A26870:91
A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton ... and…
A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton ... and wife of Richard Baxter ... : there is also published the character of her mother, truly described in her published funeral sermon, reprinted at her daughters request, called, The last work of a believer, his passing-prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him.
London: printed for B. Simmons, 1681
Chapter 4: Some parcels of Counsel for her deliverance from this distressed Case, which I find res…
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 2. The miscarriage of a Relation troubling her, this was set down.
When God hath done so much for you, will you leave it in the power of an unconstant creature to trouble you, and rob you of your peace? Is the joy in the Holy Ghost so subject to the malice of your enemies, or the weakness of your friends? Delight your self in an Allsufficient constant God, and he will be to you a sufficient constant delight, and will give you the desires of your heart. I see you are yet imperfect in self-denial, while you are too sensible of unkindnesses and crosses from your friends, and bear them with too much passion and weakness: know you not yet what the creature is, and how little to be expected from it? Do you not still reckon to meet with such infirmities in the best, as will be injurious to others, as they are troublesome to themselves? It's God that we most wrong, and yet he beareth with us; and so must we with one another. Had you expected that creatures should deal as creatures, and sinners as sinners, how little of this kind of trouble had you felt? Especially take heed of too much regard to matters of mere reputation, and the thoughts of men; else you are like a leaf in the wind that will have no rest. Look on man as nothing, and be content ⟨p. 35⟩to approve your self to God; and then so much honour as is good for you, will follow as the shadow. If every frailty and unkindness of the best friends must be your trouble, it is to be impatient with the unavoidable pravity of mankind; and you may as well grieve that they were born in sin, and made your acquaintance. And it should be used as a mercy to keep you from inordinate affections to friends. It's a mercy to be driven from creature-rest, though it be by enemies. Keep a fixed apprehension of the inconsiderableness of all these little things that cross you, and turn your eye to God, to Christ, to Heaven, the things of unspeakable weight, and you will have no room for these childish troubles. Yet turn not the discovery of this your weakness, into dejection, but amendment. I perceive you are apter to hold to the sense of your own distempers, than to think what counsel is given you against them.