A69538:19
The last work of a believer his passing prayer recommending his departing spirit to…
The last work of a believer his passing prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ to be received by Him / prepared for the funerals of Mary the widow first of Francis Charlton Esq. and after of Thomas Hanmer, Esq., and partly preached at St. Mary Magdalens Church in Milk-Street, London, and now, at the desire of her daughter, reprinted by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by B. Griffin for B. Simmons, 1682
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.
Reader, I beseech thee, as ever thou believest that thou must shortly die, retire from the crowd and noise of worldly vanity and vexation: O bethink thee how little a while thou must be here, and have use for honour, and favour, and wealth; and what it is for a soul to pass into heaven or hell, and to dwell among Angels or Devils for ever; And how men should live, and ⟨image 6⟩watch, and pray, that are near to such a change as this▪ Should I care what men call me (by tongue or pen)? Should I care whether I Live at liberty or in prison, when I am ready to die, and have matters of infinite moment before me, to take me up? Honour or dishonour, liberty or prison, are words of no sound or signification scarce to be heard or taken notice of, to one of us that are just passing to God and to everlasting life! The Lord have mercy upon the distracted world! how strangely doth the Devil befool them in the daylight, and make them needlessly trouble themselves about many things, when one thing is needful; and Heaven is talked of (and that but heartlessly and seldom) while fleshly provision only is the prize, the pleasure, the business of their lives! Some are diverted from their serious preparation for death, by the leastly avocations of lust and gaudiness, and meats, and drinks, and childish sports: and some by the businesses of ambition and covetousness, contriving how to feather their nests, and exercise their Wills over others in the world! and some that will seem to be doing the work, are diverted as dangerously as others, by contending about formalities and Ceremonies, and destroying Charity and Peace, rending the Church, and strengthening factions, and carrying on Interests hypocritically under the name of Religion, till the Zeal that Saint James describeth, (Jam. 3. 13, 14, &c.) having consumed all that was tike to the Zeal of Love and Holiness in themselves, proceed to consume the Servants and interest of Christ about them and to bite and devour, till their Lord come and find them in a day that they locked not for him, smiting their fellow-servants, and eating ⟨image 6⟩and drinking with the drunken, and cut them asunder, and appoint them their portion with the hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,