance above to
be here expected; no livelier sense of future joys, nor sweeter
foretaste ; no fuller silencing of doubts and fears ? I am not
so loth to go to a friend, nor to the bed where I oft spend the
night in restless pains and rolling, as I have too often been to
come to thee. Alas 1 how many of thy servants are less afraid
to go to a prison than to their God, and had rather be banished
to a land of strangers than sent to heaven. Lord, must I, that
am called thy child, and an heir of heaven, and a co-heir with
Christ, have no more acquaintance with my glorified Lord, and
no more love to thee that art my portion, before I go hence, and
come before thee ? Shall I have no more of the heavenly life,
and light, and love ? Alas ! I have scarce enough in my medi-
tations to denominate them truly heavenly meditations. I have
scarce enough in a prayer to make it indeed a heavenly prayer,
or in a sermon to make it a heavenly sermon : and shall I have
no more when I come to die ? Must I go hence so like a
stranger to my home? Wilt thou take strangers into heaven,
and know them as thine that do not better know thee here ? O
my God, vouchsafe a sinner yet more of his Spirit that came
down on earth to call up earthly minds to God, and to open
heaven to all believers ! O what do I beg for so frequently, so
earnestly, for the sake of my Redeemer, as the spirit of life and
consolation, which may show me the pleased face of God, and
unite all my affections to my glorified Head, and draw up this
dark and drowsy soul to love and long to be with thee ?'
But, alas ! though these are my daily groans, how little yet
do I ascend. I dare not blame the God of love ; he is full and
willing. 1 dare not blame my blessed Saviour ; he hath showed
that he is not backward to do good. I dare not accuse the
Holy Spirit; it is his work to sanctify and comfort souls. If I
knew no reason of this, my low and dark estate, I must needs
conclude that it is somewhat in myself. But, alas ! my con-
science wants not matter to satisfy me of the cause. Sinful
resistance of the Spirit, and unthankful neglects of grace and
glory, are undoubtedly the cause. But are they not a cause
that mercy can forgive, that grace can overcome ? And may I
not yet hope for such a victory before I die?
Lord, I will lie at thy doors and groan: I will pour out mv
moans before thee. I will beg, and whatever thou wilt, do
thou with me. Thou describest the kindness of the dogs to a
Lazarus that lay at a rich man's door in sores : thou conniiend-
Baxter's dying thoughts. 383
est the neighbourly pity of a Samaritan, that took care of a
wounded man : thou condemnest those that wilt not show mercy
to the poor and needy: thou biddest us be merciful as our hea-
venly Father is merciful. If we see our brother have need, and
shut up the bowels of our compassion from him, it is because
thy love dwelleth not in us : and shall I wait, then, at thy doors
in vain, and go empty away from such a God; when I beg but
for that which thou hast commanded me to ask, and without
which I cannot serve thee, or come to thee, live or die in a habit
beseeming a member of Christ, a child of God, and an heir of
heaven ? O give me the wedding garment, without which 1
shall but dishonour thy bounteous feast. Let me wear a livery
which becometh thy family, even a child of God. How oft hast
thou commanded me to rejoice ; yea, to rejoice with exceeding
and unspeakable joy; and how fain would I in this obey thee.
O that J had more faithfully obeyed thee in other preparatory
duties, in ruling my senses, my fancy, my tongue, and in dili-
gent using all thy talents ! Then I might more easily have
obeyed thee in this. Thou knowest. Lord, that love and joy
are duties that must have more than a command. O bid me
do them with an effecting word. How can T rejoice in death
and darkness t When the bridegroom is absent I must fast and
mourn. While I look towards heaven but through the cre-
vices of this dungeon flesh, my love and joy will be but answer-
able to my light. How long is it since 1 hoped that I had been
translated from the kingdom of darkness, and delivered from
the power of the Prince of Darkness, and brought into that
light which is the entrance of the inheritance of saints. And
yet, alas ! darkness, darkness is still my misery. There is light
round about me, in thy word and works, but darkness is within
me : and if my eye be dark, the sun will be no sun to me.
Alas! my Lord, it is not all the learning in the world ; no,,
not of theology, that consisteth in the knowledge of words and
methods, which I can take for the satisfactory, heavenly light. To
know what thou hast written in the sacred book, is not enough to
make me know my glorified Saviour, my Father, and my home.
It must be a light from heaven that must show me heaven, and
a light accompanied with vital heat that must turn to love and
joy within me. O let me not have only dreaming knowledge
of words and signs, but quickening light, to show the things
which these words do signify, to my mind and heart. Surely,
the faith by which we must live, must be a living faith, an/i
384 Baxter's dying thoughts.
must reach further than to words, how true soever. Can faith
Hve in the dark ? What is it but an effect of thine illumina-
tion? What is my unbelief but the darkness of my soul?
Lord Jesus, scatter all these mists ! Make thy way, O thou Sun
of Righteousness, into this benighted mind 1 O send thine ad-
vocate to silence every temptation that is against thy truth and
thee; and thine agent to prosecute thy cause against thine ene-
mies and mine, and to be the resident witness of thy verity, and
my sonship and salvation. Hearing of thee is not satisfactory
to me : it must be the presence and operation of thy light and
love, shed abroad by thy Spirit on my heart, that must quiet and
content my soul. 1 confess, with shame, that I have sinned
against heaven and before thee, and am unworthy to have any
glimpse or taste of heaven ; but so did many that are now en-
tertained and feasted by thy love in glory.
My Lord, I know that heaven is not far from me : it is not,
I believe, one day's or hour's journey to a separated soul. How
quick is the communion of my eyes with the sun, that seems far
off; and couldst thou not show it me in a moment? Is not
faith a seeing grace? It can see the invisible God, the unseen
world, the new Jerusalem, the innumerable angels, and the
Spirits of the perfected just, if it be animated by thine influx;
without which it can do nothing, and is nothing. Thou that
oft healedst the blind here in the flesh, didst tell us that it is
much more thy work to illuminate souls. It is but forgiving
all my sins, and removing this film that sin hath gathered, and
my illuminated soul will see thy glory. T know that the veil
of flesh must be also rent before I shall see thee with open
face, and know my fellow-citizens above as I am known. It is
not heaven on earth that I am begging for, but that I may see
it from Mount Nebo, and have the bunch of grapes, the pledge
and the first-fruits : that faith and hope which may kindle love
and desire, and ipake me run my race in patience, and live and
die in the joy which beseemeth an heir of heaven.
But if my part on earth must be no greater than yet it is,
let it make me the wearier of this dungeon, and groan more fer-
vently to be with thee, and long for the day when all my long-
ing shall be satisfied, and my soul be filled with thy light and
love.
Sect. 24. And, doubtless, as I shall love the angels and
saints in heaven, so I shall some way, in subordination to CInist,
be a receiver from them. Our love will be mutual; and which
r Baxter's dying thoughts. 385
way soever I owe duty, I shall expect some answerable return
of benefit. The sun shineth upon the stars^ as well as upon
the earth, and stars on one another. If angels are greatly
useful to me here, it is like they will be much more there,
where I shall be a more capable receiver. It will be no
diminution to Christ's honour, that he there maketh use of my
fellow-creatures to my joy, no more than it is here. The whole
creation will still be one compaginated frame; and the heavenly
society will for ever retain their relation to each other, and their
aptitude and disposition to the duties and benefits of those re-
lations. And as we shall be far fitter for them than here we
are, so shall we have far more comfort in them. How gloriously
will God shine in the glory of the blessed ! How delightful
will it be to see their perfection, in wisdom, holiness, love, and
concord ! What voices they use, or what communication,
instead of voices, we shall shortly know; but surely there is a
blessed harmony of minds, and wills, and practice. All are
not equal; but all accord to love and praise their glorious God,
and readily to obey him, and perfectly to love each other.
There is no jarring, or discordant spirit that is out of tune ; no
separation or opposition to each other. As God's love in Christ
is our full and final happiness, so nature, which hath made us
sociable, teacheth us to desire to be loved of each other, but
especially by wise and worthy persons. Saints and angels in
heaven will love incomparably better than our dearest friends
on earth can do, and better than they did themselves when we
were on earth; for they will love that best which is best, and
where there is most of God appearing; else it were not intel-
lectual love. And therefore they will love us as much better
when we come to heaven, as we shall be better. If we go from
loving friends on earth, we shall go to them that love us far
more. The love of those here doth but pity us in our pains,
and go weeping with our carcasses to the grave; but the love of
those above will joyfully convoy, or welcome, our souls to their
triumphant society. All the holy friends that we thought we
had lost, that went before us, we shall find rejoicing there with
Christ.
And oh, what a glorious state will be that common uniting,
and united love ! If two or three candles joined together make
a greater flame and light, what would ten thousand stars united
do ? When all the love of angels and saints in full perfection
shall be so united, as to make one love, to God that is one, and
VOL. XVI rr. c c
386 ' Baxter's dying thoughts.
to one another, who are there all one in Christ; O what a glo-
rious love will that be ! That love and joy will be the same
thing ; and that one universal love will be one universal joy.
Little know we how great a mercy it is to be here commanded
to love our neighbours as ourselves ;' and much more, to be
effectually taught of God so to love one another. And did we
all here live in such unfeigned love, we should be like to heaven,
as bearing the image of the God of Love; but, alas! our so-
cieties here are small; our goodness, which is our amiableriess,
wofully imperfect and mixed with loathsome sin and discord ;
but there, a whole heaven full of blessed spirits will flame for
ever, in perfect love to God, to Christ, and one another.
Go then, go willingly, O my soul ! Love joineth with light,
to draw up thy desires ! Nature inclineth all things unto union :
even the lifeless elements have an aggregative motion, by which
the parts, when violently separated, do hastily return to their
natural adhesion. Art thou a lover of wisdom, and wouldest
thou not be united to the wise ? Art thou a lover of holiness,
and wouldest thou not be united to the holy, who are made of
love ? Art thou a hater of enmity, discord, and divisions, and
a lover of unity here on earth, and wouldest thou not be where all
the justare one ? It is not an unnatural union to thy loss; nothing
shall betaken from thee by it: thou shalt receive by it more
than thou canst contribute ; it shall not be forced against thy
will; it is but a union of minds and wills; a perfect union of
loves. Let not natural or sinful selfishness cause thee to think
suspiciously or hardly of it, for it is thy happiness and end.
What got the angels that fell to selfishness, from unity ? and
what got Adam, that followed them herein ? The further any
man goeth from unity, by selfishness, the deeper he falleth into
sin and misery from God. And what doth grace but call us
back from sin and selfishness, to God's unity again ? J)oat not,
then, on this dark, divided world. Is not thy body, while the
parts by an uniting soul are kept together, and make one, in a
better state, than when it is crumbled into lifeless dust? And
doth not death creep on thee by a gradual dissolution ? Away,
then, from this sandy, incoherent state; the further from the
centre," the further from unity. A unity indeed there is of all
things; but it is one heavenly life and light and love, which is
the true felicitating union.
We dispute here whether the aggregative motion of sepa-
rated parts (as in descensii graviumj) be from a motive principle
Baxter's dying thoughts. 387
in the part, or by the attraction of the whole, or by any external
impulse. It is like that there is somewhat of all these; but
sure the greatest cause is like to do most to the effect. The
body of the earth hath more power to attract a clod, or stone,
than the intrinsic principle to move it downwards; but intrinsic
gravity is also necessary. The superior attractive love and love-
liness must do more to draw up this mind to God, than my
intrinsic holiness to move it upward ; but without this holiness,
the soul would not be capable of feeling that attractive influx.
Every grace cometh from God, to fit and lead up my soul to
God. Faith, therefore, believeth the heavenly state, and love
doth, with some delight, desire it, and hope gapeth after it, that
I may at last attain it.
They that have pleaded against propriety, and would have all
things common in this world, have forgotten that there is a pro-
priety in our present egoity, and natural constitution, which ren-
dereth some accidental propriety necessary to us. Every man
hath his own bodily parts, and inherent accidents; and every man
must have his own food, his own place, clothing, and acqui-
sitions; his own children, and, therefore, his own wife. Sec. But
that the greatest perfection is most for community, as far as
nature is capable of it, God would show us, in making the first
receivers of the extraordinary pourings-out of his Spirit, to sell
all, and voluntarily make all common, none saying, This or
that is my own ; which was not done by any constraining law
but by the law or power of uniting love: they were first all as
of one heart and soul. (Acts iv. 32.)
Take not, then, thy inordinate desire of propriety for thy
health, but for thy sickness; cherish it not, aud be not afraid to
lose it, and measure not the heavenly felicity by it: spirits are
penetrable; they claim not so much as a propriety of place, as
bodies do. It is thy weakness and state of imperfection now
which niaketh it so desirable to thee that thy house should be
thine, and no one's but thine; thy land be thine, and no one's
but thine; thy clothes, thy books, yea, thy knowledge and
grace, be thine, and no one's but thine. How much more ex-
cellent a state were it, (if we were here capable of it,) if we
could say, that all these are as the common light of the sun,
which is mine, and every one's as well as mine ! Why are we
so desirous to speak all languages, but that we might understand
all men, and be understood of all, and so might make our sen-
timents as common as is possible ? Whence is' it that men are
cc 2
388 Baxter's dying thoughts.
so addicted to talkativeness; but that nature would make all
our thoughts and passions as common as it can ? And why else
are learned men so desirous to propagate their learning, and
godly men so desirous to make all others wise and godly ? It
seemeth one of the greatest calamities of this life, that when a
man hath, with the longest and hardest study, attained to much
knowledge, he cannot bequeath it, or any part of it, to his heir,
or any person when he dieth, but every man must acquire it for
himself; and when God hath sanctified the parents, they can-
not communicate their holiness to their children (though God
promise to bless them on their account). Much less can any
man make his grace or knowledge common : nature and grace
incline us to desire it; but we cannot do it. For this end we
talk, and preach, and write; for this end we study to be as
plain, and convincing, and moving as we can, that we may make
our knowledge and affections as common to our hearers and
readers as we can. And oh, what a blessed work should we
take preaching and writing for, if we could make them all
know, but what we know, and love what we are persuading
them to love ! There would then be no need of schools and
universities : a few hours would do more than they do in an age.
But, alas ! how rare is it for a father of excellent learning and
piety, to have one son like himself, after all his industry !
Is not the heavenly communion, then, desirable, where every
man shall have his own, and yet his own be common to all
others ? My knowledge shall be my own, and other men's as
well as mine; my goodness shall be my own and theirs; my
glory and felicity shall be mine and theirs ; and theirs also shall
be mine as well as theirs. Thie knowledge, the goodness, the
glory, of all the heavenly society, shall be mine, according to
my capacity; grace is the seed of such a state, which maketh
us all one in Christ, (neither Barbarian nor Scythian, circumci-
sion nor uncircumcision, bond nor free,) by giving us to love
our neighbours as ourselves, and to love both our neighbours
and ourselves for Christ, and Christ in all : well might Paul say,
all things are yours. But it is here but as in the seed; the per-
fect union and communion is hereafter. Earth and heaven must
be distinguished; we must not extend our hopes or pretensions
here beyond the capacity of our natures. As perfect holiness
and knowledge, so perfect unity and concord, is proper to
heaven, and is not here to be expected. The papal pretensions
of an impossible union in one governor of all the earth, is the
Baxter's dying thoughts. 389
means to hinder that union which is possible. But the state of
perfection is the state of perfect union and communion. Hasten
then upwards, O my soul, with the ferventest desires, and breathe
after that state vvith the strongest hopes; where thou shalt not
be rich, and see thy neighbours poor about thee, nor be poor,
while they are rich ; nor be well while they are sick, or sick
while they are well ; but their riches, their health, their joy,
will be all thine, and thine will be all theirs, as the common
light; and none will have the less for the participation of the
rest; yea, communion will be part of every one's felicity; it
constituteth the very being of the city of God. This celestial
communion of saints in one holy church, above what is here to
be attained, is now an article of our belief; but believing will
soon end in seeing and enjoying.
V. The constitutive reasons from the heavenly life or
practice.
Sect. 1. Seeing and loving will be the heavenly life ; but yet
it seemeth that, besides these, there will be executive powers,
and, therefore, some answerable practice. There are good works
in heaven, and far more and better than on earth. For, \,
there will be more vital activity, and, therefore, more exercise
for it; for the power is for action. 2. There will be more love
to God and one another ; and love is active. 3. There will be
more likeness to God and our Redeemer, who is communicative,
and doth good, as he is good. 4. Our union with Christ, who
will be everlastingly beneficent, as well as benevolent, will make
us in our places also beneficent. 5. Our communion in the
city of God will prove that we shall all bear our part, as the
members of the body, in contributing to the welfare of the
whole, and in the common'returns to God.
Sect. 2. But what are the heavenly works we must perfectly
know when we come thither ? In general we know ; 1 . That
they will be tlie works of love to God and to his creatures ; that
is, such as love inclineth us to exercise. 2. And they will be
works of obedience to God ; that is, such as we shall do to
please his will, and because he willeth them to be our duty.
3. They will be useful works to others. 4. They will be plea-
sant to ourselves, and part of our felicity. 5. And they will
carry all to God, our end.
Sect. 3. And somewhat of them is particularly described in
the Holy Scriptures : as, 1. We shall in concord with the h6ly
39() Baxter's dying thoughts.
'Society, or choir, give thanks and praise to God and our Re-
deemer. (Rev. xix. 5 ; 1 Pet. iv. 1 1 ; Rev. vii. 4, and iv. 7,
1 1, and v. 13, and vii. 12, and xix. 1 /Phil. iv. 20.) Whether
there be any voice, or only such spiritual activity and exultation
as to man, in flesh, is not to be clearly understood, is not fit for
us here to presume to determine : it will be somewhat more
high and excellent than our vocal praise and singing is ; and
of which this beareth some analogical resemblance or significa-
tion. As all passions earnestly desire vent and exercise, so
specially do our holy affections of love, joy, and admiration of
God Almighty. And there is in us a desire of communion
with many in such affections and expressions : methinks when
we are singing or speaking God's praise in the great assemblies,
with joyful and fervent souls, 1 have the liveliest foretaste of
heaven on earth : and I could almost wish that our voices were
loud enough to reach through all the world, and unto heaven
itself : nor could I ever be offended (as many are) at the or-
gans, and other convenient music, soberly and seasonably used,
which excite and help to tune my soul in so holy a work, in
which no true assistance is to be despised* No work more
comforteth me in my greatest sufferings, none seemeth more
congruous and pleasant to me while I wait for death, than
psalms, and words of praise to God ; nor is there any exercise
in which I had rather end my life : and should I not then wil-
lingly go to the heavenly choir, where God is praised with per-
fect love, and joy, and harmony ? Had I more of a praising
frame of soul, it would make me long more for that life of
praise. For 1 never find myself more willing to be there than
when 1 most joyfully speak or sing God's praise. Though the
dead praise not God in the grave, and dust doth not give him
thanks; yet living souls in heaven do it joyfully, while their
fleshly clothing turns to dust.
Lord, tune my soul to thy praises now, that sweet experi-
ence may make me long to be where I shall do it better ! I
see where any excellent music is, nature maketh men flock to
it ; and they that are but hearers, yet join by a concurrent fancy
and delight : surely > if 1 had once heard the heavenly choir, 1
should echo to their holy songs, though I could not imitate
them J and I should think it the truest blessedness to be there,
and bear my part. My God, the voice of thy comforting Spi-
rit, speaking thy love effectually to my soul, would make such
holy music in me, that would incline me to the celestial con-
Baxter's dying thoughts. 391
sort ; and without it all these thoughts and words will be in
vain. It is the inwai-d melody of thy Spirit and my conscience,
that must tune me to desire the heavenly melody. O speak thy
love first to my heart, and then I shall joyfully speak it to my
brethren, and shall ambitiously seek that communion of them
that praise thee better than sinful, groaning mortals can : and
though my sins here make a loathed jar and discord in my
songs, I hope my groans for those sins, and their effects, will
make no discord : sighs and tears have had the honour to be
accepted by thee, who despisest not a contrite soul : but if thy
Spirit will sing and speak within me, and help me against the
discordant murmurs of my unbelieving heart, and pained flesh,
I shall offer thee that which is more suitable to thy love and
grace. I confess, Lord, that daily tears and sighs are not un-
suitable to the eyes and voice of so great a sinner, who is under
thy correcting rod ! What better could I expect when I grieved
thy Spirit, than that it should prove my grief? Yea, this is far
better than the genuine effects of sin. But this is not it that is
meetest to be offered to the God of love : he that offereth praise
doth glorify thee : and is not this the spiritual sacrifice accept-
able through Christ, for which we were made priests to God.
(1 Pet. ii. 5.) I refuse not, Lord, to lie in tears and groans
when thou requirest it ; and do not thou refuse those tears and
groans ; but O give me better, that I may have better of thine
own to offer thee : and by this prepare me for the far better,
which I shall find with Christ : and that which is best to us thy
creatures will be accepted as best by thee, who art glorified and
pleased in the perfection of thy works.
Sect. 4. II. It is, at least, very probable that God maketh
glorified spirits his agents and ministers of much of his benefi-
cence to the creatures that are below them. For, 1. We see
that where he enduelh any creature with the noblest endow-
ments, he maketh most use of that creature to the benefit of
others : we shall in heaven be most furnished to do good j and
that furniture will not be unused. 2. And Christ tells us that
we shall be like, or equal to, the angels ; which though it mean
not simply and in all things, yet it meaneth more than to be
above carnal generation ; for it speaketh of a similitude of na-
ture and state as the reason of the other. And that the angels
are God's ministers for the good of his chosen in this world, and
administrators of much of the affairs on earth, is past all doubt.
3. The Apostle telleth us -that the saints shall judge the worlJ
392 Baxter's dying thoughts.
and angels : and judging in Scripture is oft put for ruling. It
is therefore probable, at least, that the devils, and the damned,
shall be put under the saints, and that, with the angels, they
shall be employed in some ministerial oversight of the inhabi-
tants and affairs of the promised new earth. 4. And when
even the more noble superior bodies, even the stars, are of so
great use and influx to inferior bodies, it is like that accordingly
superior spirits will be of use to the inhabitants of the world
below them.
Sect. 5. But I think it not meet to venture here upon uncer-
tain conjectures beyond the revelation of God's word, and there-
fore shall add no more, but conclude that God knoweth what
use to make of us hereafter as well as here, and that if there
were no more for us to do in heaven, but with perfect know-
ledge, love, and joy, to hold communion with God and all the
heavenly society, it were enough to attract a sensible and con-
siderate soul to fervent desires to be at home with God.
Sect. 6. And here I must not over-pass my rejection of the
injurious opinion of too many philosophers and divines, who ex-
clude all sense and affection from heaven, and acknowledge
nothing there but intellect and will : and this is because they
find sense and affection in the brutes ; and they think that the
souls of brutes are but some quality, or perishing temperament,
of matter ; and, therefore, that sense and affection is in us no
better.
Sect. 7. But, 1. What felicity can we conceive of without
any affection of delight or joy : certainly bare volition now
without these doth seem to be no felicity to us ; nor knowledge
neither, if there were no delight in knowing.
Sect. 8. 2. Yea, I leave it to men's experience to judge,
whether therp be now any such thing in us as proper willing,
which is not also some internal sense of, and affection to, the
good which we will : if it be complacency or the pleasedness of
the will, this signifies some pleasure ; and love, in the first act,
,is nothing else but such an appetite : if it be desire, it hath in
.it a pleasedness in the thing desired, as in esse cognito^ as it is
thought on by us ; and what is love without all sense and affec-
tion ?
Sect. 9. 3. Why doth the Scripture ascribe love and joy to
God and angels if there were not some reason for it ? Doubt-
less there is great difference between the heavenly love and joy,
and ours here in the body : and so there is also between their
Baxter's dying thoughts. 393
knowledge and ours, and their will and ours : but it is not that
theirs is less or lower than ours, but somewhat more excellent,
which ours giveth us some analogical, or imperfect, formal no-
tion of.
Sect. 10. 4. And what though brutes have sense and affec-
tion, doth it therefore follow that we have none now ? or that
we shall have none hereafter ? Brutes have life : and must we
therefore have no life hereafter, because it is a thing that is
common to brutes ? Rather, as now we have all that the
brutes have, and more, so shall we then have life, and sense, and
'aifection of a nobler sort than brutes, and more. Is not God
the living God ? Shall we say that he liveth not because brutes
live ? or rather, that they live a sensitive life, and man a sen-
sitive and intellectual, because God is essential, transcendent,
infinite life, that makes them live.
Sect. 11. 5. But if they say that there is no sensation or af-
fection but by bodily organs, I answered before to that : the
body feeleth nothing at all, but the soul in the body : the soul
uniteth itself most nearly to the igneous aerial parts, called the
spirits ; and in them it feeleth, seeth, tasteth, smelleth, &c.
And that soul that feeleth and seeth, doth also inwardly love,
desire, and rejoice : and that soul which doth this in the body,
hath the same power and faculty out of the body : and if they
judge by the cessation of sensation, when the organs are undis-
posed, or dead, so they might as well conclude against our fu-
ture intellection and will, whose operation in an apoplexy we
no more perceive than that of sense. But 1 have before showed
that the soul will not want exercise for its essential faculties,
for want of objects, or bodily organs ; and that men conclude
basely of the souls of brutes, as if they were not an enduring
substance, without any proof or probabiHty : and tell us idle
dreams, that they are but vanishing temperaments, &c., which
are founded on another dream, that fire (or the motive, illumi-
native, calefactive cause) is no substance neither ; and so our
unnatural soniatists know none of the most excellent substances,
which actuate all the rest, but only the more base and, gross,
which are actuated by them : and they think they have well ac-
quitted themselves, by telling us of subtle, active matter and
motion, without understanding what any living, active, motive,
faculty, or virtue is^ And because no man knoweth what God
doth with the souls of brutes, (whether they are only one com-
mon sensitive soul of a more common bodv, or whether indivi-
394 Baxter's dying thoughts.
duate still, and transmigrant from body to bodv, or what else :)
therefore they make ignorance a plea for error, and feign them
to be no substances, or to be aimihilated.
Sect. 12. I doubt not but sensation (as is aforesaid) is an
excellent operation of the essential faculties of real substances,
called spirits ; and that the highest and noblest creatures have
it in the highest excellency : and though God, that fitteth every
thing to its use, hath given, e. g. a dog more perfect sense of
smelling than a man, yet man's internal sense is far more ex-
cellent than the brutes, and thereby is an advantage to our in-
tellection, volition, and joy here in the flesh : and that in heaven
SN^ shall have not less, but more, even more excellent sense and
affections of love and joy, as well as more excellent intellection
and volition ; but such as we cannot now clearly conceive of.
Sect. 13. Therefore there is great reason for all those analo-
gical collections which I have mentioned in my book called 'The
Saint's Rest' from the present operations and pleasures of the
soul in fleshy to help our conceptions of its future pleasures : and
though we cannot conclude that they will not inconceivably
differ in their manner from what we now feel, I doubt not but
feel and rejoice we shall, as certainly as live, and that the soul
is essential life, and that our life, and feeling, and joy, will be
inconceivably better.
The concluding application.
Sect. 1. I am convinced that it is far better to depart and be
with Christ, than to be here : but there is much more than such
conviction necessary to bring up my soul to such desires. Still
there resisteth, 1 . The natural averseness to death, which God
hath put into every animal, and which is become inordinate and
too strong by sin. II. The remnants of unbelief, taking advan-
tage of our darkness here in the flesh, and our too much famili-
arity with this visible world. III. The want of more lively fore-
tastes in a heavenly mind and love, through weakness of grace,
and the fear of guilt. These stand up against all that is said ;
and words will not overcome them : what then nmst be done ?
Is there no remedy ?
Sect. 2. There is a special sort of the teaching of God, by
which we must learn " so to number our days as to apply our
hearts to wisdom ;" without which we shall never, effectually,
practically, and savingly, learn either this or any the most
common, obvious, and easy lesson. When we have read and
Baxter's dying thoughts. 395
heard, and spoken, and written, the soundest truth and eer-
tainest arguments, we know yet as if we knew not, and believe
as if we believed not, with a slight and dreaming kind of appre-
hension, till God, by a special illumination, bring the same
things clearly to our minds, and awaken the soul by a special
suscitation, to feel what we know, and suit the soul to the truth
revealed by an influx of his love, which giveth us a pleasing
sense of the amiableness and congruity of the things proposed.
Since we separated ourselves from God, there is a hedge of
separation between our senses and our understandings, and
between our understandings and our wills and affections, so
that the communion between them is violated, and we are
divided in ourselves by this schism in our faculties. All men
still see the demonstrations of divine perfections in the world,
and every part thereof; and yet how little is God known. All
men may easily know that there is a God, who is almighty,
omniscient, goodness itself, eternal, omnipresent, the Maker,
Preserver, and Governor of all, who should have our whole
trust, and love, and obedience ; and yet how little of this
knowledge is to be perceived in men's hearts to themselves, or
in their lives to others. All men know that the world is vanity,
that men must die, that riches then profit not, that time is
precious, and that we have only this little time to prepare for
that which we must receive hereafter ; and yet how little do
men seem to know, indeed, of all such things as no man doubts
of. And when God doth come in with his powerful awakening
light and love, then all these things have another appearance
of affecting reality than they had before ; as if but now we
began to know them ; words, doctrines, persons, things, do
seem as newly known to us.
All my best reasons for our immortality and future life are
but as the new-formed body of Adam, before God breathed
into him the breath of life. It is he that must make them-
living reasons. To the Father of Lights, therefore, I must still
look up, and for his light and love 1 must still wait, as for his
blessing on the food which 1 have, eaten, which must concoct
it into my living substance. Arguments will be but undigested
food, till God's effectual influx do digest them. I must learn
both as a student and a beggar ; when I have thought, and
thought a thousand times, 1 must beg thy blessing, Lord, upon
my thoughts, or they will all be but dulness, or self-distraction.
If there be no motion, light, and life here, without the influx of
396 Baxter's dying thoughts.
the sun, what can souls do, or receive, or feel, without thy influx
This world will be to us, without thy grace, as a grave or dun-
geon, where we shall lie in death and darkness. The eye of my
understanding, and all its thoughts, will be useless or vexatious
to me, without thine illuminating beams. O shine the soul of
thy servant into a clearer knov/ledge of thyself and kingdom,
and love him into more divine and heavenly love, and then he
will willingly come to thee.
Sect. 3. I. And why should I strive, by the fears of death,
against the common course of nature, and against my only
hopes of happiness ? Is it not appointed for all men once to
die ? Would I have God to alter this determinate course, and
make sinful man immortal upon earth ? When we are sinless,
we shall be immortal. The love of life was given to teach me
to preserve it carefully, and use it well, and not to torment me
with the continual, troubling foresight of death. Shall 1 make
myself more miserable than the vegetatives and brutes ? Nei-
ther they nor I do grieve that my flowers must fade and die,
and that my sweet and pleasant fruits must fall, and the trees
be unclothed of their beauteous leaves, until the spring.
Birds, and beasts, and fishes, and worms, have all a self-preserv-
ing fear of death, which urgeth them to fly from danger ; but
few, if any of them, have a tormenting fear arising from the
forethoughts that they must die. To the body, death is less
troublesome than sleep ; for in sleep I may have disquieting
pains or dreams ; and yet I fear not going to my bed. But of
this before.
If it be the misery after death that is feared, oh ! what have
I now to do, but to receive the free, reconciling grace that is
offered me from heaven, to save me from such misery, and to
devote myself totally to him who hath promised that those that
come to him he will in nowise cast out. ""
Sect. 4. But this cometh by my selfishness. Had I studied
mv duty, and then remembered that 1 am not mine own, and
that it is God's part, and not mine, to determine of the dura-
tion of my life, I had been quiet from these fruitless fears.
But when 1 fell to myself, from God, I am fallen to care for
myself, as if it were my work to measure out my days ; and now
I trust not God as I should do with his own. And had my
resignation and devotedness to him been more absolute, my
trust in him would have been more easy. But, Lord, thou
Knpv^'est that I would fain be thine, and wholly thine ; and it
Baxter's dying thoughts. 397
is to thee that I desire to live ; therefore let me quietly die to
thee, and wholly trust thee with my soul.
Sect. 5. II. And why should my want of formal conceptions
of the future state of separated souls, and my strangeness to
the manner of their subsistence and operations, induce me to
doubt of those generals, which are evident, and beyond all
rational doubting ? That souls are substances and not annihil-
ated, and essentially the same, when they forsake the body, as
before, I doubt not. Otherwise neither the Christian's resur-
rection, nor the Pythagorean's transmigration, were a possible
thing. For if the soul cease to be, it cannot pass into another
body, nor can it re-enter into this. If Qod raise this body, then
it must be by another soul. For the same soul to be annihil-
ated, and yet to begin again to be, is a contradiction ; for the
second beginning would be by creation, which maketh a new
soul, and not the same that was before. It is the invisible
things that are excellent, active, operative, and permanent.
The visible (excepting light, which maketh all things else
visible) are of themselves but lifeless dross. It is the unseen
part of plants and flowers which causeth all their growth and
beauty, their fruit and sweetness. Passive matter is but moved
up and down by the invisible active powers, as chess-men are
moved from place to place by the gamester's hands. What a
loathsome corpse were the world, without the invisible spirits and
natures that animate, actuate, or move it. To doubt of the being
or continuation of the most excellent, spiritual parts of the crea-
tion, when we live in a world that is actuated by them, and where
every thing demonstrates them, as their effects, is more foolish
than to doubt of the being of these gross materials which we see.
Sect. G. How ofc have I been convinced that there are good
spirits with whom our souls have as certain communion,
though not so sensible, as our life hath with the sun, and as
we have with one another. And that there are evil and
envious spirits that fight against our holiness and peace, as
certain narratives of apparitions and witches, and too sad
experience of temptations, do evince. And the marvellous
diversity of creatures on earth, for kind and number; yea, the
diversity of stars in heaven, as well as the diversities of angels
and devils, do partly tell me, that though all be of one, and
through one, and to one, yet absolute unity is the divine prero-
gative, and we must not presume to expect such perfection as
to lose our specific or numerical diversity, by any union which
398 Baxter's dying thoxtghts.
shall befall our souls. Nor can I reasonably doubt that so
noble and active a nature as souls dwelling above in the lucid
regions, in communion with their like, and with their betters,
shall be without the activity, the pleasure, and felicity, which is
suitable to their nature, their region, and their company. And
my Saviour hath entered into the holiest, and hath assured me
that there are many mansions in his Father's house; and that
when we are absent from the body we, shall be present with the
Lord.
Sect. 7- Organical sight is given me for my use here in the
body ; and a serpent, or hawk, hath as much or more of this
than I have. Mental knowledge reacheth further than sight,
and is the act of a nobler faculty, and for a higher use. Though
it be the soul itself embodied in the igneous spirits that seeth,
yet it is by a higher and more useful faculty than it under-
standeth ; and faith is not an understanding act ; it knoweth
things unseen, because they are revealed. Who can think that
all believing, holy souls, that have passed hence from the begin-
ning of the world, have been deceived in their faith and hope ?
And that all the wicked, worldly infidels, whose hope was only
in this life, have been the wisest men, and have been in the
right ? If virtue and piety are faults or follies, and brutish
sensuality be best, then why are not laws made to command
sensuality, and forbid piety and virtue ? To say this, is to
deny humanity, and the wisdom of our Creator, and to feign
the world to be governed by a lie, and to take the perfection
of our nature for its disease, and our greatest disease for our
perfection. But if piety and virtue be better than impiety and
vice, the principles and necessary motives of them are certainly
true, and the exercise of them is not in vain. What abomina-
ble folly and wickedness were it to say that the wicked only
attain their ends, and that they all lose their labour, and live
and die in miserable deceit, who seek to please God in hope of
a better life to come, believing that God is the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. W^ould not this justify the
foolish Manichees, that thought a bad God made this world ;
yea, and would infer that he not only made us for a mischief,
but ruleth us to our deceit and hurt, and giveth us both
natural and supernatural laws, in ill-will to us, to mislead us
to our misery, and to fill our lives with needless troubles. Shall
I not abhor every suggestion that containetli such inhuman
absurdities as these ? Wonderful, that Satan can keep up so -
Baxter's dying thoughts. 399
much unbelief in the world^ while he must make men such fools,
that he may make them unbelievers and ungodly.
Sect. 8. III. That my soul is no more heavenly, and my
foretaste of future blessedness is so small, is partly the fruit of
those many wilful sins by which I have quenched the Spirit
that should be my comforter: and it is partly from our common
state of darkness and strangeness, while the soul is in the flesh,
and operateth as the body's form, according to its interest and
capacity. Affections are more easily stirred up to things seen,
than to things that are both unseen, and known only very de-
fectively, by general, and not by clear, distinct apprehensions.
And yet this, O this, is the misery and burden of my soul!
Though 1 can say that I love God's truth and graces, his work,
and his servants, and whatever of God I see in the world, and
that this is a love of God in his creatures, word, and works; yet
that I have no more desiring and delightful love of heaven,
where his loveliness will be more fully opened to my soul, and
that the thoughts of my speedy appearing there are no more
joyful to me than they are, is my sin, and my calamity, and
my shame. And if I did not see that it is so with other of the
servants of Christ, a^ well as with me, I should doubt whether
affections, so unproportionalde to my profession, did not signify
unsoundness in my belief. It is strange and shameful, that one
that expecteth quickly to see the glorious world, and to enter
the holy, celestial society, should be no more joyfully affected
with these hopes, and that 1 should make any great matter of
the pain, and languishing, and perishing of the flesh, when it is
the common way to such an end. O hateful sin ! that hath so
darkened and corrupted souls as to estrange and indispose
them to the only state of their hoped happiness. Alas! what
did man, when hQ forsook the love and obedience of his God?
Hew just it is, that this flesh and world should become our
prison, which we would make our home, and would not use
as our Lord appointed us, as our servant and way to our better
state. Though our way must not be our home, our Father
would not have been so strange to us in the way, if we had not
unthankfully turned away from his grace and love.
Sect. 0. It is to us that know not the mysteries of infinite
wisdom, the saddest thought that ever doth possess our minds, to
consider that there is no more grace and holiness, knowledge
of God, and communion with him in this world. That so few
are saints, and those few so lamentably defective and imperfect.
400 Baxter's dying thoughts.
That when the sun shineth on ail the earth, the Sun of Righte-
ousness shineth on so small a part of it, and so few live in the
love of God, and the joyful hopes of future blessedness; and
those few have so low a measure of it, and are corrupted and
troubled with so many contrary affections. Infinite goodness is
not undisposed to do good. He that made us capable of holy
and heavenly affections, gave us not that capacity in vain; and
yet, alas ! how little of God and glory taketh up the hearts of
men !
But man hath no cause to grudge at God. The devils, be-
fore their fall, were not made indefectible j divine wisdom is
delighted in the diversity of his works, and maketh them not
all of equal excellency. Free will was to act its part; hell is
not to be as good as heaven : and sin hath made earth to be
next to hell : so much sin, so much hell. What is sin but a
wilful forsaking of God? And can we forsake him, and yet
love him, and enjoy his love? God's kingdom is not to be
judged of by his gaol or gibbets. We wilfully forsook the
light, and made the world a dungeon to ourselves. And, when
recovering light doth shine unto us, how unthankfully do we
usually entertain it ? We cannot have the conduct and com-
fort of it while we shut our eyes, and turn away. And what
though. God give not all men an overcoming measure, nor to
the best so much as they desire : the earth is but a spot, or
print, of God's creation; not so much as an ant hillock to a
kingdom, or, perhaps, to all the earth. And who is scandalised
because the world hath an heap of ants in it, yea, or a nest 6f
snakes, that are not men ? The vast, unmeasurable worlds of
light which are above us, are possessed by inhabitants suital)le
to their glory. A casement, or crevice of light, or a candle, in
this darksome world, is an unspeakable mercy; yea, that we
may but hear of a better world, and may seek it in hope. We
must not grudge that in our prison we have not that presence
of our King, and pleasures of the kingdom, as innocent and free
subjects have : hope of pardon, and a speedy deliverance, are
great mercies to malefactors.
Sect. 10. And if my want of the knowledge and love of God,
and joyful communion with the heavenly society, be my prison,
and as the suburbs of hell, should it not make me long for the
day of my redemption, and the glorious liberty of the sons of
God? My true desires of -deliverance, and of holiness and per-
fection, are my evidences that I shall obtain them. As the
Baxter's dying thoughts. 401
will Is the sinner, so it is the obstinate continuance of a will to
sin, which is the bondage, and the cause of continued sin : and
a continued hell is continued sin, as to the first part at least.
Therefore, they that continue in hell, do continue in a sinning
will, and so continue in a love and willingness of so much of
hell. So far as God maketh us willing to be delivered from sin,
so far we are delivered; and our initial, imperfect deliverance is
the way to more. If pains, then, make me groan for ease, and
sickness make me wish for health, why should not my remnants
of ignorance, unbelief, and strangeness to God, occasion me to
long for the day of my salvation? This is the greatest of all
my troubles ; and should it not, then, be the greatest wearying
burden from which I should earnestly desire to be eased? As
grace never doth hurt efficiently, and yet may be ill used, and
do hurt objectively, (as to them that are proud of it,) so sin
never doth good efficiently, and of itself, and yet objectively
may do good ; for sin may be the object of grace, and so to use
it is not sin. My unbelief, and darkness, and disaffection, and
inordinate love of this life, do, of themselves, most hinder my
desires of deliverance, and of a better life; but, objectively,
what more fit to make me weary of such a grievous state ?
Were my unbelief and earthly mind predominant, they would
chain my affections to this world ; or if I were constrainedly
weary of a miserable life, I should have no comfortable hopes of
a better. But as it is the nature of my sin to draw down my
heart from God and glory, it is the nature of my faith, and
hope, and love, to carry it upward, and to desire the heavenly
perfection : not to love death, but to love that which is beyond
it. And have I been so many years in the school of Christ,
learning both how to live and die, begging and studying for
this grace, and exercising it against this sinful flesh, and shall
I now, after all, find flesh more powerful to draw me down-
ward, than faith, hope, and love, to carry my desires up to
God?
Sect. II. ' O God forbid ! O thou that freely gavest me thy
grace, maintain it to the last against its enemies, and make it
finally victorious! It came from thee; it hath been preserved
by thee ; it is on thy side, and wholly for thee. O let it not
now fail, and be conquered by blind and base carnality, or by
the temptations of a hellish, conquered enemy; without it I had
lived as a beast, and without it I should die more miserably
than a beast. It is thine image which thou lovest; it is a
VOL. xvni. D D
402
divine nature, and heavenly beam. What will a soul be without
it, but a dungeon of darkness, a devil for malignity, and dead
to holiness and heaven? Without it, who shall plead thy
cause against the devil, world, and flesh ? Without thy glory
earth is but earth : without thy natural efficacy, it would be no-
thing : without thy wise and potent ordination it would be but a
chaos: and, without thy grace, it would be a hell. O rather
deny me the light of the sun, than the light of thy counte-
nance 1 Less miserable had I been without life or being, than
without thy grace. Without thee, and my Saviour's help, I
can do nothing ; 1 did not live without thee ; I could not pray
or learn without thee ; I never could cqnquer a temptation
without thee ; and can I die, or be prepared to die, without
thee ? Alas ! I shall but say as Philip of Christ, " I know not
whither my soul is going, and how then shall I know the way?"
My Lord having loved his own in the world, did love them to
the end. Thou lovest fidelity and perseverance in thy servants ;
even those that in his sufferings forsook him and fled, yet are
commended and rewarded by Christ, for continuing with him
in his temptations. (Luke xxii. 28.) And wilt thou forsake a
sinner in his extremity, who consenteth to thy covenant, and
would not forsake thee ? My God, I have often sinned agamst
thee, but yet thou knowest { would fain be thine : I have not
served thee with the resolution, fidelity, and delight, as such a
master should have been served, but yet I would not forsake
thy service, nor change my master, or my work. I can say,
with thy servant Paul, that thou art the God whose I am,
and whom I serve : and O that I could serve thee better ! For
to serve thee is but to receive thy grace, and to use it for my~
own and others' good, and so to glorify thee, and please thy
will, which, being love itself, is best pleased when we receive
and do most good. (Acts xxvii. 23.) I have not loved thee
as infinite goodness, and love itself, and fatherly bounty, should
have been loved ; but yet 1 would not forsake thy family. And
nothing in this world is more my grief, than that I love thee no
more. Forsake not, then, a sinner that would not forsake thee,
that looketh every hour towards thee, that feeleth it as a piece
of hell to be so dark and strange unto thee, that gropeth, and
groaneth, and gaspeth after thee; feeling, to his greatest sor-
row, (though thou art every where,) that while he is present in
the body, he is absent from the Lord. My Lord, I have no-
thing to do in this world, but to seek and serve thee, I have
Baxter's dying thoughts. 403.
nothing to do with a heart and its affections, but to breathe after
thee : 1 have nothing to do with my tongue and pen, but to
speak to thee, and for thee, and to publish thy glory, and thy
will. What have I to do with all my reputation, and interest
in my friends, but to increase thy church, and propagate thy
holy truth and service ? What have I to do with my remain-
ing time, even these last and languishing hours, but to look up
unto thee, and wait for thy grace, and thy salvation ? O par-
don all my carnal thoughts, and all my unthankful neglects of
thy precious grace, and love, and all my wilful sin against thy
truth and thee ; and let the fuller communications of thy for-
feited grace, now tell me by experience that thou dost forgive
me ! Even under the terrible law thou didst tell man thy very
nature, by proclaiming thy name, " The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in good-
ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity,
and transgression, and sin." (Exod. xxxiv. 6, /•) And is not
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the gospel for our
more abundant faith and consolation ? My God, I know as I
cannot love thee according to thy loveliness, so I cannot trust
thee according to thy faithfulness : I can never be sufficiently
confident of thy all-sufficient power, thy wisdom, and thy good-
ness. When I have said, as Psalm Ixxvii. 7, " Will the Lord
cast off for ever ? And will he be favourable no more? Is his
mercy clean gone for ever ? Doth his promise fail to genera-
tions ? Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? Hath he in
anger shut up his tender mercies?" Conscience hath replied,
that this is my infirmity ; I never wanted comfort, because thou
wantedst mercy ', but because I wanted faith and fitness to re-
ceive it, and perceive it. But hast thou not mercy also to give
me, even that fitness, and that faith ? My God, all is of thee,
and through thee, and all is to thee, and when I have the feli-
city, the glory of all for ever will be thine. None that trusteth
in thee, (according to thy nature and promise,) shall be ashamed.
If T can live and die in trusting in thee, surely I shall not be
confounded.
Sect. 12. Why, then, should it seem a difficult question, how
I may, willingly, leave this world, and my soul depart to Christ
in peace ? The same grace which regenerated me, must bring
me to my desired end, as the same principle of vegetation which
causeth the end, must bring the fruit to sv/eet maturity,' I. Be-
lieve and trust thy Father, thy Saviour, and thy Comforter* II.
' p D 2
404 Baxter's dying thoughts.
And hope for the joyful entertainments of his love, and for the
blessed state which he hath promised. III. And long, by love,
for nearer union and communion with him; and thus, O my
soul, thou mayest depart in peace.
1. How sure is the promise of God! How suitable to his
love, and to the nature of our souls, and to the operations of
every grace? It is initially performed here, whilst our desires
are turned towards him, and the heavenly seed and spark is
here ingenerated in a soul that was dead and dark, and dis-
affected. Is it any strange thing for fire to ascend ? yea, or
the fiery principle of vegetation in a tree, to carry up the earthy
matter to a great height? Is it strange that rivers should
hasten to the sea ? Whither should spirits go, but to the re-
gion or world of spirits ? And whither should Christ's mem-
bers, and holy spirits go but to himself, and the heavenly
society ? And is not that a more holy and glorious place and
state than this below ? Earth is between heaven and hell ; a
place of gross and passive matter, where spirits may, indeed,
operate upon that which needeth them, and where they may be
detained awhile in such operation, or as incorporated forms, if
not incarcerated delinquents ; but it is not their centre, end, or
home. Even sight and reason might persuade me, that all the
noble, invisible powers, that operate on this lower world, do
principally belong unto a higher ; and what can earth add to
their essence, dignity, or perfection ?
Sect. 13. But why, O my soul, art thou so vainly solicitous
to have formal, clear, distinct conceptions of the celestial world,
and the individuation and operations of separated souls, any
more than of the angels ? While thou art the formal principle
of an animated body, thy conceptions must be suitable to their
present state and use. When thou art possessed of a better
state, thou shalt know it as a possessor ought to do ; for such a
knowledge as thou lookest after, is part of the possession, and
to long to know and love, in clearness and perfection, is to long
to possess. It is thy Saviour, and his glorified ones, that are
comprehensors and possessors ; and it is his knowledge which
must now be most of thy satisfaction. To seek liis prerogative
to thyself, is vain, usurping arrogance. Wouldcst thou be a God
and Saviour to thyself? Oh, consider how much of the fall is
in this selfish care and desire to be as God, in knowing that of
^ood and evil which belongeth not to thee, but to God, to know.
Thou knowest, past doubt, that tliere is a God of infinite per-
Baxter's dying thoughts. 405
fectlon, who is the re warder of them that diligently seek him*
Labour more to know thy duty to this God, and absolutely trust
him, as to the particularities of thy felicity and reward. Thou
didst trust thy parents to provide thee food and raiment, when
thou didst but dutifully obey them; though they could have for-
saken thee, or killed thee every hour, thou didst never fear it.
Thou hast trusted physicians to give thee even ungrateful medi-
cines, without inquiring after every ingredient, or fearing lest
they should wilfully give thee poison. I trust a barber with my
throat : I trust a boatman or shipmaster with my life ; yea, my
horse, that might cast me ; because I have no reason to distrust
them, saving their insufficiency and uncertainty, as creatures.
If a pilot undertake to bring thee to the Indies, thou canst
trust his conduct, though thou know thyself neither the ship,
nor how to govern it ; neither the way nor the place to which
thou art conveyed. And must not thy God and Saviour be
trusted to bring thee safe to heaven, unless he will satisfy all
thy inquiries of the individuation and operation of spirits?
Leave unsearchable and useless questions to him that can easily
resolve them, and to those to whom the knowledge of them doth^
belong. Thou dost but entangle thyself in sin and self-vexa-
tion, while thou wouldest take God's work upon thee, and
wouldest know that for thyself, which he must know for thee.
Thy knowledge and care for it did not precede, nor prepare for,
thy generation, nor for the motion of one pulse or breath, or
for the concoction of one bit of all thy food, or the continu-
ance of thy life one hour; supposing but thy care to use the
means which God appointed thee, and to avoid things hurtful,
and to beg his blessing. The command of being careful for
nothing, and casting all thy care on God, who careth for us,
obligeth us in all things that are God's part; and for our souls
as well as for our bodies : yea, to trust him with the greatest of
our concerns is our greatest duty; supposing we be careful
about our own part, viz., to use the means, and obey his pre-
cepts. To dispose of a departing soul is God's part, and not
ours : oh ! how much evil is in this distrustful, self-providing
care ! If I did but know what I would know about my soul and
myself; and if I might but choose what condition it should be
in, and be the final disposer of it myself, O what satisfaction
and joy would it aiford me ! And is not this to be partly a God
to myself? Is he not fitter to know, and choose, and dispose
of me, than I am? I could trust myself easily, even my wit
406 Baxter's dying thoughts.
and will, in such a choice^ if I had but power ; and cannot I
trust God and niy Redeemer, without all this care, and fear,
and trouble, and all these particular inquiries ? If you are con-
voying your child in a boat, or coach, by water, or by land, and
he at every turn be crying out, ' O father, whither do we go?'
or, ^ what shall I do ?' or, * I shall be drowned, or fall.' Is it
not rather his trust in you, than the particular satisfaction of
his ignorant doubts, that must quiet and silence him? Be not,
then, foolishly distrustful and inquisitive. Make not thyself thy
own disquieter or tormentor, by an inordinate care of thy own
security. Be not cast down, O departing soul, nor, by unbe-
lief, disquieted within me. Trust in God, for thou shalt
quickly, by experience, be taught to give him thanks and
praise, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Sect* 14. O, what clear reason, what great experience, do
icommand me to trust him, absolutely and implicitly to trust him,
and to distrust myself !
1. He is essential, infinite, perfection, power, wisdom, and
love. There is in him all that should invite and encourage ra-
tional trust, and nothing that should discourage it.
2. There is nothing in any creature to be trusted, but God in
that creature, or God working in and by it. Distrust him, and
there is nothing to be trusted. Not the earth to bear me, nor
the air to breathe in, much less any mutable friend.
3. I am altogether his own, his own by right, and his own by
devotion and consent. And shall I not trust him with his own.
4. He is the great benefactor of all the world, that giveth all
good to every creature, not by constraint, or by commutation,
but as freely as the sun giveth forth its light. And shall we not
trust the sun to shine ?
5. He is my Father and special benefactor, and hath taken
me into his family as his child. And shall I not trust my hea-
venly Father ?
6. He hath given me his Son as the great pledge of his love,
and what, then, will he think too dear for me ? Will he not with
him give me all things ? (Rom. viii. 32.)
7. His Son came purposely to reveal the Father's unspeakable
love, and purposely to save us. xA.nd shall I not trust him that
hath proclaimed his love and reconciliation by such a messenger
from heaven ?
8. He hath given me the Spirit of his Son, even the spirit
of adoption, which is the surest character of his child, the witness,
Baxter's dying thoughts. 407
pledge, and earnest of heaven, the name and mark of God upon
me, holiness to the Lord. And yet shall 1 not believe his love,
and trust him ?
9. He hath made me a member of his Son, and so far already
united me to him. And will he not take care of the members
of his Son ? Will he lose those that are given him ? Is not
Christ to be trusted with his members }
10. I am his interest, and the interest of his son. Freely be-
loved; dearly bought ! for whom so much is suffered and done,
that he is pleased to call us his peculiar treasure. And may I
not trust him with his dear-bought treasure ?
1 1. He hath stated me in a relation to angels, who rejoiced at
my repentance, and to the heavenly society, which shall not
miss the smallest part. Angels shall not lose their joy, nor
ministration.
1 2. He is in covenant with me ; even the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. He hath given me many great and precious pro-^
mises, and shall I fear lest he will break his word or covenant ?
13. My Saviour is the forerunner, entered into the holiest,
and there appearing and interceding for me. And this after he
had conquered death, and risen again to assure me of a future
life, and ascended into heaven, to show us whither we must
ascend ; and that after these comfortable words, " Say to my
brethren, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and
yom* God." (John xx. 17.) And shall I not follow him through
death, and trust such a Guide and Captain of my salvation ?
14. He is there to prepare a place for me, and will take me
to himself. And m&,y I not confidently expect it ?
15. He told a malefactor on the cross, that he should be
that day with him in paradise, to tell believing sinners what
they may expect.
16. The church, by the article of his descent into hell, hath
signified their common belief that his separated soul had its sub-
sistence and operation, and did not sleep or perish, to tell us
the immortality of separated souls.
17. His apostles, and other servants, have on earth served
him with all these expectations.
18. The spirits of the perfected just are now in possession of
what I hope for. And I am a follower of them who, by faith
and patience, have attained the promised felicity. And may 1
not trust him to save me, who hath already saved millions in this
way, when I could trust a ferryman to pass me over a river.
408 Baxter's dying thoughts.
that had safely passed over thousands before me ? or I could
trust a physician who cureth all that he undertaketh of the same
disease.
19. I must be at his disposal whether I will or not. I shall
live while he will, and die when he will, and go whither he will.
I may sin, and vex my soul with fears, and cares, and sorrows,
but I shall never prevail against his will.
20. Therefore, there is no rest for souls but in the will of
God. That will created us, and that will did govern us, and
that will shall be fulfilled on us. It was our efficient and our
regent cause, and it shall be our end. Where else is it that
we should rest ? in the will of men, or angels, or in our own
wills? All creatures are but creatures, and our own wills have
undone us ; they have misgoverned us, and they are our greatest
enemies ; our disease, our prison, and our death, till they are
brought over to the will of God. Till then they are like a foot
out of joint; like a child or subject in rebellion. There is no
rectitude or health, no order, no peace or true felicity, but in
the conformity of our wills to the will of God. And shall I die
in distrustful striving against his will, and desiring to keep up
my own before it ?
21. What abundant experience have I had of God's fidelity
and love ? And after all this shall I not trust him ? His un-
deserved mercy gave me being ; it chose my parents ; it gave
them a tender love to me, and desire of my good ; it taught
them to instruct me early in his word, and to educate me in his
fear; it chose me suitable company and habitation; it gave
me betimes a teachable ingeny ; it chose my schoolmasters ;
it brought to my hands many excellent and suitable books ; it
gave me some profitable, public teachers ; it placed me in the
best of lands on earth, and I think in the best of ages which
that land had seen ; it did early destroy all great expectations
and desires of the world, teaching me to bear the yoke from my
youth, and causing me rather to groan under my infirmities,
than to fight with strong and potent lusts ; it chastened me
betimes, but did not destroy me. Great mercy hath trained me
up all my days, since I was nineteen years of age, in the school
of affliction, to keep my sluggish soul awake in the constant
expectations of my change, and to kill my pride and over-
valuing of tliis world, and to lead all my studies to the most
necessary things, and as a spur to excite my soul to .seriousness,
and especially to save me from the supine neglect and loss of
BAXTER*S DYING THOUGHTS. 409*
time. Oh ! what unspeakable mercy hath a life of constant but
gentle chastisement proved to me ! It urged me, against all
dull delays, to make my calling and election sure, and to make
ready my accounts, as one that must quickly give them up to
God. The face of death, and nearness of eternity, did much
convince me what books to read, what studies to prefer and pro-
secute, what company and conversation to choose. It drove
me early into the vineyard of the Lord, and taught me to
preach as a dying man to dying men. It was divine love
and mercy which made sacred truth so pleasant to me, that my
life hath been (under all my infirmities) almost a constant re-
creation and delight, in its discoveries, contemplation, and prac-
tical use : how happy a teacher have I had ! What excellent
help, and sweet illumination ! How far beyond my expectation
hath divine mercy encouraged me in his sacred work ! How
congruously did he choose every place of my ministration and
habitation to this day, without my own forecast or seeking !
When, and where, since he first sent me forth, did I labour in
vain ? How many are gone to heaven, and how many are in
the way, to whom he hath blessed the word, which, in weakness
I did, by his grace and providence, deliver ! Many good Chris-
tians are glad of now and then an hour's time to meditate on
God's word, and recreate themselves in his holy worship ; but
God hath allowed and called me to make it the constant busi-
ness of my life. My library hath afforded me both profitableand
pleasant company and help, at all times, whenever I would use
them. I have dwelt among the shining lights, which the learn-
ed, wise, and holy men of all ages have set up, and left to illu-
minate the world. How many comfortable hours have I had in
the society of living saints, and in the love of faithful friends.
How many joyful days have I had in the solemn assemblies,
where God hath been worshipped in seriousness and alacrity, by
concordant (though imperfect) saints. Where the spirit of
Christ hatli manifested his presence, by helping myself and my
brethren in speaking, and the people in ready, delightful hearing,
and all of us in loving and gladly receiving his' doctrine, cove-
nant, and laws. How unv/orthy was such a sinful worm as 1
(who never had any academical helps, nor much from the mouth
of any teacher), that books should become so great a blessing to
me 5 and that, quite beyond my own intentions, God should in-
duce or constrain me to provide any such like helps for others !
How unworthy was I to be kept fi'om the multiplied snares of
410 Baxter's dying thoughts.
sects and errors which reigned in this age, and to be used as a
means for other men's preservation and reduction ; and to be
kept in a love of unity and peace ; how unworthy was I that God
should make known to me so much of his reconciling truth,
while extremes did round about prevail, and were commended
to the churches by the advantages of piety on one side, and of
worldly prosperity aud power on the other : and that God
should use me above forty years in so comfortable a work as
to plead and write for love, peace, and concord, and to vouchsafe
me so much success therein as he hath done, notwithstanding
the general prevalency of the contentious military tribe, Mercy
I have had in peace, and liberty in times of violence j and mercy
I have had in wars, living two years in safety in the city of de-
fence, in the very midst of the land (Coventry), and seeing no
enemy while the kingdom was in wars and flames ; and only
hearing of the common calamities round about : and when I
went abroad and saw the effects of human folly and fury, and
of God's displeasure, he mercifully kept me from hurting any
one, and being hurt by any; how many a time hath he preserv-
ed me by day and night, in difficulties and dangers, from the
malice of Satan, and from the wrath of man, and from accidents
which threatened sudden death ; while I beheld the ruins of
towns and countries, and the fields covered with the carcasses
of the slain, 1 was preserved, and returned home in peace. And
oh, how great was the mercy he showed me, in a teachable,
tractable, peaceable, humble, unanimous people ! So many in
number, and so exemplary in quality ; who to this day keep
their integrity and concord, when violence hath separated me
from them above thirty years : yea, the like mercy of acceptance
and success beyond my expectation, he hath showed me every-
where ; I have had opportunity of free ministration ; even where
there were many adversaries 1 have had an open door ; in the
midst of human wrath and rage he hath preserved my liberty
beyond expectation, and continued my acceptance and success.
When I might not speak by voice to any single congregation, he
enabled me to speak by writing to many ; and for the success
of my plainest and popular writings, which cost me least, I
can never be sufficiently thankful; some of which he sent to
preach abroad, in other languages, in foreign lands. When my
mouth, with eighteen hundred or two thousand more, had been
many years stopped, he hath since opened them in some degree ;
and the sufferings intended us by men, have been partly put by,
Baxter's dying thoughts. 41i
and partly much alleviated, by his providence 5 and the hardness
of our terms hath not so much hindered the success of faithful
labours as we feared, and as others hoped it would have done. 1
have had the comfort of seeing some peace and concord, and
prosperity of truth and piety, kept up, under the utmost oppo-
sition of diabolical and human power, policy, and wrath: when
I have been sent to the common jail for my service and obedience
to him, he hath there kept me in peace, and soon delivered me.
He hath made the mouths of my greatest enemies, who have
studied my defamation and my ruin, to become my witnesses
and compurgators, and to cross their own designs. How won-
derful is it that I should so long dwell in so much peace, in the
midst of those that seemed to want neither power nor skill, and
much less will, to tread me down into contempt and misery !
And, oh ! how many a danger, fear, and pain hath he delivered
this frail and languishing body from ! How oft hath he suc-
coured me, when flesh, and heart, and art have failed ! He
hath cured my consuming coughs, and, many a time, stayed my
flowing blood: he hath eased my pained limbs, and supported
a weary, macerated skeleton : he hath fetched me up from the
jaws of death, and reversed the sentence which men have
passed on me. How many thousand weary days have been
sweetened with his pleasant work; and how many thousand
painful, weary nights have had a comfortable morning ! How
many thousand strong and healthful persons have been taken
away by death, whilst I have been upheld \inder all this weak-
ness ! Many a time have I cried to the Lord in my trouble,
and he hath delivered me out of my distress. I have had fifty
years added to my days since I would have been full glad of
Hezekiah's promise of fifteen. Since the day that I first
preached his gospel, I expected not, of long time, to live above
a year; and 1 have lived since then fifty years. When my own
prayers were cold and unbelieving, how many hundreds have
prayed for me ? And what strange deliverances, encouraging
fasting and prayer, have I oft had, upon their importunate re-
quests? My friends have been faithful, and the few that proved
unfaithful have profitably taught me to place no confidence in
man, and not to be inordinately affected to any thing on earth ;
for I was forsaken by none of them, but those few that I exces-
sively valued and overloved. My relations have been comfort-
able to me, contrary to my deserts, and much beyond my ex-
pectations. My servants have been faithful: my neighbours
412 Baxter's J)ying thoughts.
have been kind : my enemies have been impotent, harmless, or
profitable : my superiors have honoured me by their respectful
words j and while they have afflicted me, as supposing me a
remora to their designs, they have not destroyed but protected
me. To my inferiors, God hath made me, in my low capacity,
somewhat helpful. I have been protected in ordinary health
and safety, when the raging pestilence came near my habitation,
and consumed a hundred thousand citizens : my dwelling hath
been safe when I have seen the glory of the land in flames, and
after beheld the dismal ruins. When violence separated me
from my too much beloved library, and drove me into a poor
and smoky house, I never had more help of God, nor did more
difficult work than there. What pleasant retirements and quiet-
ness in the country have been the fruits of persecuting wrath?
And I must not forget, when I had more public liberty, how he
saved me and all my hearers, even by a wonder, from being
buried in the ruins of the fabric where we were ; and others,
from the calamities, scandal, and lamentations, which would else
have followed: and it is not a mercy to be extenuated, that
when the tongues and pens of all sects among us, and of proud
self-exalters, and of some worthy, pious, differing brethren,
have been long and vehemently bent against me, when my
infamy hath been endeavoured, by abundance of volumes, by
the backbiting of angry dividers of all sorts, and by the calum-
niating accusations of some that were too high to be gain-
sayed, and would not endure me to answer them, and vindicate
my innocency ; yet, all these together were never able to fasten
their accusations, and procure any common belief, nor to bring
me under the designed contempt, much less to break my com-
forts, encouragements, or labours.
These, all these, and very many more than these, are my ex-
periences of that wondrous mercy which hath measured my pil-
grimage, and filled up my days. Never did God break his pro-
mise with me; never did he fail me, nor forsake me. Had 1 not
provoked him by rash and wilful sinning, how little interruption
of my peace and comforts had 1 ever been likely to have had !
And shall I now distrust him at the last ? Shall I not trust, and
quietly trust, that infinite wisdom, love, and power, whom I have
so long trusted and found so good ?
Nature teacheth man to love best those animals that ai-e tame
and tractable, that trust us and love us, that will come to our
hands, and love our company, that will be familiar with us, and
413
follow us, be it horse or dog, beasts or birds: but those that
are wild and live in woods, and fly from the face of man, are
taken to be the game and prey of any one that can catch
and kill them. And shall my foolish soul thus wildly fly
from the face of God ? Shall his children be like the fearful
hare, or like a guilty Cain, or like an unbelieving Sadducee,
that either believeth not, or hopeth not for, the forgiveness of
sin, and the life everlasting ? Doth not the spirit of adoption
incline us to love our Father's presence, and to be loath to be
long from home ? To distrust all creatures, even thyself, is
not unreasonable ; but to distrust God hath no just excuse. Fly
from sin, from Satan, from temptations, from the world, from
sinful flesh and idol self; but fly not from him that is goodness,
love, and joy itself. Fear thine enemy, but trust thy Father. If
thy heart be reconciled to him and his service, by the Spirit, he
is certainly reconciled to thee through Christ: and if he be for
thee, and justify and love thee, who shall be against thee, or
condemn thee, or separate thee from his love ? If thy unrecon-
ciled will do make thee doubt of his reconciliation, it is time to
abhor and lay by thy enmity. Consent, and be sure that he
consenteth. Be willing to be his, and in holiness to serve him,
and to be united in joyful glory to him; and then be sure that
lie is willing to accept thee, and receive thee to that glory. O
dark and sinful soul ! how little dost thou know thy friend, thy-
self, or God, if thou canst more easily and quietly trust thy life,
thy soul, and hopes to the will of thy friend, or of thyself, if
thou hadst power, than to the will of God. Every dog would
be at home, and with his master ; much more every ingenuous
child with his father : and though enemies distrust us, wife and
children will not do so, while they believe us just. And hath God
ever showed himself either unfaithful or unmerciful to me ?
To 'thee, O Lord, as to a faithful Creator, I commit my
soul. (1 Pet. iv. 19.) I know that thou art the faithful God,
who keepest covenant and m.ercy with them that love thee and
keep thy commandments. (Deut. vii. 9.) Thou art faithful
who hast called me to the communion of thy Son Jesus Christ
our Lord. (1 Cor. i. 9.) Thy faithfulness hath saved me in and
from temptation ; ( I Cor. x. 13 ;) it hath stablished me, and
kept me from prevailing evil ; (2 Thess. iii. 3 ;) and it will keep
my spirit, soul, and body to the coming of Christ. (1 Thess. v.
23, 24.) It is in faithfulness that thou hast afflicted me ;
(Psalm cxix. 75;) and shall not i trust thee, then, to save me ?
414 Baxter's dying thoughts.
It is thy faithful word, that all thine elect shall obtain the sal-
vation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory ; and if we be
dead with him, shall live with him, and if we suffer, we shall also
reign with him. (2 Tim. ii. 11, 12.)
To thee, O my Saviour, I commit my soul : it is thine own
by redemption ; it is thine own by covenant; it is marked and
sealed by thy Spirit as thine own, and thou hast promised not
to lose it. (John vi. 39.) Thou wast made like us thy brethren,
that thou mightest be a merciful and faithful High Priest in
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for our sins.
By thy blood we have boldness to enter into the holiest, even by
the new and living consecrated way. Cause me to draw near
with a sincere heart, in full assurance of faith, by thee that
art the High Priest over the house of God; for he is faithful
that has promised life through thee. (Heb. xix. 20 — 23.) Thy
name is faithful and true, (Rev. xix. 11,) and faithful and true
are all thy promises. (Rev. xxii. 6, and xxi. 5.) Thou hast pro-
mised rest to weary souls that come to thee. (Matt. xi. 28;
2 Thess. i. 7.) I am weary of suffering, and weary of sin;
weary of my flesh, and weary of my darkness, and dulness,
and distance, and of this wicked, blind, unrighteous, and con-
founded world : and whither should I look for rest but home to
my heavenly Father and to thee ? I am but a bruised reed, but
thou wilt not break me; I am but a smoking flax, but thou
wilt not quench what thy grace hath kindled ; but thou, in
whose name the nations trust, wilt bring forth judgment unto
victory. (Matt. xii. 20, 21.) The Lord redeemeth the souls of
his servants, and none of them that trust in thee shall be deso-
late. (Psalm xxxiv. 22.) Therefore will I wait on thy name, for
it is good, and will trust in the mercy of God for ever. (Psalm
lii. 8, 9.) The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble,
and he knoweth them that trust in him. (Nahum i. 7.) Sinful
fear is a snare; but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall
be set on high. (Prov. xxix. 25.) Blessed is the man that maketh
the J-iOrd his trust, and respecteth not the proud, and such as
turn aside to lies. (Psalm xl. 4.) Thou art my hope, O Lord
God, thou art my trust from my youth. By thee have I been
holden up from the womb, and my praise shall be continually
of thee. Cast me not off now in the time of age. Forsake
me not when my strength faileth ; O God, thou hast taught me
from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.
Now, also, when I am old and grey, O God, forsake me not.
Baxter's dying thoughts. 415
(Psalm xvii. 5, 6^ 9, 17, 18.) Leave not my soul destitute; for
mine eyes are toward thee, and my trust is in thee. (Psalm
xiv. 8.) I had fainted unless 1 had believed, to see the good-
ness of the Lord in the land of the living ; eVen where they
that live shall die no more. The sun may cease to shine on
man, and the earth to bear us ; but God will never cease to be
love, nor to be faithful in his promises. Blessed be the Lord,
who hath commanded me so safe and quieting a duty as to
trust him, and cast all my cares on him, as on one that hath
promised to care for me !
IL And blessed be God, who hath made it my duty to hope
for his salvation. Hope is the ease, yea, the life of our hearts,
that else would break, yea, die within us : despair is no small
part of hell : God cherisheth hope as he is the lover of souls.
Satan, our enemy, cherisheth despair, when his way of blind
presumption faileth. As fear is a foretaste of evil, before it is
felt : so hope doth anticipate, and foretfste salvation, before it
is possessed. It is then worldly hypocrites' hope that perisheth,
for all that hope for true or durable happiness on earth, in the
pleasures of this perishing flesh, nmst needs be deceived. But
happy is he who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose
hope is in the Lord his God, which made heaven and earth,
which keepeth truth for ever. (Psalm cxlvi. 5, 6.) Wo to
me, were my hope only in the time and matters of this fleshly
life; (1 Cor. xv. 19;) but the righteous hath hope in his death;
(Prov. xiv. 32;) and hope maketh not ashamed. (Rom. v. 5.)
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the
Lord is. (Jer. xvii. 7-) Lay hold then, O my soul, upon the
hope which is set before thee; (Heb. vi. 18;) it is thy firm and
steadfast anchor, (ver. 19,) without it thou, wilt be as a ship-
wrecked vessel. Thy foundation is sure ; it is God himself; our
faith and hope are both in God. (I Pet. i. 21.) It is Jesus
our Lord who is risen from the dead, and reigneth in glory,
Lord of all. (1 Tim. i. 1.) Yea, it is the Christ, who by faith
doth dwell within us, who is our hope of glory. (Eph. iii. 17;
Col. i. 27.) In this hope,, which is better than the law that
Moses gave, it is that we draw ni^h to God ; (Heb. vii. 19;) it
is the Holy Ghost that is both our evidence, and the efficient of
our hope. (Gal. v. 5 ; Rom. viii. 16, 23.) By him we hope
for that which we see not, and therefore wait in patience for it ;
(ver. 24, 25 ;) by hope we are saved. It is an encouraging
grace which will make us stir, when as despair doth kill endea-
416 Baxter's dying thoughts.
vours ; it curetli sloth, and makes us diligent and constant to
the end, and by this doth help us to full assurance. (Heb. vi.
11,12.) It is a desiring grace, and would fain obtain the
glory hoped for. It is a quieting and comforting grace. (Rom.
XV. 4.) The God of hope doth fill us with joy and peace in
believing, that we may abound in hope, through the power of
the Holy Ghost. (Ver. 13.) Shake off despondency, O my
soul, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Rom. v. 2.)
Believe in hope, though dying flesh would tell thee that it is
against hope. (Rom. iv. 18.) God, that cannot lie, hath con-
firmed his covenant by his immutable oath, that we might have
strong consolation who are fled for refuge to the hope 'which
is set before us. (Heb. vi. IS.) What blessed preparations
are made for our hope ; and shall we now let the tempter shake
it, or discourage it ? The abundant mercy of God the Father
hath begotten us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection oi
Christ, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us. (1 Pet. i. 3.) Grace
teacheth us to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and to live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this world, as looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and
our Saviour. (Tit. ii. 12, 13.) We are renewed by the Holy
Ghost, and justified by grace, that we should be made heirs ac-
cording to the hope of eternal life. (Tit. iii. (i, 70 We are
illuminated, that we may know the hope of Christ's calling, and
what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
(Eph. i. 18, 19.) The hope that is laid up for us in heaven,
is the chief doctrine of the gospel, which bringeth life and im-
mortality into clearer light. (Col. i. 5 ; 2 Tim. i. 10.) It is
for this hope that we keep a conscience void of offence, and
that God is served in the world; (Acts xxiv. 15, 16, and
xxvi. 7 ',) wherefore gird up the loins of thy mind ; put on this
helmet, the hope of salvation; (1 Thess. v. 8;) and let not
death seem to thee as it doth to them that have no hope.
(1 Thess. iv. 13.) The love of our Father, and our Saviour,
have given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through
grace, to comfort our hearts, and establish them in every good
word and work. (2 Thess. ii. 16, 17.) Keep, therefore, the
rejoicing of hope, firm to the end. (Heb. iii. 6 .) Continue
grounded and settled in the faith, and be not moved away from
the hope of the gospel. (Col. i. 23 ; 1 Pet. i. 13.) And now,
Lord, what wait I for ? my hope is in thee. (Psalm xxxix. 7-)
Baxter's dying thoughts. 417
Uphold me according to thy word, that I may live ; and let me
not be ashamed of my hope. (Psalm cxix. 116.) Though
mine iniquities testify against me, yet, O thou that art the hope
of Israel, the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble, be not as a
stranger to my soul. (Jer. xiv. 7, 8.) Thy name is called upon
by me, oh, forsake me not ! (Ver. 9.) Why have our eyes beheld
thy wonders, and why have we had thy covenant, and thy
mercies, but that we might set our hope in God. (Psalm
ixxviii. 5, 7.) Remember the word to thy servant, upon which
thou hast caused me to hope. (Psalm cxix. 49.) If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquity, O Lord, who should stand ?
But there is forgiveness with thee, that tliou mayest be feared.
I wait for the Lord ; my soul doth wait, and in his word do I
hope ; I will hope in the Lord, for with him there is mercy and
plenteous redemption. (Psalm cxxx. 3 — 5, 7.) For he
taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his
mercy. (Psalm cxlvii. 11.) Though flesh and heart fail, the
Lord is the rock of my heart ; he is my portion, saith my soul,
therefore will 1 hope in him. The Lord is good to them that
wait for him ; to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that I
should both hope, and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. It is good for me that I have borne the yoke in my youth,
and that I keep silence, and put my mouth in the dust, if so be
there may be hope. (Psalm Ixxiii. 26 ; Lam. iii. 24 — 27, 29.)
God need not flatter such worms as we, nor promise us
that which he never meaneth to perform. He hath laid the
rudiments of our hope, in a nature capable of desiring, seeking,
and thinking of another life : he hath called me by grace, to
actual desires and endeavours; and some foretaste he hath
vouchsafed. I look for no heaven, but the perfection of divine
life, light, and love, in endless glory with Christ and his holv
ones. And this he hath begun in me already; and shall I not
boldly hope when I have the capacity, the promise, and the
earnest and foretaste ? Is it not God himself that hath caused
me to hope? Was not nature, promise, and grace from him?
And can a soul miscarry, and be deceived, that departeth hence
in a hope of God's own causing, and encouraging ? Lord, I
have lived in hope, I have prayed in hope, I have laboured, suf-
fered, and waited in hope ; and, by thy grace, I will die in hope.
And is not this according to thy word and will? And wilt thou
cast away a soul that hopeth in thee, by thine own connuand
VOL. XVIII. F. E
418 Baxter's DYING THOUGHTS.
and operation? Had wealth and honour, or continuance on
earth, or the favour of man, been my reward and hope, my
hope and I had died together. Were this our best, how vain
were man ! But the Lord hvelh, and my Redeemer is glorified,
and intercedeth for me; and the same Spirit is in heaven, who
is in my heart, (as the same sun is in the firmament which is in
my house,) and the promise is sure to all Christ's seed. And
millions are now in heaven, that once did live and die in hope ;
they were sinners once, as now I am; they had no other Savi-
our, no other Sanctifier, no other promise, than I now have;
confessing that they were strangers here, they looked for a
better country, and for a city that had foundations, even a
heavenly, where now they are : and shall J not follow them in
liope that have sped so well ? Hope then, O my soul, unto the
end. (1 Pet, i. 13.) From henceforth, and for ever, hope in
the Lord. (Psalm cxxxi. 13.) I will hope continually, and
will yet praise thee more and more ; my mouth shall show forth
thy righteousness and salvation. (Psalm Ixxi. 14, 15.) The
Lord is at my right hand; I shall not be moved. My heart,
therefore, is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; my flesh also shall
dwell confidently, and rest in hope ; for God hath showed me
the path of life: in his presence is fulness of joy, and at his
right hand, are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm xvi. 8 — 11.)
HI. What then remaineth, O my soul, but that, in trust and
hope, then love thy God, thy Saviour, thy Comforter, the glori-
ous society, thy own perfection in glorious, endless, heavenly
life, and light, and love, and the joyful praises of Jehovah,
better than this burden of painful and corruptible flesh, and this
howling wilderness, the habitation of serpents and untamed
brutes, where unbelief and murmuring, lust and folly, injustice
and uncharitableness, tyranny and divisions, pride and conten-
tion, have long provoked God, and wearied thee ? Where the
vintage and harvest is thorns and thistles, sin and sorrows, cares
and crosses, manured by manifold temptations. How odious is
that darkness and unbelief, that unholiness and disaffection, that
deadness and stupidity, which maketh such a work as this so
reasonable, necessary, and pleasant a work, to seem unsuitable
or hard? Is it unsuitable or hard to the eye, to see the sun
and light; or by it to see the beautified world ? or for a
man to love his life or health, his father, or his friend ? What
should be easier to a nature that hath rational love, than to love
Baxter's dying thoughts. 419
him that is essential love itself. He that loveth all, and giveth
to all the loving faculty, should be loved by all ; and he that
hath specially loved me, should be specially loved by me.
Love is the perfection of all thy preparations. It desireth to
please God, and therefore to be in the most pleasing state, and
freed from all that is displeasing to him, which is not to be hoped
for oh earth. It desireth all suitable nearness, acquaintance,
union, and communion. It is weary of distance, estrangedness,
and alien society and affairs. It taketh advantage of every
notice, intimation, or mention of God, to renew and exercise
these desires. Every message and mercy from him is fuel for
love, and, while we are short of perfection, stir up our desires
after more. When love tasteth of the grapes, it would have the
vine. When it tasteth of the fruits, it would dwell where they
grow, and possess the land. Its thoughts of proximity and fru-
ition are sweet ; no other person or thing can satisfy it. The
soul is where it loveth. If our friend dwell in our hearts by love,
and if fleshly pleasure, riches, and honour, do dwell in the heart
of the voluptuous, the covetous, and the proud, surely God and
our Redeemer, the heavenly society, holiness, and glory, do
dwell in the heart which loveth them with a fervent love. And
if heaven dwell in my heart, shall I not desire to dwell in
heaven ? Light and light, fire and fire, are not more inclined
to union than love and love ', gracious love, and glorious love.
Would divine, original, universal love communicate and pour
out itself more plentifully upon my heart, how easy would it be
to leave this flesh and world, and to hear the sentence of my de-
parture to my God ? Death and the grave would be but a triumph
for victorious love. It would be easier to die in peace and joy,
than to rest at night, or to come home from my travel to my be-
loved friends, or to go, when I am hungry, to a feast. A little love
hath made me study willingly, and preach willingly, and write wil-
lingly, yea, and suifer somewhat willingly ; and would not more
make me go more willingly to God ? Shall the imagination of
house, gardens, walks, libraries, prospects, meadows, orchards,
hills, and rivers, allure the desires of deceived minds ? And shall
not the thoughts of the heavenly mansions, society, and delights,
much more allure and draw up my desires ? The reading of a
known fiction of a Civitas Solis, an Utopia, an Atalantis, &c.,
hath pleased many; but if I did believingly hear of such a country
in the world, where men did never die, nor were sick, or weak,
or sad 5 where the prince was perfectly just and pious, wise and
EE 2
420 Baxter's dying thoughts.
peaceable, devoted to God and the public good ; and the teachers
were all wise, judicious men, of universal certain knowledge,
perfectly acquainted with the matter and method of natural
and theological truths, and all their duty, and all of one mind
and of one heart, and tongue and practice, loving each other,
and the people as themselves, and leading the flocks heaven-
ward, through all temptations, with triumphant hopes and joy ;
where all the people perfectly obeyed God, their commanders,
and their teachers, and lived in perfect love, unity, and peace,
and were daily employed in the joyful praises of God, and
hopes of glory, and in doing all possible good to one another,
contending with none through ignorance, uncharitableness, or
pride, nor ever reproaching, injuring, or hurting one another,
&c. I say, if 1 knew or heard of such a country, should I not
love it before I ever see it, and earnestly desire to be there ? Nay,
do I not over-love this distracted world, where tyranny sheddeth
streams of blood, and layeth desolate cities and countries, and
exposeth the miserable inhabitants to lamentable distress and
famine; where the same tyranny sets up the wicked, reproacheth
and oppresseth the just and innocent, keepeth out the gospel,
and keepeth up idolatry, infidelity, and wickedness, in the far
greatest part of all the earth ; where Satan chooseth pastors too
often for the churches of Christ, even such as by ignorance,
pride, sensuality, worldliness, and malignity, become thorns and
thistles, yea, devouring wolves, to those whom they should feed
and comfort ; where no two persons are in all things of a mind ;
where evil is commended, and truth and goodness accused and
oppressed, because men's minds are unacquainted with them, or
unsuitable to them. And those that are the greatest pretenders
to truth do most eagerly contend against it, and oppose it ;
and almost all the world are scolding or scuffling in the dark;
and where there appeareth but little hopes of a remedy, I saj^,
can I love such a world as this ? And shall I not think more
delightfully of the inheritance of the saints in light, and the
uniting love and joyful praises of the church triumphant, and the
heavenly choir ?
Should I not love a lovely and a loving world much better
than a world where there is, comparatively, so little loveliness or
love ? All that is of God is good and lovely, but it is not here
that his glory shineth in felicitating splendour. I am taught to
look upward when I pray, and to say, " Our Father, which art
in heaven." God's works are amiable, even in hellj and yet,
Baxter's dying thoughts. 421
though I would know them, I would not be there. And, alas I
how much of the works of man are mixed here with the works
of God ! Here is God's wisdom manifest ; but here is man's
obstinate folly. Here is God's government ; but here is man's
tyranny and unruliness. Here is God's love and mercies j but
here are men's malice, wrath, and cruelty ; by which they are
worse to one another than wolves and tigers, depopulating
countries, and filling the world with bloodshed, famine, misery,
and lamentations, proud tyrants being worse than raging plagues;
which made David choose the pestilence before his enemies'
pursuit. Here is much of God's beauteous order and harmonyj;
but here is also much of man's madness, deformity, and con-
fusion. Here is much historical truth, and some civil and ec-
clesiastic justice ; but, alas ! with how much odious falsehood
and injustice is it mixed ? Here is much precious theological
verity ; but how dark is much of it to such blind, and negligent,
and corrupted minds, as every where abound. Here are wise^
judicious teachers and companions to be found ; but, alas ! how
few, in comparison of the most; and how hardly known by
those that need them. Here are sound and orthodox ministers
of Christ; but how few that most need them know which are
they, and how to value them or use them. And how many
thousands of seduced or sensual sinners are made believe that
they are but deceivers, or, as they called Paul, pestilent fellows,
and movers of sedition among the people. And in how many
parts of the world are they as the prophets that Obadiah hid in
caves, or as Micaiah, or Elias among the lying prophets, or the
Baalites. Though such as of whom the world is not worthy.
And is that world, then, more worthy of our love than heaven ?
There are worthy and religious families which honour God, and
are honoured by him ; but, alas ! how few ; and usually by
the temptations of wealth, and worldly interest, how full even of
the sins of Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of
idleness, if not also unmercifulness to the poor. And how are
they tempted to plead for their sins and snares, and account it
rustic ignorance which contradicteth them. And how few
pious families are there of the greater sort, that do not quickly
degenerate ; and posterity, by false religion, error, or sensuality,
grow most contrary to the minds of their pious progenitors.
There are many that educate their children wisely in the fear of
God, and have, accordingly, comfort in them ; but how many
are there, that having devoted them in baptism to God, do train
422 Baxter's dying thoughts.
them up ill the service of the flesh, the world, and the devil,
which they renounced, and never understood, or at least intended,
for themselves or children, what they did profess. How many
parents think, that when they offer their children to God in
baptism, without a sober and due consideration of the nature
and meaning of that great covenant with God, that God must
accept, and certainly regenerate and save them. Yea, too many
religious parents forget that they themselves are sponsors in
that covenant, and undertake to use the means, on their part, to
make their children fit for the grace of the Son, and the com-
munion of the Spirit, as they grow up, and think that God should
absolutely sanctify, keep, and save them at age, because they
are theirs, and were baptised, though they keep them not from
great and unnecessary temptations, nor, teach them plainly and
seriously the meaning of the covenant which was made for them
with God, as to the nature, benefits, or conditions of it. How
many send them to others to be taught in grammar, logic, phi-
losophy, or arts, yea, and divinity, before their own parents
ever taught them what they did with God in baptism, what they
received^ and what they promised and vowed to do. They
send them to trades, or secular callings, or to travel in foreign
lands, among a multitude of snares, among tempting company,
and tempting baits, before ever at home they were instructed,
armed, and settled against those temptations which they must
needs encounter, and which, if they overcome them, they are
undone. How ordinarily, when they have first neglected this
great duty of their own for their fortification, do they plead a
necessity of thrusting them out on these temptations, though
utterly unarmed, from some punctilio of honour or conformity to
the world, to avoid the contempt of worldly men, or to adorn
their (yet naked) souls with some of the plumes or painted
trifles, ceremonies, or compliments, which will never serve instead
of heavenly wisdom, mortification, and the love of God and man.
As if they were like to learn that fear of God in a crowd of di-
verting and tempting company, baits, and business, which they
never learned under the teaching, nurture, and daily oversight,
of their religious parents, in a safer station : or as if, for
some little reason, they might send them as to sea without pilot
or """hor, and think that God must save them from the waves :
or *f *^ were better to enter them into Satan's school, or army,
and V f ^^^^ them upon the notorious danger of damnation, than
to mis i^ preferment and wealth, or of the fashions and favour
HAXTER's DYfNG THOUGHTS, 423
of the times : and then when they hear that they have forsaken
God, and true religion, and given up themselves to lust and sen-
suality, and, perhaps, as enemies to God and good men, destroy
what their parents laboured to build up, these parents wonder
at God's judgments, and with broken hearts lament their infe-
licity, when it were better to lament their own misdoing, and
it had been best of all to have lamented it.
Thus families, churches, and kingdoms, run on to blindness,
ungodliness, and confusion : self-undoing, and serving the ma-
lice of Satan, for fleshly lust, is the too common employment of
mankind : all is wise, and good, and sweet, which is prescribed
us by God, in true nature, or supernatural revelation : but folly,
sin, and misery, mistaking themselves to be wit, and honesty,
and prosperity, and raging against that which nominally they
pretend to and profess, are the ordinary case and course of the
most of men : and when we would plead them out of their de-
ceit and misery, it is well if we are not tempted to imitate
them, or be not partly infected with their disease, or at least
reproached and oppressed as their enemies : such a Bedlam is
most of the world become, where madness goeth for the only
wisdom, and he is the bravest man that can sin and be damned
with reputation and renown, and successfully drive or draw the
greatest number with him unto hell : to which the world hath
no small likeness, forsaking God, and being very much forsaken
by him. '
This is the world which standeth in competition for my love',
with the spiritual, blessed world : much of God's mercies and
comforts I have here had : but their sweetness was their taste
of divine love, and their tendency to heavenly perfection. What
was the end and use of all the good that ever I saw, or that ever
God did for my soul or body, but to teach me to love him, and
long for more ? How many weaning experiences ; how many
thousand bitter or contemning thoughts have I had of all the
glory and pleasures of this world. How many thousand love
tokens from God have called me to believe and taste his good-
ness. Wherever I go, and which way soever I look, I see va-
nity and vexation written upon all things in this world, so far as
they stand in competition with God, and would be the end and
portion of a fleshly mind : and J see holiness to the Lord writ-
ten upon every thing, so far as it declareth God, and leadeth me
to him, as my ultimate end. God hath not for nothing engaged
me in a war against this world, and commanded me to take and
424 eaxter's dying thoughts.
use it as mine enemy : the emptiness, clangerousness, and bit-
terness of the world, and the all-sufficiency, trustiness, and good-
ness of God, have been the sum of all the experiences of my
life ? And shall a worldly, backward heart overcome the teach-
ings of nature. Scripture, the Spirit of grace, and all experi-
ence ? Far be it from me 1
But, O my God ! love is thy great and special gift : all good
is from thee : but love is the godlike nature, life, and image :
it is given us from the love of the Father, the grace of the Son,
and the quickening, illuminating, and sanctifying operation of
the Holy Spirit : what can the earth return unto the sun, but its
own reflected beams, — if those ? As how far soever man is
a medium in generation, nature, and that appetite which is the
moving pondus in the child, is thy work; so, whatever is man's
part in the mediate work of believing and repenting, (which yet
is not done without thy Spirit and grace,) certainly it is the
blessed Regenerator which must make us new creatures, by giv-
ing us this divine nature, holy love, which is the holy appetite
Sind pondus of the soul. Come down. Lord, into this heart, for
it cannot come up to thee. Can the plants for life, or the eye
for light, go up unto the sun ? Dwell in me by the Spirit of
love, and I shall dwell by love in thee. Reason is weak, and
thoughts are various, and man will be a slippery, uncertain
v/ight, if love be not his fixing principle, and do not incline his
soul to thee : surely through thy grace I easily feql that I love
thy word, I love thy image, I love thy work, and, oh, how heart-
ily do I love to love thee, and long to know and love thee
more ! And if all things be of thee, and through thee, and to
thee, surely this love to the beams of thy glory here on earth
is eminently so ! It is thee, Lord, that it meaneth : to thee
it looketh : it is thee it serveth : for thee it mourns, and seeks,
and groans : in thee it'trusts : and the hope, and peace, and
comfort which support me, are in thee. When I was a return-
ing prodigal in rags, thou sawest me afar off, and didst meet
me with thy embracing, feasting love : and shall I doubt whe-
ther he that hath better clothed me, and dwelt within me, will
entertain me with a feast of greater love in the heavenly man-
sions, the world of love ?
The suitableness of things below to my fleshly nature, hath
detained my affections too much on earth : and shall not the
suitableness of things above to my spiritual nature much more
draw up my love to heaven ? There is the God whom I have
Baxter's dying thoughts. 425.
sought and served : he is also here ; but veiled, and but little
known : but there he shineth to heavenly spirits in heavenly
glory. There is the Saviour in whom I have believed : he hath
also dwelt in flesh on earth; but clothed in such meanness, and
humbled to such a life and death, as was to the Jews a stum-
bling-block, and to the Gentiles matter of reproach : but he
shineth and reigneth now in glory, above the malice and con-
tempt of sinners. And I shall there live because he liveth ;
and in his light 1 shall have light. He loved me here with a
redeeming, regenerating, and preserving love : but there he will
love me with a perfecting, glorifying, joyful love. I had here
some rays of heavenly light : but interpositions caused eclipses
and nights, yea, some long and winter nights : but there I shall
dwell in the city of the sun, the city of God, the heavenly Jeru-
salem, where there is no night, eclipse, or darkness : there are
the heavenly hosts, whose holy love, and joyful praises, I would
fain be a partaker of ? I have here had some of their loving
assistance, but to me unseen, being above our fleshly way of
converse ; but there I shall be with them, of the like nature, in
the same orb, and of the same triumphant church and choir !
There are perfected souls gathered home to Christ : not, as
here, striving, like Esau and Jacob in the womb ', nor yet as
John when he leaped in the w^omb, because of his mother's joy ;
nor as wrangling children, that are hardly kept in the same
house in peace : not like the servants of Abraham and Lot, like
Paul and Barnabas, like Epiphanius and Chrysostom, like Lu-
ther and Carolostadius, like Ridley and Hooper, or the many
striving parties now among us ; nor like the disciples striving
who should be the greatest : not like Noah's family in a wicked
world, or Lot in a wicked city, or Abraham in an idolatrous
land; nor like Elijah left alone ; nor like those that wandered in
sheep-skins and goat-skins, destitute, afflicted, and tormented,
hid in dens and caves of the earth : not like Job on the dung-
hill; nor like Lazarus at the rich man's door : not like the Af-
rican bishops, whose tongues were cut out; nor like the preach-
ers silenced by Popish imposers; (in Germany by the interim, or
elsewhere ;) nor like such as Tzegedine, Peucer, and many other
worthy men, whose maturest age was spent in prisons : not as
we poor bewildered sinners, feeling evil, and fearing more, con-
founded in folly and mad contention, some hating the only way
of peace, and others groping for it in the dark, wandering and
lost in the clearest light, where the illuminated can but pity the
426 Baxter's dying thoughts.
blindj but cannot make them willing to be delivered. What is
heaven to me, but God ? God, who is life, and light, and love,
communicating himself to blessed spirits, perfecting them in the
reception, possession, and exercise of life, and light, and love,
for ever. These are not the accidents, but the essence of that
God who is heaven and all to me : should I fear that death
which passeth me to infinite, essential life ? Should I fear a
darksome passage into a world of perfect light ? Should 1 fear
to go to love itself ? Think, O my soul, what the sun's quick-
ening light and heat is to this lower, corporeal world ? Much
more is God, even infinite life, andlight,and love, to the blessed
world above : doth it not draw out thy desires to think of going
into a world of love ? When love will be our region, our com-
pany, our life ; more to us than the air is for our breath, than
the light is for our sight, than our food is for our life, than our
friends are for our solace ; and more to us than we are to our-
selves. O excellent grace of faith which doth foresee, and bles-
sed word of faith that doth foreshow, this world of love ! Shall
I fear to enter where there is no wrath, no fear, no strangeness,
nor suspicion, nor selfish separation, but love will make every
holy spirit as dear and lovely to me as myself, and me to them
as lovely as themselves, and God to us all more amiable than
ourselves and all: where love will have no defects or distances,
no damps or discouragements, no discontinuance or mixed dis-
affection ; but as life will be without death, and light without
darkness, (a perfect, everlasting day of glory,) so will love be
without any hatred, unkindness, or allay. As many coals make
one fire, and many candles conjoined make one light, so will
many living spirits make one life, and many illuminated, glori-
ous spirits, one light and glory, and many spirits, naturalized
into love, will make one perfect love of God, and be loved as
one by God for ever : for all the body of Christ is one; even here
it is one in initial union of the Spirit, and relation to one God,
and Head, and Life, (1 Cor. xii. throughout; Eph. iv. ] — 17,)
and shall be presented as beloved and spotless to God, when the
great marriage day of the Lamb shall come. (Eph. v. 24, 25,
&c.; Rev. xxi and xxii.)
Hadst thou not given me, O Lord, the life of nature, I should
have had no conceptions of a glorious, everlasting life : but if
thou give me not the life of grace, I shall have no sufficient de-
lightful inclination and desire after it. Hadst thou not given
me sight and reason, the light of nature, 1 should not have
Baxter's dying thoughts. 42?
tliought how desirable it is to live in the glorious light and
vision ; but if thou give me not the spiritual illumination of a
seeing faith, I shall not yet long for the glorious light, and bea-
tific vision. Hadst thou not given me a will and love, which
is part of my very nature itself, I could not have tasted how de-
sirable it is to live in a world of universal, perfect, endless
love : but unless thou also shed abroad thy love upon my heart,
by the Spirit of Jesus, the great medium of love, and turn my
very nature or inclination into divine and holy love, I shall not
long for the world of love. Appetite followeth nature : oh !
give me not only the image and the art of godliness; the ap-
proaches towards it, nor only some forced or unconstant acts ;
but give me the divine nature, which is holy love, and then my
soul will hasten towards thee, and cry, ^ How long, O Lord, how
long ! O come, come quickly, make no delay.' Surely the fear
of dying intimateth some contrary love that inclineth the soul
another way ; and some shameful unbelief, and great unappre-
hensiveness of the attractive glory of the world of love ; other-
wise no frozen person so longeth for the fire, none in a dungeon
so desireth light, as we should long for the heavenly light and
love.
God's infinite, essential self-love, in which he is eternally de-
lighted in himself, is the most amiable object, and heaven itself
to saints and angels : and next to that his love to all his works,
to the world, and to the church in heaven, speaketh much more
of his loveliness than his love to me. But yet due self-love in
me, is his work, and part of his natural image ; and when this
by sin is grown up to excess, (through the withdrawing of a
contracted, narrow soul, from the union and due love to my fel-
low-creatures, and to God,) I must also, I cannot but, inquire
after God's love to me : and by this my desires must be moved ;
for I am not so capable of ascending above self interest, and
self-love, as in the state of glorious union I shall be. I am
glad to perceive that others do love God ; and I love those
most that I find most love him : but it is not other men's love
to God that will be accepted by him instead of mine : nor is it
God's love to others (which yet rejoiceth me) that will satisfy
me, without his love to me. But when all these are still before
me, God's essential self-love and delight, his love to his crea-
tures, especially the glorified, and his love to me also, even to
me, a vile, unworthy sinner ; what then should stay my ascend-
ing love, or discourage my desires to be with God ?
428
And dost thou doubt, canst thou doubt, O my soul, whether
thou art going to a God that loveth thee ? If the Jews dis-
cerned the great love of Christ to Lazarus by his tears, canst
thou not discern his love to thee in his blood ? It is never the
less, but the more, obliging and amiable that it was not shed
for thee alone, but for many. May I not say as Paul, (Gal. ii.
20,) " I live by the faith of the Son of God, that hath loved
me, and given himself for me." Yea, it is not so much I that
live, as Christ liveth in me : and will he forsake the habitation
which his love hath chosen ; and which he hath so dearly
bought ? Oh, read often that triumphing chapter Rom. viii.,
and conclude, " What shall separate us from the love of God?'*
If life have not done it, death shall not do it. If leaning on his
breast at meat was a token of Christ's special love to John, is
not his dwelling in me by my faith, and his living in me by his
Spirit, a sure token of his love to me : and if a dark saying,
*' If he tarry till I come, what is that to thee }" raised a report
that the beloved disciple should not die, why should not plain
promises assure me that I shall live with him that loveth me for
ever ? Be not so unthankful, O my soul, as to question, doubt-
ingly, whether thy heavenly Father, and thy Lord, doth love
thee ? Canst thou forget the sealed testimonies of it ? Did I
not even now repeat so many as should shame my doubts ? A
multitude of thy friends have loved thee so entirely, that thou
canst not doubt of it : and did any of them signify their love
with the convincing evidence that God hath done ? Have they
done for thee what he hath done? Are they love itself? Is
their love so full, so firm, and so unchangeable, as his ? My
thoughts of heaven are the sweeter, because abundance of my
ancient, lovely, and loving holy friends are there : and I am the
willinger, by death, to follow them. And should I not think of
it more pleasedly because my God and Father, my Saviour, and
my Comforter, is there? And not alone, but with all the society
of love. Was not Lazarus in the bosom of God himself? Yet
it is said that he was in Abraham's bosom ; as the promise runs,
that we shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the
kingdom of God. And what maketh the society of the saints
so sweet as holy love ? It is comfortable to read, that " To
love the Lord ourGod with all our heart, and soul, and might,"
is the first and great commandment ; and the second is like to
it, '^ to love our neighbours as ourselves." For God's commands
proceed from that will which is his nature, or essence, and they
Baxter's dying thoughts. 429
tend to the same as their objective end. Therefore, he that hath
made love the great command, doth tell us that love is the
great conception of his own essence, the spring of that com-
mand ; and that this commanded, imperfect love doth tend to
perfect, heavenly love, even to our communion with essential,
infinite love. It were strange, that the love and goodness which
is equal to the power that made the world, and the wisdom
that ordereth it, should be scant and backward to do good, and
to be suspected more than the love of friends 1 The remem-
brance of the holiness, humility, love, and faithfulness, of my
dearest friends of every rank, with whom I have conversed on
earth, in every place where I have lived, is so sweet to me, that
I am oft ready to recreate myself with the naming of such as
are now with Christ. But in heaven they will love me better
than they did on earth ; and my love to them will be more
pleasant. But all these sparks are little to the sun.
Every place that I have lived in was a place of divine love,
which there set up its obliging monuments. Every year and
hour of my life hath been a time of love ; every friend, and
every neighbour, yea, every enemy, have been the messengers
and instruments of love ; every state and change of my life,
notwithstanding my sin, hath opened to me treasures and
mysteries of love. And after such a life of love, shall I doubt
whether the same God do love me ? Is he the God of the
mountains, and not of the vallies ? Did he love me in my
youth and health, and doth he not love me in my age, and
pain, and sickness ? Did he love all the faithful better in their
life than at their death ? If our hope be not chiefly in this life,
neither is our state of love, which is principally the heavenly,
endless grace. My groans grieve my friends, but abate not
their love. Did he love me for my strength, my weakness
might be my fear ; as they that love for beauty loathe them
that are deformed, and they that love for riches despise the
poor. But God loved me when I was his enemy, to make me
a friend, and when I was bad, to make me better. Whatever
he taketh pleasure in is his own gift. Who made me to differ ?
And what have I that I have not received ? And God will
finish the work, the building, the warfare, that is his own. Oh,
the multitude of mercies to my soul and body, in peace and
war, in youth and age, to myself and friends, the many great
and gracious deliverances which have testified to me the love of
God ! Have I lived in the experience of it, and shall I die in
430 Baxter's dying thoughts.
the doubts of it ? Had it been love only to my body, it would
have died with me, and not have accompanied my departing
soul. I am not much in doubt of the truth of my love to him 3
though I have not seen him, save as in a glass, as in a glass
seen 1 love him. 1 love my brethren whom I have seen, and
those most that are most in love with him. I love his word,
and works, and ways, and fain I would be nearer to him, and
love him more ; and I loathe myself for loving him no better.
And shall Peter say more confidently, " Thou knowest that
I love thee," than " I know that thou lovest me ? " Yes, he
may ; because, though God's love is greater and steadfaster than
ours, yet our knowledge of his great love is less than his know-
ledge of our little love ; and as we are defective in our own love,
so are we in our certainty of its sincerity. And without the
knowledge of our love to God, we can never be sure of his
special love to us. But yet I am not utterly a stranger to
myself; 1 know for what I have lived and laboured in the
world, and who it is that I have desired to please. The God
whose I am, and whom I serve, hath loved me in my youth,
and he will love me in my aged weakness. My flesh and my
heart fail; my pains seem grievous to the flesh; but it is love
that chooseth them, that useth them for my good, that mode-
rateth them, and will shortly end them. Why then should
I doubt of my Father's love ? Shall pain or dying make me
doubt ? Did God love none from the beginning of the world,
but Enoch and Elias ? And what am I better than my fore-
fathers ? What is in me that I should expect exemption from
the common lot of mankind ? Is not a competent time of
great mercy on earth, in order to the unseen felicity, all that
the best of men can hope for ? O for a clearer, stronger
faith, to show me the world that more exeelleth this, than this
excelleth the womb where I was conceived ! Then should I
not fear my third birthday, what pangs soever go before it ;
nor be unwilling of my change. The grave, indeed, is a bed
that nature doth abhor, yet there the weary be at rest. But
souls new born have a double nature that is immortal, and go
to the place that is agreeable to their nature, even to the
region of spirits, and the region of holy love. Even passive
matter, that hath no other natural motion, hath a natural inclin-
ation to uniting, aggregative motion. And God maketh all
natures suitable to their proper ends and use. How can it be
that a spirit should not incline to be with spirits ? and souls,
BAXTER*S DYING THOUGHTS. 481
that have the divine nature in holy love, desire to be with the
God of love ? Arts, and sciences, and tongues, become not a
nature to us ; else they would not cease at death. But holy
love is our new nature, and therefore ceaseth not with this
bodily life. And shall accidental love make me desire the com-
pany of a frail and mutable friend ? And shall not this
engrafted, inseparable love, make me long to be with Christ ?
Though the love of God to all his creatures will not prove that
they are all immortal, nor oblige them to expect another life,
that never had capacity or faculties to expect it, yet his love to
such as in nature and grace are made capable of it, doth war-
rant and oblige them to believe and hope for the full perfection
of the work of love. Some comfort themselves in the love of
St. Peter, as having the keys of heaven. And how many could
1 name that are now with Christ, who loved me so faithfully on
earth, that were I sure they had the keys and power of heaven,
and were not changed in their love, 1 could put my departing
soul into their hands, and die with joy. And is it not better
in the hand of my Redeemer, and the God of love, and Father
of spirits ? Is any love comparable to his ; or any friend so
boldly to be trusted ? I should take it for ungrateful unkindness
in my friend to doubt of my love and trustiness, if I had given
him all that he hath, and maintained him constantly by my
kindness ; but oh, how odious a thing is sin ! which, by destroy-
ing our love to God, doth make us unmeet to believe and
sweetly perceive his love ; and by making us doubt of the love
of God, and lose the pleasant relish of it, doth more increase
our difficulty of loving him. The title that the angel gave to
Daniel, " A man greatly beloved of God," methinks, should
be enough to make one joyfully love and trust God, both in
life and death. Will Almighty love ever hurt me or forsake
me ? And have not all saints that title in their degrees ?
What else signifieth their mark and name. Holiness to the
Lord ? What is it but our separation to God, as his peculiar,
beloved people ? And how are they separated but by mutual
love, and our forsaking all that alienateth, or is contrary ? Let
scorners deride us as self-flatterers, that believe they are God's
darlings ; and wo to the hypocrites that believe it on their false
presumption ! Without such belief or grounded hopes 1 see not
how any man can die in true peace. He that is no otherwise
beloved than hypocrites and unbelievers, must have his portion
with them. And he that is no otherwise beloved than as the
432 Baxter's dying thoughts.
ungodly, unholy, and miregenerate, shall not stand in judgment,
nor see God, nor enter into his kingdom. Most upright souls
are to blame for groundless doubting of God's love ; but not for
acknowledging it, rejoicing in it, and, in their doubts, being most
solicitous to make it sure. Love brought me into the world,
and furnished me with a thousand mercies. Love hath pro-
vided for me, delivered me, and preserved me, till now ; and
will it not entertain my separated soul ? Is God like false or
insufficient friends, that forsake us in adversity ?
I confess that I have wronged love by sin ; by many and great
unexcusable sins. But all, save Christ himself, were sinners,
which love did purify, and receive to glory. God, who is rich
in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
by grace we are saved, and hath raised us up together in hea-
venly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph. ii. 4 — 6.) O that I
could love much that have so much forgiven ! The glorified
praise him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his
own blood, and made us kings and priests to God. (Rev. i. 5, 6.)
Our Father that hath loved us, giveth us consolation and
good hope , through grace. (2 Thess. ii. 16.) I know no sin
which I repent not of with self-loathing ; and I earnestly beg
and labour that none of my sins may be to me unknown. I
dare not justify even what is in any way uncertain ; though
I dare not call all that my sin which siding men, of different
judgments, on each side, passionately call so. While both sides
do it on contrary accounts, and not to go contrary ways is a
crime. O that God would bless my accusations to my illumin-
ation, that I may not be unknown to myself! Though some
think me much better than I am, and others much worse, it
most concerneth me to know the truth myself ; flattery would
be more dangerous to me than false accusations : I may safelier
be ignorant of other men's sins than of my own. Who can
understand his errors ? Cleanse me. Lord, from secret sins,
and let not ignorance or error keep me in impenitence ; and
keep thou me back from presumptuous sins. (Psalm xix. 12, 13.)
I have an advocate with the Father, and thy promise, that he
that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy. Those
are, by some men, taken for my greatest sins, which my most
serious thoughts did judge to be the greatest of my outward
duties, and which I performed through the greatest difficulties,
and which cost me dearest to the fiesh, and the greatest self-
Baxter's dying thoughts. 433
denial and patience in my reluctant mind. Wherever I have
erred. Lord, make it known to me, that my confession may
prevent the sin of others ; and where I have not erred, confirm
and accept me in the right.
And seeing an unworthy worm hath had so many testimonies
of thy tender love, let me not be like to them, that when thou
saidst, ' I loved you,' unthankfully asked, ' Wherein hast
thou loved us ? * (Mai. i. 2.) Heaven is not more spangled
with stars, than thy word and works with the refulgent signa-
tures of love. Thy well-beloved Son, the Son of thy love,
undertaking the office, message, and work of the greatest love,
was full of that Spirit which is love, which he sheds abroad in
the hearts of thine elect, that the love of the Father, the grace
of the Son, and the communion of the Spirit, may be their hope
and life. His works, his sufferings, his gifts, as well as his
comfortable word, did say to his disciples, " As the Father
loved me, so have I loved you; continue ye in my love.*'
(John XV. 9.) And how. Lord, shall we contiime in it, but by
the thankful belief of thy love and loveliness, desiring still to
love thee more, and in all things to know and please thy will;
which thou knowest is my soul's desire.
Behold then, O my soul, with what love the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit have loved thee, that thou shouldest be made
and called a son of God, redeemed, regenerate, adopted into
that covenant state of grace in which thou standest. " Re-
joice, therefore, in hope of the glory of God, being justified by
faith, having peace with God, and access by faith and hope
that maketh not ashamed ; that being reconciled, when an
enemy, by the death of Christ, I shall be saved by his life.
(Rom. V. 1, 2.) Having loved his own, to the end he loveth
them, and without end. Plis gifts and calling are without
repentance. When Satan, and thy flesh, would hide God's
love, look to Christ, and read the golden words of love in the
sacred gospel ; and peruse thy many recorded experiences, and
remember the convictions which secret and open mercies have
many a time afforded thee. But especially draw nearer to the
Lord of love, and be not seldom and slight in thy contempla-
tions of his love and loveliness ; dwell in the sunshine, and thou
wilt know that it is light, and warm, and comfortable. Distance
and strangeness cherish thy doubts ; acquaint thyself with him,
and be at peace.
Yet look up, and oft and earnestly look up, after thy ascended,
VOL. XVHf. F F
434 Baxter's dying thoughts.
glorified Head, who said, '' Tell my brethren I ascend to my
Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Think
where and what he is, and what he is now doing for all his own ;
and how humbled, abased, suffering love is now triumphant,
regnant, glorified love; and therefore no less than in all its
tender expressions upon earth. As love is nowhere perfectly
believed but in heaven, so I can nowhere so fully discern it, as
by looking up by faith to my Father and Saviour, which is in
heaven, and conversing more believingly with the heavenly
society. Had I done this more and better, and as I have per-
suaded others to do it, I had lived in more convincing delights
of God's love, which would have turned the fears of death into
more joyful hopes, and more earnest desires to be with Christ,
in the arms, in the world, in the life of love, as far better than
to be here, in a dark, a doubting, fearing world.
But O Father of infinite love ! though my arguments be
many and strong, my heart is bad, and my strength is weakness,
and I am insufficient to plead the cause of thy love and love-
liness to myself or others. Oh, plead thy own cause, and what
heart can resist ? Let it not be my word only, but thine, that
thou lovest me, even me, a sinner ; speak it as Christ said to
Lazarus, " Arise." If not, as thou tellest me that the sun is
warm, yet as thou hast told me that my parents and my dearest
friends did love me, and much more powerfully than so. Tell
it me, as thou tellest me that thou hast given me life, by the
consciousness and works of life; that while 1 can say, " Thou
that knowest all things, knowest that 1 love thee ; " it may
include, '' therefore I know that I am beloved of thee ; '
and therefore come to thee in the confidence of thy lov^e, alid
long to be nearer in the clearer sight, the fuller sense, and
joyfuller exercise of love for ever. Father, into thy hand I
commend my spirit. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ! Amen.
AN
APPENDIX.
A BREVIATE OF THE HELPS OF FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE.
A BREVIATE OF THE PROOF OF SUPERNATURAL REVELATION,
AND THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY.
1 TIMOTHY iii, 16.
VFithout cont rovcrsy, great is the mystery of godliness: God
was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of
angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory.
These are the creed, or six articles of the gospel which the
apostles preached.
Sect. 1. God manifested in the flesh of Jesus, is the first and
great article. Believe this, and believe all. No wonder that
believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is so often made,
in Scripture, the description of saving faith, the title to bap-
tism, and pardon, and salvation, the evidence of the Spirit, &cw
He that truly and practically believeth that God came in flesh
to man, and that Christ is the Father's messenger from heaven,
must needs believe that God hath a great value for the souls of
men, and for his church, that he despiseth not even our flesh;'
that his word is true, and fully to be trusted; that he, who so
wonderfully came to man, will certainly take up man to him.
Who can doubt of the immortality of souls, or that Christ will
receive the departing souls of the faithful to himself, who be-
lieveth that he took man's nature, and hath glorified it now in
heaven, in union with the divine? Who can ever have low^
thoughts of God's love and mercy who belieVeth this ? and who
can prostitute his soul and flesh to wickedness, who firmly be--
lieveth that he took the soul and flesh of man to sanctify and^
glorify it ?
Sect. 2. II, The Holy Spirit is the justification of the truth:
of Jesus Christ. He is Christ's, advocate and witness to the
FF 2
436 APPKNDIX.
world. He proveth the gospel by these fiv6 ways of evidence:
1. By all the prophecies, types, and promises of Christ in the
Old Testament, before Christ's coming. 2. By the inherent
impress of God's image on the person and doctrine of Christ ;
which, propria luce, showeth itself to be divine. 3. By the con-
comitant miracles of Christ : read the history of the gospel for
this use, and observe each history. 4. By the subsequent gift
of the Spirit to the apostles and other Christians, by languages,
wonders, and multitudes of miracles, to convince the world.
5. By the undeniable and excellent work of sanctification on
all true believers through all the world, in all generations to this
day. These five are the Spirit's witness, which fully testifieth
the certain truth, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Sect. 3. Quest. But how are we sure, who, ourselves, never
saw the person, miracles, resurrection, ascension of Christ, that
the history of them is true ?
Answ. 1. We may be sure that the spectators were not de-
ceived. 2. And that they did not deceive them to whom they
reported it. 3. And that we are not deceived by any miscar-
riage in the historical tradition to us.
Sect. 4. I. It was not possible that men that were not
mad, that had eyes and ears, could, for three years and a half,
believe that they saw the lame, the blind, the deaf, and all dis-
eases healed, the dead raised, thousands miraculously fed, &c.,
and this among crowds of people that still followed Christ, if
the things had not been true. One man's senses may be de-
ceived at some one instance, by some deceitful accident : but
that the eyes and ears of multitudes siiould be so oft deceived,
many years, in the open light, is as much as to say, no man
knoweth any thing that he seeth and heareth.
Sect. 5. II. That the disciples who received the apostles' and
evangelists' report of Christ, were not deceived by the reporters,
is most evident.
For, 1 . They received it not by hearsay, at the second hand,
but from the eye and eai witnesses themselves, who must needs
know what they said.
2. They heard this report from men of the same time, and
age, and country, where it was easy lo examine the case, and
confute it, had it been false.
3. The apostles appealed to crowds and thousands of wit-
nesses, as to many of Christ's miracles, who would have made
it odious, hud it not been true.
APPENDIX. 437
4. They sharply reproved the rulers for persecuting Christ,
which would provoke them to do their best to confute the apos-
tles for their own justification.
6. Christ chose men of no great human learning and subtlety,
but common, plain, unlearned men, that it might not be
thought a deceit of art.
6. Yea, he did not make much more known to them before
his death, than the bare matters of fact which they daily saw,
and that he was the Christ, and Moral Doctrine ; his death, re-
surrection, ascension, and kingdom of heaven, they knew little
of before ; but experience, and the sudden coming down of the
Spirit, suddenly taught them all the rest.
7. They taught not one another, but were every one per-
sonally taught of God.
8. And yet they all agreed in the same doctrine when they
were dispersed over the world, and never differed in any one
article of faith.
9. They were men that had no worldly interest, wealth, or
dominion, to seek.
10. Yea, they renounced and denied all worldly interest, and
sealed their testimony by their sufferings and blood ; and all in
hope of a heavenly reward, which they knew that lying was no
means to obtain.
1 1 . Had they plotted to cheat the world for nothing, the sin
is so heinous that some one of them would have repented and
confessed it, at least, at death j which none of them did, but
died joyfully, as for the truth.
12. Paul was converted by a voice and light from heaven, in
the presence of those that travelled with him in his jjersecuting
design.
13. But yet it is a fuller evidence that the doctrine which
they delivered, as from God, beareth a divine impress, that, as the
light, it is its own evidence.
14. And for the more infallible conviction, they that testified
of Christ's miracles, did the like themselves to confirm their
testimony. They spake with tongues which they never learned ;
they healed all diseases ; even the shadow of Peter, and the
clothes that came from Paul, did heal men ; they raised the
dead ; and they that in all countries converted the nations by
their own miracles, attesting the miracles and resurrection of
Christ, must needs compel the spectators to believe them.
15. Yet, more than all this, those that believed them were
43S APPENDIX.
presently enabled to do the like in one kind and degree or
other. The same extraordinary gift of the Spirit fell upon the-
common multitude of believers, by the laying on of the apos-
tles' hands 5 so that Simon Magus would fain have bought that
power with money. And when men witnessed Christ's mira-
cles, and wrought the like themselves; and those that believed
them had and did the like, either healing, tongues, prophecy, or
$ome wonder, it was, sure, an infallible way of testifying.
16. When wrangling heretics quarrelled with the apostles,
and would draw away disciples to themselves, by disparaging
them, they still appealed to the miracles wrought by these
disciples themselves, or in their sight; as Gal. iii, 1, 2,3,5,
And as Christ, when the Jews said he did all by Beelzebub,
when he cast out devils, asked them, " By whom do your chil-
dren cast them out?'' Which, had it been false, would have
turned all the people from them.
17. Their adversaries were so far from writing any confuta-
tion of their testimony, that they confessed the miracles, and
had no shift, but either to blaspheme the Holy Ghost, and say
that they were done by the devil, or else, by persecution and
violence, to oppress them. As if the devil were master of the
world, and could remedilessly deceive it against God's will ; or
God himself would send or suffer a full course of miracles re-
medilessly to deceive the world, which is to make God like the
devil : or, as if the devil were so good, as by miracles to pro-
mote so holy, and amiable, and just a doctrine, as that of Chris-
tianity, to make men wise, and, good, and just, and kill their
sin. So that this blasphemy of the Holy Ghost makes Satan
to be God, or God to be Satan.
IS. All the cruelty, powers, learning, and policy of their ad-
versaries was not able to stop the progress of this testimony,
much less to prevail against it.
III. It is then most certain, that the first witnesses were not
deceived by Christ, nor believers after deceived by them. The
next question is, whether we be not deceived by a false histori-
cal tradition of these things? Had we seen them all ourselves,
we must needs have believed; but at this distance we know not
what misreports may intervene. What eyesight and hearing
Avas to them, that tradition is to us. Now the question is, is it
certainly the very same fact and doctrine which they received,
and which we receive ?
And here, let it be premised, that there is no other way of
APPENDIX. 43d
assurance, than that which God hath afforded us, that the rea-
son of man could have desired.
1 . If we would see God, and heaven, and hell, this is not a
way suitable to the state of probationers that live in flesh on
earth. Angels live by vision, and fruition of glory ; and brutes,
by sense, on sensible things; but reasonable travellers must live
by reason, and by believing certain revelation.
2. If God will send his Son from heaven to ascertain us, and
we will believe no more than we see ourselves, then Christ must
dwell on earth, to the end of the world, and he must be in all
places of the earth at once, that all may see ; and he must die
^nd rise again before all men in all ages; and how mad an ex-
pectation is this !
3. Or if all that deliver us the history must work miracles
before our eyes, or else we will not believe them, it is still most
absurd. Will you not believe that the laws of the land are
genuine, or that ever there were such kings as made them, un-
less he that tells it you work miracles? Shall not children be-
lieve their parents, or scholars their tutors, unless they work
miracles?
3. I must premise that there are three sorts of tradition, I,
Such as depends on the common wit and honesty of mankind.
And this is very much to be suspected, wickedness, folly, and
lying being grown so common in the world.
II. Such as depends on the extraordinary skill and honesty
of some proved men. And this deserveth much belief; but it
is an uncertain human faith.
III. Such as depends on natural necessity, and cannot possi-
bly be false. We have both these last to ascertain us of the
gospel history.
This resteth on a distinction of the acts of man's will: some
of them are mutably free ; and these give no certainty: some of
them are naturally and immutably necessary, and man can do
no otherwise; and these give even natural, infallible certainty.
Such are to love one's self, to love felicity, to hate torment and
misery, &c., and to know that which is fully manifest to our
sound senses, &c.
When men of contrary interests and temper all confess the
truth of known things, about which their interests stand cross,
it is a physical evidence of truth.
On this account, men's agreement about natural notices is
infallible.
440 APPENDIX.
It seems strange that all the world, from Adam*s time, are
agreed which is the first, second, and third, &c., day of the
week, and not a day lost till now. It could be no otherwise,
because, being a thing of natural interest and notice, if any
kingdom had lost a day by oversleeping, or had agreed to
falsify it, all the rest of the world would have shamed them.
Thus all Grecians, Latins, Englishmen, &c., agree about the
sense of words; for if some would pervert them, the rest would
detect it.
Thus we are certain that the statutes of the land are not
counterfeit. For men of cross interests hold their lands and
lives by them: and if some did counterfeit them, the rest would,
by interest, be bound to detect it.
Arg. 1. There can be no effect without an adequate cause;
but in nature there is no cause that can make all men agree to
assert a known falsehood, or deny a known truth, against
all their known interest ; therefore there can be no such effect.
Arg. 2. A necessary cause will necessarily effect ; but where
men's known interest obligeth them to agree of a known truth,
this is a necessary cause of certain credibility ; therefore it hath
a necessary effect.
You know who were your parents, and when and where you
were born, &c., by such tradition in a lower degree. This de-
pendeth not on pretended authority, nor on mere honesty ; but
on natural necessity.
Having premised this, I come to prove, that we have such
tradition of physical, infallible evidence, that the faith of the
present church, in the essentials, is the same which the first
churches received infallibly from the apostles.
1 . The world knoweth, that ever since Christ's ascension, all
that believed in him were baptised, as all Abraham's covenant-
ing seed were circumcised. And what is baptism, but a pro-
fession of belief in Jesus Christ, as dead, risen, and glorified;
and a devoting ourselves in covenant to God the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost? All that ever were Christians by solemn vow
professed this same faith ; and this is such a tradition of Chris-
tianity as human generations, down from Adam, are of the same
humanity in the world.
2. They that were baptised were catechised first^ in which
the three articles of baptism were opened to them ; of which
Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension were part ; and this
hath been an undeniable tradition of the same faith.
APPENJ)1X. 441
3. The sum of the christian faith was, from the beginning,
drawn up in certain articles called the creed, which expounded
the three baptismal articles ; and all churches on earth had the
same in sense, and most in words ; and all at age that were
baptised, professed this creed; which is as full a tradition of the
same belief in Christ's birth, death, and resurrection, ascension,
and glory, as speaking is a tradition of the same human
nature.
4. Before Christ's ascension, he instituted the office of the
sacred ministry, which friends and foes confess hath continued
ever since. And what is this ministry, but an office of publish-
ing the gospel of Christ, his life, death, miracles, resurrection,
grace, &:c. What else have they done in all ages in the world?
so that the office is an undeniable tradition.
5. Christ and his apostles instituted the weekly celebration
of the remembrance of his resurrection on the. Lord's days :
friends and foes confess the history, that the first day of the
week hath been kept for such memorial ever since, through all
the Christian part of the world, which proveth the uninter-
rupted belief of Christ's resurrection, as a notorious, practical
tradition.
6. Christ and his apostles, ever since his resurrection,
instituted solemn assembhes of Christians to be held on those
days, and at other times; once a week was the least through
the Christian world : and what did they meet for, but to preach,
hear, and profess the same christian faith ?
7. It was the constant custom of Christians in their assem-
blies, and their houses, to sing hymns of praise to Jesus Christ,
in remembrance of his resurrection, &:c. Pliny tells Trajan
that this was the practice by which Christians were known by
their persecutors : which is a practical tradition.
8. Jesus Christ instituted, and all Christians to this day have
constantly used, the sacrament of Christ's sacrifice, called the
eucharist ; to keep in remembrance his death till he come, and
profess their belief that he is our life. And as the constant
celebration of the passover, with all its ceremonies, was a most
certain tradition of the Egyptians' plagues, a,nd Israelites' deliver-
ance, more than a bare written history would be, so hath the
Lord's supper been, of the uninterrupted belief of the history of
our redemption by Christ.
9. The church hath, from the beginning, had a constant dis-
cipline, by which it hath kept itself separate from heretics,
442 APPENDIX.
who have denied any essential article of this faith, which is a
sure tradition of the same behef. ',
10. None question but Christians have, from the beginning,
been persecuted for this same faith, and in persecution made
confession of it : persecutors and confessors, then, are both the
witnesses of the continuance.
11. Whenever heretics or enemies have written against
Christians, their apologies and defences show that it was this
same faith which they owned.
1 2. Most of the adverse heretics owned the same matters of
fact.
13. The Jews were long before in possession of the books of
the Old Testament, which bear their testimony to Christ.
14. The books of the New Testament have, by certain tra-
dition, been delivered down to this present day, which contain
the matters of fact and doctrine, the essentials, integrals, and
accidents of the faith.
15. No enemies have written any thing against the matter of
fact, of any moment.
16. Yea, the Jews, and other bitterest enemies, confess
much of the miracles of Christ.
17. Martyrs have cheerfully forsaken life and all in con-
fessing it.
18. God, by his wonderful providence, hath maintained it.
. 19. The devil, and all the wicked of the world, are the
greatest enemies to it.
20. The Holy Ghost hath still blessed it, to work the same
holy and heavenly nature and life, in all sincere and serious
believers.
Quest. This proveth infallibly the tradition of the same faith
in the essentials : but how prove you that the same holy Scrip-
ture is delivered as uncorrupted ?
Answ. All the Bible is not brought down so unchanged as are
the essentials of our religion : when there were no Bibles but
what scriveners wrote, no wonder if over-sight left few copies
without some of their slips. There are hundreds of various
readings in the New Testament, and of many no man can be
certain which is true : but none of them are such as make any
difference in the articles of our faith or practice, nor on which
any point of doctrine or fact dependeth.
And the words are necessary but for the matter which they
do record.
APPENDIX. 443
And 1 . All ministers, and all churches, constantly used this
same Scripture publicly and privately, as the word of God, so
that it could not be easily altered.
2. They all knew that a curse is pronounced against every
one that addeth or diminisheth j which must needs possess them
with fear of corrupting it.
3. They took it to be the charter of their own salvation.
4. The work of the ministers was to expound it, and pre-
serve it against corrupters.
5. These ministers and churches were over much of the
world, and could not agree together to corrupt it ; and if some
did it, all the rest would soon detect it.
6. Heresies and quarrels were quickly to rise among them ; so
that cross interests and animosities would soon have fallen upoit
the corrupters.
7. Some heretics made some adding and corrupting attempts,
which the church presently condemned, and turned it to their
shame.
8. In all the disputations then managed, the same Scriptures
were appealed to.
9. The translations into various languages show that the
books were the same, without any momentous difference.
10. To this day, when sin and tyranny have torn the church
into many factions, they all receive the same canonical Scrip-
tures, except that some receive more apocryphal writings, which
yet make no alteration at all of our gospel faith.
Quest. But doth not this laying so much on tradition favour
popery ?
AnsW. No: The difference is here. 1. Papists are for tra-
dition, as a supplement to the Scripture, as if this were but part
of the word of God : and, 2. They plead for a peculiar power of
being the keepers and judges of that supplemental tradition,
which other churches know nothing of.
But we, 1. Plead for the infallible, practical tradition of the
essentials of Christianity by itself, and in the creed, &c., which
is less than the Scripture. 2. And next for the certain tradition
of the Scripture itself, uncorrupted in all that faith depends on :
which Scripture is the complete record of God's will and law,
containing more than essentials and integrals.
So much of God, 1. Manifested in the flesh ; 2. Justified in
the Spirit.
III. He was seen of angels j that is, angels were the behold-
444 APPENDIX.
ing, witnessing, and admiring servants of this great mystery,
God manifested in the flesh.
1. Angels preached Christ at his incarnation.
2. Angels ministered to Christ in his temptations, agonies, &c.
3. Angels were preachers and witnesses of his resurrection.
4. Angels rolled away the stone, and terrified the soldiers.
5. Angels preached his return to them that gazed up at his
ascension.
6. Angels opened the prison-doors, and set the imprisoned
apostles free once, and Peter alone, afterwards.
7. Angels rejoice in heaven at the conversion of all that
Christ brings home.
8. Angels disdain not to be the guardians of the least of
Christ's disciples.
9. Angels are protecting officers over churches and kingdoms,
10. Angels have preached to apostles, and been the messen-
gers of their revelations.
1 1 . Angels have been the instruments of miracles, and of
destroying the church's enemies.
12. Angels will ministerially convoy departed souls to Christ.
13. Angels will gloriously attend Christ at his return, and
sever the wicked from the just.
14. Angels will be our companions in the heavenly choir for
ever.
Therefore, 1. We should love angels. 2. And be thankful
to God for them. 8. And think the more comfortably of
heaven for their society. 4. And pray for the benefit of their
ministry on earth, especially in all our dangers.
IV. The fourth article is " Preached to the Gentiles." The
Jews having the covenant of peculiarity, were proud of their
privilege, even while they unworthily abused it ; and despised
the rest of the world, and would not so much as eat with them,
as if they had been God's only people. And, indeed, the rest
of the world was so corrupted, that we find no one nation that,
as such, renounced idolatry, and was devoted in covenant to the
true God alone, as the Jews were. Now that God should be
manifested in flesh, to reconcile the heathen world to himself,
and extend greater privileges, indefinitely to all nations, than
ever the Jews had in their state of peculiarity, this was a mys-
tery of godliness, which the Jews did hardly yield belief to.
And that which aggravateth this wonder is, 1. That the
Gentile world was drowned in all idolatry and unnatural wicked-
APPENDIX. 445
ness, such as Paul describeth. And that God should suddenly
and freely send them the message of reconciliation, and be
found of them that sought him not, is that wonder which
obligeth us Gentiles, who once lived as without God in the
world, to be tliankful to him. (Rom. i. 2 ; Eph. ii., and iii. 18, &c.)
V. The fifth article is " Believed on in the world.'' The effect
of the gospel on the souls of men in their effectual faith, is one
of the evidences of the christian truth.
I told you before, that the fifth witness of the Spirit on the
souls of all believers, I reserved to be here mentioned. Here,
1. It is a part of the wonder, that Christ should be believed on
in the world, even with a common faith. For, 1 . To believe a
mean man to be the Mediator between God and man, and the
Saviour of the world ; yea, one that was crucified as a male^
factor ; this must needs be a difficult thing.
2. The very Jewish nation was as contemptible to the
Romans, being one of their poorest subdued provinces, as the
Gentiles were to the Jews : and Christ was by birth a Jew.
3. The greatness of the Roman empire then, ruling over
much of the world, was such, that by preaching, and not by
war, to bring them to be subjects to a crucified Jew, was a
marvellous work ; and so to bring the conquered nations to
become Christ's voluntary subjects.
4. The Roman and Greek learning was then at the height of
its perfection : and the Christians were despised by them as
unlearned barbarians : and that learning, arts, and empire should
all submit to such a King and Saviour, was certainly a work of
supernatural power. Christ did not levy armies to overcome
the nations, nor did victory move them ; but the victors and
lords of the world, and these no fools, but the masters of the
greatest human wisdom, were conquered by the gospel, preached
by a sort of inferior men.
5. And this gospel which conquered them was still opposed
by them, and the Christians persecuted as a sort of hated men,
till it overcame the persecutors.
It is true that heathenism liath the greatest part of the world,
and Mahometans have as much as Christians : but one sort got
it by the sword, and the other by the doctrine and holy lives of
a few unarmed, inferior men.
II. But 1 use this of the extent of faith, but as a probable,
and not a cogent argument : but the main argument is from the
sanctifying effect of faith.
446 APPENDIX.
I know it will be said, that many, or most, Christians are as
bad as other men.
But it is one thing to be of a professed religion, because it is
the religion of the king and country, and therefore maketh for
men's worldly advantage, and they hear little said against it :
this is the case of most in the world, Christians, Mahometans,
and heathens : and it is another to be a serious believer, who,
upon trial and consideration, chooseth Christianity.
And it is notorious that such serious Christians are all holy,
sober, and just, and so greatly differing from the corrupted
world, as fully proveth that God own^th that gospel which he
maketh so effectual to so great a change.
Here consider, I . What that change is. 2. How hard and
great a work it is. 3. That it is certainly a work of God.
4. That the gospel is the means by which God doth it.
I. The nature of his holy work on all serious, sincere Chris-
tians, is, it sets all their hopes and hearts on the promised glory
of the life to come, and turns the very nature of their wills into
the predominant love of God and man, and of heaven and ho-
liness. It mortifieth all fleshly lusts, and subjects sense to reason
and faith, the body to the soul, and all to God. It sets a man's
heart on the sincere study of doing all the good he can in the
world, to friends, neighbours, and enemies, especially the most
public good; to live soberly, righteously, and godty,is his delight.
Sin is his chief hatred, and nothing more grievous to him than
he that cannot reach to greater perfection in faith, hope, obe-
dience, patience, and in heavenly love and joy. It causeth a
man to contemn wealth, honour, and fleshly pleasure, and life, in
comparison of Gods love and life everlasting. This change of
God's Spirit worketh on all true believers.
Those that are ungodly have but the name of Christians ;
they never v/ell understood what Christianity is, nor ever re-
ceived it bv a true belief. But all that understandingly and se-
riouslv believe in Jesus Christ, are sanctified by his Spirit.
II. And this is a greater work than miracles, in excellency
and difficulty.
1. It is the very health of the souls. It is salvation itself; it
maketh man in his measure like to God, and is his image, it
is a heavenly nature, and is the earnest and preparation for,
heaven. It delivereth man from the greatest evil on earth, and
giveth him the firmest peace and joy, in his ))eace with God>
the pardon of his sins, and the hope of everlasting glory.
APPENDIX. 447
2. It is easy to discern how great a work this is, by the deep
roots of all the contrary vices in the corrupted nature of man.
Experience assureth us that man, by vitiated nature, is proud
and ignorant, and savoureth little but the things of the flesh, and
worldly interest, and is a slave to his appetite and lust : his
bodily prosperity is all that really hath his heart. Yea, if God
restrain them not, all wicked men are bitter enemies to all that
are truly wise and holy, even among heathens and infidels ; if
any be but better than the rest, the wicked are their deadly
enemies. There is so visible an enmity between godliness and
wickedness, the seed of Christ, and of the serpent in the world,
as is a great confirmation of the Scripture which describeth it.
And it is not the name of Christians that altereth men's nature.
We here, that have peace from all the world, are under such
implacable hatred of wicked men, that call themselves Christians,
that so many bears or wolves would be less hurtful to us.
3. And the universal spreading of this wickedness over all the
earth, in all ages and nations, doth tell us how great a work it
is to cure it.
4. And so doth the frustration of all other means, till the
Spirit of God do it by setting home the gospel upon the heart.
Children will grow up in wickedness, against all the counsel,
love, and correction of their parents. No words, no reason, will
prevail with them, more than M'ith drunken men or beasts.
5. We find it a very hard thing to cure a man of some one
rooted sin, much more of all.
6. The common misery of the world proclaimeth man's vice,
and the difficulty of the cure. How else conies the world to
live in self-seeking falsehood, fraud, malice, and in bloody wars,
worse than wolves and serpents against each other.
7. Lastly, where God cureth this by true believing, it is done
with the pangs of sharp repentance, and a great conflict, before
God's Spirit overcometh.
III. It is evident, then, that this sanctification of souls is an
eminent work of God himself. 1. In that it is yet done on so
many of his chosen ones in all ages and places.
2. In that, as hard as it is, he usually turneth the hearts of
sinners to himself, in a very little time. Sometimes by one
sermon.
3. It is a work that none can do but God, who hath the
power of souls.
4. It is a work so good, that it beareth God's own image.
448 APPENDIX.
It is but the writing of his law and gospel on men's hearts.
None is so much for it as God. Satan apparently fighteth against
it with all the power he can raise in the world. Mark it, and
you will find that most of the stir that there is in the world,
by false teachers, and tyrants, and private malice, is but Satan's
wars against faith, and holiness, and love. Certainly it is not
he that promoteth them.
IV. And it is evident, in experience, that it is the gospel of
Christ which God usetli and blesseth, to do this great sanctify-
ing work on souls. Among Christians none are converted by
any other means. And God would not bless a word of falsehood
and deceit to such great and excellent effects. All that are
made holy and heavenly, and truly conscionable, among us, are
made so by Christ's gospel. And all the wicked are enemies to
the serious practice of it, or rebels that despise it. The effects
daily prove that God himself owneth it as his word.
If you say, there are as good men among the heathens, and
Mahometans, as holy, heavenly, and just: I answer, it is
none of my business to depreciate other men, but I can say,
1. That I have lived above seventy-seven years, and 1 never
knew one serious, holy person in England that was made such
by the writings of heathens or Mahometans. 2. Many ex-
cellent things are in the writings of some heathens, Plato,
Cicero, Hierocles, Plutarch, Antonine, Epictetus, and many
others ; but I miss in them the expressions of that holy and
heavenly frame of mind and life, and that victory over the flesh
and world, which Christianity containeth.
3. Christ is like the sun, whose beams give some light before
it is seen itself at its rising, and after it is set. The light of
Jews and heathens was as the dawning of the day before sun-
rising. And the light among the Mahometans is like the liglit
of the sun which leaveth it when it is set.
Doubtless, the same God who hath used Mahometans to
be his dreadful scourge to wicked Christians, who abused the
gospel by a false profession, hath also used them to do abun-
dance of good against idolatry in the heathen world. Wherever
they come, idolatry is destroyed. Yea, the corrupt Christians,
Greeks, and especially papists, that worship images, angels, and
bread, are rebuked, and condemned justly by Mahometans. But
O that they who have conquered so far by the sword, were con-
quered by the sacred word of truth, and truly understood the mys-
tery of redemption, and the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ!
APPENDIX. 449
Obj. But they think us idolaters for saying that Christ is God,
and believing the Trinity.
1. As to the Trinity : it is no contradiction that one fire or
sun should have essentially a virtue or power to move, ^igtit, and
heat; nor that one soul should have a power of vegetation,
sense, and reason ; nor as rational, to have a peculiar power or
vitality, intellection, and free-will. Why then should the Trinity
seem incredible ?
II. We do not believe that the Godhead hath any change, or
is made flesh, or the manhood made God, but that the Godhead
is incomprehensibly united to the human nature by assumption,
so as he is united to no other creature, by and for those peculiar
operations on the humanity of Christ, which make him our
Redeemer.
They that well think that God is all in all things, more than
a soul to all the world, and as near to us as our souls to our
bodies, in whom we live, and move, and have our being, will
find that it is more difficult to apprehend, how God is further
from any soul, than that he is so much one with Christ : save
that different operations of God on his creatures are apparent
to us.
By all this we see that every sanctified Christian hath the
certain witness in himself that Christ is true. He is truly a
physician that healeth, and a Saviour that saveth all that seri-
ously believe and obey him. The Spirit of God in a new, and
holy, and heavenly nature of spiritual life, and light, and love, is
the witness.
VI. The sixth article in my text is ' Received up into glory.*
That Christ, after forty days' continuance on earth, was taken
up into heaven, in the sight of his disciples, is a matter of fact
of which we have all the forementioned infallible proof, which
I must not here again repeat.
And, I. If Christ were not glorified now in heaven, he could
not send down his Spirit with his word on earth, nor have
enabled the first witnesses to speak with all tongues, and heal
the sick, and raise the dead^ and do all the miracles which they
did. A dead man cannot send down the holy Spirit in likeness
of fiery cloven tongues, nor enable thousands to do such works;
nor could he do what is done on the souls of serious believers in
all ages and nations to this day. He is sure alive that makes
men live; and in heaven, that draws up hearts to heaven.
2. And this is our hope and joy : heaven and earth are in his
vol.. xvni. G G
450 APPENDIX.
power. The suffering and work which he performed for us on
earth was short, but his heavenly intercession and reign is ever-
lasting. Guihy souls can have no immediate access to God.
All is by a Mediator : all our receivings from God are by him :
and all our services are returned by him, and accepted for his
sake. And as he is the Mediator between his Father and us, his
Spirit intercedeth between him and us. By his Spirit he giveth
us holy desires, and every grace. And by his Spirit we exercise
them in returns to him.
And our glorified Saviour hath Satan, and all our enemies,
in his power: life and death are at his command: all judgment
is committed to him. He that hath redeemed us is preparing
us for heaven, and it is for us, and receiveth our departing souls
to his own joy and glory. He hath promised us that we shall be
with him where he is, and shall see his glory. He that is our
Saviour, will be our Judge. He will come with thousands of his
angels to the confusion of v/icked unbelievers, and to be glorified
in his saints. He will make a new heaven and a new earth, in
which righteousness shall dwell. Angels and glorified saints
shall, with Christ our head, make one city of God, or holy so-
ciety and clioir, in perfect love and joy^ to praise the blessed
God for ever.
J. The differences between this ivorld, and that which I am
going to.
I. This world is God's footstool. Tiiat is his throne.
II. Here are his works of inferior nature and of grace. Tiiere
he shincth forth in perfect glory.
III. Here is gross, receptive matter moved by invisible powers.
There are the noblest efficient communicative powers moving all.
IV. This is the inferior, subject, governed world. That is the
superior, regent world.
V. This is a world of trial, where the soul is his that can win
its consent. That is a world where the will is perfectly deter-
mined and fixed.
VI. Satan winning men's consent hath here a large dominion
of fools. There he is cast out, and hath no possession.
VII. Here he is a tempter and troubler of the best. There
he hath neither power to tempt nor trouble.
VIII. This world is as the dark womb where we are regene-
rated. That is the world of glorious light into which we are
born.
'APPENDIX. 451
fX. Here we dwell on a world of sordid earth. There we
shall dwell in a world of celestial light and glory.
X. Here we dwell in a trouhlesome, tempting, perishing body.
There we are delivered from this burden and prison into glorious
liberty.
XI. Here we are under a troublesome cure of our maladies.
There we are perfectly healed, rejoicing in our Physician's
praise.
XIT. Here we are using the means in weariness and hope.
There we obtain the end in full fruition.
XIII. Here sin maketh us loathsome to ourselves, and our
own annoyance. There we shall love God in ourselves, and our
perfect selves in God,
XIV. Here all our duties are defiled with sinful imperfection.
There perfect souls will perfectly love and praise their God.
XV. Here Satan's temptations are a continual danger and
molestation. There perfect victory hath ended our temptations.
XVI. Here still there is a remnant of the curse and punish-
ment of sin. Pardon and deliverance are perfected there.
XVII. Repenting, shame, sorrow, and fear, are here part of
my necessary work. Thfere all the troublesome part is past, and
utterly excluded.
XVIII. Here we see darkly, as in a glass, the invisible world
of spirits. There we shall see them as face to face.
XIX. Here faith, alas ! too weak, must serve instead of sight.
There presence and sight suspend the use of such believing,
XX. Desire and hope are here our very life and work. But
there it will be full felicity in fruition.
XXI. Our hopes are here oft mixed with grievous doubts and
fears. But there full possession ends them all.
XXII. Our holy affections are here corrupted with carnal
mixtures. But there all are purely holy and divine.
XXI I I. The coldness of our divine love is here our sin and
misery. The perfection of it will be there -our perfect holiness
and joy.
XXIV. Here, though the will itself be imperfect, we cannot
be and do what we would. There will, and deed, and attain-
ment, will all be fully perfect.
XXV. Here, by ignorance and seif-love, I have desires which
God denieth. There perfect desires shall be perfectly fulfilled.
XXVI. Here pinching wants of something or other, and
GG 2.
452 APPENDIX.
troublesome cares, are daily burdens. Nothing is there wanting,
and God hath ended all their cares.
XXVII. Sense here rebelleth against faith, and reason, and
oft overcometh. Sense there shall be only holy, and no discord
be in our faculties or acts.
XXVIII. Pleasures and contents here are short, narrow, and
twisted with their contraries. There they are objectively pure
and boundless, and subjectively total and absolute.
XXIX. Vanity and vexation are here the titles of transitory
things. Reality, perfection, and glory, are the titles of the
things above.
XXX. This world is a point of God's creation, a narrow
place for a few passengers. Above are the vast, capacious re-
gions, sufficient for all saints and angels.
XXXI. This world is as Newgate, and hell as Tyburn; some
are hence saved, and some condemned. The other world is
the glorious kingdom of Jehovah with the blessed.
XXXI I. It was here that Christ was tempted, scorned, and
crucified. It is there where he reigneth in glory over all.
XXXIII. The spiritual life is here as a spark or seed. It is
there a glorious flame of love, and joy, and the perfect fruit and
flower.
XXXIV. We have here but the first-fruits, earnest, and
pledge. There is the full and glorious harvest and perfection.
XXXV. We are here children in minority, little differing
from servants. There we shall have full possession of the inhe-
ritance.
XXXVI. The prospect of pain, death, grave, and rottenness,
blasteth all the pleasures here. There is no death, or any fear
of the ending of felicity.
XXXVI I. Here, even God's word is imperfectly understood,
and errors swarm, even in the best. All mysteries of nature
and grace are there unveiled in the world of light.
XXXVIII. Many of God's promises are here unfulfilled, and
our prayers unanswered. There truth shinerh in the full per-
formance of them all.
XXXIX. Our grace is here so weak, and hearts so dark, that
our sincerity is oft doubted of. There the flames of love and
joy leave no place for such a doubt.
XL. By our inconstancy, here one day is joyful and another
sad. But there our joys have no interruption.
APPENDIX. 453
XLI. We dwell here with sinful companions, like ourselves,
in flesh. There holy angels and souls, with Christ, are all our
company.
XLII. Our best friends and helpers are here, in part, our
hinderers by sin. There all concur in the harmony of active
love.
XLIII. Our errors and corruptions make us also hurtful and
troublesome to our friends. But there both Christ and they
forgive us, and we shall trouble them no more.
XLIV. Selfishness and cross interests here jar, and mar our
conversation. There perfect love will make the joy of every
saint and angel mine.
XLV. A militant church imperfectly sanctified here liveth in
scandal and sad divisions. The glorious church united in God
in perfect love hath no contention.
XLVI. Sin and error here turn our very public worship into
jars. The celestial harmony of joyful love and praise is, to
mortals, inconceivable.
XLVII. Weak, blind, and wicked teachers here do keep the
most in delusion and division. There glorious light hath
banished all lies, deceit, and darkness.
XL VIII. The wills of blind tyrants is the law of most on
earth. The wisdom and will of the most holy God is the law
of the heavenly society.
XLIX. Lies here cloud the innocency of the just, and ren-
der truth and goodness odious. All false judgments are there
reversed, and slander is silenced, and the righteous justified.
L. Government is here exercised by terror and violence. But
there God ruleth by light, love, and absolute delight.
LI. Enemies reproach, and persecution here annoy and
tempt us. All storms are there past, and the conquerors
crowned in joyful rest.
LIT. The glory of divine love and holiness is clouded here by
the abounding of sin, and the greatness of Satan's kingdom
upon earth. But the vast, glorious, heavenly kingdom, to which
this earth is but a point and prison, will banish all such erring
thoughts, and glorify God's love and goodness for ever.
LI II. This is the woi4d which, as corrupted, is called an
enemy to God and us, and which, as such, we renounce in bap-
tism, and must be saved from. That is the world which we
seek, pray, and wait for all our lives, and for which all the
tempting vanities of this must be forsaken.
454 APPENDIX.
LIV^ This body and world is like our riding clothes, our
horse, our way, and inn, and travelling company ; all but for our
journey homeward. The other is our city of blessedness, and
everlasting rest, to which all grace inclineth souls, and all pre-
sent means and mercies tend.
LV. The very ignorance of nature and sensible things makes
this life a very labyrinth, and our studies, sciences, and learned
conversation, to be much like a dream, or puppet play, and a
childish stir about mere words. But in heaven, an universal
knowledge of God's wonderful works, will not be the least of
the glory in which he will shine to saints.
LVI. Distance and darkness of souls here in flesh, who would
fain know more of God and the heavenly world, and cannot,
doth make our lives a burden by these unsatisfied desires. There
glorious presence and intuition giveth full satisfaction.
LVIl. Our sin and imperfection here render us uncapable of
being the objects of God's full, complacential love, though we
have his benevolence, which will bring us to it. But there we
shall, in our several measures, perfectly please God, and be
perfectly pleased in God for ever.
LVllI. All things here are short and transitory from their
beginning, posting towards their end, which is near and sure,
and still in our eye. So short is time, that beings here are
next to nothing; the bubble of worldly prosperity, pomp, and
fleshly pleasure, doth swell up, and break in so short a moment;
as that it is, and is not, almost at once. But the heavenly sub-
stances, and their work, and joys, are crowned by duration,
being assuredly everlasting.
Such, O my soul, is the blessed change which God will
make.
The reasons and helps of my belief and hope of this perfection.
I.' Natural reason assureth me, that God made all creatures
fitted to their intended use; even brutes are more fit for their
several offices than man is. He giveth no creature its faculties
in vain; whatever a wise man maketh, he fits it to the use which
he made it for; but man's faculties are enabled to think of a
God, of our relation, and our duty to him, of our hopes from
him, and our fears of him ; of the state of our souls related to
his judgment ; of what will befall us after death, reward, or
punishment, and how to prepare for it. This nature, and its
faculties and powers, are not made in vain.
APPENDIX. 455
II. Reason assuieth inc, that all men are bound !)y nature
to prefer the least probability of a life of everlasting joy before
all the prosperity of this world ; and to suffer the loss of all this
short vanity, to escape the least possibility of endless misery;
and nature hath such notices of rewards and punishments after
death, that no man can say that he is sure there is no such thing.
From whence it foUoweth, that all men are bound by the very
law of nature, to be religious, and to seek first and most their
salvation in the life to come. And if so, it is certain that there
is such a thing to be' obtained; else God had made the very
nature of man to be deceived by itself, and to spend the chief
part, yea, all his life, through labour and suffering, for that which
is not ; and so made his greatest duty to be his greatest de-
ceit and misery; and the worst men should be least de-
ceived. But all this is not to be imputed to our wise and good
Creator.
III. The universal sense of moral good and evil in all
mankind, is a great evidence of another life. The vilest
atheist cannot abide to be accounted a knave, a liar, and a bad
man; nor will equal a vicious servant with another. All would
be thought good, who will not be good. And doth not
God make a greater difference than man? and will he not
show it?
IV. The world is actually ruled much by the hopes and fears
of another life, and cannot well be ruled without it, according
to the nature of man; but the Almighty, most wise, and most
holy God needs not, and will not rule the world by mere
deceit.
V. The gospel of Christ hath brought life and immortality
into a clearer light than that of nature ; and it must be by be-
lieving in Christ that we must have our full ^satisfaction. Oh,
what hath God done in the wonders of redemption to make us
sure ! And against the doubts that are apt to rise from some
hard particular text of Scripture_, it must be considered, 1. That
Christ and his apostles did put the ascertaining seal of the
many uncontrolled miracles to the gospel doctrine, primarily;
which doctrine, 1 . Was delivered and sealed eight years before
any of the New Testament was written,- and almost seventy
before the last. 2. And Christ did not speak in the language
in which the gospel is written to us; so that being but a
translation as to his own words the matter is the thing first
sealed.
456 APPENDIX.
II. And that it was the two legislative mediators, Moses and
Christ, who came with the great stream of uncontrolled mi-
racles j it being necessary that men should have full proof that
a law or doctrine is of God, before they believe it; but the
priests and prophets after Moses, and the preachers and pastors
of the christian church, who were not commissioned to bring
men any new laws or gospel, but to proclaim and teach that
which they received, needed no such new testimony of
miracles.
III. The belief of every particular priest or prophet after
Moses, or every pastor after Christ and his apostles, was not of
the same degree of necessity to salvation as the belief of the
Jaw and gospel itself. Therefore, though all the holy Scrip-
ture be true, the law and the gospel must be much differenced
from the rest.
IV. The history of the law and gospel have full, ascertaining,
historical evidence; or else there is none such in the world.
Therefore the doctrine must be true.
V. The prophecies fulfilled prove the gospel true.
VI. And the divine impress on the whole.
VII. And the sanctifying work of the Spirit wrought by it, in
all nations and ages, on serious believers, is a constant, divine
attestation.
VIII. And as my faith hath so sure a foundation, it con-
firmeth my faith and hope, that it hath been so long and great
a work of God, by his Word and Spirit on my soul, to raise it to
believe, and love, and desire, that holy state of perfection and
fruition which I hope for. That which hath made me so much
better than I else had been, and turned my heart and life
(though imperfectly) to things above the pleasures of the flesh,
must needs be of God; and God would never send his grace to
work n)y heart to deceit and lies, and give me such graces as
shall all be frustrate; his Spirit is the earnest and first-fruits of
glory.
IX. And all the course of religious and moral duty which he
hath commanded me, and in which he hath employed my life,
were never imposed to deceive me; I am sure, by nature and
Scripture, that it is my duty to love God and my neighbour, to
desire protection, and to serve God, and do good with all mv
time and power, and to trust God for my reward, believing that
all this shall not be in vain ; nor that which is best be made my
loss. O blessed be God for commands and holy duty ; for they
APPENDIX. 457
are equal to promises. Who can fear that he shall lose by seek-
ing God ?
X. As God hath sealed the truth of his word as aforesaid, so
he hath, by an instituted office and ordinance, sealed and de-
livered to myself his covenant with the gift of Christ and life,
in baptism, and the Lord's supper.
XI. He hath given me such a love to holy things and persons,
that I greatly long to see his church in perfect light, and love,
and concord; oh ! how sweet would it be to see all men wise,
and holy, and joyfully praising God. Every Christian longs for
this ; and, therefore, such a state will be.
XII. I have found here the great benefit of the love and
ministry of angels, such as is described in Psalm xci. They have
kept me night and day, which confirmeth my hope that I shall
dwell with them ; for I love them better than men, because they
love and serve God better.
XIII. That low communion which I have here with God by
Christ and the Spirit, in his answer to my prayers, supports,
comforts, experience, tends to more.
XIV. The pleasure which I have by love, in thinking of the
happiness of my many, many, many holy departed friends, and
of the glory of Christ, and the heavenly Jerusalem, is sure some
hopeful approach towards their state.
XV. When I see the fire mount upward, and think that
spirits are of a more sublime and excellent nature than fire;
and when I see that all that is done in this world, is done by
spiritual unseen powers, which move this gross and drossy
matter, it puts me past doubt, that my soul, being a spirit, hath
a vast and glorious world of spirits to ascend to. God hath, by
nature, put into all things an aggregative, uniting inclination :
earth hath no other natural motion. The ascent of fire tells us
its element is above ; and spirits naturally incline to spirits, and
holy spirits peculiarly are inclined to the holy.
XVI. I am sure, 1. By understanding that I understand, and
by willing that 1 will, &c. 2. 1 am sure by these acts, that I
have the power or faculties to do them : for none doth that
which it cannot do. 3. And I know that it is a substance that
hath these powers : for nothing can do nothing.
jVly soul, then, being certainly an intellective, volitive, vital
substance, 1. I have no reason to think, that God, who
annihilateth not the least sand, will annihilate so noble a sub-
stance.
458 APPENDIX.
2. Nor that he will destroy those powers which are its essen-
tial form, and turn it into some other thing.
3. Nor that such essential powers shall lie as dead and un-
active, and so be continued in vain.
4. There remaining, therefore, nothing uncertain to natural
reason, but the continuance of individuation to separate souls.
1 . Apparitions and witches have put that out of doubt^ notwith-
standing many fables and delusions. 2. Christ hath put it
more out of doubt. 3. While substance, faculties, and acts
continue;, it is the error of our selfish state in flesh, which
maketh any fear too near an union, which shall end our indi-
viduation. The greatest union will be the greatest perfection,
and no loss to souls.
XVII. God's wonderful providences for the church and single
saints on earth are such as tell us of that love and care, which
will bring them afterwards to him.
XVIII. The nature of God taketh off the terror of my de-
parture much; I am sure I shall die at the will, and into the
hand, of infinite essential love and goodness; whose love should
draw up my longing soul.
XIX. I am going to a God whose mercies have long told
me, that he loveth me better than my dearest friend doth,
and better than 1 love myself, and is a far better chooser of
my lot.
XX. As he hath absolute right to dispose of his own, so in-
deed the fulfilling of his will is the ultimate end of all things,
and therefore most desirable in itself: and his will shall be ful-
filled on me.
XXI. I go to a glorified Saviour, who came down to fetch
me up, and hath conquered and sanctified death, and made it
my birth-day for glory, and taketh me for his dear-bought own
and interest, and is in glory ready to receive his own.
XXII. I go to that Saviour who, on the cross, commendeth
his spirit into his Father's hand, and taught me, with dying-
Stephen, to say, " Lord Jesus receive my spirit."
XXIII. I go no solitary, untrodden wa}', but follow all the
faithful since the death of x\bel, to this day, (save Enoch and
Elias,) who all went by death into that glorious world, where I
shall find them.
XXIV. I have so long groaned under a languid body, and in
a blind, distracted, and (by man) uncurable world, where Satan,
by lies, malice, and murder, reigneth in — alas! how many; and
APPENDIX. 459
specially am so weary of my own darkness, and sinful imper-
fection, that I have great reason to be willing of deliverance.
XXV. 1 have had so large a share of mercies in this world
already, in time, and manifold comforts from God, that reason
commandeth me to rest in God's time for my removal.
XXVI. 1 shall leave some fruits, not useless, to serve the
church when I am gone : and if good be done, I have my
end.
XXVII. When I am gone, God will raise up and use others
to do his appointed work on earth : and a church shall be con-
tinued to his praise : and the spirits in heaven will rejoice
therein.
XXVIII. When I am gone, I shall not wish to be again on
earth.
XXIX. Satan, by his temptations, and all his instruments,
would never have done so much as he doth in the world to
keep us from heaven, if there were not a heaven which con-
querors obtain.
XXX. When darkness and uncertainty of the manner of the
action and fruition of separated souls would daunt me, it is
enough to know explicitly so much as is explicitly revealed, and
implicitly to trust Christ with all the rest : our eyes are in our
head ; who knoweth for us ? Knowledge of glory is part of
fruition : and therefore we must expect here no more than is
suited to a life of faith.
XXXI. All my part is to do my own duty, and then trust
God; obeying his commanding will, and fully and joyfully rest-
ing in his disposing and rewarding will. There is no rest for
souls but in the will of God, and there with full trust to repose
our souls in life, and, at death, is the only way of a safe and
comfortable departure.
XXXil. The glorious marriage-day of the Lamb cannot now
be far off, when the number of the elect shall be complete, and
Christ will come with his glorious angels, and will be glorified
in his saints, and admired in all believers, and there shall be a
new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness ;
and that kingdom shall come, where that which God hath pre-
pared for them that love him, eye hath not seen, ear hath not
heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to have a for-
mal, full conception of it.
Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.
Fear not then, O my soul, to lay down this flesh : mercy hath
460 APPENDIX.
kept it up for my preparing work ; but, oh, what a burden-
some and chargeable companion hath it been ! Is it better
than the dwelling-place of perfect spirits? Oh, what are my
groans, and all my cold and faint petitions, and my dull thanks-
giving, to their harmonious, joyful praise ? If a day in God's
courts be better than a thousand, what is a day, yea, what is
everlastingness in the heavenly society and work. Oh, how
hateful a thing is darkness and unbelief, when the remnants of
them thus stop poor souls in their ascent, and make us half un-
willing to go home ! What ! unwilling to be with my glorified
Lord ! Unwilling to be with saints and angels, who are all
life, and light, and love! Unwilling to see the glory of Jeho-
vah ! O foolish, sinful soul ! hath Christ done so much to
purchase the heavenly glory for thee, and now art thou unwil-
ling to go into the possession of it ? Hast thou been seeking,
and praying, and labouring, and suffering so many years, for
that which now thou seemest scarce willing to obtain ? Dost
thou not judge thyself unworthy of eternal life, when thou no
more desirest to enjoy it? All this is along of thy too much
adherence unto self and sense : thou art still desiring sensitive
satisfaction, and, not content to know thy part, wouldest know
that for thyself which Christ knoweth for thee ; as if thou
couldest better trust thyself than him. Fear not, weak soul,
it is our Father's good pleasure to give thee the kingdom : trust
infinite power, wisdom, and love : trust that faithful, gracious
Saviour who hath so wonderfully merited to be trusted : trust
that promise which never deceived any one, and which is con-
firmed by so many miracles, and by the oath, and by the Spirit,
of God. Whenever thou departest from this house of flesh, the
arms of mercy are open to embrace thee ; yea, essential, trans-
cendent love is ready to receive thee : the Spirit of love hath
sealed thee to that blessed state : Christ will present thee jus-
tified and accepted. Most of my old, holy, familiar friends are
gone before me, and all the rest that died since the world
began. And the few imperfect ones left behind are hasting
after them apace, and if I go before, will quickly overtake me :
though they weep as if it were for a long separation, it is their
great mistake : the gate of death stands all day open, and my
sorrowful friends are quickly following me, as I am now follow-
ing those for whom I sorrowed. Oh, pity them who are left a
while under the temptations, dangers, and fears, which have so
long been thine own affliction ! but be not afraid of the day of
APPENDIX. 461
thy deliverance, and the bosom of everlasting love, and the so-
ciety of the wise, and just, and holy, and of the end of all thy
troubles, and the entrance into the joy of thy Lord, and the
place and state of all thy hope. Oh, say, not notionally only, as
from argumentative conviction, but confidently, and vi^ith glad
desire and hope, to depart and be with Christ, is far better than
to be here.
But, O my God, I have much more hope in speaking to thee
than to myself. Long may I plead with this dark and dull, yet
fearful soul, before I can plead it into joyful hopes and hea-
venly desires, unless thou shine on it with the light of thy coun-
tenance, and thou, whom my soul must trust and love, wilt give
me faith and love themselves. I thank thee for convincing ar-
guments : but had this been all the strength of my faith and
hope, the tempter might have proved too subtle for me in dis-
pute. ] thank thee that some experience tells me, that a holy
appetite to heavenly work, and a love to the heavenly company
and state, doth more to make me willing to die, and think, with
pleasure, of my change, than ever bare arguments would have
done. Oh, send down the streams of thy love into my soul, and
that will powerfully draw it up by longings for the near and full
fruition ! Oh, give me more of the divine and heavenly nature,
and it will be natural and easy to me to desire to be with thee :
send more of the heavenly joys into this soul, and it will long
for heaven, the place of joy ! T must not hope on earth for any
such acquaintance with the world above as is proper to the en-
joying state. But if the sun can send its illuminating, warm-
ing rays, to such a world as this, according to the various dis-
position of the recipients ; doubtless thou hast thy effectual,
though unsearchable, ways, of illuminating, sanctifying, and at-
tractive influence on souls. And one such beam of thy pleased
face, one taste of thy complacential love, will kindle my love,
and draw up my desires, and make my pains and sickness tole-
rable ; 1 shall tiien put off this clothing with the less reluct-
ancy, and willingly leave my flesh to the dust, and sing my nunc
dimittis, when I have thus seen and tasted thy salvation. O my
God, let not thy strengthening, comfortinggrace now forsake me,
lest it should overwhelm me with the fears of being finally for-
saken. Dwell in me as the God of love and joy, that 1 may
long to dwell in love and joy with thee for ever. As grace
abounded where sin abounded, let thy strengthening and com-
forting mercy abound when weakness increase! h, and my ne-
462 APPENDIX.
cessities abound. My flesh and my heart faileth, but thou art
the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever : this short
life is almost at an end ; but thy loving-kindness is better than
life : 1 know not with what pains thou wilt further try me ; but
if I love thee, thou hast promised that all things shall work to-
gether for my good. The world that Lam going to by death is
not apparent to my sight ; but my life is hid with Christ in
God ; and, because he liveth, we shall live ; and we shall be
v/ith him where he is ; and vyhen he appeareth, we shall appear
with him in glory ; and shall enter into our Master's joy, and
be for ever with the Lord. Amen.
What sensible manifestation of his kingdom Christ gave i?i his
transfiguration.
Sect. 1. Our Lord, who brought life and immortality to light,
well knew the difficulty of believing so great things unseen : and
therefore it pleased him to give men some sensible helps by de-
monstration. In Matt. xvi. and xvii. i, 2, &c. ; Mark ix. 1 ;
Luke ix. 28, he promised some of his disciples a sight of his
kingdom as coming in power ; or such a glimpse as Moses had
of the back parts of God's glory : this he performed first in his
transfiguration, as afterward in his resurrection, ascension, and
sending the Holy Ghost to enable them, with power, to preach,
and work miracles, and convert the nations.
Sect. 2. By the kingdom of God, is meant God's government
of his holy ones, by a heavenly communication of life, light, and
love, initially, on earth by grace, and perfectly in heaven by
glory. A special theocracy.
Sect. o. For the understanding of this we must know, that
when God had made man good, in his image, he conversed with
him in a heavenly manner, either immediately, or by an angel,
speaking to him, and telling him his will. But man being made
a free, self-determining agent, he was left to choose whom he
would follow : and hearkening unto Satan, and turning from
God, he became a^lave'of Satan, and gave him advantage to be
his deceiving ruler : not that man's rebellion nullified God's
power, or disposing government, or took man from under obli-
gation to obedience ; but that, forsaking God, he was much,
though not wholly, forsaken by his special, fatherly, approving
government, and left to Satan and his own will : but the eter-
nal Word interposing for man's reprival and redemption, under-
took to break the serpent's head, and to conquer and cast out
APPENDIX. 463
him that had deceived and captivated man : and, choosing out a
special seed, he made them a pecuHar people, and set up a hea-
venly, prophetical government over them, himself, by heavenly
revelation, making their laws, and choosing their chief govern-
ors under him, from time to tim.e, and would not leave it to
blind and sinful man to make laws, or choose princes, for them-
selves, but would keep them in a special dependence upon hea-
ven. But the carnal Israelites having provoked God by odious
idolatry to deny them much of the benefit of government (save
when they repented, and cried to him for help) they thought
to amend this by choosing a king like other nations, and ending
their dependence on heavenly revelation, and choice for go-
vernment : and so theocracy was turned into a more human
regiment, and God more cast off : though yet he would not
quite forsake them. And the rest of the world was yet more
left under the power of Satan, and their own corrupted mind and
will ; so that Satan hatli both an internal kingdom in wicked
souls, and a visible political government of the wicked king-
doms of the world, ruling them by men that are ruled by him.
And as Christ came to cast him out of men's hearts by his sanc-
tifying, conquering Spirit, so also to cast him out of the politi-
cal Government of the kingdoms of the world, and to bring them
under the laws, and officers, and Spirit of Christ, and rule them
by heavenly power and love as his own kingdoms, that he may
bring them to perfection in one celestial kingdom at last. And
in this sense we pray, ^' Thy kingdom come."
Sect. 4. To make men believe that he is the heavenly King
sent from God, to cast down Satan's kingdom, v/as the great bu-
siness of the preaching of the gospel : this he would demon-
strate, as by all his miracles which showed him to have the vic-
tory of devils, and to be the Lord of life, so also by visible ap-
parition in glory. And it is said, (1 John v. 7, 8,) that there
are three witnesses in heaven, and three on earth, so here Christ
would have three heavenly and three earthly witnesses of his
transfiguration. From heaven he had the witness, 1. Of a
voice, proclaiming, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased, hear him." 2. Of Moses, the chief law-giver.
3. And of Elias, the chief prophet ; to tell us, that the law and
the prophets are his prognosticating witnesses : but " hear him"
notifieth to us, that Christ and his gospel are to be heard above
the law and the prophets, and to teach us more than they could
teach us : the law was given by Moses (with its types and sha-
464 APPENDIX.
dows) but grace and truth (the substance so typified) are by
Jesus Christ.
Sect. 5. Light and glory are often of the same signification.
Christ was transfigured into a lucid, glorious appearance of
body: he tells us by this, that he would have us have some
sort of idea of his kingdom, fetched from sense ; many appari-
tions of angels have been in lights. Christ appeared to Saul in
a visible light. (Acts ix.) So did he to John : (Rev. i, &c. :)
God and the Lamb are the light of the New Jerusalem. It is
an inheritance of the saints in light.
Some seem to me to think too basely of sense, and too far to
separate it from intellectual spirits, both as to power, act, and
object : and all because they find it in lower creatures. They
might accordingly deny substantiality to spirits, because brutes
are substances : the higher have all the perfections of the lower,
either formally or eminently. Jt is not a spirit's perfection to
be insensible, or to have nothing to do with sensible things, but
to be eminently sensible, and to be superior agents on lower
sensibles. God is love : and love is complacency : and a high
degree of complacency is delight or joy. So that God is essen-
tial, infinite joy, but without that drossy quality which is proper
to souls in flesh, and all that imperfection which belongs to
creatures. Can we tell what it is to enter into our Master's
joy, or joyfully to love and praise him, without any sense: I
rather think, that as vigorous youth makes men capable of more
delight than decrepit, languid, painful age and sickness, so hea-
ven shall, by perfecting our natures, make them capable of in-
conceivably more joy than any on' earth is capable of.
And as we shall have sense in exaltation as to power and act,
so we shall have sensible objects. God himself delighteth in all
his works, and" so shall we. We must not, on pretence of
taking the heavenly Jerusalem to be merely spiritual, deprive
ourselves of all the sensible ideas of it which God's description
offereth to us. Light is sensible; Christ glorified there is sen-
sible; Moses and Elias were sensible to Peter, James, and John.
Lazarus and Abraham were sensible to the man in hell.
(Luke xvi.) Stephen saw heaven open, and Christ sitting at
the right hand of God. And all eyes shall see him at his glo-
rious return. Heavenly glory is not enjoyed only by mere
thinking and knowing, nor as in a dream, but by the most emi-
nent intellectual sensation, exalted and invigorated.
Sec!. (). Say not then, O my soul, that this kingdom of glory
APPENDIX. 465
is so far above thee, that thou canst have no idea of it. Think
not that it is therefore unmeet for thy desiring and joyful hopes,
because thou canst not know whsit it is. Hast thou no concep-
tion of the difference between light and darkness ? If thou hadst
been but one year kept in absolute darkness, wouldest thou have
no desiring thoughts of light ? The blind think themselves half
dead while they are alive. Indeed, the faculty and object must
be suitable ; light may be too great for our weak eyes, as heat
may be torment in an unsuitable degree ; but when^ our souls are
perfected, they will be suitable recipients of a more glorious
light than we can here endure. Moses is not there covered in
a cleft of the rock, because he could see but as the back part of
God's glory. We must see here but as in a glass, but there as
face to face. Though these organical eyes, as spectacles, shall
be laid by, we shall have media more perfect, suitable to our
perfect state.
And as I can think of heaven as a region of glorious light,
so can I think of it as a place and state of life and love. I
know somewhat of the difference of life and death, and that a
living dog is better than a dead lion. And I have felt what it
is to love my friends, and thence to desire their near commu-
nion as my delight ; and can I then have no idea of that
world, where life, light, and joyful love are the very element of
souls, as water is to the fishes ?
And as I can have some idea of that state in general, so may
I of the state of the perfected spirits of the just which are there.
They are connatural to their proper element. They are essen-
tial, created life, light, and love. And they want not substance
to be the basis of those formal powers, nor objects on which to
exercise them. Think not, then, that heaven is so far incon-
ceivable, as not by any idea to be thought of. If we have no
conception of it, we can have no desn-es of it, and no delightful
hope. What can we conceive of more certainly than of life,
and light, and love ; of a region, and of persons essentiated of
these ? Do we not know what knowledge is, and see what light
is, and feel what life and love are ?
But it is true that our conceptions hereof are lamentably im-
perfect; and so they must be till possession, fruition, and exer*
cise, perfect them. Who knoweth what light or sight is, but
by seeing ; or what knowledge is, but by knowing ; or what
love and joy are, but bv ove and rejoicing ? And who knows
VOL. XVIII. H H
466 APPENDIX.
what perfect sight, knowledge, love, and joy are, but by perfect
seeing, knowing, loving, and rejoicing ? No man by an intuitive
or immediate perception. But some abstractive conceptions of
it we may have by reasoning deduction from that poor degree
which we here in the kingdom of grace possess.
Can I'jperceive substantiality in the dark terrene appearances,
which are but mutable lifeless matter agitated and used by
invisible powers, a«d shall I think of those unseen, powerful
substances, as if they were less substantial for being spiritual,
or were not objects for a knowing thought? Are the stars
which 1 see less substantial than a carcass in a darksome grave ?
The Lord that appeared in shining glory hath members in their
measure like himself; and hath promised that we shall shine as
stars in the kingdom of his Father. If some degree of this be
here performed in them who are called the children of light,
and the lights of the world, how much more will they shine in
the world of light ? They that call light a quality, or an act,
must confess it hath a substance whose quality or act it is.
Alas ! what a deceived thing is a sensual unbeliever, who spend-
eth his life in the pursuit of fugitive shadows, and walketh in
a vain show, and thinks of spiritual, glorious substances, as if
they were the nothings or delusions of a dream.
Sect. 6. Christ, Moses, and Elias, here visibly appeared as
three distinct, individual persons. This tells us that it is a false
conceit that death ceaaeth individuation, and turneth all souls
into one (of which before) ; perfect, indivisible, infinite unity is
proper to God ; from this one is multiplicity. Reason forbids
us, when wc see the numberless individuals in this world, and
see also the numerous stars above, to imagine that all the
worlds above us have so much of divine perfection, as to be
but one undivided substance, and to have no multiplicity of
inhabitants. Yea, some of tho^e Sadducees hold that the stars
are worlds inhabited as the earth is. And why then should
they think whithersoever souls go, that they cease their indivi-
duation, when they go among individuals ? But Christ hath
confuted them even to sense. Moses is Moses still, and Elias;
is Elias still ; and all our friends that are gone to Christ are
the same still that they were, and may be called by the same
names. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the same in heaven ;
and Lazarus was Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. When we lay
by flesh, and are unclothed, we put not off our personality.
APPENDIX. 4^
Every one shall receive his own reward according to what he
hath done in the body, when every one must give account of
his own works and talents.
Why then may not I, with distinct conceptions and joyful
desires, look after the souls of my departed friends, that are
now in the celestial kingdom ? Though malignity hath scorned
me for naming some few in my ' Saints' Rest,' being such as
the despisers hated, yet I forbear not, on such accounts, to solace
myself by naming more, but because they are more than it is
fit to number. In all places where I have lived, how many
excellent souls (though here they were not perfect) are gone
to Christ, How sweet is the remembrance of the communion
which I had with many of them in Shrewsbury, and other parts
of Shropshire ; of many at Dudley, and the adjoining parts 3
of multitudes at Kidderminster, Bewdley, and other parts of
Worcestershire ; of abundance at Coventry, and other parts of
Warwickshire ; and of many where I have sojourned in other
parts of the land ; and, above all, in London, and the adjoining
parts. As Mr. Howe hath elegantly expressed it, in his excel-
lent character of my excellent and dear friend, Mr. Richard
Fairclough : what a multitude of blessed saints will arise at the
last day out of London. And this earth is, as it were, hallowed
with the dust and relics of so many blessed souls. But it is
heaven that is spangled with these spiritual stars ; the place
honoured with them, and they with it, and all by Christ. We
are like infants, or lambs, or other young ones, that cry for
their dams if they be but out of sight; though they are ever
so near, if they see them not, they cry as if they were not, or
liad forsaken them. As Christ told his disciples, that it was
needful for them that he departed from them, and yet their
hearts for this were sorrowful, till the Holy Ghost came upon
them, as better than Christ's fleshly presence, to prepare them
joyfully to follow him ; so we think of our friends as almost lost
to us by separation, till the heavenly Spirit tell us where they
are, and prepare us to desire to be with them.
Sect. 6, Elias hath a body now in heaven, and so hath
Enoch; but can we think that only two or three that are there
with Christ do so much differ from all the rest, as to have
bodies when the rest have none ? Is there such a dissimilitude
of saints in heaven ? What are two or three in such a society ?
Doubtless their bodies are not corruptible flesh and blood, but
such spiritual bodies as all saints shall have at the resurrection.
H H 2
468 Appendix.
But are they In heaven such visible and shaped bodies as they
appeared on the mount ? The same difficulty poseth us about
the risen body of Christ : he would not have Mary touch him,
because he had not yet ascended to his Father ; he could appear
and vanish from their sight at his pleasure ; and yet Thomas
handled him, and felt that he had flesh and bones. That body
of flesh ascended visibly up toward heaven; and yet it is not
flesh and blood in heaven, but a spiritual body ; for it is not
worse than he will make his members. What shall we say to
these things ? We must say, that we are not capable of know-
ing them, but have reason to be thankful that we may know so
much, more necessary for us. But yet it seemeth probable
that the bodies of Christ, and Enoch, and Elias, were change-
able according to the region in which they were to be. Christ
could take up a body of flesh and blood, and immediately
change that state of it into a pure and incorruptible, spiritual
body, as it entered into the incorruptible, spiritual region. And
so God did by Enoch and Elias. As Paul saith, that we shall
not all die, (those that live till Christ's appearing) but we shall
all be changed. And yet if Elias have business on the mount,
he can put on the clothing of a grosser body to be seen of
men, and can lay it by, or return to his more invisible, spiritual
state, when he return eth to the place from whence he came.
And no wonder, when angels (and the ancients say Christ,
before his incarnation) assumed bodies suitable to their several
businesses on earth ; yea, such as could eat and drink with men 5
when they dwelt not in heaven so coarsely clothed.
Sect. 7. But how came Moses to have a body on the mount,
who is said to have been buried, and therefore took none with
him into heaven ? We must still remember, that we inquire of
things above our certain knowledge. But in humble conjecture
we may say, that it is no more impossible for Moses to assume
such a body as he appeared in on the mount, for that occasion,
than for angels to appear in human shapes; and departed souls
too, as many apparitions have told men. And if bad souls can
do it, why not good ones, when God will have it ? The tradition
seemeth but a Jewish dream, that God kept the body of Moses
uncorrupted in the grave; and that this was it that the devil is
said to strive for against Michael, that the body might be cor-
rupted. And say others, that at this transfiguration it rose
again. There need no such conceits to our satisfaction. The
soul of Moses could assume a body.
APPENDIX, 469^
Sect. 8. But still the dissimilitude of Enoch and Elias from
all the saints in heaven is an unresolved difficulty. If we knew
that God would have it so, it might satisfy us. But there is a
symmetry in the body of Christ. And it is like that the same
region hath inhabitants of the same nature. What shall we
think, then, that Enoch and Elias, at their entrance into those
regions, laid by their bodies, and became such as Abraham, and
other holy souls ? Why are they taken up to be so laid by ?
The corruptibility, no doubt, they did lay by. God knoweth,
but it is much unknown to us. Or shall we think as all those
fathers cited by Faustus Regiensis, and as Dr. More, and some
of late, that all spirits are souls, and animate some bodies j and
so that all in heaven have some bodies. If so, what bodies are
they ; and how differ they from the resurrection state ? As the
soul here operateth in and by the igneous spirits in our bodies,
it may be so lodged in these as to take some of them with it at
death, as the life of a dying plant, yet dieth not in the seed.
And a man may be said to go unclothed to bed, though he put
not off his shift or nearest garment, and to be clothed again
when he puts on the rest. And at the resurrection, as there
will be a new heaven and earth, so spirits now in heaven may
have much more delightful business on the new and righteous
earth than now they have, and therefore may have use for an
additional body, as much differing from what they have now in
heaven, as the new earth and their employment there require ;
and as the seed doth differ from the plant. And spirits being
communicative, will be more happy by more communication.
As God delighteth to do good to all his works, so the souls now
confined to heaven will delight to be employed in doing good
to the new earth, and to animate the bodies suited to such
work ; though now they have use for no other than sUch
spiritual, lucid receptacles as are fit for the regions where they
dwell. And it will be no debasement or dejection for a spirit
now in heaven to animate a body at the resurrection fit for the
new earth ; no more than it was to angels to speak to Adam,
and to Moses, to Abraham, Jacob, Manoah, and others ; or
than it is to the sun to enlighten and enliven things on earth.
It is a foolish thing to think, as some do, that departed souls
will be as dormant and unactive as in apoplectic or sleeping
persons, for want of organized bodies to act in. Spirits are
essentially active, intellective, and volitive ; and will God con-
tinue such essential powers in vain ? Moses and Elias wanted
470 APPENDIX.
not bodies ; and those in heaven can praise Jehovah and tlie
Lamb with holy, concordant love and joy ; whether in any sort:
of ethereal bodies, or without, we shall shortly know.
Sect. 8. It is said that Moses and Elias talked with Christ ;
this showeth that Christ hath familiar communion with the
blessed. He that would come into flesh on earth, and live with
man in an humbled state, and refused not familiar converse
with poor men and women, and would eat and drink with pub-
licans and sinners, will not refuse everlasting, near familiarity
with the glorified. If the church be his dearly beloved spovise,
and as it were one with him, as his body, surely he will be no
stranger to the least and lowest member of it.
Sect. 9. But what was it that they talked about? Luke (ix. 31)
saith, ^^They appeared in glory, and spake of his decease, which
\}e should accomplish at Jerusalem." This was not to make it
known to Christ, who came into the world to die for sin ; what
then was it for ? Did Christ tell them of it, as not knowing it
before ? That is not likely neither. Did he need their comfort,
as angels in his trials ministered to him and strengthened him ?
The particular uses of this speech we know not^ but in general
we know it was somewhat preparatory to his great sufferings
and death.
And must Christ's sufferings and death have such prepara-
tion, and must not mine have much premeditation ? And do
I not need the consolatory messages of God ? Carnal men
would rather have chosen pleasanter discourse, than the talk of
sufferings and death. But that which must be undergone, and
requireth greatest strength, must be forethought of, and re-
quireth the most preparing thoughts. It is worse than madness
to be surprised with sufferings and death, before it is seriously
forethought of. So sharp a trial, and so great a change, require
the greatest preparation. He that can refuse to suffer and die,
may refuse to talk or think of it. If Christ must have men
from heaven to talk with him of his cross, what cause have we
to study the cross ; even all our lives to foresee it, and, by obe-
dient consent, to submit unto it, and take it up to follow Christ,
and even to determine, with Paul, to know nothing in the world
but Christ and him crucified; that is, to take this for the only
needful and excellent learning ? But, alas ! how senselessly is
death and suffering talked of till it comes ! We are to learn
how to suffer when suffering is upon us ; and to learn how to
die when nature^ or the physician^ passes the sentence of death
APPKNDIX. 4Ji
on \is at hand. And it is God's mercy to some of us to make
our sufferings long, that we may have a competent time of learn-
ing. As we learn to write by writing, and to discourse by dis-
coursing, and every art and trade by practice ; even so by suf-
fering we learn to suffer, and the lesson is very hard. Male-
factors suffer without learning, whether they will or not ; but to
suffer obediently, with child-like affections, is the lesson to be
learned. Oh ! little, too little, do many honest Christians think
how much of their excellent obedience consisteth in child -like,
holy suffering; therefore they little expect it, and provide for itj
and then they are overwhelmed with the unexpected surprisal
when it comes. Even in the sufferings which men bring on the
faithful for righteousness' sake, how many shrink, and shift off
their duty, or venture on forbidden things for safety, because
they were not prepared for it. The loss of goods, or imprison-
ment and want, seem to many almost insufferable trials. But
I can tell such, by some experience, that bodily pain and tor-
ment is a far greater trial, which none of them are secured
from, and requireth greater strength of faith obediently to ac-
cept it at the hand of God: and others can tell them that the*
violence of temptations, and the terrors of God on a wounded
conscience, and troubled soul, are yet far harder than all these :
and these are the saddest, because they make the mind unfit at
present to improve them, and to refer them to holy ends and
uses. Christ, in all his agony, and even when he cried out on
the cross, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me !" had
his intellectuals free and perfect, to know the nature, the rea-
son, the uses, and end of all his sufferings : but so have not
many poor, distressed, troubled, distracted souls. O how great
a part of Christianity is it to understand and rightly bear the
cross ! Most of our care is how to escape it, or to be delivered
from it, rather than obediently to bear it.
Sect. 10. Experience of a suffering, painful state is a great
help to our understanding of the gospel. It taketh off from me
the scandal of Christ's cross, and helpeth me to perceive the
great use and reasons of it, when I am under sufferings. Oh !
what need have I of such an example as Christ's. All the parts
of his sufferings are as useful to teach me how to suffer, as the
ten commandments to teach me what to do. That he was put
to fly from proud, domineering pharisees, false teachers, and
worldly rulers, and to converse most with the poor, in wilder-
nesses, or various obscure places; that he was hated and per-
472 APPENDIX.
secuted for doing good, and accounted a sinner for neglecting
men's ceremonies and traditions ; th'at he was hardly believed,
even by them that saw his miracles ; and his own disciples wejpe
so slow in learning; and that in his suffering they all forsook
him and fled, and one denied him with oaths and curses: all
these are instructing instances. That Christ's natural, though
sinless, aversation to death and suffering, and his fear, should
be so powerful, and the sense of God's punishing justice so ter-
rible, as to make his soul sorrowful, even to the death, and cast
him into an agony, where he sweat water and blood, and to pray
thrice that the bitter cup, if possible, might pass from him,
which he came into the world to drink: all these also are
teaching parts of the sufferings of Christ, that rulers, and
priests, and soldiers, and the rabble, should agree to scorn him,
clothe him in derision, spit on him, buffet him, scourge him, make
him their jest, that came to save them ; that they should make
a sinner of him that never sinned, but came to destroy it, and
save men from it ; yea, to make him no less than a deceiver, a
blasphemer, and an usurping rebel against Caesar, and write this
last as his accusation on his cross, thinking to leave his inno-
cency no vindication or defence. For the Lord and Saviour of
the world to undergo all this, is very instructing to a suffering
believer : that he should, as such a malefactor, be reviled on a
cross, and numbered with transgressors, and his side be pierced,
and he there cry out to his Father as forsaken by him ; that thus
dying he was buried, and his soul went to the place of sepa-
rated souls, and yet into paradise. They are excellent lessons
which may be learned from all this.
I am not to suffer for others, nor to make God's justice a
satisfying sacrifice for sin, as Christ did; but I must suffer
God's fatherly corrections, and the castigation of paternal, heal-
ing justice. I must be saved as by fire, and pass through this pur-
gatory, that I may be refined : I must suffer from Christ and for
Christ, for my sin, and also for righteousness' sake : and 1 must,
with a filial justification of God's holiness and chastening jus-
tice, bear his indignation, because I have sinned against him. I
am predestined to be conformed to Christ's image, in suffering
and in sanctity; yea, I must "count all things loss for the ex-
cellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord," (Rom. viii,
30, &c.,) for whom I must not refuse to suffer the loss of all
things, and count them dung, that I may win him, and be found
in him, and not only know the power of his resurrection, but
APPENDIX. 4/^3
also the ^^ fellowship of his sufferings, and be made conformable
to his death.'* (Phil. iii. 8 — 10.) Paul rejoiced in such infir-
mities, and in his sufferings for the church, filling up that which
was behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh. (Col. i. 24.)
Peter bids us " rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ's
sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, we may be glad
also with exceeding joy.'^ (1 Peter iv. 13.) "If we suffer with
him, that we may also be glorified with him." (Rom. viii. 17.)
It is a great gift to suffer for his sake. (Phil. i. 29.) It is for
the kingdom of God that such suffer. (2 Thess. i. 5.) It is
happiness and joy to suffer for righteousness' sake, for well
doing. (1 Pet. ii. 10; and iii. 14, 17; and iv. 15, 16, 19;
Matt. V. 10, 11.) It is the sufferings of Christ that abound
in such, that their consolations may abound. (2 Cor. i. 5.)
But, alas ! I suffer much more for my own sin than for Christ
and righteousness ; but even this also by the cross of Christ is
sanctified, and made a great remedy against my sin. As Christ
suffered for our sins, and yet merited by his suffering; so if
we accept the castigatory punishment, and exercise repentance
and mortification in our suffering, and an obedient submission
to the rod, God will take this as acceptable service, and bless it
to our further good.
Sect. 1 1 . But how is it that Christ is said " to learn obe-
dience by the things that he suffered, and so to be made
perfect." (Heb. v. 8, 9.) Was he unlearned and imperfect
before ? He had no culpable imperfection; but his satisfactory
mediation was imperfect till it was all performed : it was not
perfectly done ; and when it was done, he thereby was consti-
tutively made a perfect Mediator : as he said upon the cross, "It
is finished ;" and as this human nature received additional acts
of knowledge, as he grew up, and conversed with more objects,
and so is said to increase in wisdom (as Adam knew the creatures
when he saw them) ; so he had a new acquaintance with obe-
dient suffering, when he was under the experience of it ; and is
said to learn it, in that he now exercised it.
And should not my suffering be God's school ? Should I not
learn obedience by it ? Surely, as it smartly tells me of the
evil of former disobedience, so it calls me to remember in whose
hands I am, and with whom I have to do, and what is my duty
in such a state : God can do no wrong to his own : he will do
nothing finally hurtful to his children. In all our afflictions he
is said to be afflicted, to signify that he afflicts not willingly, or
474 APPENDIX.
without our provocation. Justice is good, and holiness is good;
and it is good for us to repent, and be weaned from the flesh
and world : and all good must be loved, and the means as such :
sharp, heart-breaking sermons are unpleasing to nature j and
yet to be loved for their use : and afflictions are God's powerful
sermons : the proud and hardened are forced to hear them, who
scorn and prosecute preachers for speaking the same things : and
shall believers under sufferings be untaught ? Words are but
words, but stripes go by forcible sense unto the heart: obedient
submission to the greatest pains is a serious acknowledgement
of God*s dominion, and of his wisdom and love, and the certain
hopes of a better life. Impatience hath in it somewhat of
atheism, or blasphemy: God is not duly acknowledged and
honoured. Job's wife would have had him thus purposely
provoke God, to end his misery by death : as if she had said^
< Speak no more well of him, by whom thou sufFerest so much,
nor honour a God that will not help thee :' but patience saith,
^* 1 will look unto the Lord } I will wait for the God of my
salvation ; my God will hear me." (Mic. viii. 7.)
Impatience showeth a misunderstanding of God's dealing
with the afflicted ; but patience yieldeth, because it understandeth
whence all comes, and what will be the fruit and end. A man
that is let blood for his life, is not impatient with the chirur-
geon ; but a beast will strive, and a swine, or child, will cry.
Our burdens are heavy enough of themselves : impatience
maketh them heavier, and is oft more painful than the thing
which we suff^er : some have gone mad with crosses, which to
another would have been light. Patience is our cordial and
nepenthes, yea, the health of the soul, by which it is able to
bear its infirmities. " In our patience we possess our souls. '-
(Luke xxi. 19.) Whatever else we lose, we lose not ourselves.
He thatkeepeth his faith, and hope, and love by patience, keep-^
eth his soul: but the impatient lose themselves, as if their other
losses were not enough. A poor man singeth that gets his
living only by his day labour ; when a lord or knight Avould be
tormented with sorrow, if he were reduced to his degree.
Striving under our yoke and burden maketh it gall the more :
and we cannot so hopefully or comfortably pray for deliver-
ance from the pain which we make ourselves, as from that
which God layeth on us ; though also there, we must pray for
the grace that must save us from our own impatience.
Patience preventeth many sins which impatience causetli) hard
APPENDIX. 4/5
thoughts of God, if not hard and -unseemly words : "Job sinned
not, nor charged God foolishly :" impatience tempteth men to
think that piety and prayer are in vain, and to condemn the
generation of the just, and to leave off duty, and say, ' Why
^lould I wait on God any longer?' Yea, and to venture on
false and. sinful means, in hopes of deliverance and ease.
Were it to men, we have much to allay our impatience : but
impatience against God hath no just excuse. Infinite power,
wisdom, and goodness, can do nothing that deserveth blame :
we have God's promise that all things shall work together for
our good : and is he not to be trusted ? Or is the means of our
good to be accused ? ■'
Impatience is unseemly for them that believe that heavenly
rest and glory are at hand ; where all their pains and sorrows
will end. Were a man on the rack, and were sure to have all
that he desired after it, he would the more easily endure it.
Why else did the martyrs so patiently «uffer ? It is incongruous
to complain of any thing that brings a man to heaven.
Christ himself was innocent, and yet accused not God for his
sufferings. But we suffer justly for our faults; and it is so much
less than they deserve, that the sins which we suffer most for
are said to be forgiven us, in that the everlasting punishment is
forgiven : should we so often sinfully please the flesh, and yet
must it not smart ? Shall we so often grieve the Spirit of God,
and not be grieved ? Shall we lose our time, neglect our duty,
forget our home, fall in love with the world, and yield to temp-
tations,, and defile our souls with filth and vanity, and must not
correction tell us of our sinful folly ? " If we suffer for our faults,
and bear it patiently, it is not thankworthy." ( I Pet. ii. 20.)
Our merciful Father doth use to shame us for our impatience,
by the blessed end of our afflictions. The end that God made
with Job showed the reasonableness of his patience : when our
afflictions are over, do not all believers see cause of thankfulness
for them, and say, ' It is good for me that I was afflicted ? ' The
pain is past, and the benefit remaineth. And if all that is past
was mercy to us, why should we much fear that which is to
eome. Heaven will end all, and shame impatience for ever.
. Our patience is much of our perseverance : what a deal of
labour do those impatient men lose, that learn, and pray, and
are somewhat religious, and have not patience at the last
assault to bear the trial, but fail when they seemed to be near
Jhe crown 1
47^ APPENDIX.
Hold out, then, poor desponding soul ! lift up the hand»
which hang down, and the feeble knees, and run with patience
the race which is set before thee, looking to Jesus, who, for the
joy that was set before him, endured the cross. God will not
deceive thy hopes. Sin hath brought pain and death on man;
but Christ hath sanctified it, and is the Lord of Life. Yet a
little while, and the heavenly possession shall turn thy sorrows
into everlasting joy, and thy moans and groans into thanks and
praise, and there shall be no more sickness, pain, or death. O
foolish, unbelieving hearts I that cry out of suffering, and fear
deliverance ; that would fain be free from all affliction, and yet
fly from the only state of freedom ; that are impatient under
their calamity, and yet afraid of passing to the only rest !
Sect. 12. But it is neither pain alone, nor death alone, that
will sufficiently try our strength, and exercise our faith and
patience. It must be great pain (and often long) in order to
a certain, expected death. These two conjunct were the case
of Christ. The torment of his agony, scourging, crucifying,
piercing, and desertion, and the certainty of death that followed.
Great pains, with hopes of recovery and ease, may be borne, even
by a worldly man; because there is still the worldly hope of
better : and so there is no denial of all, while life itself is not
denied. We must receive the sentence of death in ourselves,
if we will find that we trust in God alone, and trust him as one
that raiseth the dead, that is, for another and better life.
As long as a man hath any hope of life and ease, a man's
faith is not tried to the uttermost, by actual forsaking all. And
yet an easy death alone doth not fully try a man : for they that
know that all must die, may submit to this, who cannot bear
long pains before it. But great and long pains, and the sentence
of death together, are the trial.
And if God will so try me, why should I repine ? Flesh will
groan, but the mind may obediently submit. It is but flesh ;
that flesh that hath tempted and imprisoned my soul. I have
too much loved it, and am too loth to leave it : and is it not
mercy from God to make me weary of it ? God is engaged
against idols, that is, all that is loved and pleased before him ;
and if any thing, that is likest to be this flesh. Its corrupt-
ibility tells us, that both its pleasure and its pain will be but
short. Long pain is usually tolerable : and intolerable pain will
conquer nature, and not be long. The grace of Christ is suffi-
cient for us, and his strength is manifested in our weakness,
APPENDIX, 477
when he will not take the thorn out of our flesh, though, as
Christ and Paul did, we pray thrice, or oftener.
And to be impatient with death is to repine that we are
born mortal men ; and to fly from heaven and all true hopes, and
all the felicity purchased by Christ: and is this renouncing the
world, and trusting Christ for life everlasting ? And why fear
we that which endeth all our pains and fears ? A true believer
never sufFereth so much, but his mercies are far more and greater
than his sufferings. His soul is united to Christ : his hopes of
heaven have a sure foundation : he is sealed up to glory : rest
and joy are near at hand 5 and former mercies should not be
forgotten ; and should not such men patiently endure ? O what
a shameful contradiction is it, to choose heaven as our only
portion, to believe in Christ for it, and to seek it as the business
of all our lives, and yet to be loth to die, that we may obtain it,
and to fly with fear from that which we so seek and hope for 1
What a contradiction is it to call God our God and Father, the
God of Love, and to call Christ our gracious, glorified Redeemer,
and to fly from his presence with distrustful fear 1 Almighty
love may correct us, may kill us, but it cannot finally hurt true
believers.
So much of Moses' and Elias' discourse of the sufferings and
death of Christ.
Sect. 13. Sure it is not true that the souls of the fathers,
before Christ's coming, did not enter into heaven, but lay in
some inferior limbus. For Moses and Elias came from heaven ;
their shining glory showed that, and their discourse with Christ,
and the voice and glory that went with them. And it is not to
be thought that they were separated from the rest of the souls of
the faithful, and, with Enoch, were in heaven by themselves
alone, and the rest elsewhere. Though it is said that God's
house hath many mansions, and there are various degrees of
glory, yet the blessed are all fellow-citizens of one societv, and
children in one family of God. And they that came from east
and west, shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the
kingdom of God ; and Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom, and the
believing thief with Christ in paradise.
Sect. 14. It seems that Moses and Elias appeared thus, to
foreshow the resurrection of Christ, and of the faithful, and to
make it easier to the three disciples to believe it. Why should
they doubt whether Christ should rise, when they saw that
Moses was risen before him ? And why should they doubt of
478 JVPPENDIX.
the resuiTection of tlie faithful, and the glory following, when
they saw these glorified saints? Some think that this appari-*
tion was for the strengtliening of Christ himself, whose human
nature had use for such ministry also of angels, but it is more
certain that it was for the strengthening of the disciples' faith,
and of ours by their testimony. As it is said, " This voice
came not because of me, but for your sakes/' (John xii. 30.)
Sect. 15. It is much worth our noting, in what a communion
this specimen of the kingdom of heaven was represented in the
holy mount. Here was a voice of God, and a glimpse of his
glory : here was our Redeemer in a glimpse of his glory : here
was a Moses and Elias in a glimpse of their glory : and here
were three beloved disciples yet in the flesh, and in weakness of
faith, which needed such confirmation. God, our Father, and
our Saviour, the saints of heaven, and those on earth, are all
of one society or kingdom. There is a near relation, and a near
communion among them all. When the eternal Word dis-
dained not so wonderful condescension as to come to us in the
form of a servant, even of a poor, despised, crucified man, it is
less wonder that Moses and Elias should come down as his wit-
nesses and servants. (Heb. xii. 23, &c.) The heavenly Jeru-
salem, and city of the living God, of which we are enrolled
burgesses or heirs, hath many parts. There is the assembly of
the first-born, and innumerable angels, and the Spirits of the
just made perfect, and Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant,
and God, the Judge of all. Oh, what holy, glorious, joyful
company shall we have above ! Christ and his angels will not
despise the least of saints.
Sect. 16. But what was the introduction to this apparition
and transfiguration ? It was Christ's praying, " He went up
into a mountain to pray, and, as lie prayed, he was transfigured."
(Luke ix. 28, 29.) Surely this is written to invite and encou-
rage us to pray. We are in greater need than Christ. It is
folly in unbelievers to think prayers vain, because God is un-
changeable. We are not unchangeable : and the exercise of
faith, dependence on God,, and true desires, being the condition
required in a due receiver,, maketh those blessings become ours,
which else we had been incapable of. God, who commandeth
fervent prayer, hath promised to answer it. Though we must
not think to be the rulers of the world, nor have whatever our
flesh or folly doth desire, because we ask it earnestly, yet true
prayer is the appointed way for obtaining what we need, and is
APPENDIX. , 479
best for us, and we are fitted to receive. And as Christ had
this wonderful return to his prayers, his servants have experience
that their choicest mercies for soul and body have come this way.
Sect, 17. Though the three disciples were admitted to this
glorious society, how different was their case from that of Christ,
and Moses, and Elias ! In the beginning of the heavenly con-
course, they were asleep with heavineSvS, even while this glorious
company stood near them, Alas ! such is our infirmity in flesh,
and such a clog are these earthly bodies to us, that when God
is present, and heaven is before us, and we have the greatest
cause to watch and pray, a heavy, weary, sluggish body, even
fettereth an active spirit, and we sleep, or turn away in wan-
dering thoughts, when we should seriously converse with Christ
and heaven. Alas ! what unworthy servants hath our Lord !
Are such as these meet for his work, his love, his acceptance,
or his kingdom ? But oh, how merciful a Saviour have we, who
taketh not his poor servants at the worst, but when they have
served him thus in his agony, he gently rebuketh them ; "^ Could
you not watch with me one hour :'* and that with an excuse,
" The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Sect. 18, It is a matter of great moment to understand in
what cases this excuse will hold, and our weakness will not
make the willingness of the Spirit unacceptable to God, If a
drunkard, fornicator, or other sensualist should say, * My spirit
is willing to leave my sin, but my flesh is weak, and a temptation
doth prevail,' Video meliora proboq; &c. This excuse would
not prove God's forgiveness. If a man live in known sin, which
he could forbear were he truly willing, and say, " To will is
present with me, but to do I am unable ; it is not I, but sin, that
dwelleth in me;" this would be but a frivolous excuse, and yet
to the sleepy disciples it was a good excuse, and I think to Paul,
Rom, vii. Where, then, is the difference? There are some
acts of man which the will hath not power to rule, and some
that it can rule. The will hath not power always to keep a
sleepy man awake: this sleep might be of the flesh without any
will at all : and this excuseth from all guilt. There are some
acts of man which the will cannot rule, but by a great degree of
power and endeavour : as perhaps, with much ado, by prevent-
ing and resisting diligence, the disciples might have kept awake :
in this case, their sleep is a fault, but a pardoned fault of
weakness. Some persons are liable to inordinate fear and grief,
which so surpriseth them by the constitution of their bodies.
480 APPENDIX.
that the greatest unwillingness would not hinder them. And
some could do more to resist these passions than they do, but
very hardly with the greatest diligence. These are accordingly
excusable in degree. Paul would have perfectly obeyed God's
law, and never have sinned. But there is no perfection in this
life : mere imperfection of true grace, which is predominant in
jthe will, doth not damn men. But there are acts which are so
subject to the will, that a sincere will, though imperfect, can
command them. He that doth these, (or doth the contrary,) it is
not because he sincerely would, and cannot, but because he hath
but ineffectual wishes, and is not sincerely willing, if he know
them to be what they are ; especially if they be materially great
sins which he yieldeth to, which true grace more strongly re-
sisteth than it doth an idle word, or thought, or action. In short,
all omissions or commissions, in which the will is positively or
privatively guilty, are sinful in some degree ; but only these do
damn the sinner, which are inconsistent with the predominant
love of God, and heaven, and holiness, in the soul.
Sect. 19. When the disciples awaked, they saw these glorious
ones in converse. Did they hear what they said, or did Christ
after tell them ? The latter is most probable. Doubtless, as
Moses tells us how God made the world, which none could tell
him but by God's telling them first, so the apostles have written
many things of Christ which they neither saw nor heard, but
from Christ, that told it them by word, or inspiration. How else
knew they what Satan said and did to him in his temptations
in the wilderness, and on the pinnacle of the temple ? How
knew they what his prayer was in his agony ? And so in this
instance also. But Christ's own testimony was enough to put
them out of doubt, to them that daily saw his confirming miracles.
Sect. 20. How great a difference was there between mount
Sinai and this mount ? When God delivered the law to Moses,
that mount was terrible in flame, and smoke, and thunder, so
that the people trembled and fled: but now here is nothing but
life, and light, and love from heaven, A merciful Redeemer,
whose face shone as the sun, with heavenly company, appearing
nearly to the disciples, pitying and bearing with their heaviness
and infirmity, strengthening their faith and hope, and proving
to them a resurrection, and a heavenly kingdom, by a visible
apparition of some of its possessors. This was not a frighful,
but a confirming, delectable sight : the law in terror was by
Moses, but grace and truth, peace and pleasure, are by Christ.
APPENDIX. 481
This was an inviting and delighting, and not an affrighting, .
apparition. Was it not a shameful infirmity, and a sin, that
Peter should deny Christ after such a sight as this, and the rest
of the disciples forsake him and fly ? What 1 after they had
seen the kingdom of God come in power, and Christ's face shine
as the sun in its brightness, could they forget all this ? Or
could they doubt whether he or his persecutors were the stronger,
and liker to prevail at last ? O, how frail, how uncertain, how
bad a thing, is depraved man !
But though Christ found them asleep, and though he foreknew
that they would forsake him, he forsook not them, nor used
them as they deserved, but comforted them with a glimpse of
heaven : for he died for his enemies.
Sect. 21. But this was but once in all the time of his abode
among them. It was an extraordinary feast, and not their daily
bread : they had Christ still with them, but not transfigured in
glory, nor Moses and Elias in their sight. We are too apt to
think, that if God give us a joyful, extraordinary glimpse of
heaven, we must have it always, or that he forsaketh us, and
casts us off when he denieth it us. O that we were as desirous
of holiness and duty as we are of the joy which is the reward I
But our Father, and not we, must be the chooser both of our
food and feast. Moses did not dwell on mount Nebo, that he
might still see the land of promise : it was enough to have one
sight of it before his death. As flesh and blood cannot enter
into heaven, so it is little of heaven that entereth into it.
Sect. 22. When the disciples awake, they see his glory, and
the two men that stood with them. It must not be a sleeping
but an awakened Christian that will have a sight of heavenly
glory. As we must love God with all the heart, and soul, and
might, all must be awakened in seeking him, and in attending
him, before we can have a joyful foretaste of his love. Carnal
security, supine neglect, and dull contempt, are dispositions
which render us incapable of such delights. Heavenly joy sup-
poses a heavenly disposition and desires. Angels sleep not, nor
are clogged with bodies of clay ; earth hath no wings : it must
be holy vivacity that must carry up a soul to God, notwithstand-
ing the fetters of flesh. It is with each other's souls in the body
that we converse together on earth. And it is not sluggish, but
lively faith, and fervent desire, that must converse in heaven
with Moses and Elias, and our living Head.
Sect. 23. But how did Peter know Moses and Elias, wliQm he
VOL. XVI J I. I 1
482 4PPENKIX.
had never seen before ? Perhaps glorified sahits do bear each
one his notifying signature, and need not names and sound of
words to make them known : perhaps Christ told the disciples
vy^ho they were that talked with him : perhaps he made them
know it by inspiration, as the prophets have their knowledge.
Any of these ways God could notify them : it is not needful that
we know which of them it was ; but that they were known, is
certain. We shall be no strangers to any saints in heaven, and
threfore not to oiu' old acquaintance. Whether we shall have
any greater love to them, or delight in them, for old acquain-
tance' sake, or because they were instruments of our good on
earth, I know not, but I know that our love to them, with whom
we had holy comfort on earth, may well render heaven niprp
fajniliar to us now, and rjiore suitable to our desires, I how
great a number of my godly friends are there ! They are so
many that I cannot make a catalogue of their names, but the
memory of abundance of them doth delight me. And when we
meet there, we shall be far better known to each other than we
were to the most intimate on earth.
Oh, let Christians now so converse together, as remembering
that they must meet in heaven, where all that was secret will
be brought to light. \i^ we now put on any vizor, and seem better
than we are ; if we hide any sin, or base corruption ; if we, by
fraud or falsehood deceive our friends, all this will be opened
when we meet in heaven. It is a daily grief and shame to my
soul, to think of the sins that I have committed against some
that are now in heaven, which I either excused, extenuated, or
hid, and to think how much evil they will know of me there,
which on earth they knew not by me. But God, who pardoneth
them, will cause Ins servants there to forgive each other ; but
the detected sjn, for all that, will be an odious, shameful thing.
Lying and hypocrisy are there no cloak, but an aggravation, of
the shame. If we cannot confess, and take shame to ourselves,
by repentance, upon earth, how shall we ajjpear in the open
light, and see the faces of those whom we have wronged. What
diminution it will make of our joy, I know not, but it must
needs be a dishonour to have been false to God or man, and
especially when we meet where sin is perfectly hated, to think
how we either sinned together, or that we tempted and en-
snared one another in any sin ; how it will affect us then I do
not fully know, but it is now to me a far greater grief to think
of any In heaven whom I have tempted or wronged, than it was
APPENDIX. 483
while they lived with me on earth. And I think there is some-
what of this nature common to good and bad : even the con-
sciences of wicked men do haunt them for notable injuries to
others, especially concealed ones, and especially for persecuting
the servants of God, when they are dead, more than while they
lived. Insomuch that (though 1 doubt not of real apparitions)
I am ready to think, that some that say they are haunted by
the sight and the voice of such as seem to them to be deceased
persons, are rather haunted by their own consciences, which
strongly represent those persons to their imaginations.
But on the other side, it is a great delight to me to think of
the good which I received from many that are now in heaven.
Of the profitable sermons which I have heard from some, and
the profitable conversation which J have had with others : how
oft we sweetly consulted together of the things which concern
everlasting life: how many days in public and private we spent
in preparation, and in some prospect of the blessedness which
now they enjoy. And it is not a small mercy to me, that I can
think of the multitudes now in heaven, of whose conversion and
salvation God hath made my weak endeavours a prosperous
means. O what a mercy is it to think on, that while 1 am yet
compassed with temptations, and languishing in weakness, and
groaning in pain, and, worst of all, burdened with a dark and
sinful soul, so many are past all this with Christ, by means of
any help which he sent them by my labours. It hath oft
humbled me greatly to read in the lives of such men as John
Janeway and Joseph Allen, how much of their proficiency they
ascribed to my writings, and how far they overwent me, and
left me quite behind them in holy delights and praises of God !
But how much more am I below a multitude now in heaven, who
called me father here on earth !
And if here I must rejoice with them that rejoice, as well as
mourn with them that mourn, why should 1 not much more
rejoice with all the blessed society above 3 and more familiarly
with my old acquaintance, pupils, and dear friends ? My love
should be most to the best^ and therefore, more to them than
to any other of my friends ; and therefore, my union with them
being closer, and their felicity far greater, 1 should think with
more joy of them than of any left behind. They are safe in
the harbour, past all our dangerous storms and waves ; and
though they know, or will know, more of my sins than they did
1 I 2
484 APPENDIX.
on earth, and hate them more, yet they that feel the comfort of
the pardon of their own, will imitate God in pardoning me,
and rejoice in God's forgiveness of me. Though their vile
bodies lie like common dust, how much better do they now
know the love of God, the mysteries of grace, the heavenly
glory, the state of spirits in the city of God, than I do who was
wont to preach it to them. God, that sent down Moses and
Elias to show that saints in heaven and on earth have com-
munion, will bring me and my friends now in heaven together
again, into a far sweeter communion than ever we had here.
Sect. 24. It is no great wonder that Peter should be trans-
ported with this glorious sight ; and greatly delighted with this
heavenly communion, and say, " Master it is good for us to
be here." Would not a sight, a glimpse, of heaven, have
transported any holy soul; yea, even those that now lie in tears
and fears, and are overwhelmed with doubts and troubles ?
When they are groping after God, and groaning on their knees,
because they feel more of his frowns than of his love, if then
they had such a sight as this, what a change would it make
upon them ? Perhaps you will say, that the doubt of their
own sincerity might still deprive them of their joy. No;
this sight would banish doubts and -troubles. It is a com-
munication of love, and such as will fully convince the com-
municants.
Without such a miraculous glimpse of glory, God sometime
giveth some of his servants such a mental illustration, and in-
ward glimpse and taste of heaven, as greatly overcbmeth all the
fears of pain and death; such many old and later martyrs have
had. It was a strange word of tlie godly Bishop of St David's,
Mr. Farrar, to his neighbours, ' If 1 stir in the fire, believe not
my doctrine :' and accordingly he stirred not. If he had not
had some prophetical inspiration, this could not have been jus-
tified from being a presumptuous tempting of God. And Mr,
Bay nam's case was a mere wonder, who, in the flames, called to
the papists to see a miracle, professing to them, that in the
fire he felt no more pain than if he had been laid on a bed of
down, or roses.
I am just now reading in Melch. Adam's Lives of the German
Philosophers, the Life of Olympia Fulvia Morata, which ended
with some such experience. In many ages there hath been
some one rare woman, who hath excelled men in the languages.
APPENDIX. 485
philosophy, and other human learning. Such an one was
this Olympia Fulvia Morata, of Ferrara. She married Andr.
Gundler, a physician : she removed with him into Germany ;
and was by the way convinced of the guard of angels, by her
young brother falling out of a high window, on cragged stones,
without any more hurt than if it had been on the soft ground*
In Germany, she thus wrote to Anna Estensis, aGuisian princess :
' As soon as, by the singular goodness of God, 1 was departed
from the Italian idolatry, and came with my husband into Ger-
many, it is incredible how God changed my soul, (or mind,)
which, being formerly most averse (or abhorring) to the divine
Scriptures, am now delighted in them alone, and place in them
all my study, labour, care, and mind; and, as much as possible,
contemn all the riches, honours, and pleasures, which formerly
I was wont to admire.* But the cross presently following, in
God's usual method, her husband and she were, by soldiers,
stripped naked, save the shift next the body, and narrowly
escaping with life, were put so to wander from place to place,
none daring to entertain them, even when she was sick of a
fever; till at last they found liberal entertainment, in which she
shortly fell into a mortal disease, of which she died. And in
her last sickness, and after much torment of body, near death,
she pleasantly smiled. Her husband asked her the cause ; who
said, ^ I saw a certain place which was full of a most clear and
beauteous light;' intimating that she should quickly be there,
and saying, ' I am wholly full of joy.' And spake no more till,
her eyesight failing her, she said, ^ I scarce know any of you
any more; but all things else about seem to be full of most
beauteous flowers;' which were her last words; having a long
time professed, that nothing seemed more desirable to her, than
to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, in all her sickness magni-
fying his mercies to her.
Many have thus joyfully laid down the flesh to go to Christ;
what wonder, then, if Peter was loth to lose the pleasure of what
he saw.
Two things are necessary to great and solid joy; first, that the
object be truly and greatly amiable, and delectable; and, se-
condly, that the apprehensions of it be clear and strong. As to
the first, we have so great and glorious things to delight us as
would feast our souls with constant joy, were not the second,
alas ! much wanting. What man could choose but be even in
Peter's rapture continually, if he had but ascertained heavenly
48(>
APPENDIX.
glory, apprehended by him, in as satisfactory a manner as these
sensible things are? If I lay in prison, yea, or in torment of
cholic, stone, or any such disease, and had but withal such ap-
prehensions, or sight, of assured glory, surely the pain would
not be able to suppress my joy. What a mixture, what a dis-
cord, would there be in my expressions ; torment would con-
strain my flesh to groan, and the sight of heaven would make me
triumph. I cannot but think how this great discord would
show the difference between the spirit and the flesh. What a
strange thing it would be to hear the same man, at the same
time, crying out in pain with groans, and magnifying the love
of God with transporting joy I But we are not yet fit for such
joyful apprehensions 3 our weak eyes must not see the sun, but
through the allaying medium of a humid air, at a vast distance,
and by the chrystalline humour, and organical parts of the eye.
Fain we would get nearer, and have sight, or clearer apprehen-
sions, of the spiritual society, and glorious world. We study,
we pray, we look up, we groan under our distance, darkness,
and unsatisfying conceptions; but yet it must not be. We must
be ripened before the shell will break, or the dark womb will
deliver us up to the glorious light; but Christ vouchsafed that
to his three apostles which we are unworthy of, and yet unfit
for. O happy sight ! O happy men ! It is incongruous to say^
* What would I not give for such a sight ?' lest it should savour
of Simon Magus' folly; and 1 have nothing to give; but it is
not incongruous to say, ' What would I not do ; and what
Would I not suffer for such a sight ?' Yea, Christ puts such
kind of questions to us ; O that I had better answered them in
the hour of duty, and in the hour of temptation ! When he
asked, " Can ye drink of the cup that J drink of, and be bap-
tised with the baptism, that I am baptised with ?" I have been
ready, with James and John, to say, I can; but when the trial
comes, (as they after in his suffering forsook him and fled,)
how insufficient is my own strength to perform my promise ?
When he did impose on me the denying of myself, forsaking
all, taking up the cross and following him, I yielded and
covenanted by vow to do it ; but it was by the help of the Holy
Spirit, which he promised to give me. I stand. Lord, to my
covenant; help me to perform it; and give me, though not his
present sight, yet some of Peter's mental apprehensions, and a
glimpse, a taste, of that which transported him with delight.
Let who will (or who thou wilt) take the riches and grandeur
APPENDIX. 4H7
of the world. O give nie some delightful taste of that which I
ain made for, redeemed for, and which thy Spirit hath long
taught me to seek and hope for, as my all !
Sect. 25. Peter was not weary with the sight of this heavenly
apparition. Why should I be weary of the believing con-
templation of greater things? Though sight affect us more
sensibly than mere believing and thinking, yet these have their
happy office, which may be effectual. And Christ, who thus
appeared in glory to Peter, hath said, " Blessed are they that
have not seen, and yet have believed." And Peter himself saith
of them that see not Christ, that '^ They rejoice with joy un-
speakable, and full of glory," in believing. O how unexcusa-
ble am I for every weary prayer or meditation of such a glory ;
and for yielding to Satan and a backward heart, which have oft
made me shorten these sweet employments, when I had time,
and leave, and need, to lengthen them. What 1 weary of com-
munion with Christ! weary of speaking to my heavenly
Father, for endless blessedness, upon such joyful terms of hope
as he hath given me ! weary of the thoughts of the city of
God, the heavenly society, and work 1 weary of exciting divine
love, and exercising it in divine praise, which are the works of
angels, and all the heavenly host ! Oh, how justly might God be,
as it were, weary of me, and of my weary services; yea, of
the best that I can offer him, which hath in it so much to give
him cause!
Sect. 26. Peter did not fly from this glorious prospect; but
would fain have had more of it, and have dwelt upon the holy
mount. And when God will call me to a more glorious vision
and fruition in heaven, shall I draw back, and be unwilling to
go? Was that mount a better place than heaven? Js not
Christ now to be there seen in greater glory ? Is the Jerusalem
above, the glorious company of saints and angels, no better and
more desirable a sight, than Moses and Elias were on the
mount ? Alas ! when we have read, and heard, and thought,
and talked so much of heaven, and done and suffered so much
for it, that yet we should draw back with fear and unwilling-
ness to go to it ! O what lamentable weakness of faith, and
power of flesh, doth this discover ! W^hen I read Peter's words
" It is good to be here," 1 am grieved that I, who dwell in a
world so near like hell, among the implacable haters of holiness
and holy peace, and in a painful, tired body, and who have
thought, said, and written so much of heaven, do yet say, with
48S APPENDIX.
no stronger desire and joy, " It is good to be there." When I
see all natural appetites desire earnestly their proper food, and
even the brutes desire their beloved company, shall my holy
appetite be- so dull and indifferent? Lord, quicken it by the
fuller communications of thy Spirit, and save me from this
hated, dangerous disease.
Sect. 27. But Peter spake he knew not what, when he talked
of building tabernacles on earth, for the fruition of that which
is proper to heaven.' Alas! this is our common malady and
folly: we would have Christ in the splendour of his glory; but
we would have him here : we would see Moses and Elias, if they
will come down to us: we would have that in the flesh, which
flesh and blood cannot possess. O if we knew in what land,
what city, what country, what private house, we might live in
the least glimpse of the heavenly glory, how joyfully should we
run to such an habitation ! Merchants make towards the most
gainful place for trade: poor men inquire after the most fertile
and delectable countries for plantation : gentlemen delight them-
selves with a sweet and pleasantly-seated mansion; but if saints
on earth could find a place where they could see what Stephen,
or Paul, or the apostles saw, and have a little of heaven without
dying and putting off this body, what a desirable dwelling
would that seem to them? And yet, alas, how cold are our
desires of the time and place where we shall have much more !
We have Christ on earth, in the manner and measure that we
are capable : we have here some communion with heaven, as
verily (though not so sensibly) as our eye hath with the sun.
God will not deny believers their title, their earnest, and some
first-fruits; but when we would have our all, or our best on
earth, or that on earth which is proper to heaven, we know not
what we desire or say.
Are we, vile, dirty sinners in flesh, now fit for heavenly sights
or joys? Or is this world a place for building tabernacles,
where we may see the Lord, and take up our rest? What ! in a
world of temptations, of wickedness, of sufferings, where we are
daily wrestling for our lives, and fighting, not merely against
flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and the
rulers of the darkness of this world, even spiritual wickedness
(or wicked spirits) in high places (above the greatest men that
are their servants). (Eph. vi. 12.) But that which is of the
earth is earthly. Our earthly part would have an earthly feli-
city; but when we know that it is corruptible, and a dying
APPENDIX. 489
thing, and that we have here no continuing city, both faith and
reason bid us seek for one to come. The unfaithful steward
had so much wit as to make sure of another habitation, when
he knew that he must be no longer steward.
God hath so constantly confuted and befooled me, by his
marvellous providence, whenever I have said, ^ Soul take thy ease,*
and have thought of building tabernacles on earth, as hath con-
vinced me, that such folly is not the least part of the danger of
a soul, from which his mercy did so watchfully save me . If a
little health and ease, or a pleasant habitation, or beloved com-
pany and friends, have but flattered me into earthly delight and
hopes, and made me say, " It is good to be here;" I never
was long without some pains, and dangerous sickness, or some
loss or cross in friends, or some removal by personal or public
changes, to tell me, that I knew not what I said, and that rest
and happiness are not here. As the laborious ants and bees are
long gathering a heap of treasure, and furnishing a hive with
winter provisions, and a contemptuous foot soon spurneth about
the one, and the chief owner of the hive destroyeth the other;
so (while I neglected wealth and honour) when I have but trea-
sured up the choicest books, and taken pleasure in my works
and friends, God saw that such pleasure needed an allay, and
hath taken away books and friends together, or driven me oft
from them and my habitation, to tell me, sensibly, that I have
higher to look, and further to go; and that Moses and Elias ap-
peared not to turn earth into heaven, and make me think that
now I am well, but to invite my soul to their celestial habit-
ation. When Christ hath comforted me by hearing prayers, by
great deliverances, by wonderful success of my defective labours,
by comfortable friends, by public mercies, it was not, by mak-
ing my condition pleasant, to keep down my desires from
heaven, but to draw them thither by such foretastes. Content-
ment with our condition, as without more of the world, is a
great duty ; but to be content with the world, or any thing on
earth, without more holiness and communion with God, and
without a part in the heavenly perfection, is a heinous and per-
nicious sin.
But, alas 1 it is a far worse mistake than Peter's, which de-
ceiveth the greatest part of men. They say, indeed, as he,
" It is good to be here," (till melancholy or misery make them
intolerable to themselves,) but it is not because they have
seen a, glimpse of heaven on earth, or tasted the sweetness of
m
APPENDIX.
the holy society and work, but because their bodies are in health,
their purses full, their appetites pleased, and their inferiors do
their wills, and honour them. This is all the heaven that they
love ; and, to leave all this is the death which they abhor and
fear. And they will not hear God, and the experience of all
mankind befooling them, till near the night that their souls
shall be required, and then, whose will all their treasure be ?
Sect. 28. But yet it was a greater part of Peter's dotage, to
think of tabernacles for Christ, Moses, and Elias, and of detain-
ing of heavenly inhabitants upon earth. If you would offer the
lowest saint in heaven an earthly kingdom in exchange for
his condition, with what disdain would he despise the offer ?
Christ's kingdom was not of this world, nor would Moses and
Elias change their lot with Alexander or Csesar. "Poor trifles
aillure us, and seem somewhat to us (as toys to children) while
we are dreaming in the flesh ; but if once we be delivered, and
see what the celestial glory is, what a change will it make upon
our judgments ? We fear now in the dark to go unto that
world of light, and are loth to put off the rags of flesh, and to
depart from a known, though a dirty, falling habitation : but if
we get to heaven, we shall be loth to return to earth again, and
be so coarsely clothed : when once we are there, a world would
not hire us to come back into this corruptible body, till God will
make it spiritual and incorruptible. Our friends, whose deaths
we passionately lamented, would be loth now to change their
company for such as we are, or their abode for such a wicked
world as this, or their work for the best of ours on earth : no
wonder that departed souls appear not to their friends on earth :
most apparitions are of devils, or miserable souls, to whom it is
no loss or condescension. Were I once in heaven, could 1 pos-
sibly be willing to be turned again into a Bedlam world, and
laid under the feet of blinded pride, and raging madness, and
live among Sodomites (called Christians) whose God is their
belly, and who glory in their filthiness and shame, and mind
nothing, with love, but earthly things ; and are bitter enemies,
not only to the cross, but to the government of Christ ? Would
I be again among dogs and swine ; yea, devils in flesh, who
hate and persecute the regenerate seed, and all that will not
receive their mark, and be as mad and bad as they ? Would I
agam be groaning here in pain, or tired with a weary body, and
more with a feeble, sinful soul, weak in faith, cold in love, of
doubtful hope, and imperfect duty ? Would I be here again in
APPENDIX. 4i)I
the prospect of a grave, with fear of dying ; as strange as now
to the heavenly felicity ? Lazarus will not come from Abraham's
bosom, for the rich man's wealth and belly-pleasure, no, not to
warn his sensual brethren. Had Peter seen heaven as he saw
the glory on the mount, he would never have made so blind a
motion for Christ, Moses, and Elias, to continue there, who
have so much better a habitation.
Sect. 29. But this glorious apparition was but short : as the
glory of God's back parts to Moses, which did but pdss by.
Presently a cloud cometh, and separateth the company, and
ends the pleasant sight. When Christians receive some extra-
ordinary sense of the love of God, some sweet foretastes of pro-
mised happiness, they must not look that this should be or-
dinary, or always so. When some fervent prayer is extraor-
dinarily answered, and a sacrament sweetened with unusual
drops of heavenly sweetness, or a holy discourse or meditation
hath raised us higher than ever before, we must not expect that
this should be our constant diet, and God should thus feast iis
all the year. The times of fasting also have their turn. Moses
did not dwell on Mount Horeb, nor Mount Nebo or Pisgah,
from whence he saw the Land of Promise. God's children do
not always laugh and sing ; while they have their sinning times,
they will have their suffering and crying times. How suddenly
doth the lark come down to the earth, who before was soaring
out of sight, and singing pleasantly in the higher air, as if it had
been aspiring towards the sun. A luscious diet is not best for
such as we, that have so many corruptions to be cured by clean-
sing means : cordials must not be all our physic ; unwarrant-
able expectations of greater or more continued joys than we
are meet for is injurious both to God and to ourselves. Desires
of more we may and must have : but those desires must look
up to heaven, where, indeed, they may be satisfied.
30. The joy of these spectators was turned into fear (saith
the text) when they entered into the cloud. No wonder : the
change was sudden and great ; from a sight of the kingdom of
God in power unto a dark cloud. Just now they seemed al-
most in heaven, and presently they knew not where they were :
from glorious light to a kind of prison of obscurity.
Such changes here we are liable to. The same soul that
lately tasted of transporting joy, may lie in terror, hardly resist-
ing temptations to despair. The same person that was confi-
dent of the love of God, may be quickly, not only doubting of it,
493 APPENDIX.
but sinfully denying it : the same that had assuring evidence of
sincerity, may shortly conclude that all was but hypocrisy. The
same that was triumphing in the sense of love, may cry out, O
miserable man that I am ! And the same that magnified the
grace of Christ, may say, the day of grace is past ; especially if
either the tempter get the advantage of a melancholy body, or
of casting the soul into renewed guilt of some wounding sin, or
into impatient discontents, with the things that befall it in the
world.
There is a stability in the essentials of holiness : it is life
eternal that is here begun : but, alas ! the degrees of grace, the
exercise of it, the evenness and integrity of our obedience, and
accordingly our comforts, are lamentably liable to change ; even
as all worldly things are mutable to the ungodly, though their
hardened hearts are too little changeable. Expecting nothing
but joy from God, or expecting more than we are meet for,
maketh our dejections the greater, and more grievous. None
are cast lower with terror, trouble, and almost despair, than
some that have been most transported with joy ; when some
other Christians of an even conversation have an evenness and
constancy of holy peace, though no such joys.
Sect. 31. The cloud separated the company; Moses and
Elias are seen no more ; no, nor the glory of Christ : but yet
Christ is not separated from them : his ordinary presence still
abideth with them. Christ doth not leave the soul when extra-
ordinary joys do leave it : it loseth not his saving grace, nor the
presence of his Spirit, as oft as it loseth heavenly delight. De-
sire showeth love to him, and to his holiness : and he never
forsaketh those that love him : as long as the soul breatheth
after Christ, and after more communion with God, and, con-
scious of its imperfection, would fain be perfect, and resolveth to
continue waiting for increase of faith and holiness in the use of
the means which Christ hath appointed, it is not forsaken.
Christ, by his Spirit, dwelleth and worketh in that soul. It may
enter into a cloud, and Christ may be unseen, and seem quite
lost, but the cloud will vanish, and he will appear ; and he will
first find us, that we may seek and find him. If he appear to
us but as in his humiliation, and as crucified, and thereby hum-
ble us, and crucify us to the world and the flesh, with the affec-
tions and lusts thereof, and cause us but to seek first his king-
dom and righteousness, he will raise us higlier, and show us his
glory, when grace, and conquest, and perseverance have pre-
APPENDIX. 493
pared us : we are in a cloudy world and body ; and our sins are
yet a thicker cloud between God's glorious face and us : but as
God is God, and heaven is heaven, so Christ is Christ, and grace
is grace, when we see it not, but fear that we are undone, and
entering into outer darkness : and at sun-rising, all our dark-
ness, and all our doubts and fears will vanish.
Sect. 32. " There came a voice out of the cloud, this is my
beloved Son; hear him." (Luke ix. 15.) Had 1 heard such
a testimony from heaven, would it not have set my faith above
all doubts and unbelief? For the voice that thus owned Christ
and his word, might embolden me fully to trust all his promises,
as it bindeth me to obey his precepts.
God's love is effective and communicative ; and as his life
and light cause life and light, so his love causeth love; and
Christ, that is called his beloved Son, is likest him in love ;
none loveth us so much as God our Father, and his beloved Son,
who is also as God, essential love. And shall I think with cold
or little love of such a God, and such a Saviour ? It is as un-
reasonable to fly from God or Christ, as fearing that he wanteth
love to a capable soul, as to fly from the sun, as wanting heat or
light. Oh, what an unruly, froward thing is the corrupted soul
of man ! When we think of God's judgment, and how we are
in his hands, as to all our hopes, for soul and body, we fear, and
are uncomfortable, lest he have not so much love and mercy as
should cause us confidently to trust him : we could trust some
friends with Hfe and soul were we in their power; but infinite
love itself, and a loving Saviour, we can hardly trust, so far as
to quiet us in pain or death. And yet when Christ, to cure
this distrust, hath manifested his love by the greatest miracles
that ever God showed to mortal men, even by Christ's incar-
nation, his life, his works, his death, resurrection, intercession,
and the advancement of human nature in him above angels, the
greatness of this incomprehensible love occasioneth the diffi-
culty of our believing it ; as if it were too great and wonderful
to be credible : thus dark and guilty sinners hardly believe our
Father's love, whether it be expressed by ordinary, or by the
most wonderful effects.
Sect. 33. As Christ is called the Son of God, so also are all
his members ; we have so far the same title, that we might par-
take of the same comforts : he is God's only Son by eternal ge-
neratiouj and the hypostatical union upon his miraculous con-
ception : but through him we are sons by regeneration and
494 APPENDIX.
adoption. And shall not the love of such a Father be trusted,
and the presence and pleasing of such a Father be desired ? If
Manoah's wife could say, " If he would have killed us, he
would not have accepted a sacrifice of us ;" I may say, if he
would have damned me, or forsaken my departing soul, he
would not have adopted me, nor made and called me his Son.
Christ was made his incarnate son, that we might be made his
adopted sons : and we are made his adopted sons, for the sake,
and by the grace, of Christ, his natural Son.
Sect. 34. The command, " hear him,'* is relative, as to Moses
and Elias : 1. Hear him whom the law and the prophets typi-
fied and foretold, and were his servants, and preparatory instruc-
tors, to lead us to him. 2. Hear him before Moses and the
prophets, where his coming and covenant abrogateth the law of
Moses, and as a greater light, he obscureth the less: he hath
revealed more than they revealed ; and, the same more clearly :
life and immortality is more fully brought to light by him : his
gospel is as the heart of the Holy Bible : we use the Old Tes-
tament books, especially as the witnesses of Christ.
Sect. 35. And whom shall we hear so willingly, so obediently,
as Christ ? Abraham sent not Dives's brethren to the king, or
to the high-priest, to know what religion he should choose, or
what he should do to escape hell torments ; but it was Moses
and the prophets that they must hear. But God, from heaven,
hath sent us yet a better teacher, and commanded us to hear
him : Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, but Christ
as a Son : his authority is above kings and high priests ; and
they have no power now but from him ; and therefore none
against him or his laws : all commands are null to conscience'
which contradict him : the examples in Daniel iii. and vi., and
of the Apostles, tell us, whether God or man should be first
obeyed : therefore it is that the Bible, is more necessary to be
searched and learned than the statute-book, or canons : were
man to be heard before Christ, or against him, or as necessarily
as he, why have we not law-preachers every Lord's-day to ex-
pound the statutes and canons to all the people ? And why
are they not catechised out of the book of canons, or law, as
Well as out of the Bible.
And sure if we must hear Christ and his gospel before priests
or princes, or before our dearest friends, much more before our
fleshly lusts and appetites, and before a profane and foolish
scorner, and before the temptations of the devil. O had we
AFPKNDIX. 4^
heard Christ vyarning us, when we hearkened to the tempter,
and to the flesh, how safely had we lived, and how comfortably
might we liave died !
Sect, 36. But this word, " hear him," is as comfortable as obli-
gatory. Hear him, sinner, when he calls to thee to repent and
turn to God : hear him when he calleth thee to himself, to take
him for thy Lord and Saviour, to believe and trust him for par-
don and salvation : hear him, when he calleth, " Come to
me all ye that are weary and heavy laden : ho, every one
that thirsteth come : whoever will, let him drink of the water
of life freely." Hear him yvhpn he commandethj and hear him
when he promiseth; and hear him before the worldly wise,
when he teacheth us the way to God : hear him, for he knows
what he saith : hear him, for he is true, and faithful, and infal-
lible : hear him, for he is the Son of God, the greatest messen-
ger that ever God sent : hear him, for he purposely came down
in flesh, that he might familiarly teach us : hear him^ for non^
else in the world hath made known the things of God like him,
and none can do it : hear him, for he meaneth us no hurt : he
is our dearest friend, and love itself, and saith nothing but for
our salvation, and promiseth nothing but what he will perform.
Yea, hear him, for every soul that will not hear him shall be
cut ofi^.
Hear him, therefore, if he contradict thy fleshly appetite ;
hear him, if great or small, if any or all shall be against it :
bear him, if he set thee on the hardest work, or call thee to the
greatest suffering : hear him, if he bid thee take up the cro«s,
and forsake all and follow him, in hope of a reward in heaven :
hear him, if he call thee to lay down thy life j for none can be a
loser by him.
Hear him now in the day of grace, and he will hear thee in
the day of thy ea^tremity, in the day of danger, sickness, death,
and judgment, when the world forsaketh thee, and no one's
hearing else can help thee.
Sect. 37. But, 'I was not one that saw this vision : had 1
seen it myself it would have satisfied me, and confuted all my
doubts.' Answ. But it is the will of God that the ministry and
testimony of men shall be a means of our beheving : it is faith,
and not sight, that must be the ordinary way of our salvation ;
else Christ must have showed himself, and his miracles, resur-
rection, and ascension, to every one in the world that must be-
496 APPENDIX.
lieve in him : and then he must have been visible at once in
every kingdom, parish, and place on earth, and continued so to
the end of the world ; and must have died, risen, and ascended
many millions of times, and in every place. They that vi^iil put
such laws on their law-giver before they will believe in him,
must be saved without him, and against him, if they can. This
is more unreasonable than to tell God that you will not believe
that there is a heaven or hell unless you see them. But God
will have us live, and be saved by believing, and not by sight.
And he will use man for the instruction and salvation of man,
and not send angels with every message.
Sect. 38. But why did Christ show this vision but to three of
his disciples ? Answ. He is not bound to tell us why : but we
may know that a sight of heavenly glory is not to be ordinarily
expected on earth. Why did God show the back parts of his
glory to none but Moses, no, not to his brother Aaron ? Why
did he speak to him only in the bush, and on the mount ? Why
did he translate none to heaven without dying but Enoch and
Elias ? Why did he save but Noah, and seven with him, in the
ark ? These are not things ordinary, nor to be common to many.
Sect 39. But by this it appeareth, that even among his twelve
apostles Christ made a difference, and preferred some before
the rest ; though he set no one over the rest in any governing
authority, yet some of them were qualified above the rest, and
esteemed, and used by him accordingly. Peter is called the
first, and, it seems, was qualified above the rest, by his more
frequent speaking and famiharity with Christ, and his speeches
and miracles after the resurrection ; though yet the faction* that
said, " I am of Cephas/' or " I am of Paul," was rebuked as carnal ;
so far was Christ from directing the churches to end all differ-
ence by obeying Peter as their supreme ruler. James and John
are called the sons of thunder : they had some more eminent
qualification than the rest; so that James was the first martyred
apostle, and John the disciple whom Jesus specially loved.
Ministers of the same office and order may much differ in gifts
and grace, in labour and success, and in God's acceptance and
reward, and in the church's just esteem and love. All pastors
were not such as Cyprian, Basil, Gregory, Nazianzen, Chrysos-
tom, or Augustin. And the rest must not envy at the prefer-
ence of Peter, James, and John. Andrew seems to be Peter's
elder brother, and knew Christ before him ; as iVaron was elder
APPENDIX. 497
brother to Moses^ and yet must give God leave to choose to give
pre-eminence to whom he will.
Sect. 40. But why did not these three apostles tell any of
this vision till after Christ's resurrection ? Answ. Christ did
forbid it them. And it is according to the method of his reve-
lation. He would make himself known to the world by degrees;
and more by his works than by mere words ; and these works
were to be finished, and all set together, to be his convincing
witness to the world. And the chief of these were his resurrec-
tion, ascension,' and sending down the Holy Ghost : the apostles
could not say till then, ^ Jesus is risen, ascended, and hath given
us the seal of the Spirit; therefore he is the Son of God.' Christ
first preached repentance like John Baptist ; and next he told
them that the kingdom of God (by the Messiah) was come, and
was among them ; and then he taught them to believe his
word to be sent from God, and to be true ; and he taught them
the doctrines of holiness, love, and righteousness towards men :
and he wrought those miracles which might convince them that
what he said, or should say, deserved their belief; but yet be-
fore his resurrection, his apostles themselves understood not
many of the articles of our creed ; they knew not that Christ
was to die for sin, and so to redeem the world by his sacrifice,
nor that he was to rise, ascend, and reign, and intercede in
glory ; and yet they were then in a state of grace and life, such
as believers were in before Christ's incarnation. And sure no
more is required of the nations that cannot hear the gospel.
But the resurrection was the beginning of the proper gospel
state, and kingdom, to which all before was but preparatory ;
and then, by the Spirit, Christianity was formed to its settled
consistence, and is a known, unalterable thing.
And it is a great confirmation to our faith, that Christ's
kingdom was not settled by any advantage of his personal pre-
sence, preaching, and persuasion, so much as by the Holy
Ghost in his apostles and disciples, when he was gone from
them into heaven.
Sect. 41. But how are we sure that these three men tell us
nothing but the truth ? Answ. This is oft answered elsewhere.
The Spirit which they spake and worked by was Christ's witness
and theirs. They healed the sick, raised the dead, spake vari-
ous languages which they never learned ; and preached and re-
corded that holy doctrine committed to them by Christ, which
itself contained the evidence of its divinity, and of their truth ;
VOt. XVIII. K K
498 APPENDIX.
and Christ then and to this day hath owned it, by the sanctifying
efficacy of the same Spirit, upon millions of souls.
How holy a doctrine hath Peter himself delivered, as confirm-
ed by his apparition 1 " We have not followed cunningly de-
vised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty 5
for he received from God the Father, honour and glory, when
there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This
is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased ; and this voice
which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in
the holy mount." (2 Peter i. 16—18.) The words " in whom I
am well pleased,'* are only here and in Matthew ; Mark and
Luke omitting them, tell us, that the evangehsts undertook not
to recite all that was said and done, but each one so much as
seemed necessary for him to say. '^^ ^*^*''
Sect. 42. And now what remaineth, O my soul, but that thoU
take in the due impression of this apparition of the glory of
Jesus and his saints ; and that thou joyfully obey this heavenly
voice, and hear the beloved Son of God, in whom the Father is
well pleased ? ^ **
L As we that are born in another age and land must know
what Christ said, by the transmission and certain testimony of
them that heard him, infallible tradition, by act, word, and re*
cord, being our way of notice, as immediate sensation was theirs,
so even the glorious apparition itself may, by the mediation of
their infallible record, be partly transmitted to our imagination.
An incorporate soul is so used to a mixed way of knowing by
imagined ideas received by sense, that it would fain have such a
sort of knowledge of separated souls, and other spirits, and of
their glorious state and place, and work, and is hardly fully
satisfied without it: seeing Christ hath partly condescended to
this our culpable weakness, lose not the help of his condescen-
sion. Let this clear description of the heavenly sight make it
to thee partly as if thou hadst been one of the three spectators ;
till thou canst say, ' Methinks I almost see the face of Christ
shine as the sun, and his raiment whiter than the snow; and
Moses and EHas (no doubt, in some degree of glory) standing
with him ;* methinks I almost hear them discoursing of Christ's
death, and man's redemption : and by this sight I partly con-
ceive of the unseen heavenly company and state ; methinks I
see the cloud receive them, when Peter had been transported with
the sight ; and I almost feel his pleasant raptures, and am ready
APPENDIX. 490
to say, as if I had been with him, " It is good for us to be here ;"
methinks I almost hear the heavenly voice, " This is my belov-
ed Son, hear him." And shall I yet doubt of the celestial society
and glory ? Had I once seen that, what a sense would it have
left upon my heart, of the difference between earth and heaven,
man and God, flesh and spirit, sin and duty ! How thankfully
should 1 have thought of the work of redemption andsanctification?
And why may I not accordingly put myself as into the case
of them who saw all Christ's miracles, and saw him risen, and
ascend towards heaven? or, at least, of all those ordinary
Christians who saw all the wonders done by the reporters of
these things ? I can easily receive a pleasing idea of some
foreign, happy country, which a traveller describeth to me,
though I never saw it ; and my reason can partly gather what
great things are, if 1 see but lesser of the same kind, or some-
what like them. A candle showeth somewhat by which we may
conceive of the greatest flame. Even grace and gracious ac-
tions do somewhat notify to us the state of glory ; but the sight
on the mount did more sensibly notify it.
Think not, then, that heavenly contemplation is an impossible
thing, or a mere dream, as if it had no conceivable subject-
matter to work upon : the visible things of earth are the sha-
dows, the cobwebs, the bubbles, the shows, mummeries, and
masks : and it is loving them, and rejoicing and trusting in them,
that is the dream and dotage. Our heavenly thoughts, and
hopes, and business, are more in comparison of these than the
sun is to a glow-worm, or the world to a mole-hill, or govern-
ing an empire to the motions of a fly. And can 1 make some-
what, yea, too much, of these almost nothings ; and yet shall
I make almost nothing of the active, glorious, unseen world ;
and doubt and grope in my meditations of it, as if I had no
substance to apprehend ? If invisibility to mortals were a cause
of doubting, or of unafFecting, unsatisfying thoughts, God him-
self, who is all to men and angels, would be as no God to us,
and heaven as no heaven, and Christ as no Christ, and our souls,
which are ourselves, would seem as nothing to themselves;
and all men would be as no men to us, and we should converse
only with carcasses and clothes.
Lord shine into this soul with such an heavenly, potent, quick-
ening light, as may give me more lively and powerful concep-
tions of that which is all my hope and life ! Leave me not to
the exercise of art alone, in barren notions ; but make it as
K K 2
500 APPENDIX.
natural to me to love thee, and breathe after thee : thou teachest
the young ones both of men and brutes to seek to the dam for
food and shelter : and though grace be not a brutish principle,
but works by reason, it hath its nature and inclining force ; and
tendeth towards its original, as its end. Let not thy soul be des-
titute of that holy sense and appetite, which the divine and
heavenly nature doth contain. Let me not lay more stress and
trust upon my own sight and sense, than on the sight and fidel-
ity of my God, and my Redeemer. I am not so foolish as to
live, as if this earth were no bigger than the little of it which I
see : let me not be so much more foolish as to think of the vast
and glorious regions, and the blessed inhabitants thereof, and
the receptacles of justified souls, as if they wanted either sub-
stantiality or certainty, to exercise a heavenly conversation here,
and to feast believing souls with joy, and draw forth well-
grounded and earnest desire to '^ depart and be with Christ.''
Sect. 43. II. Hear then, and hear with trust and joy, the
tidings and promises of him whom the voice from heaven com-
manded man to hear. Fie is the glorified Lord of heaven and
earth : all is in his power. He hath told us nothing but what
he knew, and promised nothing but what he is able and willing
to give. Two sorts of things he hath required us to trust him
for : things notified by express, particular promises, and things
only generally promised and known to us.
1. We may know particularly that he will receive our depart-
ing souls, and justify them in judgment, and raise the dead,
and all the rest particularly promised. And we know, in gene-
ral, that we have a heavenly city and inheritance, and shall see
God, and be with Christ in everlasting happiness, loving and
praising God with joy in the perfected, glorious church of Christ.
All this, therefore, we must explicitly believe. But it is little that
we know distinctly of the consistence and operations of spirits
and separated souls, as to a formal or modal conception; a great
deal about the place, state, and mode, their acting, and fruition,
is dark to us ; but none of it is dark to Christ : here, therefore,
an implicit trust should not only bind and stop our selfish and
over-bold inquiries, but also quiet and comfort the soul, as well
as if ourselves knew all.
O my soul, abhor and mortify thy selfish trust, and unbeliev-
ing thirst to have that knowledge of good and evil thyself, which
is the prerogative of thy Lord and Saviour. This was the sin
that first defiled human nature, and brought calamity on the
APPENDIX. 50r
world. God hath set thee enough to learn ; know that, and
thou knovvest enough. If more were possible, it would be a
perplexity and a snare, and he that increaseth such knowledge
would increase sorrow : but when it is both unprofitable and
impossible, what a sin and folly is it to waste our time, and tire
and deceive our minds, in long and troublesome searches after
it ; and then disquietly to murmur at God, and the holy Scrip-
ture, and die with sad, distrustful fears, because we attain it not:
when all this while we should have understood, that this part of
knowledge belongs to Christ, and the heavenly society, and not
to sinful mortals here ; and that we have without it as much as
may cause us to live and die in holiness, safety, peace, and joy,
if we can but trust him who knoweth foi us. Christ perfectly
knoweth what spirits are, and how they act, and whether they
have any corporeal organ, or vehicle, or none ; and what is the
difference between Enoch and Elias, and those that left their
bodies here, and what a resurrection will add ,to souls, and how
it will be wrought, and when ; and what is meant by the thou-
sand years' previous reign ; and who they be that shall dwell in
the new earth, and how it will be renewed. All the dark pas-
sages of Scripture and providence he can perfectly resolve : he
knoweth why God leaveth the far greatest part of the world in
Satan's slavery, darkness, and wickedness, and chooseth so few
to real holiness : and why he maketh not men such as he com-
mandeth them to be : and why he leaveth serious Christians to
so much weakness, error, scandal, and division. These, and all
other difficulties, are fully known to Christ. And it is not the
child, but the father, that must know what food and clothing
he should have, and the physician that must know what are the
ingredients of his medicines, and why.
Lord, open my eyes, then, to see what thou hast revealed; and
help me willingly to shut them to the rest ; and to believe and
trust in thee for both : not to stagger at thy sealed promises,
nor selfishly to desire particular knowledge, which belongs not
to me, as if I could trust myself, and my own knowledge, and'
not thine. Lord teach me to follow thee, even in the dark, as
quietly and confidently as in the light (having the general light
of thy promise of felicity). J knew not the mystery of thy con-
ception, incarnation, or the way of the workings of thy Spirit on
souls. No wonder if much of the resurrection and unseen
world be above my reach ; much more that thy infinite majesty
»s incomprehensible to me ; how little do the brutes that see me
5d^ APPENDIX.
know of my thoughts or me ! I have no adequate knowledge of
any one thing in the world^ but somewhat of it is unknown.
O blessed be that love and grace that has given me a glorified
Head in heaven, to know all for me which I know not : hear
atid trust him, living and departing, O my soul 1 who hath told
thee that we shall be with him where he is, and shall behold
his glory; and that a crown of salvation is laid up for us,
and we shall reign with him, when we have conquered and suf-
fered with him, and hath bid us live in joyful hope of our exceed-
ing, eternal, heavenly reward, and at our death to commend our
spirits into his hand : receive us, Lord, according to thy pro-
mises. Amen.
SHORT MEDITATIONS
" , .^ '1..; ,;.:'t - ON
ROMANS V. 1-5.
SHEDDING ABROAD GOD'S LOVE ON THE HEART
BY THE HOLY GHOST.
Experience of the want of this effusion of God's love, and
some small taste of its sweetness, make me think the thoughts
of this very suitable to one expecting death.
The words contain a golden chain of highest blessings on all
true Christians.
L They are supposed to have faith, that is, both a general
trust in God's revelations and grace, and a special trust in Jesus
Christ, as given by the Father's love to be the Redeemer, to justify,
sanctify, and glorify his people. I have oft proved this justify-
ing faith to be no less than our unfeigned taking Christ for our
Saviour, and becoming true Christians, according to the tenour
of the baptismal covenant. As to the acts, it is formally trust
— one in three ; the understanding's assenting trust, the will's
consenting trust, and the executive power's practical, venturing,
obeying trust.
IL All true believers are justified ; even all that consent to
the baptismal covenant, and choose God to be their God, and
Christ to be their Saviour, and the Holy Ghost to be their
Sanctifier, and give up themselves to him by true resolution, as
their only ruler, hope, and happiness ; though this be done with
so great weakness, as endeth not all doubts, nor quieteth the
mind.
To be justified is not to be accounted such as have no sin,
but, 1. To be made such by pardon through Christ's merits,
and by true faith, as God will take by special love and favour
unto life. 2. To be accounted such by God. 3. To be virtually
504 SHORT MEDITATIONS.
sentenced such by the law of grace and faith, and to be just in
law sense. 4. At last to be judged such by public sentence.
5. And to be used as such.
Not justified by the law of innocency, or of Moses, but by
Christ's law of grace.
Not justified perfectly till the time of perfection. Much
punishment on soul and body is yet to be taken off, and more
sins daily to be pardoned, and we, before the wprld, to be sen-
tenced as just to life everlasting.
III. The justified have peace with God. They are recon-
ciled, and in a state of love and friendship. It signifieth mu-
tual peace, but with great inequality. God's love and favour to
us is the stable, constant part. Our consent also, and accept-
ance of his terms of peace, is constant in its truth: but our
sense of God's love, which is the peace possessed by the soul,
is weak and inconstant, and too oft quite lost or obscured by
ignorance, mistake, and fear. But it must be known that this
is a diseased state, unnatural to the believer as such ; as it is
unnatural for a woman married to a faithful husband, to lie in
terror, thinking that he will kill her, or doth not love her; or for
a child to think the ^same of a loving father. Faith, of its own
nature, tendeth to the soul's peace and joy, in the sense of
God's love. And how is Christ offered to us, but as a Saviour,
to bring us by grace to glory ? And he that accepteth him as
such, whereby he is justified, doth sure believe that he is offered
as such 5 for none can accept what he thinks not to be offered.
And this implieth some hope, at least, that Christ will be such
to us ; and did faith work strongly and kindly, its effect would
be a constant, joyful state of soul, as pleasant health and mirth
is to our natures. All o\n* distrustful fears and griefs, and dis-
quietness of soul, are for want of more faith, as sickness and
pain is for the want of vital causes of health.
IV. This peace with God is only " through our Lord Jesus
Christ.'* Though it be a vain dream to think, by justifying
faith is meant Christ only, and not faith: yet it is no other
faith but the foresaid believing trust on Christ. Therefore, as
faith is our part, so it supposeth Christ, and all the works of his
office, and righteousness, on his part, as its object. Christ is
the purchasing cause ; but our trust and acceptance is that
which is pleasing to God, and chosen by him to be our part,
without innocency, or keeping the Jewish law.
Since man once sinned, God's justice, and man's conscience,
SHORT MEDITATIONS. 505
tell US, that we are unfit for God's acceptance or communion
immediately, but must have a suitable Mediator. Oh ! blessed
be God for this suitable Mediator. Without him 1 dare not
pray, I cannot hope, I dare not die ; God would else frown me
away to misery. AH the hope of pardon and salvation that
I have ; all the access to God, and the mercies and deliverances
that I have received, have been by this Author and Finisher of
our faith. Into his conducting hands 1 give my soul ; and into
his preserving hands both soul and body; and into his receiving
hands I commend my departing soul.
V. Ver. 2. "By whom we have access by faith unto this
grace wherein we stand;" that is, into this state of blessed
Christianity, peace with God, and the following blessings. As
it is by marriage that a woman hath right to her husband's
estate and honours, and by inheritance that a child comes to his
father's maintenance and land. This is no diminution to God's
love. To say it is all by Christ, is not to take it as ever the
less from God the Father. It is more to give us Christ, and
life in him, than to have given us life without a Christ. (John
iii. 16; 1 John v. 10 — 12.) As God is, nevertheless, the giver
of light to the earth, for giving it them by the sun. Second
causes diminish not the honour of the first.
Vr. "And rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Here is,
1. The beatifical object — " the glory of God." 2. The beati-
fical act — " rejoice." 3. The mediate, causing act — " hope.'*
All presupposing faith and justification.
2. The " glory of God" is that glorious appearance of God
to man and angels, which maketh happy, 1 . The mind by be-
holding it. 2. The will by loving it, and receiving the communi-
cations of love. 3. The executive powers by joyful praise, &c.
2. Though some foretastes are here, it is yet said to be hoped
for; and we hope for that which is not seen. When faith is
said to be that which we are justified or saved by, it includeth
hope, though, more precisely taken, they are distinct. " We are
saved by hope." The same word is oft translated ' trust' and
' hope ;' and faith is trust. To trust Christ for salvation, in-
cludeth hoping that he will save us. But hope is denominated
from the good hoped for, and faith from the cause by which
we hope to obtain it,
Hope doth not necessarily imply either certainty or uncer-
taintv. It mav stand with both in various degrees.
506 SHORT MEDITATIONS.
3. Rejoicing is made by God the very naturally desired state
of the soul. It is, when natural, the pleasant efflorescence of
the spirits, or their state of health.
It is pleasure that is the spring or poise of all motion sensi-
tive in the world. Trahit sua quemque, voluptas. Appetite, or
will, is the active principle ; and congruous, good, or delectable,
is the object. The world is undone by the seduction of false,
deceitful pleasure ; and though we that made not ourselves are
not so made for ourselves as that our pleasure or felicity in God
should be so high in our desire as God himself, who is the
ultimate object of our love : yet, seeing such an object he is,
and the love of him (and received from him) is our felicity,
these are never to be separated.
What have I to rejoice in, if this hoped-for glory be not my
joy ? All things else are dying to me : and God himself is not
my felicity, as he afflicts me, nor as he giveth me the transitory
gifts of nature, but as he is to be seen in glory. If this be not
my joy, it is all but vanity. What, then, should all my thoughts
and labour aim at more, as to myself, than to hope for and fore-
taste this glory. No sin lieth heavier on me than my hopes of
glory raise me to no higher joy ; and that the great weakness of
my faith appeareth by such dull thoughts of glory, or by with-
drawing fears. Sure there is enough in the glory of God,
soundly believed and hoped for, to make a man rejoice in pain
and weakness, and to make him long to be with Christ. I live not
according to the nature of Christianity, if I live not as in peace
with God, and in the joyful hopes of promised giory.
VII. '^ Not only so, but we glory in tribulation.'* Glory is
so transcendent, and tribulation so small and short, that an
expectant of glory may well rejoice in bodily sufferings. It is
tribulation for Christ and righteousness* sake that we are said
to glory in : the rest, for our sins, it is well if we can improve and
patiently bear. Yet in them we may rejoice, in hope of glory,
though we glory not of them. Oh ! if all the painful, languid days,
and nights, and years that I have had, as the fruit of my sin, had
been sufferings for that which I am now hated and hunted for,
even for preaching Christ when men forbid me, how joyfully
might I undergo it : but yet, even here, approaching glory should
be my joy. Alas ! my groans and moans are too great, and my
joy too little.
VIII. " Knowing that tribulation worketh patience." Tliat
SHORT MEDITATIONS. 5(^
which worketh patience is matter of joy : for patience doth us
more good than tribulation can do hurt ; why, then, do 1 groan
so much under suffering, and so Httle study and exercise patience
and no more rejoice in the exercise thereof?
IX. "And patience, experience." It is manifold and profit-
able experience, which patient suffering brings. It giveth us
experience, as of nature's weakness, and the great need of faith ;
so of the truth of God's promises, the love and tenderness of
Christj the acceptance of our prayers ; and the power of the
Spirit's aid and grace. O what abundance of experiences of
God and ourselves, and the vanity of creatures, had we wanted^
if we had not waited in a suffering state : alas ! how many
experiences have I forgotten.
X. "And experience, hope." A bare promise should give us
hope : but we are still distrustful of ourselves, and of all the
clearest evidences, till experience help us, and set all home^
Oh, what an advantage hath a Christian of great and long ex-
perience for his hope and joy ! And yet when notable experi-
ences of God's providence are past and gone, an unbelieving
heart is ready to question, whether the things came not by mere
natural course ; and, like the Israelites in the wilderness, dan-
gers and fears bear down even long and great experiences. This
is my sin.
XI. " And hope maketh not ashamed." That is, true hope
of what God hath promised, shall never be disappointed. They
that trust on deceitful creatures are deceived, and ashamed of
their hope : for all men are liars, that is, untrusty ; but God is
true, and ever faithful : O what a comfort is it that God com-
mandeth me to trust him ! Sure such a command is a virtual
promise, from him that cannot fail that trust which he com-
mandeth. Lord, help me to trust thee in greatest dangers, and
there to rest.
XII. "Because the love of God is shed abroad upon our
hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given to us." It is the love
of God shed abroad on our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
must make us rejoice in hope of the glory of God, even in
tribulation.
Here I must consider, I. What is meant by the love of God.
II. Why, and how, it is shed abroad on the heart by the Holy
Ghost.
I. By the love of God is meant the effects of his love. 1. His
special grace. 2. The pleasant gust or sense of it.
508 SHORT MEDITATIONS.
II. God's love thus shed on the heart, presupposeth it
expressed in the gospel and providence, and contains all these
particulars.
1. The sanctifying of the soul by renewing grace. This is
the giving of the Spirit, as he is given all true Christians.
2. Herein the Holy Ghost makes us perceive the exceeding
desirableness of the love of God, and maketh us most desire it.
3. He giveth the soul some easing hope of the love of God.
4. He quieteth the doubts, and fears, and trouble of the soul.
5. He raiseth our hopes, by degrees, to confident assurance.
6. Then the thoughts of God's love are pleasant to the soul,
and give it such delight as we feel in the love and fruition of
our most valued and beloved friends.
7. The soul in this state is as unapt to be jealous of God, or
to question his love, as a good child or wife to question the
love of a parent or husband, or to hear any that speak evil of
them.
S. This, then, becomes the habitual state of the soul, in all
changes, to live in the delightful sense of the love of God, as we
do live in pleasure with our dearest friends.
O blessed state, and first fruits of heaven ! and happy are
they that do attain it. And though lower degrees have their
degree of happiness, yet how far short are such, in goodness,
amiableness, and comfort, of those that are thus rich in grace.
This . presupposeth, 1. Knowledge of God and the gospel.
2. True belief, and hope. 3. A sincere and fruitful life.
4. Mortification as to idol worldly vanities. 5. A conviction of
our sincerity in all this. 6. A conclusion that God doth love.
But yet it is somewhat above all this. A man may have all
this in his mind and mouth, and yet want this gust of effused
love upon his heart. These are the way to it, but not itself.
This is the greatest good on this side heaven ; to which all
wealth and honour, all fleshly pleasure and long life, all learning
and knowledge, are unworthy to be once compared : briefly,
1. It is the flower and highest part of God's image on man.
2. It is the soul's true communion with God, and fruition of
him, which carnal men deride : even as our eye hath communion
with the sun, and the flourishing earth enjoys its reviving heats.
3. It is that which all lower grace doth tend to, as childhood
doth to manhood : and what is a world of infants, comparatively,
good for ?
4. It is that which most properly answereth the design of
SHORT MEDITATIONS. 509
redemption, and the wonders of God's love therein ; and all the
tenour of the gospel.
It is that which is most fully called the Spirit of God, or
Christ in us : he hath lower works, but this is his great work,
by which he possesseth us, as God's most pleasant habitation :
" For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but the spirit of power and love, and a sound mind." (2 Tim. i. 7.)
6. It is only that which all men, in general, desire, I mean,
the only satisfying content and pleasure that man is capable of
on earth. All men would have quieting and constant pleasure ;
and it is to be found in nothing else but the effused love of God.
7. It is that which will make every burden light, and all
affliction easy: when the sense of God's love is still upon the
soul, all pain and crosses will be but as blood-letting by the
kindest physician, to save the patient's life. God will not be
suspected, or grudged at, in suffering ; his love will sweeten all.
8. It will overcome abundance of temptations, which no men's
wit, or learning, or knowledge of the words of Scripture, will
overcome. No arguments will draw a loving child, or wife,
from the parents, or husband, that they know doth love them.
Love is the the most powerful disputant.
9. It puts a mellow, pleasant sweetness into all our duties.
When we hear the word, or receive the sacrament, it is to such
a SQul as pleasant food to the most healthful man ; when we
pray, or praise God, it comes from a comforted heart, and
excites and increaseth the comfort it comes from. Oh, who can
be backward to draw near to God in prayer or meditation, who
tasteth the sweetness of his love ! This is religion indeed, and
tells us what its life, and use, and glory is. This is true walk-
ing with God in the best degree. When the soul liveth in the
taste of his love, the heart will be still with him, and that will
be its pleasure. And God most delights in such a soul.
10. This is it that putteth the sweetest relish on all our mer-
cies. Deny God's love, and you deny them all. If you taste
not his love in them, you taste little more than a beast may
taste ; poor food and raiment is sweet, with the sei)sp of the
love of God. Had 1 more of this, I should lie down, and rise,
and walk in pleasure and content. I could bear the loss of
other things ; and though nature will feel pains, I should have
pleasure atid peace in the midst of all my pains and groans.
This is the white stone, the new name 5 no man well knoweth
it who never felt it in himself. '-.If^
510 SHOUT MEDITATIONS.
1. There is no dying comfortably without this experienced
taste of the love of God. This will draw up the desires of the
soul ; love tasted, casteth out fear : though God be holy and
justj and judgment terrible, and hell intolerable, and the soul
hath no distinct idea of its future state out of the body, and
though we see not whither it is that we must go, the taste of
God's love will make it go joyfully, as trusting him ; as a child
will go any whither in his father's power and hand.
But all the knowledge in the world without this quiets not a
departing soul. A man may write as many books, and preach
as many sermon^ of heaven, as I have done, and speak of it,
and think of almost nothing else, and yet till the soul be sweet-
ened and comforted with the love of God shed abroad on it by
the Holy Ghost, death and the next life will be rather a man's
fear than his desire. And the common fear of death which
we see in the far greater part even of godly persons doth tell
us, that though they may have saving desires and hopes, yet
this sense of God's love on the heart is rare.
What wonder, then, if our language, our converse, our
prayers, have too little savour of it, and in comparison of joyful
believers' duties, be but like green apples to the mellow ones.
My God, I feel what it is that 1 want, and I perceive what it
is that is most desirable : Oh, let not guilt be so far unpardoned
a^ to deprive my soul of this greatest good, which thou hast
commended to me, and commanded, and which in my lan-
guishing and pains I so much need ! Did I beg for wealth or
honour, I might have it to the loss of others. But thy love will
make me more useful to all, and none will have the less for my
enjoyment ; for thou. Lord, art enough for all ; even as none
hath the less of the sunlight for my enjoying it. The least
well-grounded hope of thy love is better than all the pleasures
of the flesh ', but without some pleasant sense of it, alas \ what
a withered, languishing thing is a soul ! Thy loving-kindness
is better than life ; but if I taste it not, how shall I here rejoice
in God, or bear my heavy burdens ?
O, let me not be a dishonour to thy family, where all have
so great cause to honour thy bounty by their joy and hopes ;
nor, by a sad and fearful heart, tempt men to think that thy
love is not real and satisfactory. 1 can easily believe and
admire thy greatness, and tliy knowledge. Let it not be so
hard to ma to believe and taste thy goodness and thy love,
which is as necessary to me.
SHORT MEDITATIONS. 511
If there be any thing (as surely there is) in which the divine
nature and spirit of adoption consisteth, as above all the art
and notions of religion, which are but like to other acquired
knowledge, sure it must be this holy appetite and habitual
inclination of the soul to God, by way of love, which is bred
by an internal sense of his loveliness, and loving inclination to
man; which difFerenceth a Christian fronj other men, as a child
differs towards his father, from strangers, or from common
neighbours. Till the love of God be the very state and nature
of the soul, (working here towards his honour, interests, word,
and servants,) no man can say that he is God's habitation by the
Spirit ; and how the heart will ever be thus habited, vi^ithout
believing God's love to us, it is hard to conceive.
Experience tells the world how strongly it constraineth per-
sons to love one another, if they do but think that they are
strongly beloved by one another. In the love that tends to
marriage, if one that is inferior do but know that a person of
far greater worth doth fervently love them, it almost puts a
necessity and constraint on them for returns of love : nature
can scarce choose but love in such a case. Love is the load-
stone of love. A real taste of the love of God in saving souls
by Christ and grace, is it that constraineth them to be holy ;
that is, to be devoted to that God in love.
III. But this must as necessarily be the work of the Holy
Ghost, and can be no more done without him than the earth
can be illuminated, and the vegetables live, without the sun.
But all the approaches of the Holy Spirit suffice not to produce
this great effect, and give us the divine, holy nature.
The same sunshine hath three different effects on its objects.
1. On most things, as houses, stones, earth, it causeth
nothing but accidents of heat, colour, and motion.
2. On some things it causeth a seminal disposition to vege-
table life, but not life itself.
3. In this disposed matter it causeth vegetable life itself.
8o doth the Spirit of God, 1 . operate on millions but lifeless
accidents, as the sun on a stone wall. 2. On others dispose
and prepare them to divine life. 3. On others so disposed it
effecteth the divine life itself, when holy love is turned into ^
habit like to nature.
That none but the Holy Ghost doth make this holy change
is evident; for the effect cannot transcend the causes. 1. Na-
ture alone is dark, and knoweth not the attractive amiableness
512 SHORT MEDITATIONS.
of God, till illuminated ; nor can give us a satisfactory notice of
God's special love to us.
2. Nature is guilty, and guilt breedeth fears of justice, and
fear makes us become wild, and' fly from God, lest he should
hurt us.
3. Nature is under penal sufferings already; and feeleth pain,
fear, and many hurts, and foreseeth death; and under this is
undisposed of itself, to fee^ the pleasure of God's love.
4. Nature is corrupted and diverted to creature vanity, and
its appetite goeih another way, and cannot cure itself, and
make itself suitable to the amiableness of God.
5. God hateth wickedness, and wicked men; and mere nature
cannot secure us that we are saved from that enmity.
Diligence may do much to get religious knowledge, and
words, and all that which I call the art of religion ; and God
may bless this as a preparation to holy life and love. But till
the soul's appetite incline, with desire, to God and holiness,
divine things will not sweetly relish.
And this is a great comfort to the thoughts of the sanctified,
that certainly their holy appetite, desire, and complacency, is
the work of the Holy Ghost. For, 1 . this secureth them of
the love of God, of which it is the proper token. 2. And
it assureth them of their union with Christ, when they live
because he liveth, even by the Spirit, which is his seal and
pledge. 3. And it proveth both a future life and their title to
it : for God maketh not all this preparation for it by his
Spirit in vain.
But, alas I if it were not a work that hath great impediment,
it would not be so rare in the world. What is it in us that
keepeth the sun of love from so shining on us as to revive our
souls into holy contentments and delight ?
It must be supposed, 1. that all God's gifts are free, and
that he giveth not to all alike ; the wonderful variety of crea-
tures proveth this. 2. The reasons of his differencing works
are his own will, and ^inferior reasons are mostly unknown to
us, of which he is not bound to give us an account.
3. But yet we see that God doth his works in a casual order,
and one work prepareth for another ; and he maketh variety of
capacities, which occasion variety of receptions and of gifts;
and he useth to give every thing that to which he hath brought
it into the next capacity and disposition.
And therefore, in general, we may conclude that we feel not
SHORT MEDITATIONS. 513
God's love shed abroad upon the heart, because the heart is
undisposed, and is not in the next disposition thereto: and
abused free-will hath been the cause of that. That we have
grace, is to be ascribed to God : that we are without it, is to be
ascribed to ourselves.
1. Heinous guilt of former sin may keep a soul much without
the delights of divine love ; and the heinousness is not only in
the greatness of the evil done materially, but oft in our long
and wilful committing of smaller sins, against knowledge, and
conscience, and consideration. The Spirit thus grieved by
hardened hearts, and wilful repulses, is not quickly and easily
a Comforter to such a soul ; and when the sinner doth repent,
it leaveth him more in uncertainty of his sincerity when he
thinks, ' I do but repent, purpose, and promise now ; and so
I oft did, and yet returned the next temptation to my sin : and
how can I tell that my heart is not the same, and I should sin
again if I had the same temptations.* O what doubts and per-
plexities doth oft wilful sinning prepare for !
2. And sins of omission have here a great part. The sweet-
ness of God's love is a reward which slothful servants are
unmeet for. It follows a " Well done, good and faithful ser-
vant." There is needful a close attendance upon God, and
devotedness to him, and improvement of gospel grace, and
revelation, to make a soul fit for amicable, sweet communion
with God; all that will save a soul from hell will not do
this.
He that will taste these divine love tokens must, 1. Be no
stranger to holy meditation and prayer, nor unconstant, cold,
and cursory in them : but must dwell and walk above with God.
2. And he must be wholly addicted to improve his Master's
talents in the world, and make it his design and trade on earth
to do all the good in the world he can ; and to keep his soul
clean from the flesh, and worldly vanity. And to such a soul
God will make known his love.
3. And alas 1 how ordinarily doth some carnal affection cor-
rupt the appetite of the soul ; when we grow too much in love
with men's esteem, or with earthly riches, or when our throats
or fancies can master us into obedience, or vain desires of meat,
drink, recreation, dwelling, &c., the soul loseth its appetite to
things divine ; and nothing relisheth where appetite is gone or
sick. We cannot serve God and Mammon, and we cannot at
once taste much pleasure both in God and Mammon, The old,
VOU XVIII. L L
514 SHORT MEDITATIONS.
austere Christians found the mortification of the fleshly lusts a
great advantage to the soul's delight in God.
4, And many errors about God's nature and works much
hinder us from feasting on his love.
5» And especially the slight and ignorant thoughts of Christ,
and the wondrous workings of God's love in him.
6. And especially if our belief itself once shake, or be not
well and firmly founded.
7. And our slight thoughts of the office and work of the
Holy Ghost on souls, and our necessity of it, and our not beg-
ging and waiting for the Spirit's special help.
8. And lastly, our unfaithful forgetfulness of manifold expe-
riences and testimonies of his love, which should still be as
fresh before us.
Alas ! my soul, thou feelest thy defect, and knowest the hin-
derance, but what hope is there of remedy ? Will God ever raise
so low, so dull, so guilty a heart, to such a foretaste of glory,
as is this effusion of his love by the Holy Ghost ? The lightsome
days in spring and summer, when the sun reviveth the late
naked earth, and clothes it with delectable beauties, differs not
more from night and winter, than a soul thus revived with the
love of God doth differ from an unbelieving, formal soul.
Though this great change be above my power, the Spirit of
God is not impotent, backward, barren, or inexorable. He
hath appointed us means for so high a state; and he appointeth
no means in vain. Were my own heart obedient to my com-
mands, all these following I would lay upon it ; yea, I will do
It, and beg the help of God.
I. T charge thee, think not of God's goodness and love, as
unproportionable to his greatness and his knowledge ; nor
overlook, in the whole frame of heaven and earth, the mani-
festation of one any more than of the other.
II. Therefore let not the wickedness and misery of the world
tempt thee to think basely of all God's mercies to the world;
nor the peculiar privileges of the churches draw thee to deny
or contemn God's common mercies unto all.
III. I charge thee to make the study of Christ, and the great
work of man's redemption by him, thy chiefest learning, and
most serious and constant work; and in that wonderful glass to
see the face of divine love, and to hear what is said of it by the
Son from heaven j and to come boldly, as reconciled to God by
him.
SHORT MEDITATIONS. 515
IV. O see tha^ thy repentance for former sins against know-
ledge, and conscience, and the motions of God's Spirit, he
sound, and thoroughly lamented and abhorred, how small so-
ever the matter was in itself; that so the doubt of thy sincerity
keep not up doubts of God's acceptance.
V. Let thy dependence on the Holy Ghost, as given from
Christ, be henceforth as serious and constant to thee as is the
dependence of the eye on the light of the sun, and of natural
life upon its heat and motion. Beg hard for the Holy Spirit,
and gladly entertain it.
VI. Oh, never forget the many and great experiences thou hast
had, these almost sixty years observed, of marvellous favour
and providence of God, for soul and body, in every time, place,
condition, relation, company, or change, thou hast been in !
Lose not all these love tokens of thy Father, while thou art
begging more.
VII. Hearken not too much to pained flesh, and look not
too much into the grave ; but look out at thy prison windows
to the Jerusalem above, and the heavenly society that triumph
in glory.
VIII. Let all thy sure notices of a future life, and of the
communion we have here with those above, draw thee to think
that the great number of holy souls that are gone before thee,
must needs be better than they were here ; and that they had
the same mind, and heart, and way ; the same Saviour, Sanctifier,
and promise, that thou hast ; and therefore they are as pledges
of felicity to thee. Thou hast joyfully lived with.many of them
here ; and is it not better to be with them there ? It is only the
state of glory foreseen by faith, which most fully showeth us the
greatness of God's love.
IX. Exercise thyself in psalms of praise, and daily magnify
the love of God, that the due mention of it may warm and raise
thy love to him.
X. Receive all temptations against divine love with hatred
and repulse ; especially temptations to unbelief : and as thou
wouldest abhor a temptation to murder, or perjury, or any other
heinous sin, as much abhor all temptations which would hide
God's goodness, or represent him to thee as an enemy, or
unlovely.
Thus God hath set the glass before us, in which we may see
his amiable face. But alas ! souls in flesh are in great obscurity,
and, conscious of their own weakness, are still distrustful of
L L 2
51G SHORT MEDITATIONS.
themselves, and doubt of all their apprehensions, till overpow-
ering objects and influences satisfy and fix them. For this my
soul with daily longings doth seek to thee, my God and Father:
O pardon the sin that forfeits grace : I am ready to say, * Draw
nearer to me ;* but it is meeter to say, ' Open thou my eyes and
heart, and remove all impediments, and undisposedness, that I
may believe, and feel how near thou art, and hast been to me,
while I perceived it not.'
XIII. It is God's love shed abroad on the heart by the Holy
Ghost, which must make us "rejoice in hope of the glory of God:"
this will do it, and without this it will not be done.
This would turn the fears of death into joyful hopes of future
life. If my God will thus warm my heart with his love, it will
have these following effects in this matter.
I. Love longeth for union, or nearness, and fruition ; and it
would make my soul long after God in glorious presence.
II. This would make it much easier to me to believe that
there is certainly a future blessed life for souls ; while I even
tasted how God loveth them. It is no hard thing to believe
that the sun will give light and heat, and revive the frozen
earth : nor that a father will show kindness to his son, or give
him an inheritance. Why should it be hard to believe that
God will glorify the souls whom he loveth, and that he will
take them near himself; and that thus it shall be done to
those whom he delights to honour ?
III. This effusion of divine love would answer my doubts of
the pardon of sin : I should not find it hard to believe that love
itself, which hath given us a Saviour, will forgive a soul that
truly repenteth, and hates his sin, and giveth up himself to
Christ for justification. It is hard to believe that a tyrant will
forgive, but not that a father will pardon a returning prodigal
son.
IV. This effusion of divine love will answer my fears, which
arise from mere weakness of grace and duty : indeed, it will
give no other comfort to an unconverted soul, but that he may
be accepted if he come to God by Christ, with true faith and
repentance ; and that this is possible. But it should be easy to
believe, that a tender father will not kill or cast out a child for
weakness, crying, or uncleanness : divine love will accept and
cherish even weak faith, weak prayer, and weak obedience and
patience, which are sincere.
V. This effused love would confute temptations that are
SHORT MEDITATIONS. 517
drawn from thy afflictions ; and make thee believe that they are
not so bad as flesh representeth them : it would understand that
every son that God loveth he chasteneth, that he may not be
condemned with the world, and that he may be partaker of his
holiness, and the end may be the quiet fruit of righteousness ;
it would teach us to believe that God in very faithfulness doth
afflict us ; and that it is a good sign that the God of Love intend-
eth a better life for his beloved, when he trieth them with so
many tribulations here : and though Lazarus be not saved for
his suffering, it signified that God, who loved him, had a life of
comfort for him, when he had his evil things on earth. When
pangs are greatest, the birth is nearest.
VL Were love thus shed on the heart by the Holy Ghost,
it would give me a livelier apprehension of the state of blessedness
which all the faithful now enjoy : I should delightfully think of
them as living in the joyful love of God, and ever fully replen-
ished therewith. It pleaseth us to see the earth flourish in the
spring; and to see how pleasantly the lambs, and other young
things, will skip and play : much more to see societies of holy
Christians loving each other, and provoking one another to
delight in God. O then what a pleasant thought should it be,
to think how all our deceased, godly friends, and all that have so
died since the creation, are now together in a world of divine,
perfect love 1 How they are all continually wrapped up in the
love of God, and live in the delight of perfect love to one
another !
O my soul, when thou art with them, thou wilt dwell in love,
and feast on love, and rest in love ; for thou wilt more fully
dwell in God, and God in thee : and thou wilt dwell with none
but perfect lovers : they would not silence thee from praising
God in their assembly : tyrants, malignants, and persecutors, are
more strange there (or far from thence) than toads, and snakes,
and crocodiles, are from the bed or bedchamber of the king.
Love is the air, the region, the world, they live in : love is their
nature, their pulse, tlieir breath, their constitution, their com-
plexion, and their work : it is their life, and even themselves and
all. Full loth would one of those spirits be to dwell again
among blind Sodomites, and mad, self- damning malignanta upon
earth.
Vn. Yea, this effused love will teach us to gather the glory of
the blessed from the common mercies of this life : doth God
give his distracted, malignant enemies, health, wealth, plenty
518 SHORT MEDITATIONS.
pleasure, yea, lordships, dominions, crowns, and kingdoms ; and
hath he not much better for beloved holy souls ?
Yea, doth he give the brutes life, sense, delight, and beauty ;
and hath he not better things for men ; for saints ?
There are some so blind as to think that man shall have no
better hereafter, because brutes have not, but perish. But they
know not how erroneously they think. The sensible souls of
brutes are substance, and therefore are not annihilated at death ;
but God put them under us, and made them for us, and us more
nearly for himself. Brutes have not faculties to know and love
God, to meditate on him, or praise him, or, by moral agency, to
obey his precepts : they desire not any higher felicity than they
have : God will have us use their service, yea, their lives and
flesh, to tell us they were made for us. He tells us not what he
doth with them after death : but whatever it is, it is not annihil-
ation, and it is like they are in a state still of service
unto man : whether united, or how individuate, we know not:
nor yet whether those philosophers are in the right, that think
that this earth is but a small image of the vast superior regions,
where there are kingdoms answerable to these here, where thfe
spirits cf brutes are in the like subjection in aerial bodies, to
those low, rational spirits that inhabit the aerial regions, as in
flesh they were to man in flesh. But it is enough for us that
God hath given us faculties to know, love, praise, and obey him,
and trust him for glory, which he never gave to them, because
they were not made for things so high. Every creature's facul-
ties are suited to their use and ends.
And love tells me, that the blessed God, who giveth to brutes
that life, health, and pleasure, which they are made and fitted
for, will give his servants that heavenly delight in the fulness of
his love and praise, and mutual, joyful love to one another, which
nature fundamentally, and grace more immediately, hath made
them fit for.
Blessed Jehovah ! for what tastes of this effused love thou hast
given me, my soul doth bless thee, with some degree of gratitude
and joy : and for those further measures which I want, and long
for, and which my pained, languid state much needs, and would
raise my joyful hopes of glory, 1 wait, I beg, from day to day.
O give me now, at the door of heaven, some fuller taste of the
heavenly felicity : shed more abroad upon my heart, by the Holy
Ghost, that love of thine, which will draw up my longing soul to
thee, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.
THE
MOTHER'S CATECHISM;
OR,
A FAMILIAR WAY OF
CATECHISING OF CHILDREN,
IN THE
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, THEMSELVES, AND THE
HOLY SCRIPTURES.
THE
PREFACE TO THE READER.
Candid Reader,
This is the errand of this preface, to assure thee that this
treatise was left under Mr. Baxter's own hand, which now is
exposed to thy view from the press. It was Timothy's great
commendation and advantage, "That from a child he had
known the Holy Scriptures, which were able to make him wise
tosalvaton, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.'' (2 Tim. iii.
15.) Early draughts from this spring will give us such a reHsh
of the waters issuing from thence as will render our most dili-
gent reading of them both profitable and delightful to us. This
book at once may profit both the mother and the child : and
the contents thereof may, with greater ease and pleasure, im-
press themselves upon their minds and memories, by frequent
reading of them, and discourse about them, than if children
were confined to get large portions of catechisms without book.
At least the former would greatly prepare them for the latter.
Had Mr. Baxter completed what he did design herein, the
reader might have been more advantaged thereby.
All that the author left thou hast. And, if it be desired, the
continuation may possibly be exposed to view hereafter, by ano-
ther hand. Pray heartily for the publisher 3 for none more
need and crave it, than
Thine, in the best of bonds and services,
MATTHEW SYLVESTER.
t»tt
FAMILIAR WAY
CATECHISING CHILDREN.
Mother. Come, child, are you willing to be taught your
catechism ?
Child. What is the Catechism, mother ?
M. It is those things which you must know above all other*
C. Why must I needs know them? , ;
M. Because God made you to know them, and without such
knowledge you cannot be good, nor blessed of God.
C. Cannot I do as well without learning as other children do ?
M. Those that do not learn that which God would have them
learn, are all naught, and miserable, worse than beasts.
C. But I find that I had rather play, and talk of somewhat
else than learn my catechism : I do not love it.
M. That is because you are foolish and naught ; and it is by
learning that you must become wise and better, or else you will
become undone for ever, and wish that you had never been born.
C. What is it that I must learn ?
M. You must learn to be wise, and good, and happy for ever,
and to escape hell, misery, and sin.
C. I would fain be wise, and good, and happy : how shall I
learn that ?
M. Not by knowing how to eat and drink, laugh and play ;
and those little common things which beasts and fools know :
but it must be by knowing great, and excellent, and needful
things.
C. What are those things ?
M. The first thing that you must know is, what you are your-
self, and what you are made for : do you know how man doth
diifer from all sorts of beasts and birds ?
THE mother's catechism* 623
C. Yes, I know a man from a beast as soon as I see them*
M. You see how the shape of their bodies differ : but that is
a smail difference. It is their souls that differ, which you cannot
see; their flesh and ours little differ, but in shape: the soul is
the man, or his chiefest part, the body is but like clothing to
the soul.
C. What is a soul, mother ?
M. The soul is a spirit, and cannot be seen ; but it is that
which hath all the power ; the body is but earth, and water, and
air, and when the soul is gone, it rots and turns to earth.
C. How do you know that we have souls ?
M. We know it by that which the soul doth in us : do not you
know that you are alive, and that you hear me now, and that
you feel when you are hot or cold, well or ill, hungry or thirsty?
It is the soul by which you live, and see, and feel.
C. Dogs and beasts do see and feel, have they souls ?
M. Yes ; they have souls, or else they would be but dead
carcasses : but their souls and ours greatly differ. And this is
the difference which you must know.
C. What is the difference between our souls and theirs ?
M. You may see some of the difference outwardly between
our works and theirs. Beasts do not talk as we do, nor write
books, nor study laws, and other learning, nor make ships, nor
build cities, nor govern kingdoms as men do. But yet because
they do somewhat like these, it is a greater difference than all
these that you must know.
C. What is that greater difference ?
M. Beasts, and birds, and fishes, are all made but for the use
of man, and therefore their souls can do nothing but feed and
preserve their bodies, and serve us : they never think of God or
another world; they live not by a law, but by the inclination
of their nature : they have no hopes of heaven, or fear of hell,
nor any conscience within to tell them of duty to God or sin
against him : nor do they knowingly worship, serve, and seek
him. But the soul of man is made for all this; even to know
God and his law, and our duty, and to think of and prepare for
another life after death, and to fear punishment then, and hope
and prepare for everlasting happiness, and to serve and obey
God that we may obtain it. This is the difference.
C. Are you sure that a man is made for all this ?
M. Yes : do you not see that good men do all this ? Do
they not teach and learn God's law, and obey him, and worship
524 THE mother's catechism.
him, and hope for heaven hereafter ? Good men could not do
this if God had not made them fit to do it.
But I must teach you how to know all this better hereafter,
when I come to tell you what God saith of it in his word : I
cannot teach you all at once.
The Second Part of the Catechism, — To knotv God,
M. I have told you first what you must know of yourself, and
what a man is : I must next tell you what God is : for if you
know not God, it were as good you knew nothing at all.
C. What is God ?
M. God is not a body, nor like any thing that we can see :
you must have no such thought of him.
C. How then shall 1 know what he is ?
M. You must know him by his works, and especially by know-
ing yourself, and the soul of man, which is called God's image.
C. How can 1 know him when I do not see him ?
M. Nothing but the lowest or basest things are seen besides
the light. You never saw the wind : and yet you see and feel
what it doth ; how it can overthrow trees and houses : and by that
you know that it is strong. You see roses, and other flowers,
and apple trees, and pear trees; and you see and taste how one
differs from another in flower and fruit ; but you do not see
that within them which causeth all the beauty, and sweetness,
and difference, that appeareth without. You do not see that
inward soul of birds and beasts, by whicii they live and move :
nor (as I told you) you do not see my soul, nor your own. But
you may know much of things unseen by what they do.
C. What be the works of God, by which I may know him ?
M. All that you see in the world : God made them all, and
God doth preserve them all. Do you not see all the country
about you? This earth is many thousand and thousand times
bigger than you see ; and it stands upon nothing, but it is round
like a ball, and hangs in the air, and the heavens are round
about it, as far as you see them over it. All England is as much
less than the whole earth, as a pin is less than all this house :
and you see how the ground doth bring forth all sorts of trees,
and herbs, and corn, and flowers : how many thousand thousands
of birds, beasts, sheep, and other living things, do live in all
countries, and how many thousand thousand men. All these
God made, and feeds and keeps them : and yet all this earth is
next to nothing, in comparison of the heavens, and the rest of
THE mother's catechism. 525
the world. Yonder sun that you see doth give light and heat
to all this earth, and yet it is many thousand miles from hence :
it goeth round about the earth every day and night, and goeth
many thousand miles every hour; and yet it is many thousand
times bigger than all the earth : many of the stars seem little to
you, because they are many thousand miles from us, and yet are
many hundred times bigger than all this earth : and no man can
tell how many thousand thousand miles there may be beyond
all the stars which we can see. Do you not look up and wonder
at all this ?
C. O yes, I wonder at it : but how shall I know God by all
this ?
M. Are you not sure that he that doth all this must needs be
great and almighty, and have more power than all the world ?
How could he make such a world, and give all this power to
sun, and moon, and stars, and sea, and land, if he had not more
than they all himself ? No one can give more than he hath to
give.
C. 1 know God must needs be great and powerful.
M. And do you not perceive that God is most wise, and
knoweth more than ail the world? How else could he make
heaven and earth in such admirable order, and keep them in the
same course through all generations ? How could he make
nights and days, winter and summer ? Yea, the very body of
every man and beast is so wonderfully ordered, that the wisest
men in the world are posed in searching into the work of God
therein. We know not how a man is made, nor how he
digesteth his meat into blood and flesh, nor any such like. All
the men in the world cannot make one flower, or grass, nor one
bird or fly : and it is God that giveth all men and angels all the
knowledge and wisdom which they have : and therefore he must
needs have more himself: lie must needs know all the secret
thoughts of all men in the world, because they cannot think a
thought without him. Do you not perceive, then, that God is
infinitely wise and knoweth all things ?
C. Yes ; he that made all, must needs know all.
M. And you must know by his works that God is as good as
he is great and wise, and that he is better than all the world
besides, both heaven and earth. For all things are good that
he hath made : the sun is good ; without its light, and heat,
and motion, what were the earth but a dungeon and a grave ?
The moon and stars are good, heaven and earth are good, sea
526 THE mother's catechism.
and land are good, all the fruits of the earth, and all living
things are good, save that man's sin hath brought a curse on
them for his punishment : and among men, learning and virtue
are good ; our food and clothing, our parents and friends, and
all good people are good. And could God make the world good,
if he were not good ?
C. I know God must needs be powerful, and wise, and good,
above all ; but yet I do not know him.
M. I told you that God is not of a bodily substance and shape,
like things seen. He is a Spirit, and the Maker of all bodies
and spirits. And therefore I next told you, that you must know
him partly by knowing yourself, that is, your soul.
C. Is God like me, or like a man ?
M. God hath made the soul of man in his own image, in
some little likeness to himself : and so you may know somewhat
of God by yourself, as you may see one's face in a glass.
C. Wherein is man's soul like God ?
M. In many things : 1. Our souls are spirits, and cannot be
seen, and so is God. 2. Yet it is by the soul that the body
liveth, and moveth, anifeeleth. It can do nothing without the
soul ; nor can anything in the world without God : it is God
that doth all that sun and moon, sea and land, wind and rain,
men and beasts, and all things do. 3. Our souls have life to
move us, and understandings to know good and evil, and wills
to love the good and hate the evil : and in this they are God's
image ; for God is life itself, and knoweth all things, and loveth
good, and hateth evil more than we. So that as our souls are
unseen spirits, of life, and understanding, and will, in our bodies,
so God is more than a soul to the whole world, to heaven, and
earth, and sun, and moon, and stars, and to every soul and body
that is.
C. I understand you that God is a Spirit, that hath more
power, and knowledge, and goodness, than all the world besides,
but yet methinks I do not know him.
M. No one in the world knoweth God perfectly, but we may
know so much of him as may make us wise, and good, and happy:
a^id vou must increase in knowing God more and more as long
as you live. If you are willing to learn, God will help you to
know him a great deal better hereafter than you can do now
while you are but a child. You do not know how to build houses,
nor write books, nor do any other thing which you see men do,
and how then should a child know as much of Qod ^s a man
THE MOTHER*S CATECHISM. 52/
may know ? When you come to understand the Bible, which is ,
God's word, you will know God better. Therefore I must next
teach you to know what God's word is, that it may teach you
more.
The Third Lesson, — To know God's Word,
C. What is it that you call the word of God ?
M. Because we are dull, and cannot sufficiently know God
and his will by his works alone; therefore God hath more fully
and plainly told it us from heaven.
C. Did God speak it himself?
M. God is not like a man, nor doth he talk as men do : but
God can many ways make known his mind to us* As your soul
doth talk by your tongue, and not of itself without it, so God
hath sometimes spoken by angels, and sometimes by prophets,
to whom he inwardly maketh known his will, as you inwardly
know now what you think or see. And some part of God's
word he did write himself; that is, the ten commandments:
and all this is written for us in the Bible, which is God's Book,
C. Who did God speak this to, and when was it ?
M. Not all at once, nor all to one man ; but by degrees, as I
teach you some one day, and some another. He first spake to
Adam and Eve, and after to others, especially to Noah, and
after that to Moses, and he taught Moses to write down all
that God had said to him, and all that he said from the begin-
ning of the world, which was meet for us to know : and he wrote
the ten commandments in two tables of stone, and gave them to
Moses to keep, and many other laws he spake to him by angels :
and after that in many ages, when he had any new thing to
make known, or sinful people to reprove, he often sent some
prophet to them : and, last of all, he sent his Son from heaven,
to tell us more than all before had told us.
C. What is a prophet ?
M. One that God tells his mind to, either inwardly himself,
or outwardly by an angel, and then sendeth him to tell others as
from God.
C. How were men sure that God sent these prophets ?
M. God did bring to pass all that he sent them to foretell,
and the laws which he commanded by Moses, and by Jesus
Christ, he owned by many great miracles before all the people,
such as none can do but by the power of God, which I shall tell
you more fully when I tell you the history of the Bible, Besides
528 THE mother's catechism.
that, the Bible is sucli a book for matter and manner, as none
could write, if God had not taught it them.
C. How come we to have this book ?
M. Those that God gave it to did give it to their children ;
and so it hath been delivered from one generation to another, as
the laws of this land are, by which men hold their estates ; and
God made it the office of ministers to keep and preach his word.
C. Are no other books God's word but the Bible ?
M. That which our teachers do take out of the Bible and
teach the meaning of it, is so far God's word as it is in the Bible
whence they take it : and good books to expound this word of
God to us, and help us to practise it.
C. Js all true that is written in the Bible ?
M. Some part of the Bible tells us what lies the devil and
wicked men have used to deceive men with : it is true that such
lies were told. And all that God saith must needs be true, for
it is impossible for God to lie.
C. Why is it impossible ?
M, Because God is perfect; all lying is either for want of
knowledge of the truth, or because men are naught, and love not
the truth : or for want of power to attain their wills without a
lie. But God wanteth neither knowledge, nor goodness, nor
power, and he hateth liars, and condemneth them, and therefore
cannot lie himself.
The Fourth Lesson, — 0/ the Creation,
C. What is it that the Bible tells us ?
M. The first thing is, how God made the world.
C. I would fain know that. How was it ?
M. In the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was first like a great puddle of dirty water,
without light or shape ; and God did take six days' time to shape
it out of this confused heap, and to adorn it with all the crea-
tures which it possesseth.
C. Why did God take just six days to do it ?
M. We must not ask why God doth it : his will must satisfy us :
but thishelpethus the more distinctly to take notice of God's work.
C. What did God make the first day ?
M. The light.
C. How did God make it ?
M. As he did all the rest ; by the power of his bare will and
word. He said, ' Let there be light,* and there was light.
THE mother's catechism. 529
C. What did God make the second day ?
M. He made the firmament, which is called heaven.
C. What did he make the third day ?
M. He gathered the waters by themselves, which is the sea,
and made the land dry, which is the earth. And he made the
earth to bear grass, herbs, and trees, with seed.
C. What did God make the fourth day ?
M. He made the sun, and moon, and stars, to be lights, and
otherwise useful to the earth.
C. Had he not made light before ? .
M. As he made earth, in one mass, before he shaped it : but
now he formed it into all these parts which we call sun, moon,
and stars.
C. What did he make the fifth day ?
M. Fishes and fowls, with power to beget more and multiply.
C. What did he make the sixth day?
M. All sorts of beasts on the earth ; and, lastly, man*
C. How did God make man ?
M. He made his body of the earth, and then breathed his
soul into it.
C. Did not God make woman ? ^
M. When he made the man, he took a rib out of his side, and
made it a woman, to be his wife, to show that a man and his
wife should be, as it were, one.
C. Who were the' first man and woman ?
M. Adam and Eve.
C. Did God make them good or bad ? ^^
M. He made all things good, and he made man in his own
image, with life for action, understanding for knowledge, and
free-will to choose good and refuse evil ; and he put them in a
most pleasant garden, called Paradise.
C. What did he bid them do there ?
M. God being man's Governor, gave him, in nature, a law to
keep : and also commanded him to dress and keep the garden,
and gave him all lower creatures for his use ; only, to try his
obedience, he charged him not to eat the fruit of one tree,
which was called the tree of knowledge, on pain of death.
C. And what did Adam and Eve do then ?
M. God suffered the devil to tempt Eve in the shape of a
serpent, to eat of that one forbidden fruit, and she did eat, and
persuaded Adam to eat also, and so they broke the law of God.
C. How did the devil tempt her to it ?
VOL. XVIII. U M
530 THE mother's catechism.
M. He told her that eating of the tree of knowledge would
make her wise, and to be like God himself in knowledge ; and
that God forbade it them because he would not have them know
so much ; and that God would not put them to death as he had
threatened, but they might safely eat it. And so because the
fruit was pleasant, and she thought it would increase her know-
ledge, she did eat, and gave it Adam to eat.
C. What did God do with them then ?
M. God reproved and judged them, and cast them out of
Paradise, and cursed the earth to them, and judged them to la-
bour and sorrow, pain and death. But yet, in mercy, so far forgave
them as that he promised them a Saviour to deliver them from
hell and everlasting misery, if they would believe him and repent,
and sincerely obey him for time to come.
, C. Did eating of one tree deserve so great a punishment?
M. Yes : for it was Almighty God that they sinned against.
And they believed the devil before God, and took God to be a liar,
and to be their envious enemy, and the devil to be more their
friend : and this they did when they were new made good, and
able to do better, and had all things given them by God to serve
them.
C. But why did God curse the earth ?
M. For a punishment to man ; that it should bear briars,
and be barren without his toil, and be a place of sorrow to him.
C. But must all men suffer and die because Adam sinned ?
M. All that were since born came out of Adam and Eve:
and when they were guilty, and naught, we must needs be born
so to, for they could beget no better than they were themselves :
and hence it is that the nature of all mankind is become naught,
and turned from God ; and this is called our original sin.
C. But what did God do to the devil for deceiving them?
M. The devils were once angels, and fell by sin themselves,
and therefore did bear malice both to God and man ; and he
would make all others as bad and miserable as himself: and
ever since then he hath sought man's destruction ; but God pro-
mised a Saviour that should overcome him, and dehver us,
C. What did God do on the seventh day ?
M. Having made the world in six day^, God appointed the
seventh to be the Sabbath day, in which man should rest from
his labours, and worship God in remembrance of the creation.
G. And what doth God ever since ?
M. He preserveth and governeth the world which he made,
THE mother's catechism. 531
both heaven and earth. And he enjoyeth himself, and needeth
nothing 5 but all need him.
The Fifth Lesson, — More of the Scripture History.
M. Do you remember what I taught you last ?
C. You told me how God made the world, and how Adam
and Eve sinned by the devil's temptation, and how we are all
born in sin, and how God judged man to suffering and death,
but pronounced a Saviour to deliver believers. But what did
men do after Adam's fall ?
M. Adam had two sons, Cain, the elder, and Abel, the
younger. Adam had taught them both to worship God; but
Cain was a bad man, and did not serve God with all his heart,
but as bad men do now; but Abel was a good man, and served
God heartily with the best he had. And God accepted Abel's
service, and refused Cain's; and therefore, Cain envied and
hated Abel, and killed him : and God forsook Cain, and punished
his posterity.
C. Did the first man that was born kill his own brother ?
What made him kill him ?
M. God suffered this to tell us all ever after, that; the world
will still have two sorts of men ; bad men, that are the servants
of the devil, and good men, that serve God; and that the bad
will hate and persecute the good, because they are like the
devil, and the good are the children of God ; and their hearts
and lives are contrary to one another.
C. But if God loved Abel better, why would he not save him
from being killed?
M. It was no loss to him to be killed, for God took his'soul
to heaven : he was the first man that went to heaven, and the
first martyr : and God giveth the best place in heaven to the
•martyrs, that suffer and die by wicked men for serving God.
God loveth all good men, and yet he will not keep them all
from being hated, and persecuted, and killed by the wicked.
This doth but try them, as gold is tried in the fire, and pre-
pare tbem for greater glory in heaven than other good men
have.
C. What did the -rest of the world do after ?
M. God gave Adam another good son in Abel's stead, called
Seth; and many of his posterity served God; and especially
Enoch was so holy a man, that God took him up to heaven
without dying ; but Cain's posterity, and most others, proved so
M M 2
532 THE mother's catechism.
bad, that at last all the good men were worn out, saving one
called Noah and his household : and then God would bear with
them no longer, but drowned them all with a flood of rain from
heaven.
C. I pray tell me how they were drowned, and how Noah
escaped ?
M. God told Noah beforehand what he would do, and bid
him prepare an ark, and taught him how to make it, like a ship
with many rooms, and covered, and bid him take into that atk
two of all sorts of beasts and birds, and meat for them, and for
himself, and his wife, and his three sons, and their three wives.
And Noah believed God, and made the ark as God bade him;
and he preached to those about him, to persuade them to be-
lieve and repent a long time while he was making the ark ; but
they would not believe him, till the flood came and drowned
all, both man and beast; but Noah, and his household in the
ark, were carried about, as in a ship on the water, till all the
rest were drowned, and the waters dried up, and then he
came out.
C. And what came of him after ?
M. He was an husbandman, and planted a vineyard, and
made wine; and once, by temptation, he was drunk with the
wine, and laid himself naked in his drink ; and one of his sons,
called Ham, in mockage, told the other two, called Shem and
Japhet ; and they, in reverence to their father, would not see
his nakedness, but covered him with their faces backward;
wherefore Noah blessed Shem and Japhet, and their pos-
terity, and cursed Ham and his posterity, and they proved
wicked men.
C. It is strange that so good a man would be drunk ?
M. It was but once, and thereby we are warned to take
heed of fleshly temptations, and to beg God's grace to keep us,
and not to trust ourselves.
C. Did all the world come from Noah ?
M. Yes ; and when they increased to great numbers, one
great man, called Nimrod, would needs build a tower so high,
that if another flood came, it should not reach the top of it to
drown them. And when abundance of men had worked at it
long, God derided them, and stopped them.
C. How did he stop them ?
M. He made them forget the language which they all spake
before, and made them speak every man a language of his own,
THE mother's CATECHISM. 533
SO that they understood not one another : and hence came many
languages into the world.
C. And what did they next ?
M. Most men grew worse and worse, and forsook God, and
worshipped creatures and devils; but some of Shem's and
Japhet's posterity served God ; but especially one called Abra-
ham; but I must tell you his story the next time.
The Sixth Lesson. — The History of Abraham and his seed,
C. You told me, that you would next tell me the history
of Abraham. I pray you, how was that ?
M, When the world grew worse and worse, Abraham being
one of the posterity of Shem, was so good a man, that God
singled him out for a special blessing.
C. Why, what did Abraham do ?
M. He forsook idols, and served and obeyed God : and yet
he lived till he was an hundred years old, and his wife Sarah
fourscore and ten, before he had any child by her. And then
God told him that he would give him a son, from whom should
spring a great nation, which should be God's special people,
chosen before all the world; and that Christ the Saviour should
be of his seed, in whom all the nations of the earth should be
blessed. Abraham and Sarah thought this strange at first,
that a man of an hundred years old, and a woman of fourscore
and ten, should have a son, and a nation spring from him; but
seeing God said it, he believed God, knowing that nothmg is
impossible to him : and God took this so well, that Abraham
did so fully trust him, that he imputed it to him for righteous-
ness, and renewed his promise to him, and gave him a son
called Isaac : and Abraham having an elder son called Ishmael,
by another woman, that son abused Isaac, and God bid Abra-
ham cast him out of his house ; but yet a great nation sprung
from Ishmael. When Isaac grew up, he had two sons by his
wife Rebecca at a birth, Esau and Jacob ; and God chose Jacob,
and not Esau, to be the heir of those great blessings which he
had promised Abraham: and Esau hated and persecuted Jacob,
because God preferred him. And when Jacob grew up, he had
twelve sons, and a daughter; and ten of these sons fed sheep
and cattle in the commons far off, and the two youngest, Joseph
and Benjamin, being loved best by their father, stayed at home.
And God revealed things to come to Joseph in his dreams;
and when Jacob sent Joseph to see how his brethren did, he
534 THE mother's catechism.
told tliem his dreams. One dream was, that they were hinding
sheaves in the field, and Joseph's sheaf stood upright, and all
their sheaves howed to it; signifying that all they should bow to
him. Another dream was, that the sun, and moon, and seven
stars, (signifying his father, and mother, and brethren,) did bow
to him : and his brethren hated him because of his dreams, and
because his father loved him more than them. And once when
his father sent him to see how they did, when they saw him,
they plotted how to kill him ; and Reuben, the eldest, desiring
to save him, got them to cast him into a dry pit : and presently
some merchant carriers passed by that way, who carried spices
into Egypt to sell : and Judah, the fourth brother, got the rest
to sell him to these carriers ; and so they took his coat, and
dipped it in blood, and sent it to his father, making him believe
that some wild beast had torn and devoured Joseph; but while
Jacob mourned, Joseph was carried into Egypt, and sold there
to Potiphar, who was chief marshal to Pharaoh. And Joseph
being Potiphar's servant, God blessed all that he was trusted
with ; so that his master prospered extraordinarily in house and
field, so that he made Joseph his steward, and trusted him with
all that he had. Now Joseph was a very comely, well-favoured
man, and his mistress fell in love with him, and tempted him to
lie with her ; but he feared God, and still denied her. At last,
when he was alone, she took hold of his coat, and said lie with
nie ; but he ran away, and left his coat with her. When she
saw this, to hide her own lust and sin, she called out to the
servants, and told them that Joseph would have forced her to
lie with him : and making Potiphar, her husband, believe it, he
was angry, and put Joseph in a prison. When Joseph was in
prison, God made the gaoler kind to him, so that he trusted
him to keep all the rest of the prisoners, and he had the nde of
all, and God prospered all that he did. At that time the king
was displeased with his chief butler, and chief baker, and put
them into the same prison where Joseph was : and at last both
of them had a special dream, but they could not tell the mean-
ing of them ; and God gave Joseph the gift to expound dreams.
And Joseph expounded their dreams to them, and told them
that the baker's dream signified that he should be hanged ; but
the butler's dream signified that he should be restored to his
place 5 and he prayed him then to remember him ; and so it
came to pass ; but the butler did not remember Joseph. After
this, king Pharaoh himself had a great dream, which troubled
THE mother's catechism. 535
him, and none could expound it. He dreamed that he saw in
a meadow seven fat kine, and there came seven lean kine, and
did eat them up : then he saw seven full ears of corn, and seven
thin, blasted ears came and eat them up. Then his butler re-
membered Joseph, and told the king how he had expounded
their dreams in prison. And the king sent for him, and
brought him out of the dungeon, and told him his dreams.
And Joseph answered him, that God had made known to him
what he would do; that there should be seven years of great
plenty; and next seven years of great famine in many countries^
and therefore he advised the king to choose a wise man, to set
officers over all the land of Egypt, to take up the fifth part of
all the food of the land, the first seven years, that there might
be food enough for the seven years of famine. And the king
believed him, and liked the motion, and thought no man so fit
as Joseph, that had the Spirit of God. So he made Joseph
ruler over all his house, and the next person to himself, and
put his ring on his hand, and a gold chain about his neck, and
made all men bow to him, and obey him, and made him ruler
over all the land, and appointed him to gather up the fruit and
corn into storehouses all over the land, till the famine should
come, that they might not perish : and thus God began to fulfil
Joseph's dream ; but his father and brethren dwelt in Canaan,
another land, and knew none of all this; but I must tell vou
the rest the next time, and not too much at once.
The Seventh Lesson. — The Best of the Histoi'y of Joseph and
Jacob.
C. I long to hear the rest of the history of Joseph.
xM. When Joseph had been seven years ruler, next the king,
over all the land of Egypt, his old father, Jacob, thinking all
the time he had been dead, the seven years' famine came next,
as Joseph had foretold ; and when all the corn was eaten up,
the people all lived on the stores that Joseph had laid up ; and
they were fain to sell their cattle and lands to the king to buy
them bread, that they might not famish, and after that to sell
themselves to be the king's servants ; and so Joseph gave them
corn to sow the ground : and ever after it became a law that the
fifth part of all the fruit of the land should be the king's, ex-
cept the priests' lands.
C. Were not they, and their cattle and land, the king's
before?
536 THE mother's catechism.
M. Noj not till they sold it him, with themselves. The
king was their ruler ; but they, and their lands, and goods, and
cattle were their own, and not his.
C. And what became of Joseph's father and brethren ?
M. The famine was also in their land; and when it was so
great that they were ready to famish, and they heard that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob sent his ten sons to buy corn there,
keeping the youngest, Benjamin, whom he best loved, at home
with him ; and when they came into Egypt they were brought
to Joseph to buy corn. Now Joseph was grown up, and
the king had changed his name, and they knew him not, nor
what was become of him ; but Joseph knew all them when he
saw them. And Joseph carried it sourly to them, and took on
him that he did not know them, and asked them whence they
came ; and they bowed to him, and told him they came from
the land of Canaan to buy corn ; and he took on him to take
them for enemies and spies; and they told him they were
twelve brethren, the sons of one man, and one was dead, and
the youngest was at home with his father. And he bid them
send one and fetch their young brother, and then he would be-
lieve them. And he put them three days in prison : and at the
end of three days he granted that they should all go home,
and bring corn to their father, save one that he would keep in
prison, as a pledge, till they returned ; for he remembered how
cruelly they had thought to murder him, and had sold him, and
what his dream was, that they should bow to him. And when
they were all in prison, and thus in danger, they remembered
their sin against Joseph arid repented, and said one to another,
'' We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw
the anguish of his soul, when he entreated us and we would not
hear : therefore is this distress come upon us. And Reuben said.
Did not I speak to you, and say, Do not sin against the child,
and you would not hear : therefore his blood is now required."
Thus God makes men's consciences condemn them for their sin,
when punishment comes, that before would take no warning.
All this while Joseph heard them, and they thought that he
understood not what they said, because he spake in the lan-
guage of Egypt : and he turned away from them, and wept to
hear them bewail their sin, and then came to them again.
C. And what did those that lie sent home ?
M. He kept Simeon prisoner ; and when the other nine were
to go, he made his ser\ants fill their bags with corn, and give
THE. mother's catechism. 53/
them provision for the way, but secretly to put every man's money
into his bag, to the corn. And when they came to their inn, and
opened their bags for provender for their asses, they found their
money, and then their hearts sunk yet more, for they feared
God did it to punish them ; but they went home to their father
Jacob, and told them all that had befallen them, and how the
ruler of the land took them for spies, and spake roughly to
them, and kept Simeon prisoner till they should bring Benja-
min to him. And Jacob lamented, and asked them why they
would tell him that they had another brother. And they said,
Could we know that he would say, Bring your brother ?
C. And did they bring him ?
M. Jacob resolved that he should not go, till the famine was
so great that they must send to Egypt for more corn, or die, and
there was no remedy; and they durst not go without their bro-
ther, for Joseph said, " Ye shall not see my face, unless you
bring your brother with you." And when there was no remedy,
Jacob let him go, and sent them for more corn, with double
money, to restore that which was put into their bags again.
C. And how did Joseph receive them next ?
M. They took a present of balsam and spices with them,
beside their money. And when they came to him, Joseph told
his steward that those men should dine with him, and bid him
make full provision for them. And when he came home at
noon they gave him' their present, and bowed to the ground.
He asked them how their father did. And when they saw they
must dine with him, they were afraid lest he would charge the
money on them that they had, and keep them prisoners ; and
they told the steward what had befallen them, and how they had
found their money in their bags ; but the steward bid them fear
not, for he had their money. And when Joseph saw his young
brother Benjamin, he spake kindly to him, but was fain to get
away into his chamber to weep ; and when he had wept awhile
he washed his face, and came out to them again. And at din-
ner he set them by themselves, every one according to his age,
and they marvelled at it ; and he sent every one of them of the
best from his own table, but twice as much to Benjamin as to
the rest : and because he would keep them longer, and affect
them more, he made his steward fill all their sacks with corn,
and again put their money into their sacks ; and into Benjamin's
sack he put his own silver drinking cup. And when they were
538 THE mother's catechism.
gone out of town, in the morning, he sent his servant after them,
to charge them with stealing his cup, and to bring them back.
At this they were sore amazed, and said, " God forbid that we
should do so: let him die that hath the cup, and let us be my
lord's servant's:" but when they were searched, the cup was
found in Benjamin's bag. Then they were all confounded, and
came back to Joseph; and when he accused them for stealing
his cup, they fell to the ground and said, " God hath found out
our iniquity; we are all thy servants." But he said. No; none
shall be my servant but he with whom the cup was found : but
Judah told him how hardly he had got his father to consent
that43enjamin should go with them, and that he was fain to
undertake to bring him back, and that his father would die
with grief if he returned not ; and therefore besought him that
the lad might go home, and that he might be a bond servant in
his stead. Then Joseph could no longer refrain, but made all
his servants go forth, and he wept so loud that the king's house
heard him : and he opened himself to his brethren, and said,
1 am Joseph ; doth my father yet live ? But they could not
answer him, for they were troubled at his presence, remember-
ing their sin against him. But he comforted them, and said,
"I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt; but
be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, for God hath sent me
hither before you to preserve life :" and he told them all that
God had done for him, and that there were two years of famine
yet to come ; so he wept over them, and kissed them, and bid
them make haste home, and tell his father all this ; and bid
him come away with all his children's children, and his flocks,
and he would give them the best place in Egypt, because of the
famine that was yet to come. And when the king heard that
Joseph and his brethren were there, he commanded also that
their father and they should come and dwell in Egypt, in the
best place that Joseph would choose for them. So Joseph gave
them wagons and provision, and a present to his father, and
sent them all away.
C. Sure Jacob would be very glad of this.
M. You may easily think how it would transport him with
joy; but at first he could not believe it, that Joseph was Lord
of Egypt, who, he thought, had been many years dead ; but
when he saw the wagons, and that all was true, the old man's
heart revived in him with joy and thankfulness to God ; and so
THE mother's catechism. 539
he and all his children's children went into Egypt, and there
Pharaoh welcomed them; and Joseph placed them in Goshen,
the best part of the land.
The Eighth Lesson.— The History of Sodom and Lot,
C. I would fain know what God did with all the other coun-
tries all this while ?
M. We can know no more of that than God hath told us in
his word. But this we know, that God had every where some
righteous men whom he loved ; and in every nation, they that
feared God, and did righteously, were accepted of him. But
the most proved wicked men, and idolaters, and hated them
that were good. And to show this, I will next tell you the his-
tory of Sodom and of Lot, which should have gone before, but
that I would put Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's history together,
C. What was the case of Sodom ?
M. In Abraham's days there were four kings joined together,
and made war on many countries, and destroyed many people
near the place were Abraham dwelt : and there were five kings
went out to fight against them, the king of Sodom, and of
Gomorrah, and of Admah, and of Zeboim, and of Zoar: and
the four kings conquered these five, and carried away the
people and their goods. In Sodom, Abraham had a brother's
son dwelt, called Lot, and he was carried away prisoner with
the rest. When Abraham heard of it, he armed all his ser-
vants, (who were three hundred and eighteen,) and got some
neighbours to join with him, and by night followed the four
conquering kings, and overtook them, and fought with them,
and destroyed them, and rescued Lot, and all the persons and
goods that they had taken ; and when he had done, he gave
them all back to the kings that had lost them, and would keep
nothing of it to himself. Then there was one Melchizedek,
that was king of Salem, and priest of the most High God, that
came out and blessed Abraham, and Abraham gave him tithes
of all; yet after this great deliverance, Sodom and Gomorrah,
and the other cities and kings that were delivered, continued
very wicked men, till God destroyed them.
C. How did God destroy them ?
M. As Abraham was sitting in his tent door, three angela,
in likeness of travellers, passed by ; and Abraham being used to
entertain strangers, bowed to them, and entreated them to stay
and eat with him. They consented; and he killed a calf, and made
540 THE mother's catechism.
them a feast : upon this the Lord renewed his promise to him,
to give all that country to his seed; and told him what he would
do to Sodom, and said he would not hide it from Abraham,
because he would command his children, and his household
after him, to keep the way of the Lord : so he told him that in
Sodom and Gomorrah were so very wicked men, that he would
destroy them all. Abraham remembered his cousin Lot in
Sodom, and he humbly made his prayer to the Lord, that he
would not destroy the righteous with the wicked, but would
spare the city for the righteous* sake, if there were but fifty
righteous in it : and the Lord promised to spare it, if there
were but fifty. Then Abraham prayed that he would spare the
city, if there were but forty-five ; and the Lord granted it. Then
Abraham prayed that he would spare it, if there were but forty;
and again, if there were but thirty ; and again, if there were but
twenty; and the Lord still granted it. Then Abraham begged
of God not to be offended, if he once more asked, that he would
spare it, if there were but ten righteous ; and the Lord promised
that also. Then Abraham knew that there was no remedy,
C. And what became of Lot in Sodom ?
M. Two angels, like men, came to Sodom, to Lot's house; and
the men of Sodom were so unnaturally wicked, that they com-
manded Lot to bring out the two strange men, that they might
abuse them like women ; but Lot humbly entreated them not to
do so wickedly with strangers; but they reviled Lot, (just as
the wicked do godly men now,) and said, " This one fellow
came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge : now will we
deal worse with thee, than with them." And as they crowded
towards the door to break in, the angels pulled in Lot, and
struck them all with blindness ; and yet this miracle did not
stop them, but they groped to find the door. Then the angels
told Lot who they were, and that they came to destroy the
city ; but God had mercy on him ; and therefore bid him take
his wife, and his children, and his two sons-in-law, and presently
fly out of the city for his life ; but his sons-in-law would not
believe the danger, but took it for a fanatic mockage. And
while Lot lingered, the angels took hold of him, and his wife,
and two daughters, and brought them out of the city, and bid
them fly for their lives to the mountains_, and look not back
behind them; but Lot prayed the Lord to let him escape to
Zoar, the least of the five cities ; and God heard him, and
saved that (jty for his sake. But God rained fire and brim-
THE mother's catechism. 541
stone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and consumed all the cities
and the people there, and round about ; but Lot's wife that was
forbidden did look behind her, and God turned her into a
pillar of salt, to warn us not to disobey God. But Abraham
stood afar off, to see what would become of Sodom and
Gomorrah, and saw the smoke of it like a great furnace, rise up
toward heaven. And the place where these cities stood, and
all the plain about them, remaineth ever since to this day, "a
dead sea, or stinking, pitchy lake, which nothing can live in j
and travellers familiarly see it that go that way.
Thus you see, by the example of Sodom, how God hateth sin,
and how he will use the wicked at the last ; and yet that in this
very wicked city of Sodom, Abraham thought there might have
been fifty righteous persons ; and that one man's family that
was righteous, and mourned for their wickedness, God would
not forget, but saved him.
The Ninth Lesson. — The Israelites^ Deliverance out of Egypt.
C. Will you tell me what became of the children of Jacob
and Joseph in Egypt ?
M. When they were planted in Goshen, God did so greatly
prosper them, that they increased more than the Egyptians,
and were so many, that after some ages, when the old ones
were all dead, another king arose, that knew not Joseph : and
he was afraid lest in time they should grow too strong for him,
and he endeavoured to destroy them.
C. What did he do to them ?
M. First he gave the rnidwives command to kill all the sons
that were born to them at their birth; but God put his fear in
the rnidwives, and they made excuses, and said that the women
(then called Hebrews and Israelites) were delivered before
they came, and so did not obey the bloody king. Then the
king made them to be his slaves and drudges, and he made
them daily labour in making brick, with which he built great,
stately monuments; and he set taskmasters over them, that
should beat them, if they made not as many bricks as he re-
quired of them; and thus they were used cruelly, like beasts, and
cried, in their bondage, to God for deliverance ; and God did
hear, and did deliver them.
C. How did he do it ?
M. One of the Hebrew women to keep her new-born son
from being murdered, made a basket of bulrushes, and daubed
542 THE mother's catechism.
it with slime and pitch, and put the child into it, and put it
into the flags hy the river's brink j (when she had hid it three
months, and could hide it no longer ;) and his sister stood afar
off to see what would become of him. And God so ordered it
that the king's daughter came that way with her maids to wash
herself in the river, and they saw the basket, and opened it, and
found a comely child, and he wept. The king's daughter said,
" This is one of the Hebrews' children :" the child's sister said,
" Shall I go and call a nurse of the Hebrew women to nurse it
for thee ? And she said. Go." So his sister ran and called
his own mother; and so she nursed her own child for king
Pharaoh's daughter, and she called his name Moses, and he
was bred up as her son ; and when he was a man, God
made him the captain and deliverer of the Hebrews called
Israelites.
C. How did he deliver them?
M. God stirred him up; and one day, when he saw an
Egyptian abuse an Israelite, he killed the Egyptian, and saved
the Israelite. The next day two of the Israelites were striving,
and Moses said to him that did the wrong, " Why strikest thou
thy fellow ? " And it being a bad man, he said to Moses, " Who
made thee a prince and a judge over us ? Wilt thou kill me as
thou didst the Egyptian ? " Thus bad men cannot endure to be
reproved. And when Moses heard that it was known, he was
fain to fly out of the land, for fear of Pharaoh and the Egyptians,
till that king died. And Moses married a daughter of Jethro,
priest of Midian. And when he kept his father-in-law's flock
in the wilderness, an angel of God appeared to him in a flame
of fire, in a bush, which burned and was not consumed ; and
God by the angel spake to him out of the fire, and said, " I am
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; I have seen the afflic-
tion of my people in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason
of their task-masters, and am come to deliver them, and to
bring them out of Egypt into a good land which I promised
Abraham. And I will send thee to Pharaoh that thou mayest
bring them out." And Moses said, " Who am f, that I should
go to king Pharaoh, and bring them out ? " But God charged
him to go and tell the Hebrews, and tell the king, that the
Lord God had sent him to bid them come and sacrifice to him
in that wilderness. And God told him, " I am sure that Pharaoh
will not let them go ; but I will smite Egypt with all my won-
ders, and then he will let them go." And Moses said, " They
THE mother's catechism. 543
will not believe me, that God appeared to me." And God said,
" Cast down the rod that is in thy hand ; " and he did, and it
became a serpent ; and Moses was afraid of it. And God said,
'' Take it by the tail ; " and he did, and it became a rod again.
And God said, " Put thy hand in thy bosom," and he did ; and
when he took it out it was all leprous. And God said, *' Put
thy hand in thy bosom again ; " and he did, and it was whole
as before. This was to encourage Moses to trust God's power
and word, and that he might do the same, and other miracles,-
before the people, to make them believe. But Moses made
excuses, and said he was slow of speech, and prayed God to
send some one else. And God reproved him, and said, " Aaron
thy brother can speak well, and he shall be thy mouth, and thou
shalt speak from God to him, and take this rod in thy hand,
and with it thou shalt do signs (or wonders)." So Moses took
his wife and children, and the rod of God, and went back into
Egypt; for they were all dead that sought his life. And Moses
told his brother Aaron all that God had said ; and Moses and
Aaron called all the elders of Israel together, and told them ;
and they believed, and were glad that God would deliver them.
C. But what said the king to them ?
M. Moses and Aaron went to king Pharaoh, and said, " Thus
saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they
may hold a feast to me in the wilderness." And the king said,
" Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go ?
I know not the Lord, neither will I let them go."
C. Why would he not let them go?
M. Because they were his servants, and did his work, as our
horses and oxen do for us. And the king reviled Moses and
Aaron for hindering the people from their work, and bid the
taskmasters lay more burdens and work upon them; and
whereas before they had straw given them to burn their brick
with, he bid them gather stubble themselves, and they should
make all their task of brick, and have no straw ; for they talked
of going into the wilderness to serve God, because they were
idle. And now their case was far worse than before ; for they
were beaten when they could not make as much brick as they
did before. And when the people complained to the king that
they were beaten for not making brick without straw, the king
said, " Ye are idle, ye are idle, and therefore talk of going to
serve God ; you shall have no straw, and yet have none of your
task abated." And when the people found themselves in so bad
544 THE mother's catechism.
a case, they were impatient with Moses and Aaron, and laid the
fault on them, as making the king abhor them. And Moses
complained to God for sending him to make the people more
miserable than before. But thus doth God often use to make
his servants* suiferings greater^ when he is about to deliver
them.
C. Why doth he so ?
M. To humble them, and try their faith and patience, and
to try their enemies 3 and to show his power the more in their
deliverance.
C. And what did they do next?
M. Then God said to Moses, " Now you shall see what I
will do ; '' and bid him go tell the Israelites, that the Lord doth
promise to deliver them. But the anguish of their hearts was
so great, that they would not hear Moses and Aaron.
C. What did they then?
M. Then God bid Moses go again to Pharaoh the king, and
say, " Let my people go ; " and if he ask for a sign, cast down
thy rod, and it shall become a serpent. And they did so ; and
the king had some enchanters, or witches, about him, and they
did so too, and their rods turned into serpents ; and therefore
the king refused to obey God and let the people go.
C. By what power did the witches do this?
M. By the devil's power, which God suffered, to show his
own the more ; for when they were all turned to serpents, Moses
and Aaron's rod devoured all theirs.
C. And what did they after this?
M. The first plague was this : God bid Moses put forth his
rod, that was turned to a serpent, over the river, in the sight of
the kingj and the waters were turned to blood, and the fish died
and stunk; and their ponds were turned to blood, and the
people had no water. Yet the king's heart was hardened, be-
cause his conjurers did the same; God suffering it to make his
power yet more known.
The second plague was this : God bid Moses stretch forth
his rod over the waters, and it should fill the land with frogs;
and he did so, and the frogs swarmed over the land, and in the
king's house and bed-chamber; and the conjurers did the like.
Then the king called Moses and Aaron, and said, " Entreat the
Lord to take away the frogs, and I will let the people go." So
Moses prayed, and God heard them, and tlie frogs died ; but
the dead heaps made the land to stink. And when the king
THE mother's catechism. 545
saw that he was delivered of them, his heart was hardened
again.
Then God sent the third jdague : Aaron stretched forth his
rod in the dust of the land, and the dust turned all to lice,
which swarmed over all the land : and the conjurers tried to do
the same, but could not j and therefore told the king, " This is
the finger of God." And yet his heart was hardened, and he
would not let them go.
Then God sent a fourth plague, even such swarms of flies as
destroyed all the fruit of the land. But in Goshen, where the
Hebrews dwelt, there were none. Then the king called Moses,
and bid them go and sacrifice to God in Egypt. But Moses
said, " Nay ; but they would go out three days' journey," The
king bid them go, so they would not go far off. So they prayed
to God, and God took away all the flies. But the king's heart
was hardened still ; and God sent the fifth plague, which was
a great murrain upon the cattle, that all the horses, oxen, and
sheep, &c., of the Egyptians died 5 but not one of the Israelites*
cattle died. And yet the king would not let them go.
Then God sent the sixth plague : Moses and Aaron took a
handful of ashes before the king, and sprinkled it in the air,
and it turned to boils upon men and beasts, even on the con-
jurers themselves. And yet the king would not let them go.
Then God sent the seventh plague : Moses told the king,
" To-morrow I will send hail that will kill all the cattle that
are not fetched home out of the field.'* And those Egyptians
that believed God fetched home their cattle ; and the rest were
killed with hail, fire, lightning, and thunder. But there was
none in Goshen, among the Israelites. Then the king repented,
and said, " I and my people have sinned, and the Lord is righte-
ous, I will let you go : pray God to cease the hail and thunder.*'
But when the thunder ceased, his heart was hardened again,
and he would not let them go.
Then God sent the eighth plague : they told Pharaoh, that
locusts, or caterpillars, should so swarm as to darken the land,
and eat up every green thing that was left. Then the Egyptians
petitioned the king to let the Hebrews go, before all the land
was destroyed. And the king consented that the men should
go, but not their wives and children ; but they would go all or
none. And then he reviled them, as if they made religion a
cloak for rebellion to be gone. But God sent the locusts, and
VOL, XVIII. N N
546 THE mother's catechism.
they eat up all that was green in the land. Then the king
called Moses and Aaron, and said, " J have sinned; pray God
to deliver me this once ; " and they did ; and God sent a wind
that carried away all the locusts. Yet the king's heart was
hardened, and God sent the ninth plague, and darkness came
upon all the land, that for three days they could not see or stir.
Then the king bid them go, with children and all, so they
would leave their cattle behind (for death or darkness was not
in Goshen) ; but they would not leave a hoof behind. Then
Pharaoh bid Moses come near him no more, for if he came
again he should die. And Moses said, " Content, 1 will see
thy face no more." Then God said to Moses, " I will send but
one plague more, and then they will thrust you out. Therefore
let all the people borrow silver, and gold, and jewels, of their
neighbours, and take them with them.''
C. But was not that stealing ?
M. Yes, if God had not bid them ; but all things are God's,
and he may give them to whom he will.
C. And what was this last plague ?
M. About midnight, God killed the eldest sons in all the
houses of Egypt, even the king's and all. And there was a
great cry all over the land, and they came and entreated the
Israelites to be gone. And this was the night of their deli-
verance, which God commanded them to keep in remembrance
to all generations.
C. How were they to keep it in remembrance ?
M. By a feast and sacrament, which God appointed. For
God, by Moses, bid all the Israelites make ready that night, and
every house was to kill a lamb, and with hyssop strike the blood
on the door posts without, and to eat the flesh roasted with
unleavened bread and bitter herbs ; they must eat it girded
and shod, with their staves in their hands, in haste, as ready
to be gone. And every door that had this blood on, God's
angel passed by, that night, when he killed all the first-born of
Egypt. And that all generations should keep this great deli-
verance in remembrance, God commanded them to do this
again in the same manner once a year on that same day, for
ever.
C. And how and whither did they go ?
M. When every house had one dead, the king and people
thrust them out, and they lent them their jewels. And they
THE mother's catechism. 547
carried dough unleavened, and all their cattle : six hundred
thousand men went, besides children, and a mixed multitude.
God had before told Abraham that his seed should sojourn four
hundred and thirty years, and then he would give them deli-
verance, and the land of Canaan ; and the very day when the
four hundred and thirty years were accomplished, God brought
them out. And they had a great wilderness to go through, and
the Red Sea between them and it, before they could come to
the promised land.
C. How, then, did they get over ?
M. God was resolved to make this deliverance so great, that
they and their children should never forget it : and though there
was a nearer way than over the sea, God would not let them
go that way. But his angel caused a pillar of fire by night,
and of cloud by day, to go before them all the way, to
show them which way they should go. And when they were
gone, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he repented that he
let them go from serving him : and he made ready his chariots
and armies, and followed after them, and came near them ; so
that the sea was before them, and the king and his army at their
backs, to kill them.
C. What did they do then ?
M. This new danger made the Israelites again, in fear and un-
belief, to cry out against Moses and Aaron for bringing them out
to die in the wilderness, but God did it to show his power. For
Moses cried to the Lord, and the angel of God that went before
Israel, removed, and went behind them, and was a dark cloud
between them and Pharaoh, so that he could not see them.
And God bid Moses hold his rod over the sea, and the sea di-
vided to the right hand and to the left, and was as a wall of
water on either side, and dry ground between ; and God made
the Israelites go through it on foot : and Pharaoh's heart was
hardened, and he followed them into the sea ; and the angel took
off their chariot wheels and stopped them, and then they would
have fled back, but could not : for as soon as the Israelites were
over, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and it came
to its place, and drowned the king and all his army, so that one
man of them did not eseape.
C. Sure the people would never forget this, nor displease or
distrust such a God any more.
M. They presently made a psalm of praise to God ; but how
they behaved themselves in the wilderness I shall tell you next.
N N 2
548 THE mother's catechism.
The Tenth Lesson, — Israel's Travels in the Wilderness,
C. What did Moses with them when they were got through
the sea?
M. For all the power of God that they had seen, Moses could
not quiet the people, nor get them to trust God in any danger,
want, or difficulty. And God purposely tried them whether they
could trust him.
C. How did he try them ?
M, First when they came into the wilderness, they went three
days and found no water ; and when they found water at Marah,
it was bitter, and then they murmured again against Moses, and
God showed him a tree, which he cast into the water, and it
made the water sweet to drink.
C. How were they next tried ?
M. When they had no meat in the wilderness, and they
murmured again against Moses, and wished they had died in
Egypt, where they had meat enough. And God said to Moses,
I will rain bread from heaven for them, and they shall go out
and gather it every day ; but on the sixth day they shall gather
for two days, and none shall go out to gather on the Sabbath-
day. And God's glory appeared to reprove them for their
murmuring ; and God said at evening, you shall eat flesh, and
in the morning you shall be filled with bread, that you may
know that I am the Lord. So at evening abundance of quails
fell among them, and they had flesh enough : and in the morn-
ing a dew fell and left a little round thing behind it like corian-
der seed, called manna. And this God gave them for bread :
but he forbade them to keep it till morning, that they might
receive it every day from God. But some would needs try, and
that which they kept till morning had worms, and stunk. And
when God bid them gather enough for two days before the Sab-
bath, itjdid not stink on the Sabbath-day. And some of them
did not obey God, but went out to gather manna on the Sabbath-
day, but they found none, and God reproved them. This bread
God fed them with in the wilderness forty years : the taste of it
was like wafers made with honey.
C. What was their next trial ?
M. They came to another place where was no water, and
they murmured against Moses for bringing them thither to kill
them with thirst: and Moses was too much troubled himself at
their murmurings, and said to God, What shall 1 do with this
THE mother's catechism. 549
people, they are ready to stone me? And God was displeased
with them, and with Moses himself, for trusting him no better,
and showing it by his impatience and complaint : and God bid
him go, and with his rod strike the rock of Mount Horeb before
the people : and he did, and water flowed out enough for them
all.
C. And what was their next trial ?
M. Next a people, called Amalek, came and fought against
them ; and Moses sent Joshua and his men to fight with them.
And Moses stood on the hill with the rod of God in his hand,
and (he being above fourscore years old) when his hands fell
down Amalek prevailed, and while his hands held up Israel pre-
vailed : and Aaron and Hur set him a stone to sit on, and they
two held up his hands till sunset, and so Amalek was over-
thrown by Joshua.
C. What did they next?
M, Next Moses's father-in-law, Jethro, priest of Midian,
came to see him, and Moses told him all that God had done ;
and he saw how Moses was overwhelmed with judging all the
people alone, and he advised him to choose able men, such as
fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and set them over
thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tens, to judge the
smaller matters, while Moses inquired of God, and told them
his laws, and judged of greater matters-, (if God commanded
this,) and so Moses did,
C. And what did they next?
M. Next God, by Moses, called all the people, to know
whether they would make a covenant with God to obey him for
ever, and he would be their God, and take them for his peculiar
people above all others on earth. And the people consented,
and God and they made a solemn covenant. And when they
had promised to obey him, God called Moses up to Mount Sinai,
and came, by his angel, in fire and thunder, and the mountain
trembled and smoked, and God forbade the people to come near
it, but they trembled at the sight and noise : and there God
spake to Moses the ten commandments, and then spake to him
many other particular laws by which he would rule the people
of Israel, which were presently written down. And the people
saw as it were the glory of God, and promised to be obedient to
all his laws ; and so became a settled commonwealth, of which
God himself was the lawgiver, and chose him that should be
chief commander under him, and entailed the priesthood on
550 THE mother's catechism.
Aaron and his line, and the tribe of Levi. And the Lord kept
Moses forty days in the mount, and wrote in two tables of stone
the ten commandments.
C. What were these ten commandments }
M. I will tell you the rest of the history first, and then I will
tell you what they are afterward.
C. Sure the people durst not break God's law after such a
terrible sight as all this ?
M. No : they did not forbear sinning so long as Moses was
in the mount with God : because he stayed forty days, they said
we know not what is become of him. And they brought gold
to Aaron, and compelled him to make an idol of it in the shape
of a calf, and called that their God that brought them out of
Egypt, and worshipped it : so bad is man, if God leave him to
himself.
C. What became of them for this ?
M. God was offended, and would have destroyed them all
presently, but that IMoses prayed for them. And when Moses
came down and saw their sin, his anger kindled, and he cast
down the tables of stone that God had written, and brake them;
and he chid Aaron, and he caused three thousand of the people
to be presently killed : and God plagued the people for this
golden calf; and Moses burned it, and cast the dust on the
water, and made them drink it. And God made the two tables
to be written out anew.
C. And what did they next ?
M. Moses desired to see God, and God hid him in a rock while
he showed him a glimpse of his glory at his back parts ; and as
he past by, proclaimed his name by which he would be known
to all.
C. What was that ?
M. " The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-
suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children, and upon the children's children,
unto the third and to the fourth generation."
C. What did they next ?
M. Next God taught them to make a tabernacle, like a tent,
which they could carry about, to be as a temple, a place where
God would still be sought : and it was made with great art
and cost ; and a cloud stood before it ; and there God was sought
THE MOTHER*S CATECHISM. 551
by Moses and the priest, and there he told them his mind,
and answered them. And in an ark in that tabernacle God
made them keep the two tables of stone that were the ten com-
mandments, and a pot of the manna with which God fed them,
and Moses' rod with which he did his miracles, that their
children after them might see that all those things were true.
C. What did they next ?
M. When God, by Moses, had delivered them all his laws, a
wilderness life was hard ; and the people complained, and God
was offended, and sent a fire that burnt up some of them, till
Moses prayed.
But after this they grew weary of eating manna, having no
other meat, and their appetite longed for flesh, or other meat ;
and they again murmured against Moses : and Moses grew im-
patient of their murmurings, and prayed God to set some other
over them, and not leave all this burden upon him ; and God
bid Moses call threescore and ten of the elders, that had been
officers over the people, and bring them to the door of the ta-
bernacle, and there God spake to Moses, and took of the spirit
(of power) which was on Moses, and put on them, and so made
them partners with Moses in the government. And then God
gave the people flesh, but with his wrath, because they lusted,
and were not content with his provision.
C. What was it he gave them ?
M. He told them they should have flesh a whole month toge-
ther, till they loathed it : and Moses said, they are six hundred
thousand men, and whence shall they have flesh ? And God
said, is my hand shortened ? And God made a wind from the
sea bring quails, that fell all about them, and a day's journey
round them, and they lay a yard thick upon the ground, and the
people gathered them for meat. But while the flesh was in their
mouths, God sent a plague among them, which killed many of the
murmurers.
C. What did they next ?
M. Moses married an Ethiopian woman (a black), perhaps
to typify that the God of the Israelites would also be the God
of other nations, and call th^m. And Miriam, Moses' sister,
and Aaron his brother, murmured, and spake against him for
it : and God was offended, and struck Miriam with a leprosy,
but Moses prayed, and God restored her in seven days.
C. What did they after this ?
M. When they drew towards the land of Canaan, which God
552
had promised to give them, Moses chose twelve men out of the
twelve tribes, to go as spies unknown, and see what a land it
was, and to bring the people word. So they were forty days
searching the land, and when they returned, ten of them dis-
couraged all the people, and told them it was a good land, but
the cities were walled, and the people many and strong, and
giants among them, and they should never be able to overcome
them. But two of them, Caleb and Joshua, brought of the
grapes, and told them it was an excellent land, and the people
of it would be but as bread to them, and bid them fear not God
would deliver them into their hands. But the people believed
the other ten, before these two, and were frightened, and mu-
tinied more than ever, even against God himself, for bringing
them, and their wives, and children to be destroyed by the sword;
and wished they had died in Egypt ; and they consulted of
making them a captain to go back to Egypt ; and when Caleb
and Joshua would have encouraged them, they cried out, " Stone
them." And in this rebellion the glory of God appeared at the
tabernacle ; and God said, " How long will this people provoke
me, and not believe me for all the signs that 1 have done among
them ?" and God was about to destroy them all with the plague,
had not Moses stopped it by earnest prayer. But God decreed
that never one of them should enter into that land, save Caleb
and Joshua, and their children that were but twenty years
old, but that they should all die in the wilderness for their un-
belief, and murmuring ; yea, even Moses and Aaron : but their
children should possess it.
And the ten men that had searched the land, and disheart-
ened the people, all died presently of the plague.
C. What did the people then ?
M. When they heard God's sentence, that all above twenty
years old should wander forty years in the wilderness, and there
die, then they mourned, and repented of their mutiny, when it
was too late, and then they would needs go suddenly, and fight
to get the land. But Moses forbade them, and told them, now
God was against their going, and if they went they should be
overthrown ; but they obeyed not God (for they would go when
God forbade them), and they were beaten by their enemies.
C. What did they then ?
M. Worse and worse : then Korah a Levite, with Dathan,
and Abiram, two great men, got two hundred and fifty chief
men to join with them; and they drew the people into rebellion
THE mother's catechism. 553
against Moses and Aaron, and accused them of deceiving and
destroying the people ; and said they took too much upon
them for Moses to make himself their prince, and Aaron priest,
when all the congregation were God's people, as well as they :
and said they promised them a good land, and performed no-
thing, hut brought them to perish in the wilderness; and would
put out the people's eyes. When Moses heard this, and saw
the rebellion, he bid Kofah, and his Levites, come and offer in-
cense to God, and Aaron should do so too, and God would show
which of them he had chosen.
Then God offered to destroy them all, but Moses prayed to
him to spare the people : then God sent him to tell Dathan
and Abiram what God would do to them, and to charge all the
people to get far enough from them, unless tliey would die with
them : and as soon as Moses had spoken, the ground opened,
and swallowed up these leaders, and their wives and children,
and all that belonged to them 3 and then the earth closed up
again. And the people ran away at their cry, lest the earth
should also swallow up them. And the two hundred and fifty
that were to offer incense were all burnt up as they offered, by
a fire from the Lord.
C. Sure they would take warning after all this ?
M. No, the next day all the congregations got together against
Moses, and said, you have killed the people of the Lord. Then
God again offered to kill them all, and sent a plague, but Moses
prayed to God and stopped it: but the plague first killed fourteen
thousand and seven hundred rebels.
C. What a wicked people was this; had God no better peo-
ple in the world than these ?
M. No ; all the rest of the nations were worse : by them we
may see what a blind mind, and naughty heart, is in us and all
men, till God's grace sanctify us : they judged by their own
blind reason, and their selfish interest, as most men do.
C. Did this quiet them, and make them obedient?
M. When they saw that there was no remedy, they cried out
' We all die, we perish ; God kills us all that come near the ta-
bernacle ;' instead of bewailing their own sin.
And to convince the murmurers, whom God had chosen to rule
them, God bade Moses call twelve chief men of the twelve tribes,
and bade every man bring a rod (or wand) and lay them all in the
tabernacle, and Aaron's rod had his name written on it : and
in the morning they found that Aaron's rod (and no other) did
654 THE mother's catechism.
spring forth with buds, and blossoms, and almonds ; to show
them whom God did choose.
C. Were they quiet after this ?
M. Then God made them turn back into the wilderness, and
they came again to a place that had no water ; and they again
murmured against Moses and Aaron, as promise-breakers, and
said they had brought them to a place that had neither seed,
fruit, nor water; and wished they had been killed with the rebels,
or died in Egypt : so hard is it to be patient in suffering, and
to trust God when no outward help is seen.
Then God bade Moses strike the rock as formerly, and plenty
of water gushed out. But Moses and Aaron did not there ho-
nour God, by so strong a faith as they should have done ; for
Gpd told them that they should die in the wilderness 3 and Aaron
died shortly after.
C. What did they then ?
M. The Edomites would not let them pass through their
country, so that they were fain to go a great way about. And
then some Canaanites fought with them ; but God gave Israel
the victory, and they destroyed king Arad, and his cities.
But again, they were impatient with the long way, and having
so many years no bread but manna, and they murmured against
Moses for bringing them out of Egypt, to die by famine, in a
wilderness. Then God sent fiery serpents among them, that
stung many of them to death ; and then they repented and
begged for mercy : and God bade Moses make the likeness of a
serpent in brass, and set it upon a pole ; and every one that was
stung was cured, when he looked upon the brazen serpent, which
was a type of Christ.
C. What did they next ?
M. When they had long travelled, Sihon, king of the Amo-
rites in Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, would not let them
go through their country, but fought with them ; and God de-
livered them and their cities to the Israelites, and they killed
them, and possessed their land : and now they had some place
besides a wilderness to dwell in : but this was in the way to the
promised land, the river Jordan being between it and them.
C. What did they next ?
M. The land of Moab was near them, and the king called
Balak, was afraid of the Israelites; and there was a man called
Balaam, not far off, that could prophesy, and king Balak sent
some lords to him to entreat him to come and curse the
THE mother's catechism. 555
Israelites, that he might hope to overcome them ; and he
would give him great rewards. Balaam bid them stay all
night, and in the morning he would answer them. And in the
night God charged Balaam not to go with them, nor curse
Israel, for God would bless them. So Balaam gave them their '
answer, and sent them away. But king Balak sent other greater
men, and offered him greater things if he would come. He
told them, that if they would give him a house full of silver
and gold, he could not go beyond the word of the Lord ; but
bid them stay till morning for their answer. And in the night
God bid him go with them, but be sure to say nothing but what
God put into his mouth ; so he went with them. But because
his heart was to have got the money and honour by cursing
Israel, if God would suffer him, therefore God sent an angel
that stood with a sword in his way : his ass saw the angel, and
Balaam did not 5 and the ass went out of the way to pass by
the angel, and Balaam beat his ass : then the angel stood in a
narrower way between two walls, and the ass hurt his foot up
to the wall, to go by the angel ; and Balaam beat the ass again.
Then the angel stood in so narrow a way that there was no
passage by ; and then the ass lay down, and Balaam beat him
again, and God made the ass to speak, and reprove Balaam for
striking him. And God opened Balaam's eyes to see the angel,
and when the angel reproved him, he offered to turn back
again ; but God bid him go on, but be sure to say but what he
bid him. And when he was come, king Balak met him, and told
him his desire, and took him to a high hill, that he might see
Israel and curse them. And Balaam caused seven altars to be
there built, and offered sacrifice on every one, to hear what God
would bid him say. And God made him pronounce a blessing
on Israel, instead of a curse. And king Balak was angry with
him for blessing theiji that he called him to curse. And he
brought him to another hill, and built seven altars also there,
and sacrificed ; and God made him bless them from thence yet
more. And king Balak took him to another hill, and there
they built seven altars, and sacrificed ; but there God made
Balaam prophesy of all the prosperity of Israel, and bless them
more. And the king was in a rage and bid him be gone 5 God
had kept him from honour.
C. What did the people after this?
M. They sinned again : when they saw the women of Moab,
they began to commit whoredom with them ; and these women
tempted them to come to the service of their idols, or false
556 THE mother's catechism.
gods J and so the Israelites were tempted to do as they saw the
idolaters do : and God was offended, and commanded to kill
them : and Phinehas, the priest's son, killed one man and
woman ; and the plague ceased when it had killed four-and-
twenty thousand. Yea, God made Moses make war against
the Midianites, whose women had tempted the people to
whoredom and idolatry ; and they killed five of their kings, and
burnt their cities, and took all that they had, and brought away
the women and children. And Moses made them kill all the
male children, and every woman that had lain with a man, and
so revenge that sin.
C. What else was done by them ?
M. God made Moses to set Joshua to be chief ruler in his
place when he was dead ; and gave commandment that all the
Canaanites, whose land God would give Israel, should be killed ;
because they had been idolaters, and committed all manner of
wickedness, which God would revenge, and not forgive.
C. And what came next ?
M. Last of all, Moses repeated God's laws, and left them
written for the people, and gave to two tribes and a half their
inheritance in the land that he had taken on that side Jordan ;
and God called him up to mount Nebo, to die, at six-score years
old, and God buried him ; and Joshua was to bring them over
Jordan, into the rest of the promised land.
The Eleventh Lesson, — Joshua's Conquest of Canaan,
C. What did God do with them when Moses was dead ?
M. God made Joshua their captain, and charged him to be
courageous, and obey his law, and promised to be with him.
Jericho being the first city that Joshua was to take, he sent
spies to search it : and a woman called Rahab, believing that
God would give it them, hid them ; and she and all her friends
with her were therefore spared. But they must first pass over
the river Jordan, where God confirmed their faith by a miracle,
like that at the Red Sea : as soon as the priests that bare the
ark touched the waters, they divided, and stood on an heap, till
the Israelites were all past over on dry ground. And Joshua
set up twelve great stones, that their posterity might believe it.
C. And how did they take Jericho ?
M, First, Joshua and all the people renewed their covenant
with God, and circumcised all the males ; (for they had not
been circumcised in the wilderness, of forty years, that were
born there j) and celebrated the passover, and then they had
THE mother's catechism. 557
manna no more, but eat of the corn of the land. And God
sent an angel to Joshua, to bid him go round about the city
six days with the ark, by seven priests, and blow trumpets made
of rams' horns ; and the 'seventh day go seven times, and the
walls should fall down : and so they did. And God made them
kill all the people, save Rahab and her company, and burn al
their goods, save the gold, silver, and brass, for God's treasure ;
and they did so.
But one man, called Achan, was covetous ; and when he saw
a wedge of gold, and a rich garment, he stole and hid them,
which cost them dear.
C. Why, what came of it ?
M. They went next to take a city called Ai, but God left
them, and the men of Ai beat them ; and then their hearts were
down, and Joshua lamented, and prayed to God ; and God
told him there was sin among them, and he would be with
them no more till the sinner were destroyed. So Joshua
called them together, and cast lots, and the lot found out
Achan ; and he confessed it, and he and his sons and daughters,
his cattle, the stolen gold and silver, and all that he had, they
burnt, when they had stoned him ; and so God's wrath was
turned away.
C. This seemed but a little fault ?
M. It is no little fault to break the law of God wilfully.
Afterward they conquered Ai. But the Gibeonites saved them-
selves by craft : they sent ambassadors to Joshua with old shoes
and clothes, who told him they dwelt in so far a country, that
their clothes were worn out in coming to him, and that they
came to make a league with him ; so Joshua believed them,
and swore a league with them. And when he knew that they
were Canaanites that had deceived him, he durst not break his
oath, but made them servants. And after this many kings, for
fear, joined together, and fought against Joshua and Gibeon,
and Joshua overcame them ; and God rained great hailstones
on them, and killed many. And Joshua prayed that the sun
might not go down till they had been avenged on their
enemies ; and so the sun and moon (or the light at least) staid
a whole day extraordinary : and Joshua killed the five kings,
and took many cities. Then many other kings joined to fight
against Israel (for most great cities had their kings in those
times), and God gave them all, and their cities and lands, into
Joshua's hands 5 and then Joshua divided the land among
558
them, to every tribe their part by lot. And at Shiloh they set
up God's tabernacle, where they were to inquire of his will :
but much of the promised land was much unconquered. And
Joshua rehearsed to the people all God's mercies, and exhorted
them to obey his laws, and so died at an hundred-and-ten years
old. And Israel obeyed God, and prospered, all the days of
Joshua, and while the elders lived, that with Joshua had seen
the wonders of God.
The Twelfth Lesson, — The History of the Judges after Joshua,
C. What did they when Joshua was dead ?
M. God sent them to conquer and possess the rest of the
land, but commanded them to drive out all the Canaanites,
and other old inhabitants, and make no league with them, lest
they should draw Israel to worship their false gods, and learn
their wicked customs. But the Israelites did not obey God, but
were contented to make most of the Canaanites tributaries to
them, and suffered them to dwell among them, because they
met with difficulties in conquering them. For this, God was
offended, and sent an angel to tell them that these Canaanites
that dwelt among them, should henceforth be thorns in their
sides, and a tempting snare to them. And so it proved.
C. Why, what came of it ?
M. When the old men were dead, another generation sprung
up, that knew not the Lord, nor the wonders that he had done
for Israel. And they were tempted by the Canaanites to
worship their idols, and forsake the Lord ; and God forsook
them, and gave the Canaanites power against them, to over-
come them, and make them servants. But when affliction made
them repent, then God sent a judge to deliver them. And
when the judge was dead, they turned to idolatry and sin again.
C. Who were these judges ?
M. First God gave the king of Mesopotamia a victory over
the Israelites, and they were eight years his servants. Then
thev cried to God, and he sent Othniel, Caleb's brother's son, to
be their captain ; and he delivered them, and they had quietness
forty years. Then they fell to sin again, and God gave them
up to Eglon, king of Moab, eighteen years. Then they cried
to God for help, and he raised up one Ehud, who took on him
to bring the king a present, and stabbed him, and escaped, and
raised the Israelites in arms, and killed ten thousand Moabites j
and after this they were quiet fourscore years. And after him
THE mother's catechism. 559
rose up Shamgar, and slew many of the Philistines that had
afflicted them. When Ehud was dead they fell to sin again ;
and God gave them to Jabin, king of Hazor, who oppressed
them twenty years. Then Deborah, a woman prophetess, judged
them, and she called Barak to be their captain : and she and
Barak conquered Sisera's general ; and he fled and hid himself
in the tent of Jael a woman, who spake him fair, and laid him
to sleep, and then struck a nail in his head, and killed him.
Then they were quiet forty years.
But they turned to sin again, and God gave them up to the
Midianites and Amalekites, that destroyed their fields, and took
their cattle : then they cried to God again, and God sent first
a prophet to reprove them, and next an angel to deliver them ;
and the angel appeared to Gideon, and made him captain : but
Gideon was afraid, till God wrought a miracle to encourage
him ; and God gave him a victory with a very few men. The
Midianites fled, and killed one another; and Oreb and Zeeb, two
of their J princes, were slain, and an hundred-and-twenty thou-
sand, and Zeba and Zalmunna, tHeir kings. Then they had rest
forty years. But when Gideon was dead, they worshipped the
idol Baal again.
C. Who ruled them next ?
M. Gideon had threescore-and-ten sons, by several wives,
and one (Abimelek) by a concubine. This one son enticed the
men of the city of Shechem to make him their king; and he
went and killed all his brethren, except Jotham, who escaped.
But God revenged the murder, and the men of Shechem turned
against him, and one Gaal led them, and he destroyed them
that made him king, and their city : and when he attempted to
burn them that fled to a tower at Thebez, a woman cast down
a piece of a millstone on his head ; and when he saw he must
die, he made his armour-bearer kill him.
After him Tola judged Israel twenty-and-three years. After
him Jair twenty- two years. But the Israelites forsook God,
and served the idol gods of all the countries about them. And
God gave the Philistines and Ammonites power to oppress part
of them eighteen years. Then they cried to God for help,
and God reproved them for their sin, and threatened to de-
liver them no more, and bid them go cry to their idols to help
them. But they confessed their sins, and put away their idols,
and begged God this once to save them : and God raised
560 THE mother's catechism.
lip Jephtha, and he was their captain, to fight against the
king of Ammon, and had the victory. But a rash vow
troubled him.
C. What was that >
M. He vowed to God, if he would give him the victory, that
he would offer as a sacrifice the first thing that met him out of
his house ; and his daughter came with joy to meet him, which
grieved him; but by her consent he kept his vow. And a
greater mischief followed than this : when the men of Ephraim
saw that Jephtha had conquered the Ammonites, they mutinied
against him in pride, because he had not called them with him,
insomuch that it came to a war, and forty-two thousand
Ephraimites were killed.
C. What came next ?
M. When Jephtha had ruled six years, he died. Then
Ibzan ruled seven years, and died. Then Elon ruled ten years,
and died. Then Abdon ruled eight years, and died. Then
Israel fell to sin again, and God gave the Philistines power over
them.
C. How were they delivered then ?
M. Then there was a man named Manoah, and his wife was
barren; and God sent an angel to promise her a son that should
deliver Israel. The Angel appeared twice to them ; and when
they sacrificed, he went up from them in the flame : so God
gave them a son called Sampson, who had the strength of many
men ; and he judged Israel twenty years, and slew many of the
Philistines, but at last was betrayed into their hands by an har-
lot that he fell in love with : and they took him and put out
his eyes ; and at one of their great meetings they sent for him
to make sport with him. But he prayed to God for strength,
and pulled down two great pillars of the house, near which they
set him, and the house fell and killed their lords, and more peo-
ple with him than he had killed in his life.
C. Who judged them next ?
M. They were long after this without any judge, but not
without sin and punishment ; for a Levite and his wife lodging
in Gibeah, a city of Benjamin, some wicked men abused his
wife to death : and he cut her body into twelve pieces, and sent
them to all the tribes of Israel, to summon them to come and
revenge her death ; and the foolish Benjamites revenged the
malefactors, and the rest of the tribes went to war against
THE mother's catechism. 561
them, in which were slain forty thousand Israelites, and twenty-
five thousand Benjamites, and the city burnt : such is the fruit
of sin.
C. Who judged them after this ?
M. They had long no king or judge, but were in much sub-
jection to the Philistines ; but they had priests, that in Shiloh
waited at the tabernacle and sacrificed, and inquired for them
of God. And Eli being then chief priest, he had two sons, called
Hophni and Phinehas, priests under him, that were very wicked
men, and oppressed and robbed the sacrifices, and lay with the
women that assembled at the tabernacle door, so that God's
worship grew contemptible, and the priests and offerings were
loathed by the people : and Eli their father reproved his sons,
but did not punish them as God required ; and God was greatly
displeased with him and them. And there was a woman named
Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, that had no child, and earnestly
begged for a child of God, and vowed to dedicate him to God.
So God gave her a son called Samuel ; and she dedicated him
to serve God at the tabernacle : and God sent a prophet to old
Eli to denounce God's judgment against his sons, and against
him for suffering them. And while Samuel was yet but a youth,
God in a vision called to him by his name, and he thought it
had been Eli, and went to him ; and when he told him that he
called him not, he lay down again ; and God called him again ;
and he went to Eli, and said, " Thou didst call me :" then Eli
perceived that it was a vision, and bid him next say, " Speak,
Lord, for thy servant heareth." Then God told Samuel of all
the punishment he would bring on Eli and his sons, and how
he would cast out his house. And Samuel was loth to tell it
to Eli till he urged him. Then Eli said, " It is the Lord, let
him do what seemeth him good." And shortly after God
destroyed them as he had threatened.
C. How did he destroy them ?
M. The Philistines fought against Israel, and killed at first
four thousand of them. Then the Israelites fetched God's ark
from Shiloh, and took it with them when they went to fight,
thinking that God would deliver them for his ark's sake ; like
foolish people now, that think God will vsave wicked men for the
outside of religion : but the Philistines killed thirty thousand
of them, and also took the ark of God ; and the two wicked
priests, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed. And when old Eli
VOL. XVIII. O O
562 THE mother's catechism.
heard all this, especially that the ark was taken, he fell oif his
seat with grief, and broke his neck, and died at ninety-eight
years old, when he had judged Israel forty years.
C. And what became of the ark after this ?
M. The Philistines carried it away in triumph, and set it up
by their idol called Dagon (which was an image). But in the
morning Dagon was fallen on his face before the ark : then they
set up their image in its place again ; but the next morning
they found him fallen again, and the head and hands broken off.
And God smote the men of that city with a sore disease j and
they would keep the ark no longer, but sent it away to another
city. Then God struck the men of that city also with the same
disease, called the emerods ; then that city sent it away to ano-
ther city; but that city was afraid, and durst not keep it; and
when it had been seven months, they advised with their wizards
what to do with it; and they bid them send it home again to
Israel, but send it not empty, but gold cast into the shape of
the emerods and mice that afflicted them. And they bid them
take two kine that had calves, and had never been yoked, and
put them to draw the ark in a new cart, and keep the calves at
home, and leave them to go which way they would ; for if they
went from their calves towards Israel, then they might be sure
it was God that afflicted them : and so they did; and the kine
went straight to the Israelites with the ark, but lowing as they
went, for their calves. And the men of Bethshemesh (a town of
Israel) rejoiced when they saw the ark, and they offered the two
kine in sacrifice to God. But the men of Bethshemesh did ir-
reverently presume to look into the ark, which they ought not
to do, and God killed many thousands of them ; and they were
afraid, and sent away the ark to another city, where it stayed
twenty years.
C. Who judged Israel all this while ?
M. Samuel : for God made him a holy prophet, and all the
people saw that God had chosen him. And Samuel called them
all to fast and pi ay, and put away all their idol images, and God
was reconciled to them ; and the Philistines came again to fight
against them, and Samuel prayed, and God destroyed the Phi-
listines with thunder and with the sword ; and they came no
more against Israel all the days of Samuel.
C. And who ruled them after Samuel ?
M. When Samuel was very old, he made his sons judges, and
THE mother's catechism. 563
they proved liot like their father, but were covetous, and todk
bribes ; and the people were weary of them, and they desired to
have a king, like other countries, which displeased God.
C. Why was God displeased at this ?
M. It was their happiness, above all other nations, to be ruled
so by God himself, that as he made their laws, so he chose their
rulers and judges by prophets, or visions, or heavenly revela-
tion, Or inspiration, as it pleased him : but the people would
needs have a king that should have greater power than the
judges, and should rule them by force, and leave the crown to
his successors, like other nations : so that it was a departing
from God's prophetical and extraordinary government, and this
on their own heads, without God's call or warrant. They
should have made no such change without God's consent and
conduct. It was he, and not they, that should appoint their
government. But of their kings I will tell you more the next
time.
The Thirteenth Lesson. — The History of King Saul.
C. Who was the first king of Israel ?
M. Saul.
C. How came he to be king ?
M. The people rebelliously, without God, came and told
Samuel they would have a king like other nations : and Samuel
was displeased at it ; and he prayed to God, and God said,
" They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that
1 should not reign over them :'* yet God bid him hearken to
them, and let their own will be their punishment, and tell them
what should be the manner of their king, that he would make
their sons and daughters his servants, and make them do his
work, and take tythes of them for his servants, and that then
they should cry out, because of the king which .they had cho-
sen, and the Lord will not hear them. But the people were set
upon it, and would have a king.
C. Why ? Should there not be such kings as these ?
M. While they might have been free, they should have cho-
sen it rather, and continued under God's prophetical govern-
ment, without such servitude. But where God appoints such,
they must be obeyed.
C. And how was Saul chosen ?
M. Saul was the goodliest proper man in Israel, higher from
the shoulders upward than any of the people. And his father's
oo 2
564 THK mother's CATKCHISM.
asses being lost, he came to Samuel the prophet, to know of him
what was become of them : and God told Samuel, " This is the
man that shall be king, and fight against the Philistines." And
Samuel anointed Saul, and told him who should meet him in the
way, and what signs he should see, and how he should prophesy
among the prophets ; which all came to pass. And he bid Saul
go to Gilgal, and tarry seven days, till he came to him to offer
sacrifice. And God gave Saul another spirit. Then Samuel
called the people together, and told them, that they had reject-
ed God in choosing to have a king, but bid them all come and
see whom God would choose by a lot : and the lot chose
Saul, but he hid himself, and they found him out, and made him
king; and God moved the hearts of many to follow and obey
him. After this the king of Ammon came in war against them,
and would not make peace with them, unless they would have
their right eyes put out for a reproach and mark of servitude.
}3ut God stirred up Saul, and he called all Israel together, and
fought with the Ammonites, and destroyed them. Then they
settled Saul in the kingdom. But Samuel called them, and ap-
pealed to God and them, whether ever he had taken ox or ass
from them, or defrauded or oppressed any, or taken any bribe;
and he preached to them, and told them, that if they would not
keep God's commandments, his hand would be against them :
and that they might know God spake by him, they should sud-
denly see it witnessed by thunder and rain (at an unusual time):
so it did so thunder and rain, that the people were humbled,
and believed him, " That their wickedness was great in the
sight of the Lord," in asking a king. And they feared, and de-
sired Samuel to pray to God not tct destroy them, confessing
that they liad added this to all their sins, to ask a king. And
Samuel promised to pray for them, though they had done this
wickedness, and told them God would not yet forsake them, if
they would fear God, and serve him with all their heart: but if
they would still do v/lckedly, both they and their king should
be consumed.
C. And how did Saul rule them ?
M. When he had been king two years, he kept three thou-
sand soldiers witli him, and his son Jonathan ; and Jonathan
smote a garrison of the Philistines, who thereupon gathered so
huge an army against Israel as put the people into great fear;
so that they hid themselves in caves, and thickets, and rocks ;
and they that were v>ath Saul trembled : and Samuel not com-
THE mother's catechism. 565
ing, as he appointed, in seven days, to offer sacrifice and prayer
to God, Saul ventured to do it without him, when he saw the
people scattered from him. And then Samuel came and re-
proved him, and told him God would choose another ki.ig, be-
cause he had thus disobeyed God 5 for it did not belong to him
to sacrifice.
C. Sure Saul thought he did well : was not this a little
fault ?
M. God must be carefully obeyed ; and thinking we do well
will not save us, if we will venture to do ill. So there did but
six hundred men stay with Saul ; and the Philistines had so
mastered Israel, that they let them have no smith in all the
land, and no one but Saul and Jonathan had so much as a sword
or spear.
And one day only Jonathan and his armour-bearer went up
to a garrison of the Philistines, and killed twenty men ; and
God sent a terror among all the rest, and they trembled, and
fought against each other ; and the Israelites that were hid came
out and fell upon them. But Saul, in a blind zeal, said, " Cursed
be the man that eateth any food till evening, that I may be
avenged of mine enemies." And the people were all faint; and
Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with
the oath ; and he saw some honey, and, eating some, was re-
freshed. But the people were so hungry that, after the victory,
they ran upon the spoil, and did kill and eat things raw, with the
blood ; and Saul reproved them for the sin. And he inquired
of God whether they should again pursue the Philistines, and
God answered him not : then he thought that some one had
brok^ the oath of fasting, and he cast lots to know who it was,
and the lot took his son Jonathan : and Saul vowed he should
die, to keep his oath ; but the people swore he should not die,
and so delivered him. After this, God sent Samuel to com-
mand Saul to go fight against the country called Amalek, and to
kill man and woman, oxen and sheep, camels and asses, because
they were wicked men, and had fought against Israel coming
out of Egypt ; and Saul obeyed not : he went and conquered
the Amalekites, and took their king, Agag, prisoner, and brought
away the best of the sheep and cattle, and killed none but the
worst. And for this disobedience God sent Samuel to reprove
him, for saving the king, and the sheep, and the oxen, which he
should have killed : but Saul said he had done as God bid him,
save that the people saved the best of the sheep and oxen to
566 THE mother's catechism.
offer to God in sacrifice. But Samuel told him that obedience
was better than sacrifice, and rebellion against God's command
was as the sin of witchcraft and idolatry ; and he told him for
this God had taken the kingdom from him, and would give it
to one that was better than lie. So Samuel killed Agag ; and
he came no more to Saul, but mourned for him to the last.
C. Was it not better to save the sheep and oxen than kill
them : why should they be lost ? Sure this was a very little
sin : would not God forgive thus much ?
M. It is not a small sin for a man to set his reason and will
against God's : God is the owner of all things, and may do what
he will with his own ; and he knows what is good or evil better
than we do. We must not do what we think best, but what
God thinks best. And kings must be examples of obedience to
God, to all their subjects, or else their sin is worse than others.
C. And what became of Saul after this ?
M. God sent Samuel to anoint one of the sons of Jesse, of
Bethlehem ; and he was to cover it with going thither to sacri-
fice, lest Saul should know it, and kill him. Jesse had eight
sons ; and when Samuel called seven of them, one by one, God
told him that none of these were the man that he had chosen.
There was no more but the youngest, keeping sheep, which was
David ; and when they sent for him, God said to Samuel, " This
is he :" so Samuel anointed him to be king afterward. Upon
this, the Spirit of the Lord came upon David ; but it departed
from Saul, and an evil spirit had power from God to terrify
and trouble him, as a melancholy man. And Saul's servants
persuaded him to seek out a good musician, that could play well
upon the harp, to drive away the trouble of his spirit ; and they
chose David (not knowing that Samuel had anointed him) and
when the evil spirit troubled Saul, it departed when David played
on the harp ; and Saul loved him, and made him his armour-
bearer a while.
C. And what did he with him after?
M. David went home again to keep sheep, till Saul had for-
got him. And after this the Philistines came to fight against
Israel; and when the two armies were near, Goliath, a Phi-
listine giant, that was stronger than many men, dared the
Israelites to send a man to fight with him, and he that got the
better should carry the day with the whole armies. And the
Israelites feared him, and none of them durst fight with him.
And Saul offered to give his daughter to wife, and great riches,
THE mother's catechism. 56?
to him that could conquer Goliath : and David's brethren being
in the army, he brought them provision ; and hearing what was
said, he offered to fight with Goliath j but Saul told him he
was not able, being but a youth, to fight with a giant bred up to
war. But David answered him, " That while he kept his father's
sheep, there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb, and he
went after him, and killed the lion and the bear, and rescued
the lamb; and he believed that God would make this Philistine
like one of them, seeing he had defied the army of the living
God." So Saul bid him go, and put on him his armour, a
helmet of brass, and a coat of mail, and his sword ; but David
put them off, and said, " I cannot go with these, for I have not
proved them." And he took his staff and sling, and took five
smooth stones out of the brook, and drew near Goliath, who
despised him, and said, " Am I a dog, that thou comest to me
with staves ?" And he cursed him by his gods, and told him
he would give his flesh to birds and beasts. But David said,
" I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, and the
Lord will deliver thee into my hand.-* And David did sling a
stone, which sunk into his forehead, and he fell down dead;
and David, with Goliath's own sword, cut off his head; and the
Philistines fled ; and David brought the head to Jerusalem, and
kept the armour.
C. And what reward had David for this?
M. Saul took him to his house, and would let him go home
no more ; and Jonathan, Saul's son, loved David as his own
soul, and gave him his very garments, his sword and bow; and
they two made a covenant of dearest friendship. And Saul set
him over the men of war; but women in their songs said,
" Saul hath killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands."
And this turned the proud heart of Saul into envy and jealousy
against him, (for he did not know that Samuel had anointed
David,) and from that day Saul sought to kill him. And when
he next fell into his mad fit, by an evil spirit, and David plaved
on his harp, Saul sought to kill him with his javelin; but David
avoided him. Then Saul make him captain of a thousand, that
he might fall by the enemies ; and he gave him Michal his
daughter to wife, to be a snare to him, on condition he would
bring him an hundred foreskins of the Pliilistines. And David
and his men killed two hundred, and he married Saul's
da ughter.
Then Saul was more afraid of David, and spake to Jon a-
568 THE mother's CATECHISM.
than, and to all his servants, to kill David ; but Jonathan awhile
appeased his father's wrath, till more war arose, and David got
more honour by slaying the Philistines; and then Saul in his
disturbed fit of melancholy, attempted again to kill David, as
he was playing before him ; and when he escaped, he sent after
him to kill him in his own house; but Michal, his wife, let him
down through a window, and put an image in his bed; and
when Saul bid them bring him to him, that he might kill him,
he saw how his daughter had deceived him. Then David fled
and dwelt with old Samuel in Ramah ; and Saul sent men to
fetch him thence ; and when they came, they found Samuel,
and many prophets, prophesying, and the Spirit of God came on
the messengers, and they prophesied with them. Then Saul
sent other messengers to fetch him ; and when they came, they
prophesied as the first. Then he sent others the third time,
and those prophesied too. Then he went himself, and before
he came thither, the spirit of prophecy fell upon him, and he
stripped himself naked, and prophesied among them.
C. I thought none had been prophets, and had God's Spirit,
but good men ?
M. None but good men are made good and godly by God's
Spirit ; but others may prophesy, and do miracles.
C. And what did Saul and David then ?
M. David fled to Jonathan, who pleaded for him to his fa-
ther, till his father reviled him for defending David against his
own hope of the kingdom, as his heir. And Saul sought to kill
David again; but Jonathan told David of all his father's pur-
poses, and saved him. Then David fled to Ahimelech, the
priest, and made him believe he was sent of business by the
king : and Ahimelech, having no other, gave him of the conse-
crated bread, and Goliath's sword, and he fled to a Philistine
king, to Gath. But Doeg, a servant of Saul, saw all this, and
told Saul ; and Saul sent for the priests, and charged them of
confederating with a rebel, or not telling him when David fled,
and commanded his guard to kill the priests; but they would
not do it. But Doeg, when the king bade him, killed fourscore
and five of them for this.
C. And what did David among the Philistines ?
M. He heard them tell their king how many of them he had
killed, and he was afraid, and took on him to be a mad man,
and the king turned him away. And he got again into Israel ;
and his kindred, and all that were in debt, and discontented.
THE mother's catechism. 569
came to him, and he became their captain, and had about four
hundred men. And he got the king of Moab to receive his
father and mother, and being warned by a prophet, he went
into the country of Judah. And Saul destroyed the whole city
of Nob, men, women, and children, where the priests dwelt,
because Ahimelech gave David bread; but Abiathar, one of
Ahimelech's sons, escaped to David, and was his priest. After
this the Philistines fought against a town called Keilah, and
God bid David go and deliver them ; and he went and con^
quered the Philistines, and delivered Keilah. Then Saul
thought to besiege, and take David in, Keilah ; but David in-
quired of God, by the priest, whether the men of Keilah would
give him into the hands of Saul ; and God said, " They will.'*
So David, with six hundred men, fled from thence to a wood in
the wilderness, and Saul hunted after him ; but Jonathan came
secretly to David, and encouraged him, and made a covenant
with him, knowing he would be king. Then the men of Ziph
told Saul where David was, and offered to deliver him to him,
and Saul was glad, and pursued him hard ; but then the Philistines
invaded the land, and Saul was fain first to go fight with them.
And after that he pursued David again ; and as he hunted him
on the craggy mountains, Saul found a great cave, into which
he went for his ease, and David and his men were in the inside
of the cave ; and David's men persuaded him now to kill Saul,
but he said, " God forbid that 1 should lay my hand on the
Lord's anointed 1" only he secretly cut off some of his robe.
And when Saul was gone out, he called to him from the hill,
and showed him how his life was in his hand, and pleaded with
him why he sought his life, that intended him no hurt. Then
Saul relented, and confessed his fault, and said, now he knew
David would be king after iiim ; and made him enter into an
oath, that he would not cut off his seed after him; and so they
parted.
C. What did David then ?
M. He durst not trust Saul, Init kept with his men in the
wilderness, where they wanted food ; and there was near a rich
man, called Nabal, that had a great feast for his sheepshearers,
and David sent his men to ask him for some part of his provi-
sion; but Nabal answered them with reproach, and asked why
he should give his provisions to fugitives, whom he knew not.
And David at this was over angry, and rashly swore that he
would destroy him and all his ; but his wife Abigail was a dis-
570 THE mother's catechism.
creet vvoman, and perceived their danger, and went out with
some servants, and met David with provision, and appeased
him ; and David thanked God, and her that had kept him from
rash shedding blood. And when she came back to Nabal, he
was drunk at his great feast, and she told him nothing till the
morning, and then she told him all; and it struck him to the
heart, and ten days after he died ; and David took Abigail to be
his wife. After this, Saul again pursued David in the wilder-
ness, near Ziph j and David from a mountain saw Saul's camp,
and where he lay^ and in the night, he and Abishai came secretly
into the camp, and they were all in a deep sleep ; and David
came to Saul, and took away his spear and cruse, and went his
way, Abishai would have had leave to kill him, but David
said, " God forbid ', let us stay till he die ; let God's hands do it,
and not mine."
Then David again pleaded with Saul from the hill ; and Smil
again relented, and confessed his fault.
But David being weary to be thus hunted, went again with
his six hundred men to Achish, a Philistine king of Gath. And
he received him, and gave him a town called Ziklag, where he
dwelt a year and four months. And David went out with his
soldiers, and smote many places of the Amalekites, and other
people, and killed them all, and brought away their cattle, and
made king Achish believe he had smitten the Israelites^ and 5a
was hateful to his own country, that he might trust him.
C. Was it well done of David to tell so many lies ?
M. No ; he did ill, and we must not imitate him in this, God
forbade it by his law, and did not justify David in it, though he
had mercy on him. After this, the Philistines gathered an army
against Saul, and David was to go with them, and Saul was
afraid of them, and Samuel was dead j and Saul inquired of
God what he should do, but God gave him no answer. And
Saul heard of a witch, or conjuring woman, at Endor, and he
masked himself, and went to her unknown, to know his fortune.
And he desired her to raise up Samuel; and she caused the shape
of Samuel to appear to him, which told him that he and his
sons should to-morrow be with him, and Israel be overthrown ;
and so it came to pass Saul and Jonathan were killed.
C. What did David do the while ?
M. He would have gone out with the Philistines, but the
Lord durst not trust him, but sent him back ; and so God
kept him out of that battle. But when David was absent, the
THE mother's catechism, 5/1
Amalekites took Ziklag, and burnt it, and took David's wives,
and his soldiers' wives and children, which so grieved their
hearts that, in their rage, his men talked of stoning David ; but
he pursued the Amalekites, and overtook them, and recovered
all the captives again, and took all the spoil, and destroyed all
the Amalekites. But David's kingdom must be told you next.
The Fourteenth Lesson. — The Kingdom of David.
M. When the battle was over, an Amalekite came to David,
and thought to please him by telling him that Saul and Jona-
than were dead ; and that Saul, leaning on his spear, wounded,
prayed this man to kill him 5 and that he did it, and brought
his crown and bracelet to David. But David, instead of
rewarding him, caused him to be put to death, for killing the
Lord's anointed. And he greatly lamented that overthrow, and
made a song of lamentation, especially for Jonathan. And
God bid David go to Hebron, in Judah, and there they made
him king of Judah ; but Saul's captain, Abner, and the most
of Israel, made Ishbosheth, a son of Saul's, their king. And
thus some years the kingdom was divided, till, after long war,
Ishbosheth angered Abner, the general, and he vowed to deliver
up the kingdom to David : and he came to him to do it ; but
Joab, David's captain, killed Abner, because he had killed a
brother of his : but David detested and lamented the fact.
Then two other of Ishbosheth's captains murdered him, and
brought his head to David, thinking to be rewarded by him ;
and he charged them for the murder. Then all Israel made
David king. He reigned over Judah only seven years and a
half, and over all Israel thirty-three years.
C. And what did he after he was king of all ?
M. First, he took Mount Zion from the Jebusites of Jerusa-
lem. Then he twice overthrew the Philistines that came against
him in battle : and then he fetched the ark of God from the
house of Abinadab, in Gibeah, where it had long stayed ; and
oxen drew it on a cart ; and when the oxen stumbled, Uzzah,
one of Abinadab's sons, put forth his hand to hold the ark, and
God struck him dead in the place for his rashness.
C. Why, what great harm was that ?
M. The ark was holy, and God would have none presume to
meddle with it, but by his appointment. And by this God teach-
eth us that he will be trusted himself with his worship ; and
men must not pretend to save it from supposed dangers by their
572 THE mother's catechism.
own wit, and will, and way, but only by his appointed means
and way.
C. And what did they then with the ark?
M. David was displeased that God killed Uzzah, and was
afraid, and durst not receive it, but brought it to the house of
Obed-Edom. But when he heard that God blessed Obed-
Edom's house because of the ark, then he sent again, and with
great music, and dancing, and joy, brought it to Mount Zion.
And when David lived in peace, he purposed to build an house,
or temple, for the tabernacle and ark, and the solemn worship of
God. But God forbade him, by the prophet Nathan, but promised
to build him an house, and that his seed should succeed him on
his throne, and not be cut off as the seed of Saul was, and that
his son should build a temple for God. After this, David con-
quered the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edom*
ites, the Syrians of Damascus, the king of Zobah, and made them
tributary, and set garrisons among them, and took their gold and
silver, and dedicated it to God. And when they again renewed
the war, he conquered the Ammonites and Syrians again : and
he found out a lame son of Jonathan's, called Mephibosheth, and
gave him all Saul's land, and made him sit at his own table.
And yet, after all this, temptation drew him into an heinous sin,
which blotted all his glory.
C. What was that ?
M. While Joab, his general, was conquering the Ammonites,
and besieging their city Kabbah, David, being at the top of pros -
perity, stayed idle at home ; and one day, walking on the top
of his house, he saw a beautiful woman washing herself, and he
suffered lust to possess his heart ; and he sent to know who
she was, and lay with her, and she was with child by him,
while her husband, Uriah, was at the siege in the war. And
because adultery was a heinous sin, which God would have
punished with shame and death, to hide his own crime, David
sent for Uriah, as it were to know the news, and bid him go to
his house, thinking that, by laying with his wife, the thing
should be concealed ; but Uriah lay among the king's servants,
and said, while the king's captains lie on the ground and in
tents, he would not go eat and drink, and lie with his wife.
Then David made him drunk, hoping that then he would have
gone home; but still he refused. Then David sent him with a
letter to Joab in the army, bidding Joab set him in a place of
danger, that he might be killed ; which Joab did, and Uriah
THE mother's catechism. , 573
was killed, and divers with him ; and David took his wife to be
his wife. So that here he was guilty of lust, adultery, hypo-
crisy, drunkenness, and murder.
C. Sure he was a very bad man that would do all this ?
M. His sad example tells us what a good man may come to
by temptation, if he be not watchful, and God do not save him
from himself; and it tells how dangerous it is to let in temp-
tation at the first, and to have an ungoverned eye, and to look
upon any tempting thing or person in an immodest manner :
for when one ^ark of lust taketh fire on the heart, the flame
soon grows great, and is hardly quenched; and one sin draweth
men on to another, and another to hide it, and escape the
shame and punishment, when all do but increase the mischief
which they would avoid.
C. But what did God do with David for this ?
M. He sent Nathan the prophet to him, to open the great-
ness of his sin, and to tell him that for this the sword should
never depart from his house, and that God would raise up evil
against him out of his own house, even one that should take
his wives, and lie with them in the sight of all the peopje. And
then David was struck with deep repentance, and confessed his
sin, and begged God's mercy; and God so far forgave him as
not to damn, or kill, or depose him ; but he killed his child that
was begotten in adultery; and he followed him with affliction for
it, which brought him low.
C. How did God afflict him ?
M. By his own children. First, his son Absalom had a
beautiful sister, and Amnon, her brother, by another wife, fell
into lust, called love, with her : and when he could not tempt
her to lie with him, he forced her ; and when he had forced
her he hated her : and in revenge for this, her brother Absalom
killed his brother Amnon, and fled into another land three
years. And when his father pardoned him at last, he flattered
the people, and stole their hearts from David, and rebelled
against him, and was proclaimed by them king in Hebron. So
that David was fain to fly from Jerusalem into the wilderness,
from his son Absalom. And Absalom got David's chief coun-
sellor, Ahithophel, on his side, who advised him to follow David
suddenly, and destroy him before he gathered strength. But
David had a friend called Hushai, that took on him to be for
Absalom, and gave him contrary counsel, to stay till all Israel
could be gathered together, to make sure work of the battle,
574 THE mother's catechism.
And God overruled the rebels' hearts to follow this counsel of
Hushai. And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not
followed, he hanged himself. And when the day of battle came,
David's men conquered Absalom's ; and Absalom's mule Carried
him under a thick oak, where he was hanged by the head, and
Joab killed him. But David loved him, and mourned for his
death. This rebellion of Absalom showed God's justice in
punishing David for his sin against Uriah ; and it showed the
inconstancy and untrustiness of the multitude, that so suddenly,
for nothing, would forsake that king that had ruled them with
extraordinary success, and sought his life whom they had valued
above all men. Yea, after this battle was over, one Sheba re-
belled, and the people followed him till he was killed.
C. And what befel them after this ?
M. After this God sent a famine on the land three years to-
gether. And David inquired of God what was the cause ; and
God told him that it was because Saul would have destroyed the
Gibeonites, to whom Joshua had made a covenant of peace, and
so would break the oath of Joshua. And David asked the
Gibeonites what satisfaction they would have; and they de-
manded the lives of seven of Saul's posterity, whom David gave
them, and they hanged them up. And after this David had
many battles with the Philistines, in which he overcame them.
Lastly. God being offended with Israel for sin, left David to
the temptation of Satan, to take the number of all the people,
in a carnal confidence in human strength: for which sin and
the people, God's angel, by a plague, destroyed threescore and
ten thousand.
C. Was not the Book of Psalms written by David?
M. Most of them were : by which it appeared that he was a
prophet and a holy man, devoted to God and his service.
C. For what use was the book of Psalms written ?
M. First, to exercise the writer's zeal towards God, by con-
fession of sin, prayers for mercy, thanksgivings and praises unto
God ; and, next, to be an help for others in the same cases ;
but especially to be the public liturgy of the Jewish church, in
their worship of God in the synagogues and temple.
The Fifteenth Lesson. — Of the Reign and Writings of Solomon.
C. Who was king next after David ?
M. Adonijah, a son of David, sought it, which cost him his
life; and Joab and Abiathar helped him; whereupon Joab was
THE mother's catechism. 575
killed for his former murders of Abner and Amasa, and Abia-
thar was put from the priesthood. For David, before he died,
made Solomon, his younger son, king, by the advice of Nathan
the prophet.
C. Did not the kingdom belong, ^y right, to the eldest ?
M. No : for God kept the choice in his own hand, and it
was in the people's under him ; and he turned the hearts of the
people to follow whom he chose. God preferred Solomon be-
fore his elder brethren, as he had done David before his elder
brethren, and before the sons of Saul ; and Moses, the younger,
before Aaron, the elder brother ; and Judah and Joseph before
Reuben, and Jacob before Esau, and Isaac before Ishmael, and
Shem before Ham, and Seth and Abel before Cain | and so of
many others.
C* What did Solomon do ?
M. When he prayed to God, God bade him ask what he
should give him, and he asked wisdom. And it pleased God
that he preferred that before riches, and honour, and long life ;
and God gave him greater wisdom than any king of Israel had
before or after him ; and he gave him with it all the rest. And
he abounded in riches and honour, and he built a most rich
and beautiful temple at Jerusalem, to be the chief place of God's
public worship for all the land, where prayer was made, and
sacrifices offered, and priests and Levites employed about them
as their officers.
C. How could all the people out of all the countries come so
far, and meet in one place ?
M. It was a small country, so that they had not very far to
travel, and they were to come but very seldom, at some great
feasts, and they were not to be all at once in the temple. And
their ordinary worship was performed in lesser assemblies at
home.
C. What else did Solomon?
M. He governed wisely, and prospered greatly, being the
only king that reigned over the twelve tribes in full prosperity
and peace. But his prosperity proved a dangerous temptation
to him, and he lived in all sorts of fleshly pleasure, and espe-
cially had multitudes of wives and concubines ; and when he
grew old, his wives drew him into the guilt of idolatry 5 for
they were women of several other nations, and worshipped their
several idols. And Solomon built, or allowed them, high
576 THE mother's catfxhism,
places for the worship of these idols, and so provoked God
against him.
C. Did not you say, that he was the wisest of all the kings
of Israel ? And could a wise man do so had ?
M. He had more knowledge than any of them, as many
great scholars now know more than better men ; but it ap-
peareth by their lives, that David, Hezekiah, and Josiah, had
more than he of that practical wisdom which consisteth in
holiness. And 2. Wise men may, by temptation, be drawn to
folly ; and as the wisest man is a fool when he is drunk, so he
is when temptations prevail against his wisdom.
C. What books did Solomon write, to show his wisdom?
M. He wrote many : of which God liath preserved us three
' in the Bible. First, the Book of Proverbs, which containeth
the praise of wisdom, and many excellent lessons, especially
for young men. Secondly, the Song of Solomon. Thirdly,
the book called Ecclesiastes, which seemeth to speak his re-
pentance after his fall ; in which he showeth, from his own
experience, that all the profits, honours, and pleasures of this
world are mere vanity and vexation, and all can give men no
more than to eat and drink, and be merry; that so the flatter-
ing world may not deceive us when we should prepare for God's
judgments and the life to come.
C. Did not God punish Solomon for so great a sin ?
M. Yes, he cut off ten of the twelve tribes from the king-
dom of his son; who foolishly followed the counsel of rash and
bad young men, and had not learned his father's wisdom.
The Sixteenth Lesson. — Of the other Kings of Judah and
Israel,
C. How did God cut off the ten tribes from Solomon's son?
M. His son Rehoboam was proud and foolish ; and because
Solomon, by his great buildings and pomp, had laid great bur-
dens of service, and taxes, on the people, and they now desired
to be eased of them ; the old counsellors advised Rehoboam to
speak kindly to them, and to ease them, and win their hearts.
But the young counsellors advised him to speak roughly to them,
and rule them by fear, and keep up his power. And he heark-
ened to these ; whereupon the ten tribes all forsook him, and
chose one Jeroboam king.
C. And how did Jeroboam reign ?
THE mother's catechism. 577
M. He thought, that if the people went yearly up to Jeru-
salem to worship, they would be in the power of Rehoboam,
and would turn to him again. Therefore he made new places
iPor worship, and made two golden images, like calves, and set
them to represent their God ; and made priests for them of the
basest of the people, who were not of the tribe of Levi. And
thus he drew the ten tribes into a course of sin which was their
ruin, and for v/hich God at last forsook them.
But God sent a prophet, to prophesy to them, that the altar
made for their idol should have their priests burnt on it, and
men's bones, by Josiah by name. And when king Jeroboam
heard him, he stretched out his hand, and said, " Lay hold on
him ; " and his hand was dried up, so that he could not pull it
to him ; and he entreated the prophet to pray for him, which
he did, and his hand was restored; and the altar rent, to
verify his word : and the king invited him home, and would
have rewarded him ; but he refused, because God had bid him
not to eat or drink in that place. But an old lying prophet
went after him, and told him, that God bid him call him back,
to eat and drink with him ; and he believed him, and did so.
But because he disobeyed God, a lion killed him as he returned
home. By which we see that all men must not be believed
that take on them to be sent of God ; and that they that preach
to others may be destroyed, if they disobey God's word them-
selves.
C. Did the kingdom continue thus divided?
M. Yes, to the last. Israel had one king, and Judah ano-
ther. And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam
all their days ; and both of their people lived in wickedness and
idol worship. And the king of Egypt came against Jerusalem,
and took away all the rich vessels of gold, that Solomon made.
C. Who were the next kings after them?
M. Rehoboam's son, Abljam, a bad man, succeeded him.
And Asa, his son, a better man, succeeded him. And Jeho-
shaphat, a good king, succeeded him. And Jehoram, a bad
man, succeeded him. And Ahaziah, a ba^ man, was next him;
and he being killed, his mother, Athaliah, killed all the royal
line, save Joash, that was secretly saved, and she usurped tiie
kingdom ; and she was killed. And Joash, a good king,
reigned next ; and he was murdered. And Amaziah reigned
next, and did well 3 yet he was murdered. And his son, Azariah,
VOL. xviii. P P
578 THE mother's catechism,
reigned next (called also Uzziah) ; and God made him a leper,
for invading the priest's office, by offering ; and his son Jotham
ruled, and, when he was dead, reigned next; and Ahaz, a
bad man, succeeded him ; and Hezekiah, a good king, came
next him. Manasseh, a most wicked man, was next. Amon,
a bad man, was next him ; and he being murdered, his son
Josiah, a good king, was next. Jehoahaz was next him ; he
was wicked, and the king of Egypt took him, and set his bro-
ther Eliakim, called Jehoiakim, in his stead: he was bad, and
made subject to Nebuchadnezzar : and his son Jehoiakim was
next. He was wicked ; and Nebuchadnezzar carried him, and
all the chief of the people, captives to Babylon ; and over the
rest, he made his uncle, Mattaniah, king, called Zedeldah. He
was wicked, and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, who took
him, and put out his eyes, and killed his sons, and destroyed
Jerusalem ; and carried him, and all the chief of the people
left, to Babylon ; and set one Gedaliah over the poor in the
country, who was presently murdered And thus ended the
kingdom of Judah, by captivity.
C. And who succeeded Jeroboam, and what became of the
kingdom of the ten tribes of Israel ?
M. All that came after Jeroboam followed him, in hi& sin
of idolatry, to keep the people from going to Jerusalem. Nadab
came next Jeroboam. Baasha murdered him, and came next,
Elah was next. Zimri murdered him, when he found him
drunken, and reigned next; he killed also the king's kindred,
and reigned but a week, before Omri was chosen king by the
people; who besieged Zimri, and made him set fire to his
house, and burn himself. Omri, a wicked man, was next. And
Ahab, more wicked, next him. Ahaziah was next. His bro-
ther, Jehoram, was next. Jehu killed him, and was next*
Jehoahaz was next. Joash was next. Another Jeroboam was
next. Next him, was Zachariah. Shallum murdered him, and
was next. Menahem killed him, and was next. Then Peka-
hiah. Pekah killed him, and was next. Hoshea killed him,
and was next; and in his days Shalmanesar, king of Assyria,
carried him, and all the chief people, away, and sent men of
other countries into the land ; w^ho together feared God, and
worshipped their own Idols. And so ended the kingdom of
Israel, before that of Judah.
C. But what great things fell out in all this time ?
THE mother's catechism. 579
M. The greatest thing for our notice was, the many prophets
that God sent to warn them, and what they did, and hbw they
were used by these kings.
C. Who were these prophets ?
M. 1. Ahijah was sent to prophesy Jeroboam's reign against
Solomon, when he sinned. 2. Shemaiah was sent to forbid
Judah to fight against Jeroboam, for Rehoboam. 3. A man of
God was sent from Judah to foretel Jeroboam that Josiah
should destroy his altar, and burn his priests on it. 4. When
Jeroboam's son, Abijah was sick, Ahijah, the prophet, foretold
his death, and the destruction of Jeroboam's wicked house.
5. Azariah is sent to Asa, to rid Judah of idols. 6. Hanani
was sent to reprove Asa, for trusting to Syria for help ; and,
though otherwise he had done well, he was in a rage against
the prophet, and imprisoned him, and oppressed some of the
people ; and in his sickness sought not to God, but to the phy-
sicians. 7. Jehoshaphat sent his princes and Levites, to teach
the law of the Lord in the cities of Judah ; and when he joined
with Ahab in war, the prophet Jehu was sent to reprove him.
8. The same Jehu is sent to prophesy against king Baasha.
9. Elijah, in Ahab's days, prophesieth, that Israel should have
no rain, but famine, three years. And when he fled to a brook-
side, God sent ravens, to carry to him bread and flesh twice
a-day. Then the brook was dried up ; and God sent him to
Zarephath, near Sidon, to a widow woman, to be fed. And
the woman had nothing left but a little meal and oil, to make
one cake for herself and son, before they died. And Elijah bid
her make one for him first, and told her from God, that the
meal and the oil should not waste and fail till rain came. And
the woman believed him, and they all lived on that meal and
oil a full year, and it wasted not, for God secretly renewed it.
Then the woman's son died: and Elijah prayed to God, and
laid himself upon the child, and God restored the soul and life
of the child.
And the third year, God bid Elijah go show himself to Ahab;
and wicked Ahab had a more wicked wife, Jezebel, who killed
the prophets of the Lord. But yet he had a governor of his
house, called Obadiah, who greatly feared God, and hid two
hundred prophets, by fifties, in a cave, and fed them. To this
Obadiah' Elijah appeared, and bid him go tell Ahab of him ;
and promised to appear to him. And the king met Elijah, and'
said, " Art thou he that troubleth Israel ? '* And Elijah said,'
p p 2
580 THE mother's catechism.
" I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house,
in that you have forsaken the Lord, and followed Baalim."
And to convince him, he bid him gather Israel and Baal's
prophets to Mount Carmel. So he gathered eight hundred
and fifty false prophets, that Jezebel maintained. And Elijah
said to all the people, " How long halt ye between two opi-
nions ? If the Lord be God, follow him ; but if Baal be God,
follow him." And he said, " I only remain a prophet of the
Lord, and Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty ; " the
other four hundred belonged to the groves. So he bid them
take ^, bullock, and cut him in pieces for a sacrifice, and lay it
on wood without fire, and he would do the same by another
bullock; and let each call on his God, and let him that
answereth by fire be their God. And they did so ; and Baal's
prophets cried, " O Baal, hear us ! " and Elijah mocked them,
and said, their god was talking, or pursuing, or in a journey,
or asleep, and must be awaked. And they cried, and cut them-
selves till they bled, as their manner was, but no fire came.
Then Elijah repaired God's altar, and laid on the wood and
sacrifice, and made a trench about the altar, and he made them
pour water on the sacrifice and wood three times, till the trench
was full ; and he prayed to God, and a fire came and consumed
the flesh and the wood, and the stones, and the water. And
when the people saw it, they fell on their faces and cried, " The
Lord he is God 1 the Lord he is God 1" And Elijah bade the
people kill all the prophets of Baal ; and they obeyed him, and
killed them. Then Elijah bade king Ahab haste up, for rain was
coming, and it rained plentifully.
C. But how did the king take the death of his prophets?
M. He told his wife Jezebel, and she swore that she would
take away the life of Elijah the next day: and Elijah fled into
Judah, and went into the wilderness, and prayed God to end his
life; and he fell asleep, and an angel awoke him, and bid him
arise and eat. And he saw by him a cake baked on coals, and
a cruse of water, and he did eat and drink, and slept again :
and the angel came again, and bid him eat and drink, for he
had far to go. And he went to Horeb, the mount of God, forty
days, in the strength of that meat : as he was there in a cave,
God spake to him and said, " What dost thou here, Elijah ?"
and he said, " I have been very jealous for the Lord, because the
children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine
altars, and slain the prophets, and I only am left, and they seek
THE mother's catechism. 581
my life also." And after a wind, that tore the rocks, and an earth-
quake, and a fire, had passed by him, God spake in a still voice,
and bid him go and anoint Hazael, king over Syria^ and Jehu
king over Israel, and Elisha to be a prophet in his stead; and
God told him, he had yet seven thousand in Israel that had
not bowed to Baal. So Elijah went, and did but cast his man-
tle on Elisha, and he left, and followed, and served him.
C. But what became of king Ahab, and Jezebel ?
M. Shortly after, Benhadad, king of Syria, raised an army
against him, and commanded him to surrender to him all that
he had : Ahab was ready to yield, but the elders of Israel
were against it ', and though Ahab was wicked, God, in
mercy, sent a prophet to him, to bid him not fear that great
multitude, for God would deliver them into his hand ; and he
told him how to order the battle : and so the Syrians were over-
thrown. And the prophet told Ahab, that at the return of the
year they would come again, and bid him prepare. And so it
came to pass, for the Syrians told their king, that the gods of
Israel were gods of the hills, but, if he would fight in the plains,
he should be too hard for them. But God would not put up
that reproach, but sent a prophet to bid Ahab fight with them
again, and he should conquer ; which he did, and then the
Syrians fled into a city, and a wall fell upon twenty and seven
thousand of them that were left. And Benhadad and his ser-
vants came in sackcloth, with ropes on their heads, to beg
for life of Ahab ; and he let him go : whereupon God sent
another prophet to tell Ahab, that because he had dismissed
one whom God had appointed to destruction, his life should go
for his life.
After this Naboth, a subject of Ahab, had a vineyard, which
lay near to Ahab's house, and Ahab desired it, to make him a
garden, and offered him money, or a better, for it. But Naboth
refused, because it had been the inheritance of his fathers.
This so offended Ahab that he took to his bed, (and would not
eat) in discontent. But his wife Jezebel told him that this was
unmeet for a king, and bid him be merry, and she would give
him Naboth's vineyard. So she wrote letters to the nobles and
elders of the city where Naboth dwelt, in Ahab's name, and
sealed them with his seal, requiring them to proclaim a fast,
and set up Naboth, and get two wicked men to swear that he
blasphemed God and the king, and so to stone him to death as
guilty. And they did all that was required of them.
582
THE MOTHER S CATECHISM,
C. Could not the king have taken it without this ?
M. No ; God had given the people their inheritances, and they
knew that the king might not take them from any that did not for-
feit them : and they that were so wicked as to obey the king in
perjury and murder, yet would not give him an arbitrary power
over their inheritances and lives. But God sent Elijah to i^hab,
when he went to take possession of the vineyard : and he said,
" Hast thou killed, and taken possession ?" and Ahab said, " Hast
thou found me, O my enemy ?" And Elijah said, " 1 have found
thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil :" and, he told
him, that in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth,
they should lick his blood, and all his house should be destroyed;
and that the dogs should eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel, and
dogs and birds should eat his household. And when Ahab heard
this, he humbled himself in sackcloth, with fasting : and God so
far suspended his judgments as to tell Elijah that, because he
humbled himself, this destruction of his house should not come
till he was dead. ^
C. And how did God execute this judgment?
M. After three years, Ahab had a mind to recover Ramoth,
a bordering city, from the Syrians ; and Jehoshaphat, king of
Judah, coming to visit him, he persuaded him to join with him
in the war, which he did : and Jehoshaphat desired him first to
inquire of the Lord, what they should do ; and king Ahab ga-
thered four hundred of his own prophets, and inquired of them,
and they bid him go, for God would deliver the city into his
hand. But Jehoshaphat asked whether there were never a pro-
phet of the Lord to inquire of and Ahab said, " There is one
Micaiah, but I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good of me,
butevil." Jehoshaphat said, "Let notthe king say so :"so thetwo
kings sat in their robes, and all the prophets prophesied good
to them ', and said, "Go and prosper :" and one of them, Zede-
kiah, made iron horns, and said, " With these shalt thou push the
Syrians till thou hast consumed them." And they that went to
call Micaiah, told him what all the prophets said, and persuaded
him to be conformable, and say as the rest did : but he pro-
tested that he would speak the word of God, whatever it should
be. And when the king demanded it of him, he said, " I saw all
Israel scattered on the hills, as sheep without a shepherd •/' and
the Lord said, " These have no master, let them return in peace."
And Ahab said to Jehoshapat, " Did not I tell thee that he would
prophesy no good of me, but evil ?" And Micaiah told him, that
he saw the Lord on his throne, and the host of heaven about
THE mother's catechjsm. 588
him, and that he gave leave to an evil spirit to be a lying spirit
in the mouth of all Ahab's prophets, to persuade him to go and
fall at Ramoth. And Zedekiah struck Micaiah, and said " Which
way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to thee?"
And Micaiah told him, that he should see in that day when he
should go into an inner chamber to hide himself. And king
Ahab said, " Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with the bread
and water of affliction, till I return in peace :" and Micaiah said,
" If thou return in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me;" and
bid the people all to hear this. So Ahab and Jehoshaphat went
out to war, and Ahab was mortally wounded with an arrow, and
was carried to Samaria, and died there, and the dogs licked his
blood, but Jehoshaphat escaped. But Jehu the prophet was
sent thus to reprove him, " Shouldest thou help the ungodly,
and love them that hate the Lord ? therefore is wrath upon thee
from before the Lord."
10. After this, divers nations joined in war against Je-
hoshaphat, and he prayed earnestly to God, and God raised a
prophet, Jehaziel, to bid them not fear, for God would de-
liver them without fighting ; and they believed the prophet, and
went towards their enemies with songs of praise to God ; and
God made their enemies fight with one another, so that the
Jews found them dead on the ground, and were three days ga-
thering all the spoil : and they returned home with psalms of
praise, and Jehoshaphat set just judges and teachers through all
the land.
n. Yet did this good king after all this, join himself with
Ahaziah, king of Israel, who succeeded Ahab, in sending out a
fleet of ships to sea : and God sent Eliezer, a prophet, to tell
him that for this God would break his ships ; and so it came to
pass.
12. Ahaziah, king of Israel, fell from an upper chamber; and
was sick ; and he sent to inquire of idols whether he should re-
cover; and Elijah met his messengers, and bid them tell him that
for this he should die, and not come down from his bed. And
the king sent a captain, with fifty soldiers, to fetch Elijah, and
at the word of Elijah, God sent down fire from heaven, which
consumed the captain and all his soldiers. Then the king sent
another captain with fifty more, and fire from heaven consumed
them also. And the king sent yet another captain with fifty
more ; and this captain fell on his knees, and entreated Elijah
to spare his life. And the angel of God spake to Elijah, and
584
THE MOTHERS CATECHISM.
bid him go to the king and fear not. And he went and told
him, that for inquiring of Baal, and not of God, he should die :
and so he did ; and Jehoram reigned in his stead.
13. After this carne^ the time that Elijah must depart from
earth, and he prayed Elisha to tarry where he was, for God had
sent him to Bethel. But he would not, but went with him : and
the sons of the prophets told Elisha that God would take away
his master that day, and he said, "-1 know it; hold your peace."
And Elijah said to Elisha, "Tarry here, 1 pray thee, for the Lord'
hath sent me to Jericho ;" but he would not leave him. And the
prophets of Jericho told him, that the Lord would take away
his master that day, and he said," I know it, hold ye your peace."
And Elijah said, "Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent
me to Jordan ;" but he would not leave him. And fifty prophets
followed them at a distance, to see the issue : and Elijah, with
his mantle, smote the waters of Jordan, and they divided, and
they two went over dry. And Elijah said to Elisha, " Ask what
I shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee :" and he
asked that a double portion of his Spirit might be upon him.
Elijah said, " Thou hast asked a hard thing ; but if thou see me
when 1 am taken from them, it shall be so to thee, else not."
And there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and
parted them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven,
and Elisha saw, and cried out, " My Father, my Father, the
chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." And he saw them
no more; and he rent his own clothes, and took up the mantle
of Elijah that fell from him, and with it he struck the waters of
Jordan, and said, " Where is the Lord God of Elijah ?" and the
waters parted, and he returned over dry. And when the sons
of the prophets saw it, they said, "The Spirit of Elijah resteth on
Elisha ;" and they bowed to him. And they entreated that fifty
men might go to see whether God had not cast Elijah on some
mountain : and Elisha forbade them, but after yielded to their
importunity. And they went and searched, but found him not.
And so Elisha became like him.
14. The first miracle that Elisha did after the dividing of the
waters of Jordan was this : the city Jericho was pleasantly si-
tuate, but the waters were naught, and the land barren. And
he cast salt into the water, and said, " Thus saith the Lord, I
have healed these waters;" and they were forthwith healed.
15. And as he went from thence, little children mocked him,
and said, "Go up, thou bald-head," And God moved him to curse
THE mothkr's catechism. 585'
them, and there came two bears out of the wood, and tore forty-
and-two children.
C. Was not that too cruel a revenge ?
M. It was God that did it, who can do no wrong, and know-
eth what he doth. And it is like he did it rather to be a
warning to children afterward, to take heed of mocking any,
but especially holy men.
1(). After king Ahaziah, Jehoram reigned, and in his days
Moab rebelled against Israel, and the king of Israel got Jeho-
shaphat, king of Judah, and the king of Edom, to help him in
war : but when they passed seven days through the wilderness,
the three kings and their armies, and horses, were like to perish,
because they found no water. But Jehoshaphat asked for a
prophet of the Lord to enquire of, and king Jehoram called
Elisha: and Elisha said to him, "What have 1 to do with thee,
get thee to the prophets of thy father and mother. Surely
were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of
Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee : then Elisha
said, make this valley full of ditches : for thus saith the Lord,
you shall not see wind or rain, yet the valley shall be filled with
water : and also God will deliver the Moabite into your hand."
And so it came to pass : water came from towards Edom, and
filled the country; and they overthrew the Moabites, and
destroyed much of their country. And the king of Moab sacri-
fiiced his son and heir to his idol god, on the wall before them,
and so they left him.
17. After this a prophet's widow was in debt, and the cre-
ditors came to take her two sons as bondmen for the debt ; and
she sought to Elisha : and he asked her what she had in the
house ; and she said " Nothing, save a pot of oil:" and he bid her
go borrow empty vessels enough, and pour out the oil into
them : and she did so, and the oil ran as long as she had ever a
vessel to receive it : and he bid her go sell the oil- and pay the
creditors, and live on the rest.
18. Then Elisha went to Shunem, where was a great woman,
who constrained him to come in, and eat with her, which he
did as oft as he passed by : and she said to her husband, " I
perceive that this is a holy man of God that oft passeth by us :
let us make for him a little chamber on the wall, and set a bed,
and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick, that he may turn in
hither :" and they did so. And he called the woman, and asked
her what he should do for her : but she said that she lived
58& THE mother's catechism.
among her own people, and wanted nothing : but Gehazi, his
servant, told him she had no child, and her husband was old :
and the prophet told her that " at that season she should bear a
son ;" and she did so. And when the child was grown up, as he
went to his father to the reapers, he was taken with the head-
ach, and shortly died ; and she laid him on Elisha's bed, and
rode speedily to Elisha, and constrained him to go home with
her; but he sent his man Gehazi before with a staff, and- bid
him lay it on the face of the child, but he revived not : and when
Elisha came he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth
on his mouth, and his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his
hands, and the flesh of the child waxed warm : and he walked
awhile, and then did so again, and the child revived, and he gave
him to the mother.
19. After this in a dearth, many sons of the prophets came
to him, and he bid his servant make pottage for them : and he
ignorantly gathered wild gourds (a horrid, bitter, violent plant),
and they cried out, "There is death in the pot:" and he bid
them cast in meal, and the pottage after had no harm in it.
20. After this, he multiplied a little food, to satisfy many
people.
2 1 . The king of Syria had a great man, captain of his army,
called Naaman, but he had the leprosy : and a little maid of
Israel, whom they had taken among the captives, waited on his
wife: and she said, "Would my lord were with the prophet that
is in Samaria; for he would recover him of his leprosy :" and
Naaman was told what she said, and the king of Syria bid him
go to Samaria, and he would write a letter from him to the king
of Israel : which was that he would cure Naaman of his leprosy.
But the king of Israel thought he did it to pick a quarrel with
him : when Elisha heard of it, he sent to the king, saying, " Let
him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in
Israel." Now Naaman brought with him ten talents of silver,
and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment :
and he came to the door of Elisha, and Elisha sent a messenger
to him, and said, " Go wash seven times in Jordan, and thy flesh
shall come again, and thou shalt be clean." But Naaman went
away in rage, and said, " I thought he would have come out to
me, and called on his God, and moved his hand over the place,
and recover it : are not the waters of Damascus better than alJ
the waters of Israel?" but his servants humbly appeased him,
saying, "If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
THE mother's catechism. 687
wouldest thou not have done it ? How much rather when he
saith to thee, wash and be clean/' So he went and dipped
himself seven times in Jordan, and was healed. Then he
returned to the prophet and said, *' Now I know that there is no
God in all the earth but the God of Israel." And he urged him
to take a gift of his money; but the prophet utterly refused it.
And Naaman desired to have two mules' load of the earth of
Israel, that on it he might sacrifice to God when he came home.
But when he was gone^ the Prophet's servant, Gehazi, coveted his
money, and thought it was his master's weakness to refuse it
from so great a man ; and he ran after him with a lie, and told
him that even now two young men, sons of the prophets, were
come to his master, and he desired him to give them a talent of
silver, and two changes of raiment : and Naaman made him take
two talents. And when he came in to his master, he asked him
where he had been ; and he lied again, and said he went no
whither. But Elisha said, " Went not my heart with thee when
the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee ? Is this a
time to receive money, &c. The leprosy of Naaman shall cleave
to thee, and to thy seed for ever : and he went out from his
presence a leper."
22. After this the young prophets desired him that they
might go to Jordan, and make there a larger house for them
and him to dwell together in ; and he went with them ; and as
they cut down wood by the river side, one man's axe-head fell
into the water.; and he said, "Alas, master ! it was borrowed;"
and Elisha made the iron to rise and swim, and they took it up.
23. After this, the king of Syria oft attempted a war against
the king of Israel : and Elisha still told him which way the king
of Syria would come, so that he still avoided him. Then the
king of Syria thought that some of his servants betrayed him ;
but they said, "It is the prophet that tells the king of Israel what
thou sayest in thy bedchamber." And the king of Syria sent
spies to know where to find and take Elisha : and finding him
in Dothan, they beset the city in the night with an army, and
in the morning his servants rose and saw them, and cried out,
" Alas, master 1 what shall we do ?" And Elisha said, " Fear not,
fear not : for they that be with us, are more than they that be
against us :" and he prayed God to open his men's eyes, and he
saw mountains full of horses and chariots of fire about Elisha :
and Elisha prayed God to strike the Syrian army with blindness,
and it was done. And Elisha went to them, and told them they
588 THE mother's CATECniSiM.
were out of the way, and bid them follow him, and he v/ould
bring them to the place where the prophet was. And he led
them into the midst of Samaria, the king's chief city ; and
then prayed God to open their eyes, and they found themselves
in Samaria : and the king of Israel would have killed them; but
the prophet made him set them meat, and send them home.
24. After this, the king of Syria besieged Samai'ia so long,
till the famine was so extreme, that a woman cried to the king
for justice, because another woman and she agreed to kill, and
boil, and eat, their sons by turn ; and when they had eaten hers,
the other woman hid her son. This put the king of Israel past
patience, and he vowed to kill Elisha, because God did not
deliver them. And Elisha was sitting in his house with the
elders, and he said to them, " This son of a murderer hath sent
to take away my head : but shut the door when the messenger
cometh:" and the king* said, "This evil is of the Lord; why
should I wait any longer ?" And Elisha said, "Thus saith the
Lord, to-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour
be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a sliekel."
And one of the king's lords said, " If the Lord would make win-
dows in heaven how could this be?" And Elisha said, "Thou
shalt see it with thine eyes, but shall not eat of it." And there
were four lepers at the gate of Samaria, and they agreed to cast
themselves on the mercy of the Syrians, having no other hope of
life. And when they came where the camp was, there was no
one there, for God had made them hear as the noise of many
armies, and they thought the Israelites had hired the Egyptians
against them, and they all fled in fear, and left their provisions
behind them. And when the four lepers had eaten and drunk
their fill, they brought the news into the city (having taken and
hid as much silver and gold as they would :) and when the king
heard it, he thought the Syrians had retired in craft to entice
them out and take them : and he sent a few horsemen to see ;
who found all the way to Jordan where they fled, spread with
garments cast away; so the city went out, and had all their trea-
sure and provisions ; and all was as cheap as the prophet had
foretold. And the king set that lord that spake against the
prophet's words, in the gate of the city, and there the crowding
trod him to death.
25. After this, the woman of Shunem, whose son Elisha re-
stored to life, was told by him the famine would continue seven
years, and he bid her go sojourn elsewhere ; and she went
THE mother's catechism* 589
among the Philistines till the seven years were expired ; and
her house and land, in the mean time, were possessed by others,
and she went to petition the king that they might be restored :
and just when she came, Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha
restored her son to life, and he said, " This is the woman, and this
is her son :" and the king caused all to be restored to her.
26. After this, Elisha went to Damascus, in Syria ; and king
Benhadad heard of it, and he lay sick, and he sent Hazael to
the prophet to know whether he should recover. And the pro-
phet said, he may recover (as to his disease) but he shall surely
die : And he looked on Hazael, and wept : and he asked him
why he wept ? "And he said, I know the evil thou wilt do to
Israel : thou wilt kill men and children, and rip up the women :
and Hazael said. Am 1 a dog, that 1 should do this ? And
Elisha said, God hath showed me that thou shalt be king of
Syria;" and when he heard this, he went home, and killed the
king (stifling him by spreading a wet cloth on his face). And
he reigned in his stead.
27. After this, Jehoram, king of Israel, was wounded in a
war at Ramoth, against Hazael, and he went to Jezreel to be
healed ; and Elisha called a young prophet, and said, " Go to
Ramoth, to Jehu, (one of the king's captains) and call him into
an inner chamber, and pour this box of oil on his head, and say.
Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel ; and
when thou hast done, flee away :" and he did so, and told him
he must cut off all the house of Ahab for their sin. And the
rest of the captains made Jehu tell them what he said, and when
they heard it, all their hearts were turned to fulfil the prophe-
cy ; and they set up Jehu, and marched with him against his
master Jehoram, and he met him at Naboth's vineyard and kil-
led him, and cast his carcass there, as God had foretold : and he
killed Ahaziah, king of Judah, that had come to visit Jehoram ;
and he went to Jezreel, and made them throw down Jezebel,
through a window, where she died, and the dogs eat her flesh,
all save her palms of her hands, and her feet, and skull ; and
caused all Ahab's sons to be killed, even seventy persons, and
all his kindred and priests, and great men ; and he killed forty-
two of the brethren of Ahaziah, king of Judah, that were going
to visit king Jehoram's sons ; and he took on that yet he would
worship Baal, and made all Baal's prophets come to sacrifice ;
and he killed them all, and made Baal's house a draught house.
590 THE mother's catechism.
and burnt all their images with the fire. But he yet continued
in Jeroboam's sin of false worship.
28. Before this, Jehoram, king of Judah, was wicked, and
worshipped Baal, and killed his brethren ; and Elisha sent a
letter to him to tell him that God would cut off his dominions
by Hazael, and would strike him with a sickness, so that his
bowels should fall out ; and so all this came to pass.
29. And in Judah, when king Ahaziah was killed, and his
wicked mother, Athaliah, killed his brethren, that she might
reign, his sister, that was wife to tJehoiada, the priest, had a
young son, Joash, six years old ; and in the seventh year Jeho-
iada, the priest, got many on his side, and killed Athaliah, and
made Joash king at seven years old : but the high priest ruled
in his name, and put down the idols, and set up the worship of
God : and Joash did well all the days of Jehoiada : but when
he was dead, the princes about him drew him from God to ido-
latry. And God sent Zechariahj the son of Jehoiada, to say to
them. *^ Why transgress ye the command of the Lord, that ye
cannot prosper ? because you have forsaken the Lord, he also
hath forsaken you." But they stoned this prophet to death by
this unthankful king's commandment, even in the court of the
house of the Lord ; and when he died, he said, *' The Lord
look upon it, and require it." And so he did : for at the end of
the year the Syrians came with a small army, and destroyed all
the princes from among the people, and sent away the spoil :
and the king was diseased, and his servants killed him, who
had turned from God, and murdered the son of him that
saved his life, and made him king ; God avenging his cruel in-
gratitude.
30. And when his son, king Amaziah, preparing for a war
with Edom, trusting to numbers, hired an hundred thousand
Israelites for an hundred talents, to help him, and God sent a
prophet to bid him send home the Israelites, for God was not
with them : but the king was loth to lose his hundred talents :
but the prophet prevailed^ and he sent them home : and he
went with his own men, and conquered and destroyed the Edo-
mites : yet was he so sottish as to carry home the idol gods of
Edom, and worship them as his gods : and God sent a prophet
to ask him why he would seek to the gods that could not
save their own people } But the king proudly answered him,
" Art thou made of the king's counsel ? forbear, why shouldest
THE mother's catechism. 69l
thou be smitten ?'* and the prophet forbore, but told him that h6
knew God had determined to destroy him, because of this his
sin and disobedience. And so it fell out ; for he provoked the
king of Israel to fight with him (for the soldiers which he hired
and dismissed had, in anger, plundered his country). And he was
conquered, and Jerusalem pillaged, and the walls broken down ;
and after this his own servants murdered him.
31. In Israel, the Syrians grievously oppressed them ; and
when Elisha lay dying, Josiah the king came to visit him, and
lament over him. And he bid the king open the window and
shoot an arrow, and strike the ground, and he struck thrice. And
the prophet was angry, and told him now he should conquer
the Syrians but thrice ; but if he had struck six or seven times
he should have consumed them. And when Elisha was dead
and buried, the Moabites invaded the land, and being burying
a dead man in haste, they put him into Elisha's sepulchre, and
when the dead body touched his bones he revived, and stood up.
32. When Uzziah (called Azariah) was king in Judah, and
did well and prospered, at last his heart was puffed up, and he
would needs burn incense to the Lord : and when the priests
told him it belonged not to him, but was their office, he was
wroth them ; and suddenly God struck him with a leprosy, and
they thrust him out, and he hasted out himself, and was shut up
as a leper to the day of his death.
33. Before Israel was carried away captive by the Assyrians,
in the reign of Hoshea, all the prophets called them from their
sin, and foretold God's judgments, but they would not hear
them.
34. In the reign of good king Hezekiah, the king of Assyria
sent an army against Jerusalem, where Rabshakeh blasphemed
God, and bid the people not to trust in him, for no God could
save his people from the Assyrian power. And God sent Isaiah
the prophet to tell Hezekiah, that as he prayed to God, and
trusted in him, God would deliver him, and put his hook in the
nostrils of the Assyrian king. And that night the angel of the
Lord killed an hundred and fourscore and five thousand of the
Assyrian army, and in the morning they were all found dead.
And shortly after, when their king, Sennacherib, at Nineveh, was
worshipping in the house of his idol god, his own sons killed
him.
35. After this, Hezekiah was dangerously sick, and he ear-
nestly prayed to God to spare him, and God sent Isaiah, the
592 THE mother's catechism.
prophet, to tell him of a medicine to cure him, and to promise
him fifteen years' longer time to live. And when Hezekiah de-
sired a sign to confirm his belief, God made the dial's shadow go
backward ten degrees to satisfy him. But after this God was
not pleased that Hezekiah showed the king of Babylon's am-
bassadors all his treasure ; and he sent Isaiah to tell him that
all that, with his posterity, should be carried to Babylon.
36. When his son, Manasseh, proved a wicked bloody idolater,
worse than the heathens, God sent his prophets to tell them that
he would cast them off as he had done the Israelites. Yet this
wicked king, when he lay a prisoner in the fetters of the As-
syrians, humbled himself to God, and repented, and God heard
his prayers, and delivered him.
37. When his son Ammon, abadman,waskilled,hissonJosiah,
reigned, and restored the true religion. And Hilkiah, the priest,
sent him the book of Moses' law, where, reading God's threaten-
ings, he humbled himself, and made all the land reform and
pray. And God sent him word by Huldah, a prophetess, that
for the great sins that had been done, God would give up the
Jews into captivity, but because he had humbled himself, it
should not be done in his days. Yet after this, even this good
Josiah would needs rashly go out to war against the king of
Egypt, against God's warning of him, and was killed, on which
occasion, Jeremiah wrote his lamentation.
38. In the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the
prophet Isaiah reproved the sins of -the Jews, and prophesied of
their punishments, and of Christ and his kingdom.
39. In the reign of Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah, did
Jeremiah prophesy, against their sin, and of their punishment,
and captivity, and was cruelly used for it, till the Babylonians
delivered him.
40. In the captivity, Ezekiel prophesied ; and Hosea, Joel,
Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, iVlicah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,
Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, some before, and some in the
captivity.
The Seventeenth Lesson. — The History of the Captivated Jews,
C. What became of the Jews after that they were carried
captives to Babylon ?
M. The most that we are concerned to know of them is con-
tained in the books of Daniel, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and in
THE mother's catechism. 593
the Apocryphal Book of the Maccabees, and other common
history.
C. What saith the Book of Daniel of them?
M. 1. When Nebuchadnezzar carried them to Babylon, he
gave order to Ashpenaz to choose some of the most comely
and ingenious children of the Jews, and teach them the Chal-
dean tongue, and nourish and breed them, to be fit to stand
before the king. So he chose Daniel, and Hananiah, and
Mishael, and Azariah ; but the Jews being forbidden by God to
eat some such meat as the king sent them, they refused them,
and the king's wine, and craved leave to feed on pulse and
watery and by this they became fairer and fatter than all the
rest. And God gave to Daniel an extraordinary spirit to pro-
phesy, and interpret dreams : and the king having an extraor-
dinary dream, required all his soothsayers and wise men to tell
him both what the dream was and what its interpretation was,
or else he would destroy them. And when none of them could
do it, Daniel undertaketh it, and telleth the king both ; and
for this the king advanced him to be chief in government over
his sages, and the other three were made rulers also at his
request.
But the king, being an idolater, made a golden image, and
commanded all to worship it. But these three religious Jews
refused, though he threatened to burn them in a furnace.
They told him that the God whom they served was able to
deliver them out of his haftd; but if he would not, yet be it
known to him, they would not v/orship his image. Upon this,
he caused a furnace to be made extraordinary hot, and them to
be cast into it. And the flame catched and burnt up those that
cast them in. But God kept the flame from hurting tiiem ; and
the king saw them walk unburnt in the flaming furnace, and one
with them that was glorious, like an angel, called the Son of God.
And he being astonished, called them out, and made a decree,
that all his subjects should honour the true God, that had saved
them ; and whoever would speak against him should be cut ia
pieces, and their houses made dunghills. After this, Nebuchad-
nezzar had an extraordinary dream, which did portend his own
fall, and that he should be cast out of his kingdom, among
brutes. And Daniel expounded it to him, when no other could.
And accordingly it came to pass ; for a year after, as he was
proudly boasting of Babylon, and the glory of his kingdom, a
VOL. xvnr, qq
594 THE mother's catechism.
voice from heaven told him, that the kingdom was departed
from him ; and his understanding was taken from him, and
they drove him among the beasts. But his reason returned to
him, and he was restored, and praised God.
After this, Belshazzar, another king, made a great feast for
his lords; and as they were drinking riotously, in the holy ves-
sels that were taken from God's temple, at Jerusalem, a hand
appeared, writing upon the wall, signifying that his kingdom
should be taken from him, and given to the Medes and Per-
sians. And none but Daniel could expound the words; and
that very night Belshazzar was killed, and Darius took the
kingdom.
After this, Darius set an hundred and twenty princes over his
kingdom, and, over these, three presidents, of, whom Daniel was
chief. And these princes envied Daniel, and sought to find
some accusation against him, to destroy him ; but he was so
blameless, that they could find none. Therefore they resolved
to fetch rsomewhat against him for his religion, concerning th«
law of God. And they saw that he was much in prayer ; and
they got the king, by importunity, to pass a decree, that no
man should put up any petition to God, or man, save only to
the king, for thirty days, on pain of being cast to the lions, in
their den. When Daniel knew that the decree was signed, he
opened his window, and thrice a day prayed in his house, as he
was wont. Then these lords accused him to the king, for
breaking the law; and the king -was sorry, and would have
saved him, but upon their importunity he yielded, and Daniel
was cast into the lions^ den ; but they hurt him not. The king
passed the night in trouble, and early in the morning went to
the den, and cried, " O Daniel, is thy God, whom thou servest,
able to deliver thee from the lions ? " And Daniel said, '* My
God hath sent his angel, and shut the mouths of the lions, that
they have not hurt me, because before him I was innocent, and
before thee have done no hurt." Then the king was glad, and
caused Daniel to l>e taken up, and those to be cast in that
accused him, with their wives and children; and the lions broke
their bones in pieces, ere they cam-e to the ground. And the
khig made a decree, that all should fear and honour the God of
])aniel.
This Daniel was a holy man, and spent much of his time in
fasting and prayer ; and God sent an angel to him, that told
THE mother's catechism. 595
him of the great changes of the kingdoms of the world that werie
to come, and told him the very time when Christ was to come,
and to be put to death.
C. What saith the book of Ezra of the Jews?
M. It tells us how king Cyrus, before named by Jeremiah,
was stirred up by God, to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem ; and
how he restored the captive Jews to their own land ; and how
Zerubbabel and Joshua set upon the work ; and how malicious
enemies hindered them ; and how Darius prosecuted the work,
though the enemies accused the builders, as contriving a rebel-
lion : and how the building was finished ; and how king Arta-
xerxes after sent Ezra, with the rest of the captives, who, by
fasting, and prayer, and confession of sin, and teaching the
people the law of God, restored religion, which was almost lost
in the captivity.
C. What doth the book of Nehemiah tell us ?
M. It tells us how king Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah to build
up the wall of the city of Jerusalem ; and how he and the
people unweariedly carried on the work ; and how malignant
enemies accused and hindered them ; and how he, with Ezra and
the chief of the people, by fasting, and prayer, and repentance, en-
gaged all in a covenant with God to keep his law; and how they
informed the people, and instructed them, and restored religion.
C. What doth the book of Esther tell us ?
M. It tells us how King Ahasuerus, putting away his Queen,
cliose Esther, a Jew, in her stead; and how Mordecai, her kins-
man, that bred her up, was preferred hereupon ; and how proud
Haman, who was greatest with the king, hated him, because
he bowed not to him; and how Haman, that he might destroy
Mordecai, made the king believe, that the Jews were a rebellious
people, against the king's profit, and got a commission to de-
stroy them all : but Esther petitioned the king, and ob-
tained their deliverance. And Mordecai, having discovered a
conspiracy against the king, the king resolved to advance him
more, and asked Haman how that man should be used, whom
the king did delight to honour ? And, Haman, thinking it could
be none but himself, said, "Let the royal apparel be brought
which the king useth to wear, and the horse that the king rideth
upon, and the crown royal that is set upon his head, and let
them be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble
princes, that they may array the man with them, and bring him
on horseback, through the streets of the city, and proclaim
QQ 2
596 THE mother's catechism^
before him, Thus shall it be done with the man whom the king
delighteth to honour :" and the king commanded Haman him-
self to do all this to Mordecai, whom he hated, which broke
his heart, but he dared not disobey. After this, queen Esther
told the king, how Haman had got his commission to destroy
all the Jews, and the king's wrath was kindled against him,
and he caused him to be hanged on a very high gallows, which
Haman had made to hang Mordecai on. And also the queen
procured a commission from the king, giving power to the Jews
to kill all their malicious enemies that would have destroyed
.them ; which they executed.
C. What is it that the history of the Maccabees tell us?
M. It tells us the state of the Jews that returned and dwelt
in Judea, and how they were governed by the high priest, and
what wars they had with many great princes : but because this
book is no part of the Bible, I will say no more of it : though
you may profitably read it, to know the state of the Jews, till
the birth of Jesus Christ.
C. But why must I know all these stories ? What are they
to me any more than any other history ?
M. I shall tell you that the next time : all this is to prepare
you to know one that is God and man, Jesus Christ ; and what
he hath done, and will do for the salvation of man.
The Eighteeyith Lesson. — The History of Chris fs Incarnation,
Life, and Death.
M. You must know that all the Jewish and Old Testament
history is but preparatory to the history of the gospel of Jesus
Christ; as all the types and ceremonies were ])ut preparatory
to his revelation, mediation, and kingdom. The Jews were
themselves a small and sinful people; but their state of pecu-
liarity, as under a more special government of God, made them
a fit type, and preparatory to the catholic church of Christ.
The law of Moses was just, but rigorous; and burdensome in
multitudes of ceremonies: but its purity and divinity made it
•fit, as a schoolmaster, to lead them to Christ, who is the end of
their policy and law.
C. Who is Jesus Christ ?
M. He is the Eternal Word, M^isdom, and Son of God, who
took the nature of man, and so is God and man in one person,
that he might be a Mediator between God and man, to recon-
cile and recover fallen, miserable man to God, and save his
THE MOTHER S CATECHISM, 597
church from sin, and death, and hell, and bring them to glory
in the heavenly kingdom.
C. Is there more Gods than one ?
M. No: hut in God there are three persons, called the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
C. How can three persons be one God ?
M. As well as one sun can have light, and heat, and motion.
For a person in the Godhead is not like the persons of men,
which are so many substances divided from one another; but
this is the greatest mystery, which you must learn better here-
after, when you are riper, and more capable.
C. And how can God be made a man ?
M. As well as our souls can dwell and act in our bodies ;
(though there be difference ;) not by any change of God, but by
uniting himself to the human nature of Jesus.
How doth the fire become a candle ? The fire or flame is
not the wick or tallow ; but yet it is so united to them, that it
is with them one and the same candle.
C. Hath God a Son ?
M. Yes : but not begotten, as we men are, by our parents.
C. How then ?
M. No similitude can show us clearly these great, unsearch-
able mysteries; but some may a little help us to understand
somewhat of them. Do you know how the sun begetteth, or
causeth, the beams of light ? or do you know how a man beget-
teth, or causeth his own thoughts? This showeth us a little how
God the Father begets his Son, which is called his Word and
Wisdom, from all eternity : and then when this Son, or Word,
became a man, that was another begetting.
C. Was Christ begotten of his Father ?
M. Yes : the first was before all time and worlds, from
eternity. This is Christ's Godhead, by which he and his Father
are as truly one God as the sun and its light are one sun, or as
a man's soul and his understanding are one soul.
C. And what was the other begetting of Christ ?
M. God by his Spirit did beget Jesus Christ, without any
other father, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, in which the
Eternal Word, or Son of God, did take to himself the substance
and nature of man, and so was made and born a man.
C. Did he take only the flesh and body of a man, or the
soul of a man also ?
M. He took both body and soul of man; and his God-
598 THH Mother's catechism.
head Was as nearly united to his sonl (and niore than a soul to
that soul) as our souls are to our bodies. And so as we have a
soul and body, Christ had a Godhead, and a soul, and a body.
C. Was he born as other men are ?
M. Yes : but not begotten nor conceived as others.
C. Where was he born, and how ?
M. He was born at Bethlehem, a little city in Judea, in a
common inn, and that in a stable.
C. How came that to pass ?
M. His mother, after she was with child of him by the Holy
Ghost, was married to a man called Joseph, who was taken for
his father, and was but a carpenter; but both he and Mary his
mother, were of the blood royal, descended from King David :
and at that time the Romans had conquered a great part of
the world, and also conquered Judea, and were rulers there ; and
their emperor Augustus made a decree, that the names of all his
subjects must be taken, and enrolled in the places where they
were born ; and so Joseph, who was gone to live in Galilee, far
off, was put to travel with his wife to Bethlehem, to be enrolled ;
and there was no room in the inn, and so Mary was delivered of
her son Jesus in the stable.
C. But if Jesus was God, why should he be born of so poor
a woman, and in so poor a manner ?
M. Oh ! This was part of the reason of his coming into
the world : he came to suffer for our sins, and not to live as
earthly kings, in pomp and pleasure ; and therefore he began
his life in a low and suffering state, and so he passed it on to
tlie end. And also he came to teach us all how to suffer, and
to live above the love and vanity of this world, that we may
obtain a better world after we are dead, and not to make us
great men on earth, or to pamper and pleasure our flesh.
C. But how was it known that God begat Jesus?
M. God did many ways reveal it. He sent an angel to
Zachary, a priest, to tell him that his wife should bear a son,
which was John the Baptist, who should be a prophet, to pre-
pare men to believe in Christ; and Zachary hardly believing it,
the angel told him, that he should be dumb till the child was
born, and so he was; and when John was born Zachary's tongue
was loosed, and he prophesied of Christ. Also God sent his
angel to Mary, to tell her, that she should be with child by the
Holy Ghost ; and she believed and prophesied, praising God.
Also, at the time of Christ's birth, angels appeared to some
THE mother's catechism. 599
shepherds, that were watching their flocks in the field by night,
and told them that Christ was then born at Bethlehem, and
thej^ might find him laid in a stable. And the angels sung this
praise to God, saying, " Glory to God in the highest ; on earth
peace, and to men good will." And the shepherds came and
found him there.
Also there were three wise astronomers of another country,
in the East, that by a new star were taught, by God, to know
it; and the star went before them, and led them to the very
place where they found him, and offered gifts, as to a new-born
king. It is likely an angel was the conductor of that star.
C. How was Christ received when he was born ?
M. King Herod, being told by these wise men that he was
born king, intended to murder him, and bid the wise men find
him out, and then come and tell him that he might worship
him ; but God bid them go home another way. And when Herod
saw that he was deceived, he sent and murdered all the children
about Bethlehem, that were but two years old. But God first
told Joseph, and bid him fly, with Mary and the child, to Egypt,
till Herod's death.
C. What did Christ do when he was a little child?
M. He obeyed his supposed father and his mother, to be an
example to all children, to teach them to obey their parents.
If he that was God in flesh would obey, how much are all
children bound to obedience ?
C. But why would Christ become so weak at first, as an
infant, and not be made a man first, as Adam was ?
M. He that came to redeem all ages, young and old, would
sanctify all, by taking both childhood and riper age upon him-
self, and show us that children are saved by him.
C. How could Christ be our Teacher, King, and Saviour,
when he was an infant ?
M. The work of our redemption was not to be done all at
once, but by degrees and parts. His infant humiliation, next
his incarnation, was a part, but the great part was to be done
at age, in its proper season. A child may be a king, or a lord,
though he cannot do that which a king, or lord, at age, can do.
An infant may be the owner of an inheritance, or lands, in
right, though he be not capable of knowing or using it. And
as Christ was the head of the church in his infancy, so infants
may be infant members of it, though they know it not.
C. What did Christ do after, when he came to fuller age ?
600 THE mother's catfxhism.
M. He grew up in wisdom as he grew in age, as to his bodily
manner of knowing ; and he disputed with the doctors ; but he
did not openly declare himself to be Christ, and exercise his
office, till he was thirty years old.
C. How did he do it then ?
M. He was first baptised by John Baptist, who was his har-
binger, to show that the kingdom of Christ was now coming,
and to prepare the Jews, by preaching, repentance, and baptising
the penitent, to be fit receivers of this heavenly King. And God,
by a voice from heaven, proclaimed him to be his beloved Son.
in whom he was pleased, commanding us to hear him ; and the
Holy Ghost descended on him visibly, as in the likeness of a
dove.
C. What did he when he was baptised?
M. He went into the wilderness, and fasted forty days and
nights, as Moses did when he received the law ; and then Satan
was permitted to tempt him, that if he could have drawn him
to any sin he might have hindered our redemption.
C. What did the devil tempt him to?
M. To break God's order, and tempt God, by commanding
stones to be made bread, to satisfy his hunger, and to cast him-
self headlong from a pinnacle of the temple, to show that
God could preserve him ; and to worship the devil upon pro-
mise that he would give him all the kingdoms of the world.
C. How did the devil find any means for such foul tempta-
tions?
M. By citing some texts of Scripture falsely perverted.
C. Did Christ yield to any of his temptations ?
M. No; he never sinned in thought, word, or deed.
C. How did Christ answer the tempter?
M. By Scripture, rightly alleged; and, at last, by detesting
his motions, and commanding him to be gone.
C. Why would Christ be tempted to sui;h odious sins ?
M. The world was overthrown, and Paradise lost, by the
devil's overcoming Eve and Adam by his temptations : and
Christ, that came to recover sinful man, was to conquer the
tempter, who, by temptation, had conquered man.
C. What did Christ after that ?
M. He went abroad preaching to sinners, to prepare them,
by repentance, to 1)clieve that the promised Redeemer was
come, and joyfully to receive the heavenly King that came tosave
them. And before he told them that he was the Christ, he
THE mother's catechism* 601
proved it by his works, going about to do that which none
could do, but by the power of God. He healed the blind, the
lame, the palsy, the lepers, and all diseases, by his bare word or
touch. He did, by command, heal those that were mad and
possessed by devils. He raised the dead to life again; and then
he declared that he was the Christ. And he sent forth twelve
chosen chief messengers, and seventy other disciples, to preach
the same doctrine, and to work such miracles as he had done;
which they did.
C. And how was he received ; did they beHeve him ?
M. The multitude admired him, and cried him up, and fol-
lowed him to see his miracles, and to be healed of their dis-
eases : but none but those that were ordained to eternal life did
so believe in him, as to forsake their sin, and to be saved ; for
he came to preach repentance and holiness.
C. Who were they that believed him not ?
M. Especially the rulers, and great men, and priests, and
Sadducees ; and next the wicked sort of the rabble.
C. Why were the rulers and priests against him ?
M. The Roman empire had conquered the Jews, and ruled
over them, and were the most powerful in the world; and
Christ was called the King of the Jews, because he came to be
their Saviour; and they thought that if the Romans did but
hear of a king risen up among them, they would send their
armies and destroy them : and the common people, seeing
Christ's miracles, would have made him a king, but that he re-
fused it, iind therefore the rulers plotted to kill him.
C. And how did they use him at last ?
M. The priests and the rabble joined, together to persuade
Pilate, the Roman governor, to put him to death : and they
called him a blasphemer, because he told them that he was the
Son of God. And when Pilate told them he found no fault in
him, they cried out with rage, instead of reason, " Crucify him,
crucify him!" And when they could no otherwise prevail with
Pilate, they told him that if he did not crucify Christ, he was
an enemy to Caesar, the Roman emperor, whom the Jews were
subject to, because Christ called himself the King of the Jews.
And then Pilate durst forbear no longer, but judged him to be
crucified.
And then when he was in their power. King Herod, and the
soldiers, and the rabble, abused and scorned him, and put a
crown of thorns on his head, and a purple robe on him, and a
602 THE mother's catechism.
rerd in his hand, as a sceptre, and bowed to him in scorn, and
blindfolded him and struck him, and bid him read who struck
him ; and after much scorn and scourging they crucified him.
C. What is crucifying?
M. It was the manner of the Romans putting malefactors to
death, like our hanging men. They set in the ground a long
piece of timber, and nailed a cross piece near the top ; and
they nailed men's hands, spread out on the cross-bar, and the
feet to the lower part of the upright piece, that they might so
hang in pain till they died : and so they did by Jesus, writing-
over his head " Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.''
C. M^hat did his disciples do, when they saw him hanged on
a cross ?
M. Peter himself denied him, and foreswore him, and the
rest forsook him and fled, save that John and his mother, and
some wornen, or few others, stood mourning by him.
C. I doubt if I had seen him crucified and dead, I should not
have believed that he was the Son of God ?
M. But what, if you had seen the proof that followed ? He
was crucified between two thieves. One of them reviled him ;
and so did the people, for not saving himself that had saved
others; but the other was converted, and believed in Christ, and
prayed him to remember him when he came into his kingdom;
and Christ promised him, " This day shalt thou be with me in
Paradise." And as he hung on the cross, the sun was darkened,
the earth trembled, the veil of the temple was rent from the top
to the bottom, and many dead bodies rose, and appeared to
many.
C. It is wonder, then, that they did not all believe ?
M. The captain of the guard of soldiers was convinced; but a
wicked, hardened heart re^isteth reason and sense.
C. What did they, then, with the body of Jesus ?
M. Two of the rulers, that had secretly believed him, now
owned him, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus. And Jo-
seph begged his body of Pilate, and buried it in a grave hewn
in stone, in a garden, which he had prepared for himself; and
they wrapped the body with s})ices, to keep it.
C. What day of the week died Christ ?
M. On a Friday, so called now, that is, the fifth day ; on the
yearly day commonly called Good Friday.
C. What became of him after this ?
M. His soul went to Paradise, and to , that is, among
THE MOTHEa's f'ATECHrSM. (>03
departed souls, and his body lay in the grave till the third day,
which was the first day of the week, now commonly called Sun-
day. And then he rose from the dead, of which I shall speak
to you the next time.
C. But could not Christ have saved himself from death ?
M. Yes : very easily, as he saved others. But he came into
the world on purpose to die, and not only to die, but to suflfer
in his soul the greater pain of the displeasure and justice of
God, for the sins of man, which he voluntarily undertook to bear:
of which I must also further teach you, but will not load you
with too much at once.
The Nineteenth Lesson. — The History of Christ* s Resurrection,
and his Commission to the Apostles, and his Ascension.
C. When did Christ rise again from the dead ?
M. Early in the morning, on the first day of the week, now
called, by Christians, the Lord's day; which is kept in remem-
brance of it ever since. . ;.;
C. How did Christ rise ? * ^ /'
M. His Godhead was Almighty, and his soul, which was in
Paradise, by and with his Godhead, again entered into his body.
C. How was his rising known ?
M. Because Christ had often told them that he would rise
again the third day, the rulers set a seal on the stone that was
at the entrance of the sepulchre, and set a guard to watch it.
And an angel came and frighted away the soldiers, and rolled
away the stone ; and the rulers hired the soldiers to say, that
Christ's disciples came by night and stole him away, while they
were asleep, and the people believed this.
C. Who saw him when he was risen ?
M. First Mary Magdalene, and some other women ; and after,
five hundred at once, on a mountain in Galilee. And he oft
appeared to his disciples, on the first days of each week, when
they were met with doors shut on them. And Thomas once
being absent, he told the rest that he would not believe it, un-
less he saw the wound in his side, (which the soldiers had made
with a spear,) and those in his hands ^nd feet, and might put
his finger into them. And the next time he bid Thomas come
and put his finger into his side, and wounds, and not be faith-
less, but believing. And Thomas cried out, " My Lord and my
God!" At another time, he appeared to two of them on the
604 THE mother's catechism.
way, and opened to them the old Scripture, which foretold his
sufferings, and his glory.
And another time he came to them at the seaside where they
were fishing, and brought a huge draught of great fishes into
their net, and then did eat with them on the shore.
C. How long stayed he on earth when he was risen ?
M. Forty days ; from Easter day to Ascension day.
C. What did he all that while on earth ?
M. He appeared to men, not constantly, but at certain
times : and before he went, he gave his apostles their commis-
sion what to do when he was gone.
C. What were they appointed to do ?
M. To go as far as they could into all the world, and preach
the gospel to all nations, and to make them Christ's disciples,
and to baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost. And, having baptised them, to teach them to
observe all that he had commanded them, and live after his
laws.
C. What is baptising ?
M. It is a solemn covenant made between God the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, and him that is baptised; which is sig-
nified by washing the person with water.
C. How were they washed ?
M. The minister brought them to some water, and dipped
them over head, and then they rose up : which was to signify that
they trusted in Christ, that had been dead and buried, and risen
again : and that they did now, by covenant, become as dead men
to the world, and to their fleshly, sinful life, and did enter upon
a new life of faith and holiness, [in] hope of heaven.
C. Must they be so baptised now ?
M. They must be so washed to the same signification and
covenant : but the same quantity of v/ater, and dipping over
head is not necessary in our cold country, where it may destroy
life, as was used in that hot country where it was a pleasure :
for it is the washing, and signification, and covenant, that is ne-
cessary ; and God will have mercy rather than sacrifice and
outward ceremony.
C. What is the covenant that is made by baptism ?
M. God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, doth consent and
promise to the baptised, to be his God and Father, his Saviour,
and his Sanctifier and Comforter, if he will consent, unfeignedly
THE MOTHER S CATECHISAf. 605
and practically, so to take him ; and forsaking the devil, the
world, and the flesh, so far as they are against him, will consent
to live in faith, love, and holy obedience, to him ; in which he
will strengthen him, and will forgive his sin, and give him an
everlasting life of blessedness in heaven.
C. Were little children to be baptised ?
M. Yes, if the parents were baptised Christians, and, desiring
it, did dedicate them to God in Christ : for nations were to be
made disciples, and baptised ; and children are parts of na-
tions.
C. What did Christ after the forty days on earth ?
M. He ascended up into heaven,
C. How did he go up ?
M. By the power of his Godhead, in the sight of his disci-
ples. He called them together, and gave them his commands
and his blessing, and promised to send down the Holy Ghost
on them and on other believers, and to enable them to speak
those languages (to propagate the gospel) which they had never
learned ; and to work miracles, to confirm their doctrine and tes-
timony of Christ. And he commanded them to stay at Jeru-
salem till the Holy Ghost was sent down upon them. And then
he went bodily to heaven, while they looked up and gazed after
him : and an angel stood by them, and said, " Why stand ye
gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus shall come again
as you have seen him go.'*
C. But did Christ ever come again ?
M. That is to be done at the end of this world, when Christ
shall come to judgment.
C. Did Christ take up his body that he had on earth ?
M. Yes : but it is changed from corruptible flesh into a spi-
ritual, incorruptible, glorious body.
C. And what doth Christ do now in heaven ?
M. He is above all angels and men, the Lord of all, and all
power is given to him to gather and save his elect, and to sub-
due his enemies, and punish the ungodly.
C. Why did Christ stay forty days before he ascended up ?
M. To leave men a full proof that he was risen.
C. But wliy did he not show himself to all the Jews, as well
as to his disciples ?
M. We must take heed of asking God a reason of his doings :
he doth all things in perfect wisdom, but maketh not us his
counsellors, or judges, of his doings. But we may conceive that
600
THE MOTHER S CATECHISM.
the malignant, self-cursed Jews were unworthy and unfit to be,
the witnesses of his resurrection ; and seeing the witnesses of it
were to be sent abroad through the world, to testify what they
had seen themselves, none were so fit for this office as those that
had been with him, and heard his doctrine, and seen his mira-
cles, and by sanctification were fitted to be his messengers, and
by self-denial and patience to propagate his saving gospel to the
world.
Chapter Twenty. — Of the coming down of the Holy Spirit, and
the Works of tlie Apostles thereby.
C. What is that Holy Ghost that Christ promised to send
down ?
M. He is the Spirit of God the Father, and the Son, sent to
do those strange works on men which no man or angel was
able to do, to fit men to further their own and other men's sal-
vation, and propagate the grace and kingdom of Christ in the
world.
C. What were those strange gifts and works ?
M. The Holy Spirit filled them with a lively belief of that
they were to preach : and brought all to their remembrance
that Christ had taught them, and taught the apostles infallibly
that which they were to deliver as Christ's truth, by word or
writing to the world. And he enabled them to speak the lan-
guages which they had never learned, that they might be able to
preach to men of divers languages and nations. And to con-
vince ail men that they were sent by God, they had the gift of
doing miracles, to heal the sick, and lame, and blind, and raise
the dead to life again. And with these gifts they were sent to
preach the gospel to the world.
C. Could they heal all the sick, and raise all the dead ?
M. No : but the same Holy Spirit that gave them the power,
told them when to use it : it was not to be common, nor at
their own will ; but when God, by miracles, would have unbe-
lievers convinced, that would not be convinced by other means,
and so Christ and his gospel proved to be true.
C. Had not good men the Spirit of God before i
M, Yes, in a lower measure, agreeable to that measure of
means that God then afforded them: but they had this emi-
nent, extraordinary gift of the Spirit, which Christ gave after
his ascension, for the proof and success of his gospel.
C. When ai\d how did they receive this gift of the Spirit?
THE mother's catechism. (SOfli
M. On the Lord'vS day, which we call Whitsunday, when all
he believers were assembled to worship God, suddenly a noise,
ike a rushing, mighty wind from heaven, filled all the house ;
and there appeared like cloven tongues of fire, and sat upon each
of them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance, the works
and praise of God : so that the people of many nations that
were then at Jerusalem, wondered to hear them speak in ^U
their several languages. .-
C. Did this convince the Jews ?
. M. The most of the priests and rulers were hardened, and
believed not : but Peter made a speech to them to prove that
this miraculous gift of the Spirit was sent from Christ as the
witness to his word : and three thousand were converted, and
were baptised that day.
C. What more did the apostles do to prove the gospel to be
true ?
M. There was a poor man born lame, and had so lived above
forty years, that was carried to beg at the gate of the temple,
and he asked an alms of Peter and John, that were going in to
prayer. And the Spirit of God moved Peter to say, "In the
name of Jesus, stand up and walk ;" and he was presently
healed, and walked, and leaped, praising God : and the people
wondering, Peter preached another sermon to them, and the
converts were then five thousand.
C. Did not this convert the rulers and priests ? :
M. No : but being in a rage to see so many converted, they
laid hold on the apostles, and the next day examined them, by
what power they did this miracle : and when Peter told them
that it was by the name of Jesus, they knew not what to say,
but commanded them to preach Christ no more.
. C. And did they obey them, and give over preaching ?
M. No : but they came to the rest of the believers, and gave
God thanks for his wonders of mercy. And the Holy Ghost
again fell on the hearers, and they magnified and praised God.
And they went on preaching, and the rulers put them in prison,
and the angel of God opened the prison doors, and let them
out, and bid them go and preach in the temple; which they did.
C. Did not this convince them ?
jM. No : they did but rage the more, and threatened the.
Apostles for preaching, when they forbade them ;. and were^
608 THE mother's catechism.
plotting to kill them ; but one of them, Gamaliel, stopped them,
by telling them what it is to fight against God.
C. But did none believe them after these miracles ?
M. Yes, those whose hearts God changed 5 many thousands
joined with the apostles as a church, in their doctrine and com-
munion and prayer : and were, by the Spirit, so filled with love,
that they sold their inheritances, and brought the money to the
apostles, and all lived and fed together on the common stock :
and no one called any thing his own.
C. But what did they when the stock was spent ?
M. This was not to continue ; but to show the power of the
Spirit of love at first. God, that moved them to it, knew that
they would quickly be persecuted out of the land, and could not
carry their inheritance away with them.
C. Were all willing thus to part with their estates?
]VI. God made them willing by love : but one called Ananias,
and his wife, Sapphira, brought but part that they sold their land
for, and lied, and said, that it was all : and, by the Spirit of God,
Peter pronounced the sentence of death on them for lying, and
thinking that the Holy Ghost in the apostles knew it not;
and for keeping that which they took on them to devote to
God.
C. Did not this frighten men from being Christians ?
M. It frightened men from being hypocrites, and from com-
ing with a false, divided heart. But the good that the apostles
did, drew abundance the more to them.
C. What was that good they did ?
M. They rejoiced sinners with the glad tidings of pardon and
salvation by Christ; and they healed them of all diseases: insomuch
that men cariied the sick on the beds and couches into the streets,
that at least the shadow of Peter, passing by, might overshadow
them; and multitudes of the sick, and possessed with devils, were
brought out of other cities about ; and they were healed every
one. And men love their bodies so well, that this turned to the
good of their souls, and winning them to believe.
C. What did the apostles next ?
M. They made seven good iiTen deacons, to distribute the
church's stock, and take care of the poor. And one of these,
called Stephen, was full of the Holy Ghost, and confounded the
unbelievers, by proving the truth of Christ ; which filled them so
full of rage, that they brought false witness against him, as for
THE mother's catechism.
blasphemy, and stoned him to death : and tins was the first
martyr that was killed for the faith of Christ.
C. How did he die ?
M. Praying for his murderers that God " would not lay that
sin to their charge," (that is, not so as to deny them repentance,
and the further tenders of his grace,) and he prayed the Lord
Jesus to receive his spirit. For before they killed him, he saw
heaven opened, and Christ sitting on the right hand of God :
no wonder, then, that he died with joy.
C. Who were they that did this cruel murder ?
M. One of the leaders of this malignant rabble was Saul ;
who did not stop here, but went on to persecute the rest ; and
make havoc of the church, and entering into every house, haled
out men and women, and committed them to prison : and so
scattered the Christians from Jerusalem into other parts.
C. What did they when they were driven away from Jeru-
salem ?
M. They went abroad several ways, preaching the gospel.
Philip went to Samaria, the chief city of the ten tribes, where
were a mongrel sort of erroneous Jews ; where he so preached,
that the generality of the city gave heed to him, and after were
baptised as believers, both men and women; for his miracles
convinced them : he cast out devils from many that were pos-
sessed by them ; and he healed palsies, lameness, and other
diseases, and convinced Simon that had bewitched them.
C. Who was that Simon ?
M. He was a famous wizard, that, by the power of the devil,
had done such strange things among them, that they called
him the great power of God, and were commonly deluded by
him.
And when he saw the miracles of Philip, he himself believed,
and was baptised as a Christian ; but yet his heart was false,
and not truly converted and sanctified.
C. How was that known ?
M. Though Philip, that was but a deacon, and many
others, worked miracles, yet God made it a special gift to
the apostles, that, by laying on of their hands, the Holy Ghost
should be given to oth ers, to enable them to work miracles.
And when the Samaritans believed, Peter and John came to
them, and laid their hands on them with prayer, and they had
presently this miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost. And when
Simon the conjuror saw this, he wondered, and offered them
VOL. XYIII. R R
610
money, if they would give him the power to give the Holy
Ghost to others, which showed a proud, ungodly heart.
C. And what answer did they give him ?
M. Peter said to him, " Thy money perish with thee, because
thou hast thought that the gift of God might be bought with
money ;" and he told him that his heart was not right, and
that he had no part in that matter ; but for all his believing and
baptism, he was yet in the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity,
and bid him repent and pray, if, perhaps, he might be forgiven.
And Simon being afraid of this threatening, entreated them to
pray for him, lest it should fall upon him. And thus the great
city Samaria joyfully received the christian faith.
C. What other miracles followed this ?
M. When Philip had converted the Samaritans, an angel of
God bid him go toward the South, for further work, which God
had thus to do. There was a great man that was a treasurer
to a queen of Ethiopia, who, being a proselyte, had been wor-
shipping at Jerusalem, and going home, was reading in his
chariot part of Isaiah liii., which is a prophecy of Christ's suffer-
ings, but understood it not : and God bid Philip go to him and
teach him. And the great man took Philip into his chariot,
and Philip expounded it to him, and preached Christ to him,
and he^was converted, and baptized.
C. But what became of bloody Saul, that persecuted the
Church ?
M. Oh ! God made him the greatest example of his mercy
that ever was heard of; while he raged against the church in
his blind zeal, he was not content to drive them from Jerusa-
lem, but he got letters from the high priest to pursue them to
Damascus, the chief city of Syria, and to bring them bound to
Jerusalem ; but as he journeyed and came near to Damascus,
(a famous city in Syria,) suddenly, at midday, a light from hea-
ven, above the brightness of the sun, shone round about him ;
whereupon he fell to the earth, and he heard a voice (but
they who were with him only heard the noise) saying to him,
" Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? It is hard for thee to
kick against the pricks.'' Saul, trembling and astonished, said,
" Who art thou, Lord ?" And, being informed that it was
Jesus of Nazareth whom he was persecuting, by this same
Jesus he was ordered to arise, and to go into the city, (Damas-
cus,) where he should know more. He, lodging there, in the
street called Straight, in the house of Judas, remained blind
THE MOTHER S CATECHISM. 611
three days, fasting and praying. Thither the Lord, in a vision,
sent Ananias, a disciple at Damascus, who, having heard of
Saul's fury, and errand to, Damascus from the high priest, was
loth to go, till better satisfied by the Lord concerning him.
But when he understood that Christ had fixed on him to be a
chosen vessel to himself for extraordinary service, he goes to
Saul ; and telling Saul what Christ told him, Saul is baptised
by him, and recovers his sight : and, after some days' abode
with the disciples at Damascus, he preached Christ in the
synagogues, that he was the Son of God : and thenceforward
he became the most eminent of Christ's servants and apostles,
converting souls, edifying churches, and ordering things and
persons to their greatest advantage : and his Lord all along
owned and prospered him, till he at last sealed his doctrine with
martyrdom.
But the course of his ministry, the substance of his doctrine,
the dates and occasions of his epistles, with their main scope,
sense, and force, his sufferings, with his wisdom and behaviour
upon all accounts, as the New Testament informs us, require
good time, and close thought.
END OF THE EIGHTEENTH VOLUME.
Printed by Mills, Jowett, and Mills, Bolt-court, Fleet-street.
o
BINDING SECT. NOV tO
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY