A27061:124
Two treatises the first of death, on I Cor. 15:26, the second of judgment…
Two treatises the first of death, on I Cor. 15:26, the second of judgment on 2 Cor. 5:10, 11 / by Rich. Baxter.
London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1672
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
SECT. IX.
Use 7.
Moreover from the Enmity of Death, we may be directed which way to bend our cares: and seeing where our difficulty most lieth, we may see which way our most diligent preparations must be turned. Death cannot be prevented, but the malignant influence of it on our souls may be much abated. If you let it work without an Antidote, it will make you live like unbelieving worldlings: It will debtor your hearts from Heaven, and dull your love to God himself, and make your meditations of him, and of your Everlasting Rest, to be seldom, and ungrateful to you; And it will make you say, Its good to be here; and have sweeter thoughts of this present life, than of your inheritance: It will rob you of much of your heavenly delights, and fill you with slavish fears of Death, and subject you unto bondage all your lives, and make you dye with agony and horror, so that your lives and deaths will be dishonourable to your holy faith, and to your Lord. ⟨p. 72⟩If it were merely our own suffering by fears and horrors, or merely our loss of spiritual delights, the matter were (great, but) not so great: But it is more than this. For when our joys are overwhelmed with the fears of Death, and turned into sorrows; our love to God will be abated, and we shall deny him the thanks and cheerful praises, which should be much of the employment of our lives: and we shall be much discomposed and unfitted for his service, and shall much dishonour him in the world: and shall strengthen our temptations to the overvaluing of earthly things. Think it not therefore a small, or an indifferent matter, to fortify your souls against these malignant fears of death. Make this your daily care and work; your peace, your safety, your innocency, and usefulness, and the honour of God, do much lie on it. And it is a work of such exceeding difficulty, that it requireth the best of your skill and diligence; and when all is done, it must be the illuminating quickening beams of grace, and the shining face of the Eternal Love, that must doth work; though yet your diligence is necessary, to attend the spirit, and use the means in subservience to grace, and in expectation of these celestial rays.