Being Forever with the Lord, Title page – Dedication
BEING For ever with the Lord, THE Great Hope, End and Comfort of BELIEVERS: What it is, and how to be obtained and forethought of.
Preached by MATTHEW SYLVESTER, And Publiſhed at the publick Requeſt of Mr. Ri. Baxter, at the hearing of it.
LONDON, Printed for J. Robinſon, at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard. M.DC.LXXXVIII.
TO Mr. M. SYLVESTER'S HEARERS.
IF you know not the Reaſons of my deſiring Mr. S. at the hearing of it, to publiſh this Sermon, I now tell you, they were theſe.
1. I was affected with it, as ſuitable to my own Condition; who have little Comfort to live on, but my hopes of being for ever with the Lord, and no Motive ſo powerful to engage me to my great Duty, and to overcome all Temptations.
2. And that which is ſo ſuitable to me, is not unſuitable to you: I am not the only Man that muſt die, and that hath another Life to live.
3. Mr. Sylveſter's Style is ſo conciſe, and naturally elegant, that neither I nor you can ſufficiently digeſt his Sermons upon a tranſient hearing: A full and frequent review may make them more our own: Of-times four or five Names, or Epithets, ſignify as much as ſo many diſtinct Sentences; and his Phraſes are not always vulgar: And therefore they are like ſtrong Meat, that muſt have longer time, than lighter, for digeſtion.
4. The Subject is ſuch as you muſt daily live upon, and therefore ſhould be glad of a daily Help for your practical Meditations on it. Being for ever with Chriſt in Glory, is that which you pray for, hope for, labour for, ſuffer and wait for, deny the Fleſh and the World for, and which you muſt fetch your ſupporting comforts from, or elſe you muſt have neither Hope nor Comfort, which ſound awakened Reaſon can own.
5. As it is a diſcouragement to Preachers, when the beſt ſtudied Sermons, are forgotten at the Church-doore; ſo it is a great mercy to Hearers when they may carry home, and keep, and daily uſe, ſuch excellent and powerful Helps. If the Devil knew what Printing was like to do againſt his Kingdom, I wonder that he did no more to hinder the inventing of it: It was becauſe the Father of Lights reſtrained him. You Printers and Bookſellers look well to your ſelves, for next to Magiſtrates and Miniſters, there are few that Devils have more malignant deſigns upon than you, either to ſilence your Preſſes and Shops as to Good, or to open them to Evil. You ſpeak more publickly than Pulpits do. To many Thouſands you either preach wholſom ſaving Truth, or vend flagitious and pernicious Evil. If you vend the beſt Books only for Mony, you have your Reward; yet thouſands may have a greater gain; as carnal Preachers may periſh themſelves while their Hearers are ſaved.
Laſtly, I would have thoſe Men that have thought our ſilencing theſe 28 Years to be the Churches Intereſt, and have called on their Rulers to ſtrike home, to ſee what Doctrine it is that we preach, and whether it deſerve Hatred and Deſtruction. If many ſuch Sermons tell them not, they may ſee it in the larger Writings, of Mr. Ant. Burges, Mr. Richard and Joſeph Allen, Dr. Manton, Mr. Charnock, and many more, (to paſs by the yet living).
Your Servant, RI. BAXTER.