this part of my application having to do with Souls that are ready to depart and are in so sad an unprepared state as is not to be thought on but with great compassion I am next to come to that part of the application which I chiefly intended to those that are the Heirs of Life II. O You that are members of Jesus Christ receive this Cordial which may corroborate your hearts against all inordinate fears of Death Let it come when it will you may boldly recommend your departing Souls into the hands of Christ Let it be by a lingring 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 forein 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 Love 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 be a member of Christ thou art worthy in him to be accepted Thou hast a worthiness of Aptitude and Christ hath a worthiness of merit The day that cometh upon such at unawares that have their hearts over-charged with surfeiting drunkenness and the cares of this life and as a snare surprizeth the inhabitants of the earth shall be the day of thy great deliverance Watch therefore and pray alwayes that you way be accounted worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass and to stand before the son of man Luke 21. 34 35 36. They that are accounted worthy to obtain that world can die no more for they are equal to the Angels and are the children of God Luke 20. 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 Answ 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 corruption 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 the power of most temptations and wilt not fear the face of man when Death is the worst that man can bring thee to It is true Death is dreadful but it is as true that the arms of Christ are joyful It is an unpleasing 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 commend your departing Spirits to be received by Christ be informed by these considerations following 1 Your Spirits are Christs 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 Ezek. 18. 4. So also by the title of redemption We are not our own we are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 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 my self and all I had to thee and thou swarest to me and I became thine Ezek. 16. 8. and 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 by thee among Wolves in the world Preserve me now from the enemy of souls I am thine O save me Psalm 119. 94. and lose not that which is thine own 2. Consider that thou art his upon so dear a purchace 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 of poverty and suffered reproach and scorn and buffetings and been nailed to the Cross and put to cry out My God My God why hast thou forsaken me And will he now forget his love and sufferings and himself forsake thee after this Did he himself on the Cross commend his spirit into his Father's hands and will he not receive thy spirit when thou at death commendest it to him He hath known himself what it is to have a humane soul separated from the body and the body buried in a grave and there lamented by surviving friends And why 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 encounter 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 hath 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 wil 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. 8. 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 couldst come down in flesh and be abused and spit upon and slandred and crucified that thou couldst bleed and die and be buried for me and now be unwilling to receive me that thou shoulds pay so dear for souls and now refuse to entertain them that thou shouldst die to save them from the devil and now wilt leave
he provide this Heavenly Building not made with hands but for Believers If therefore any inordinate fear surprize thee remember what he hath said John 14. 1 2 3. Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were nor so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also Say therefore Lord when thou hadst made this lower narrow world thou wouldst 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 redeemed flock it cannot be that thou wilt shut them out O therefore receive my fearful Soul and help me to obey thine own command Luke 12. 32. Fear not little flock for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom O let me hear that joyful Sentence Matth. 25. 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world 8. Consider That Christ hath received thy Soul unto Grace and therefore he will receive it unto Glory He hath quickned us who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past we walked c. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins and trespasses quickned us together with Christ and raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6. The State of Grace is the kingdom of heaven as well as the State of Glory Matth. 3. 2. 10. 7. 13. 11 24 31 33 44 45 47. By Grace thou hast the heavenly birth and nature We are first born to trouble and sorow 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 resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Peter 1. 3 4. The great work was done in the day of thy Renovation Then thou wast entred into the houshold of God and made a fellow Citizen with the Sants and receivedst the Spirit of adoption Eph. 2. 19. Gal. 4. 6. He gave thee life eternal when he gave the knowledge of himself and of his Son John 17. 3. And will he now take from thee the Kingdom 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. 5. 8 9 10 11. God commendeth his Love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed 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 reconciled 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 attonement And when we have peace with God being justifiied by faith Rom. 5. 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 alledged 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 justifie those at last whom he hath here justified Or will he justifie us and yet not receive us That were both to justifie and condemn us Depart then in peace O fearful Soul Thou fallest into his hands that hath justified thee by his Blood will he deny thee the Inheritance of which he himself hath made thee Heir yea a Joynt-heir with himself Rom. 8. 17. Will he deprive thee of thy Birth-right who himself begot thee of the incorruptible 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 couldst not have access to Man and he hath taken thee up when Man hath cast thee off Surely he that received thee so readily in thy distress will not now at last repent him of his love As Manoah's Wife said Judges 13. 23. 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 shewed us all these things He hath received thee into his Church and entertained thee with the delights and fatness of his House Psalm 36. 8. and bid thee welcome to his Table and feasted thee with his Body and his Blood and communicated in these his quickning 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 Thou art his friend John 15. 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 shouldst thou live but with him Thou art a member of his body of his flesh and bone Eph. 5. 30. and no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church ver 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 cryeth to thee The 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. 6. 17 18 O our
not be in vain 1 Cor. 15. 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. 4. 8. O Crown thy graces and with thy greatest mercies recompence and perfect thy preparatory mercies and let me be Received to thy glory who have been guided by thy counsel Psalm 73. 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 comfortably 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 no wise cast out Thousands 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 belssed 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 joyes give thanks and praise to thee that hast redeemed us to God by thy blood 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 whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life All our Salvation is the product of his Love Joh. 3. 16 17. Eph. 2. 4. Joh. 6. 37. Joh. 16. 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 14. He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self 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 Joh. 14. 6. Fulness of joy is in thy presence and everlasting pleasures at thy right hand Psalm 16. 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 hadst not drawn me and if I had not heard and learnt of thee John 6 44 45. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast revealed to me a babe an ideot the blessed mysteries of thy Kingdom Luk. 10. 21. Acts 4 13. O now as the vail of flesh must be withdrawn and my soul be parted from this body withdraw the vail of thy displeasure and shew 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 Tabernacle is dissolved let me inhabit thy building not made with hands eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. 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 Redemption And doubtless he will not lose his Fathers 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. 9. 23. Thou hast predestinated me to the adoption of thy child by Christ unto thy self to the praise of the glory of thy grace wherein thou hast made me accepted in thy beloved Eph. 1. 5 6 11 12 Receive me now to the glory which thou hast prepared for us Mat. 25. 34. The hour is at hand Lord glorifie thy poor adopted child that he may for ever glorify thee Joh. 17. 1. It is thy Promise to glorify those whom thou dost justify Rom. 8. 30. As therere is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 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 v. 23 24. WHat now remaineth but that we all set our selves 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 easie to be learnt 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 O therefore now set your selves to overcome these difficulties in time You know we are all ready to depart It is time this last important work were throughly 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 justifyer 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 meeting doth bespeak What cause have we now to mix our sorrows for our deceased friend with the joyes of faith for her felicity we have left the body to the earth and
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 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 sinners 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 juster 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 then as Croesus or Caesar or any such worldling and self-pleasure lived Die daily by following Jesus with your Cross and when you 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 neglected be scorned be wronged be slandered be imprisoned quietly patiently and joyfully If you were but at Hierusalem 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 born the way which he went when he carryed his Cross the holy grave where he was buried where there in 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 suffering for his Cause and Truth and in following him in a mortified self-denying life then 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 suffeing for Righteousness sake in which he commandeth us to rejoyce and be exceeding glad because our Reward is great in Heaven though all manner of evil be spoken of us falsly by men on earth Mat. 5. 11 12. This is called a being pertakers of Christs sufferings in which we are commanded to rejoyce that when this glory shall be revealed we may be glad with exceeding joy 1 Pet. 4. 13. And as the sufferings of Christ abound towards us so will our Consolation abound by Christ 1 Cor. 1. 5. Till we come up to a life of willing mortification and pleased contented suffering with Christ we are in the lower form of his School and as Children shall tremble at that which should not cause our terrour and through misapprehensions 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 relicks but if one could shew me the very stock that Paul and Silas sate in when they sung Psalms in their imprisonment Acts 16. I could be contented to be put for the like cause into the same stocks with a special willingness and pleasure 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 a time that they may be destroyed for ever Psal 92. 6 7. I had rather have Bradford's heart and faggot than Bonners Bishoprick 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 7. 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 recompence of reward Heb. 11. 25. 26. 4. Live as if Heaven were open to your sight and then dote upon the delights of worldlings if you can Then love a life of fleshly case and honour better than to be with Christ if yon 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 thy 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 Redeemers deemers hands to be Received to his Glory according to that blessed promise John 12. 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 Jan. 31. 1661â—â—… A BELIEVERS Last Work ACTS 7. 59. Lord Jesus receive my Spirit THE Birth of Nature and the New Birth of Grace in their measure resemble the Death of Saints which is the Birth of Glory It is a bitter-sweet day a day that is mixt 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 throws and pain and groanings of the Mother though it transmit the Child into a more large and lightsom and desirable Habitation 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 displeasure 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 rejoyce 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
presence of the Lord and yet should have kept her longer from it for our own and others sakes if our 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 sailing Apprehensions or precipitant Desires But Folly must submit to the 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 damnifie 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 he leaveth his Brethren scattered in the Storm and Devout men make great lamentation at his burial Acts 9. 2. Though it is probable by the ordinary acceptation of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were not professed Christians but devout Proselytes such as Cornelius and the Ethiopian 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 Believers 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 felicity 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 suffering 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 Stroaks 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 Off spring of Heaven and to hate Men because they are faithful to their great Master and because they are against their Faction so mad as to think that 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 done to them so mad as to forget all the terrible Threatnings of God and terrible Instances of his avenging Justice against the Enemies of his Servants whom he taketh as his own and to ruine 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 Persecutors of Stephen he maketh him confess that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 Conquerour 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 two-fold 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 7. 59 60. For so you may find Christ did before him Luke 23. 34 46. Father forgive them for they know not what they do and Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Only Christ directeth his Prayer immediately 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 wholesom Truths As 1. It is here plainly intimated that Jesus Christ is exalted in Glory in that he hath power to receive departed Souls 2. 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 the Mediator must be asked of the Father for his sake I cannot now stay to tell you in particular what belongeth to the one and what unto the other 3. That Man hath a Spirit as well as a Body of which more anon 4. That this Spirit dieth not with the Body unless you will call a meer separation a dying 5. That Christ doth receive the Spirits of his Saints when they are separated from the Body 6. That a dying Christian may confidently and comfortably commend his Spirit to Christ to be received of him 7. That Prayer in general and this Prayer in special That Christ will receive our departing Souls is a most suitable Conclusion 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 signifie 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 sometime signifie the Wind or Breath and sometime 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
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 Lethargich unintelligent or unactive 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 creature hath in it self a self-supporting or self-preserving sufficiency 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 influence 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 cujus est creare none can annihilate but God yet it is by a Positive efficient act of Will that he createth and by a meer 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 materiallity 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 rei 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 perpetuity The Heathenish Socinians that deny the Immortality of the Soul yea worse than Heathenish for most Heathens do maintain it must deny it to Christ himself as well as to his Members 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 surviving of the Spirit of Stephen then Father into thay 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 14. 19. did live in the Spirit while he was put to death in the flesh 1 Pet. 3. 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 controversie with all that believe the Holy Scriptures I confess these is a sleep of Souls A Metaphorical sleep in sin and in security Or else the drowsie opinions of these Infidels had never found entertainment in the world A sleep so deep that the voice of God in the threatnings 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. 2. 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 we draw back the curtains to let in the light and shew them that Judgment is at hand and use those true but terrible arguments from wrath and hell which we are afraid should too much frighten many tender hearers and yet they sleep on and our loudest calls our tears and our intreaties 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. 5. 14. This Moral sleep and death of Souls which is the fore-runner of everlasting death in misery we cannot 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 Gods displeasure if thou canst There is no sleeping Soul in Hell There are none that are past feeling The mortal stroke that layeth thy flesh to sleep in the dust le ts out the guilty Soul into a World where there is no sleeping where there is a Light irresistible and a Terrour and Torment that will keep them waking If God bid thee awake by the flames of Justice he will have no nay The first sight and feeling which will surprize 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. 5. CHrist doth receive the Spirits of his Saints when they leave the Flesh Here we shall first tell you what Christs receiving of the Spirit is The Word signifieth to take it as acceptable to himself 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 Salvation He that now seeketh as a roaring Lion night and day as our adversary to devour us by deceit will then seek to devour us by execution How glad was he when God gave him leave but to touch the goods and children and body of Job 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 tryal shall then find it self 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. 2. 20. Thou mayst fear at thy departure and leave the Flesh with terrour and imagine that Satan will presently devour 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 certainly save thee from him when he would torment thee Here he would have us that he may sift us and get advantage on our weakness but Christ prayeth for us and strengthneth us that our faith may not fail Luke 22. 31. And he that saveth us from the sin will save us from the punishment and from Satans fury as he did from his fraud 2. Christs Receiving us doth include his savourable entertainment 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. 6. 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 enterance 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 Fathers Love and welcomed home with his kisses and his robe and feast What welcome then may a cleansed conquered Soul expect when it cometh into the presence of Glorious Love and is purposely to be received with such demonstrations of Love as may be fitted to magnifie the Love of God which exceedeth all the Love of man as Omnipotency doth exceed 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 welcom if thou canst O had we but one moments sense of the delights of the embraced Soul that is newly received by Christ into his Kingdom it would make us think we were in Heaven already and transport 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 consideration 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 moments sense of the unconceivable Pleasures of the received Soul that is the Reward and Crown and therefore not fit for us here in our Conflict But low things may by dark resemblance a little help us to 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 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 dice 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. 1. 3. And that the Souls of the Righteous and at last their Bodies are received to himself he often telleth us John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be John 14. 2 3. And if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there you may be also And in the mean time when we once are absent from the body we are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. and that is in the building of God not made with hands eternal in the heavens V. 1. Paul therefore desired to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 23. And Christ promiseth the converted Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23. 43. And our State after the Resurrection hath the same description 1 Thess 4. 17. And so shall we ever be with the Lord And what it shall be he declareth himself John 17. 24. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me The Soul of Lazarus Luke 16. was received into Abrahams bosom where he is said to be comforted The heavens receive Christ Acts 3. 21. and therefore the heavens receive the spirits that go to him even the spirits of the just made perfect Heb. 12. 23. that is that are crowned with Christ in Glory and freed from the Imperfections and Evils of this Life And so that 1 Thess 5. 10. is plain though some would pervert it That whether we wake or sleep we may live together with him Not Whether we wake to righteousness or sleep in sin for such Sleepers live not with him Nor whether we wake by sollicitude or sleep in security Nor Whether we naturally wake or sleep only But whether we live or die and so our Bodies sleep in death yet we live together with him In a word Christ will receive us unto 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 nnd feeling shall tell you What this Receiving is even when we receive the kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. and when we receive the end of our faith the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. DOCT. 6. 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