A27048:142
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 9 › Application 7 › Direction 8: DIRECTION VIII.
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.
DIRECTION VIII.
IT will much help us against the Enmity of death, to be duly conformed to the Image of God, in the hatred of sin, and love of holiness, and in special in the point of Justice. When we hate sin throughly, and find it so incorporated into our flesh, that they must live and die together, it will make death the more easy to us▪ because it will be the death of sin, even of that sin which we most hate, and that God hateth, and that hath cost us so dear as it hath done. When we are in love with ⟨p. 135⟩holiness, and know that we shall never be perfect in it, till after death; it will make death the more welcome, as the passage to our desired life. When the Justice, even the castigatory and vindictive Justice of God, is more amiable in our eyes, and we are not blinded by self-love, to judge of God and of his ways, according to the interest of our flesh, we shall then consent to his dissolving stroke, and see that the bitterness of death proceedeth from that which is good in God, though from that which is evil in our selves. Doubtless as Justice is one of the blessed Attributes of God, so should it be amiable to man, there being nothing in God but what is lovely. It is the prevalency of self-love that makes men so insensible of the excellency of Divine Justice, while they speak so respectfully of his mercy. So far as men ⟨p. 136⟩are carnal and selfish, they cannot love that by which they smart, or of which they are in danger. But the soul that is got above it self, and is united unto God in Christ, and hath that Image of God, which containeth the impress and effect of all his Attributes, hath such an habit of impartial justice in himself, and such a hatred of sin, and such a desire that the honour of God should be vindicated and maintained, and such an approbation of the Justice of God, that he can the more easily consent or submit to the dissolving stroke of death: He hateth his own sin, and loatheth himself for all his abominations, and is possessed with that Justice that provoketh him to self-revenge in an ordinate sort, and therefore doth love and honour that Justice that inflicteth on him the penalty of death; (Especially since Mercy hath made