Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BX5200 .B352 1835 v2

BAXTER'S DYING TIiOtiGHTS. 163 from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now, also, when I am old and gray, O God, forsake me not; Psalm xvii. 5, 6. 9. 17, 18. Leave not my soul destitute; for mine eyes are toward thee, and my trust is in thee ; Psalm xiv. 8. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodnessof the Lord in the land of the living; even' where they that live shall die no more. The sun may cease to shine on man, and the earth to bear us; but God will never cease to be love, nor to be faithful in his promises. Blessed be the Lord, who bath commanded me so safe and quieting a duty as to trust him, and cast all my cares on him, as on one that has promised to care for me ! II. And blessed be God, who hath made. it my duty to hope for his salvation. Hope is theease, yea, the life of our hearts, that else would break, yea, die within us : despair is no small part of hell : God cherisheth hope, as he is the lover ofsouls. Satan, our enemy, cherisheth despair, when his way of blind presumption faileth. As fear is a foretaste of. evil, before it is felt, so hope doth anticipate and foretaste salvation, before it is possessed. It is thenworldly hypocrites' hope that perisheth; for all that hope for true or durable happiness on the earth, in the pleasures of this per- ishing flesh, must needs be deceived. But happy is he who bath the Godof Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God, which made heaven and earth, whichkeepeth truth forever; Psalm cxlvi. 5, 6." Woe to me, were my hope only in the time and mat- ters of this fleshly life; (1 Cor. xv. 19.) but the righteous bath hope in his death ; .(Prov. xiv. 32.) and hope maketh not asham- ed ; Rom. v. 5. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, whose hope the Lord is ; Jer. xvii. 7. Lay hold, then, Omy soul, upon the hope which is set before thee; (Heb. vi. 18.) it is thy firm and steadfast anchor; (ver. 19.) without it thou wilt be as a shipwrecked vessel. Thy foundation is sure ; it is God himself: our faith and hope are both in God ; 1 Pet. i. 21. It is Jesus our Lord, who is risen from the dead, and reigneth in glory, Lord of all ; 1 Tim. i. 1. Yea, it is the Christ, who, by faith, doth dwell within us, who is our hope of glory ; Eph. iii. 17. Col. i. 27. In this hope, which is better than the law that Moses gave, it is that we draw nigh to God; .(Heb. vii. 19.) it is the Holy Ghost, that is both our evidence, and the efficient of our hope ; Gal. v. 5. Rom. viii. 16. 23. By him we hope for that which we see not, and therefore wait in patience for it ; (ver. 24, 25.) by hope are we saved. It is an encouraging grace which will make us stir, when as despair doth kill endeavors; it cureth sloth, and makes us diligent and constant to the end, and by this.doth help us to full assurance ; Heb. vi. 11, 12. It is a desiring grace, and would fain obtain the glory hoped for. It is a quieting and comforting grace ;

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