A27048:103
A treatise of death, the last enemy to be destroyed showing wherein its enmity…A treatise of death, the last enemy to be destroyed shewing wherein its enmity…
A treatise of death, the last enemy to be destroyed showing wherein its enmity consisteth and how it is destroyed : part of it was preached at the funerals [sic] of Elizabeth, the late wife of Mr. Joseph Baker ... / by Rich. Baxter ; with some few passages of the life of the said Mrs. Baker observed.A treatise of death, the last enemy to be destroyed shewing wherein its enmity consisteth and how it is destroyed : part of it was preached at the funerals [sic] of Elizabeth, the late wife of Mr. Joseph Baker ... / by Rich. Baxter ; with some few passages of the life of the said Mrs. Baker observed.
London: printed by R.W. for Nev. Simmons, 1660
Sermon › Section 7 › Application 5: Use 5.Sermon › Section 7 › Application 5: Ʋse 5.
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.
Use 5.
Ʋse 5.
Moreover from this Doctrine we may be informed, of the mistakes of many Christians, that think they have no saving grace, because they are afraid of dying, and because these fears debtor their soul• from desiring to be with Christ: And hence they may perceive that there is another cause of these distempers, even the Enmity of Death that standeth in the way. You think that if you had any Love to Christ, you should more desire to be with him; and that if your treasure were in heaven, your hearts wou•d be more there; and that if you truly took it for your felicity, you could not be so unwilling to be removed to it; ⟨p. 84⟩for no man is unwilling to be happy, or to attain his end. But stay a little, and better consider of your Case. Is it Christ that your heart is thus averse to, or is it only Death that standeth in the way? You are not, I hope, unwilling to see the face of God, nor unwilling to be translated from earth to heaven, but unwilling to die. It is not because you love the creature better then the Creator, but because you are afraid of Death. You may love God, and long to be perfected in holiness, and to see his Glory, and to have the most near Communion with him, and yet at the same time you may fear this Enemy that standeth in your way: I mean not only the Pain of death, but principally the dissolution of our natures, and the separation of the soul from the body, and its abode in a separated state, and the bodies ⟨p. 85⟩abode in dust and darkness. Grace it self is not given us to reconcile us to corruption, and make death as death to seem desirable, but to cause us patiently to bear the evil, because of the good that is beyond it. It is not our duty to love death as death. Had it not been naturally an evil to be dreaded and avoided, God would not have made it the matter of his threatening; nor would it have been a fit means to restrain men from transgression. To threaten a man with a benefit as such, is a contradiction. Enquire therefore into your hearts, whether there be not a belief of heaven, a love to God, a desire to enjoy and please him, even while you draw back and seem to be averse? and whether it be not only loathness to die, and not a loathness to be with Christ?