Faithful Souls Shall Be With Christ, Title page – Dedication
Faithful Souls SHALL BE WITH CHRIST THE Certainty Proved and their Christianity Described, and Exemplified in the truly-Christian Life and Death of that excellent amiable Saint, HENRY ASHHURST Esq Citizen of London.
Briefly and truly Published for the Conviction of Hypocrites and the Malignant, the Strengthning of Believers, and the Imitation of all; especially the Masters of Families in London.
By RICHARD BAXTER
Luke 10. 37.
Go, and Do thou likewise.
LONDON, Printed for Nevil Simmons, at the Three Golden Cocks, at the West end of St. Pauls Church, 1681.
To my worthy Friends Mrs. Judith Ashhurst Widdow of Henry Ashhurst Esq. and Mr. Henry Ashhurst, their Son, with all his Brethren and Sisters, Grace, Mercy and Peace.
Dear Friends,
I Am perswaded that the Image of so good a Husband and Father cannot but be deeply printed on your minds; but yet it may not be wholly needless to be told of the Comfort and the Duty, thence to be inferred. It was you, Sir, his eldest Son and Executor, who called me to the publick performance of that which I have thought meet to make more publick. I have long known you so well, that I am comfortably perswaded, that your Father had great cause to place that great affection on you, and confidence in you which he did. Your dear Love to him, and great Reverence of him, and hearty Love to the good which he loved, and your singleness and uprightness of Mind and Life, are your amiableness, and better than the greatest earthly birthright: But I did purposely say little in the following discourse, of your Fathers example, as consolatory and obligatory to all his nearest Relations, because I thought that their special interest in him, did give them right to a special address, which is the intent of this Epistle. Gods Scripture blessings of the faithful and their seed, doth make this relation honorable and comfortable to you all. How chearfully may you all follow the footsteps of one so near you, who sped so well in following Christ? The greatest comforts and blessings are the greatest obligations to further duty; and that duty is the way to get greater blessings. It will be some help to you to Love God and Goodness, good Men and all Men, to remember how much all these were loved, by one who so tenderly loved your selves. You have not only heard but seen and felt, that Holiness is not a bare name or dream, and Religion a meer art or image, but a Divine Nature, a reall renovation of Heart and Life, and that the effects of Gods Spirit in sanctifying Souls, do greatly difference them from carnal minds. You have seen that Godliness, genuine and real, is not a wearysom uncomfortable Life. Live as he did, and it will be a cure of melancholy, passions and discontents, and a constant tranquillity and delight.
What a help is his Example to you, to live in true Love to one another: to be of an humble meek and quiet Spirit, neither vexatious to your selves or others: As also to be absolutely devoted to God, of publick minds, and comforts to the poor and needy, and to use all that you have as his Stewards, daily preparing for your great account. You have seen how you may live above the World, even while you prosper in it: and how to expound [Love not the World nor the things that are in the World: If any Man love the World, the love of the Father is not in him.] 1 Ioh. 2. 15. For where your Treasure is, there will your Hearts be also, Matth. 6. 21. The Spaniards have a Proverb [The World is a Carrion, and they are Dogs that love it, much more that snarle and fight about it.] One would think that to read and believe, Matth. 5. & 6. Luk. 12. & 16. and Jam. 4. should affright Men from being deceived by such a shaddow, whose speedy vanishing all foresee.
You have seen what it is to be a Christian indeed, and how your affairs, your conversations, and your families should be ordered. And you have seen how the best may suffer and must die, and therefore what need we all have to be prepared with strong and well exercised Faith, Hope and Patience, and by daily conversing in the heavenly regions, to get sweeter thoughts of Heaven than of the most prosperous state on Earth, that we may die like serious believers, and joyfully commit our departing souls to Christ, when we leave these corruptible bodies to the grave. O dear Friends, the day is at hand; the change is of unspeakable importance; the work of Faith and Hope is high and difficult: Set to it speedily with heart and might, and let not flesh and the world entangle and deceive you.
The great love which your Father had to me, and much more which he had to Christ, his Church, and all the Faithful, obliged me to be the larger in describing his example, for your use and comfort: For as Christ gone to Heaven hath left here his servants, called his Brethren, that men in them may shew their Love and thankfulness to him, which he will reward as done unto himself; so the way which I must take to express my Love and gratitude to your deceased Father, is by desiring and endeavouring the true felicity of his Wife and Children whom he so dearly loved. And that must be, by taking God for your God and Father, Christ for your Saviour, the Holy Spirit for your Sanctifier, the Holy Scriptures for your Rule, the Church for the Body of which you are Members; true Pastors for your Teachers, the Faithful for your most beloved Companions, (especially each other who are by so many bonds obliged to more than ordinary endearedness and Love) and Christ for your chief pattern, and such as your Father in following him; Heaven for your felicity, home and hope; and this short life for the day of your preparation and salvation; and the world, flesh and Devil so far as they are against any of this, for the Enemies which with all vigilancy and resolution must be overcome.
O how great, how good, and absolutely necessary a work is this, which if any one of you should miscarry about, you would be more unexcusable than most persons in the world! But that you will all faithfully imitate such an example of holiness, humility, meekness, mortification, peace, and dearest Love to one another, and to all good men, is the comfortable hope, and hearty Prayer, as it is the present faithful Counsel of
Dec. 7. 1680. Your Servant for such ends Ri. Baxter.