shall they be exalted For the Lord is our defence and the holy One of Israel is our King Psal 89.15 16 17 18. What gladness was there at a private meeting of a few Christians that met to pray for Peter when they saw him delivered and come among them Act. 12.12.5.14 When the Churches had Rest they were edified and walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Act. 9.31 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 comforted What a multitude of desires and prayers and expectations 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. 8.26 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 Masters joy Mat. 25.21 That you may the better understand the sweetness of all these sorts of joy which Christs return will bring to Saints observe 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 sakes 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 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Traitour 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 Emperours to some reputation till Satan by another game overcame them by Judas his Successours that for what will you give me by Pride and Worldliness betrayed them into that deplorate state in which they have continued these 900 Years at least So that the Christian name is confined to a sixth part of the World and serious sanctified Believers are persecuted more by the Hypocrites that wear the Livery of Christ than by Heathens and Infidels themselves 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 it crieth out on the Cross My God My God why hast thou forsaken me Will not Christ 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 destroyed 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 Scepter 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 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 Gods Name should have been Hallowed and his Kingdom come and his Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven And O how seasonable and how joyful will the Churches Resurrection be after such low and sad distress Many a sad Christian under the Sentence of Death is going hence with fear and trouble When a Moment shall transmit them into the joyful presence 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 O how many of our old Companions are now there Not under temptation or any of the tempters power Not under the darkness of ignorance error or unbelief Not under the pains of a languid diseased corruptible Body Not under the fear of Sin or Satan or wicked Men Not under the terror of Death or Hell of an accusing Conscience or the wrath of God O with what joy shall we see and enjoy that glorious Society 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 Goal unto a Kingdom and from the Suburbs of Hell unto the Communion of Blessed Saints and Angels and into the Joy of our Lord. Doct. 6. Your Joy shall no Man take from you The Joy that cometh at Christs return will be a secure everlasting joy Impregnable as Heaven it self Christ and his Church will be Crucified no more Nor any more despised scorned persecuted or falsly accused and condemned Look not then for Christ or his Church in the Grave he is not here he is risen Who can we fear will deprive us of that joy 1. Not our selves And then we need to fear no other Our folly and sin is our Enemies strength They can do nothing against us without our selves The Arrows that wound us are all feathered from our own Wings But our trying time will then be past and confirmation will be the reward of Conquest He 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 to
way to him Repress wrath and hate unpeaceable Counsels Our way and our time must be only Gods way and time Self-saving men are usually the destroyers 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 's 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 oppressours and oppressed Stay a little and mortality will change the Scene Gods time is best Martyrdom seldome 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 more interessed in his Gospel Church and Honour than we Queen Maries cruelties and the Bishops bonefires made Religion universally received the more easily when her short Reign was ended We may learn wit of the Fool that seeing great Guns and Musquets ask'd what they were to do and the answerer 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 company and from temptations and especially of idleness fullness 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 selfishness and worldliness prevail against it Think of Gods 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 principles which all profess viz. 1. To love God as God above all and so to obey him 2. To love our Neighbours as our selves 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 anothers loss Get Men once to love their Neighbours as themselves and you may easily prognosticate peace quietness and concord happiness to the Land and Salvation to the peoples 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 tho too much mixt with our sins and vilified by some 1 Thes 5.11 12 13. Comfort your selves together and edify one another even as also ye do and I 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 your selves And the Lord deeply write on all your Hearts these blessed words 1 Joh. 4.16 We have known and believed the Love that God hath to us God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him And remember 2 Pet. 3.11 12 13. 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 to 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 I need not lengthen my Counsels 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 any failings in the writings or practice of my unripe and less experienced age as it will be to my self as pleasing as the cure of any Bodily Disease I hope it will not seem strange or ungrateful to you Though we must hold fast the truth which we have received both you and I 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. 13.20 21. FINIS These Books following are lately Printed for and Sold by B. Simmons at the Three Golden Cocks at the West end of Pauls A Full Treatise of Episcopacy for the Primitive sort only Poetical fragments Heart Imployment with God and it self The Concordant Discord of a broken healed heart Sorrowing rejoycing fearing hoping dying living By Richard Baxter in Octavo Price bound 1 s. Of the Immortality of Mans Soul and the nature of it and other Spirits Two Discourses one in a Letter to an unknown doubter the other in a reply to Dr. Henry Moors Animadversions on a private Letter to him which he published in his Second Edition of Mr. Joseph Glanvils Saducismus Triumphatus or History of Aparitions By Richard Baxter in Octavo Price bound 1 s. 6 d. Richard Baxters Dying Thoughts upon Phil. 1.23 written for his own use in the latter times of his corporal pains and weakness in Octavo Price bound 2 s. 6 d. Aâ—ditions to the Poetical fragments of Richard Baxter written for himself and communicated to such as are more for serious Verse than smooth in Octavo Price stitcht 6 d. Truth and Peace promoted Or a Guide to young Christians in the way of Salvation past the danger of errors and difficulties of curiosity In a familiar Dialogue between a Minister of Christ and a devout private Christian With an Appendix concerning the length of a Sabbath days Journey By Adam Martingdale a Minister of the Gospel in Cheshire Price bound 6 d. Isa 30.20 Heb. 12. from v. 1. to 〈…〉 1 Cor. 13.3 Matth. 5.10 11 12. Eph. 4.18 19. 1 Cor. 15. John 3.6 Prov. 7.22 23. Rev. Luke 14.28 33. Rom. 8.17 18. Tim. 2 Cor. 4.18 Mat. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 2 â— 4. Luke 22.44 Luk. 8.37 Math. 25.41 Mat. 7.23 Luk. 13.27 1 Pet. 1.6 7 9. Ps 119.67.75 Ps 129.1 2 3. Isa 49.13 Psal 18.27 2 Pet. 24. Jude 6. * Or as Amyraldus Paraphras Cum olim evigilabunt praesens eorum felicitas erit instar somnii quod somno discusso dissipatum est quin etiam antequam evigilent in ipsa illa urbe in qua antea florebant vanam istam felicitatis poâ—pam in qua antea volitabant reddes contemnendam tanquam umbram aut imaginem evanescenteâ— in qua nihil solidi est * Nubecula est cito evanescit said Athanasius of Julian When Julian's death was told at Antioch they all cried out Maxime fatue ubi sunt vaticinia tua Vicit Deus Christus ejus Abbas Vrspargens pag. 91. Gen. 4.7 Numb 32.23 Heb. 11.25 26 c. Ps 9.7 8. Psal 43.2 3 4. Mat. 27.43
is not speedily executed therefore the hearts of the Sons of Mâ—n are fully set in them to do evil Eccl. 8.11 But behold the Judge is at the door Jam. 5.9 He that cometh will not tarry And for all these things you must come to Judgment Eccl. 11.9 and 12.14 5. Be not discouraged by your Lords delay but wait his coming in faith and patience Can you not wait for him so short a time O how quickly will it be accomplished sink not into despondency 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 rather be healed Heb. 12.12 13. Be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 Be sober and hope unto the end 1 Pet. 1.13 Ye are the House of Christ if ye hold fast the confidence and the rejoycing of the hope firm unto the end Heb. 3.6.14 and 6.11 Ye have need of patience that having done the Will of God ye may inherit the promise Heb. 10.36.11 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 30.7 Thou hidest thy face and I was troubled But v. 11 12. Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing Thou hast put off my Sackcloth 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 reviveth 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 Suns return recover the verdour and beauty of the Earth and cloth it in green and spangle it with the ornaments of odoriferous Flowers and enrich it with sweet and plenteous fruits The 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 hope and then into words of peace and then into joyful thankfulness 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 expatiating 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 Person that lately could scarce think well of God or that dwelt in tears and dust and darkness and could think of nothing but Sin and Hell and from every text and every Providence concluded nothing but undone or damned Would you think this joyful thankful Soul were the same that lately was crying 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 shine 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 falsly in his Covenant The Son who was brought up with the Father and was daily his delight rejoycing always before him rejoycing 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. 8.30 to the 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 Brethren and say unto them I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God Joh. 20.17 Those that his Ministers have long been comforting in vain when Christ returneth he will revive and comfort them in a moment and with a word The Soul that now Crieth O it is impossible it will never be doth little know how easie 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 advantages 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 Arrian persecutions in the happy 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 Bonner and Gardiner that had sacrificed so many holy Christians 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 whipt the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple and would not let them make the House of Prayer a place of Merchandize what Hosanna's were sounded in Jerusalem Math. 21.15 16. When the Salvation of Israel cometh out of Zion and the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people Jacob shall rejoyce and Israel shall be glad Psal 14 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 thousand Psal 84.4.10 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O Lord in the Light of thy countenance in thy name shall they rejoyce all the day and in thy righteousness