A26896:169
The Christians converse with God, or, The insufficiency and uncertainty of human friendship and…
The Christians converse with God, or, The insufficiency and uncertainty of human friendship and the improvement of solitude in converse with God with some of the author's breathings after him / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed for John Salusbury, 1693
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.
and that the Lord of glory should remove his Court, and either leave the retinue of his Celestial Courtiers, or bring them all down into this drossy World of flesh and sin, and this to satisfy my fleshly foolish mind! Or can I expect the translation of Enoch or the Chariot of Elijah? Is it not enough that my Lord hath conquered Death, and sanctified the passage, and prepared the place of my perpetual abode.
and that the Lord of glory should remove his Court, and either leave the retinue of his Celestial Courtiers, or bring them all down into this drosly World of flesh and sin, and this to satisfie my fleshly foolish mind! Or can I expect the translation of Henoch or the Chariot of Elias? Is it not enough that my Lord hath conquered Death, and sanctifyed the passage, and prepared the place of my perpetual abode.
Well! for all this, though a Wilderness ⟨p. 109⟩is not Heaven, it shall be sweet and welcome for the sake of Heaven, if thence I may but have a clearer prospect of it: and if by retiring from the crowd and noise of Folly, I may but be more composed and better disposed to converse above, and to use my Faith (alas, my too weak languid Faith) until the beatifical Vision and Fruition come. If there may be but more of God, or readier access to him, or more heart quickening flames of Love, or more heart-comforting intimations of his Favour, in a wilderness than in a City, in a Prison than in a Palace; let that Wilderness be my City, and let that Prison be my Palace, while I must abide on Earth. If in solitude I may have Henochs walk with God, I shall in due season have such a translation as shall bring me to the same felicity which he enjoyeth: And in the mean time as well as after, it is no incommodity, if by mortal eyes I be seen no more. If the Chariot of contemplation will in solitude raise me to more believing affectionate converse with Heaven, than I could expect in Tumults and Temptations, it shall reconcile me unto solitude, and make it my Paradise on Earth, till Angels ⟨p. 110⟩