Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BX5200 .B352 1835 v2

BAXTER'S FAREWELL SERMON. 527 Christian, under the sentence of death, is going hence with fear and trouble, when a moment shall transmit them into the joyful presence of their Lord, and the possession of that which, with weakness and fear, they did but believe. 2. And Christ will not come or be alone with him will come the New Jerusalem: he will put glory on each member, but much more on the whole. 'O, how many of our old companions are now. there,! Not under temptation, or any of the tempter's power ! Not under the darkness of ignorance, error, or unbelief! Not under the peins of a languid, diseased, corruptible body ! Not under the fear of sin, or Satan, or wicked men ; not under the terror of death or hell, of an accusing conscience, or the wrath of God : O, with what joy shall we see and enjoy that glorious so- ciety ! To be translated thither from such a world as this ; from such temptations, sin's; such fears and sorrows ; such perfidious, malignant'wickedness; what will it be but to be taken as from a jail unto a kingdom,, and from the suburbs of hell unto the com- munion ofblessed saints and angels, and into the joy of our Lord ! Doct. VI. Your joy shall no man take from you : the joy that cometh at Christ's returnwill be a secure and everlasting joy. Im- pregnable as heaven itself, Christ and his church will be crucified no more. Look not, then, for Christ and his church in the grave. He is not here; he is risen. Who, can we fear, will deprive us of that joy ? I. Not ourselves.; and then we need to fear no other: our folly and sin is our enemies' strength; they'can do nothing against us without ourselves. The arrows thatwound us are all feathered from our own wings. But our trying time will then be past, and confirmation will be the reward of conquest. He that bath kept us in,the day of our trial, will keep us in our state of rest and tri- umph. How the (now) fallen angels came to lose their first in-. nocency and wglfare, is unknown to us : but we have a promise of being forever with Christ. 2. Nor shall devils deprive us of that joy ; neither by those ma- licious temptations wherewith they now molest and haunt us ; not by the unhappy advantageswhich we have given them by our sing to corrupt our imaginations, and thoughts, and affections, or to dis- turb, our passions, or. pervert our understandings. Nor by any terror or violence' to molest us. 3. Nor shall any men take from us that joy : the blessed will increase it: their joy will be ours; and the wicked will be utterly disabled ; they will be miserable themselves in hell. They will no more endanger us by fiatteridg temptations ; nor terrify us by threats ; nor tread us down 1 y their power ; nor hurt us in their

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=