A27016:948
A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…
A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Francis Tyton, 1662
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Most of your comforts do come in by the way of your thoughts. And what Thoughts should so rejoice the soul as the thoughts of our abode with Christ for ever? If a day in the Courts of God be so delightful, what is ten thousand millions of ages in the Court of Glory? and all then as fresh as at the first day? There it is that our sin will be put off: Our carnal enmity laid by: our temptations will be over: our enemies will all have done: our fears and sorrows will be at an end; Our desires will be accomplished: Our differences be reconciled: Our charity perfected, and our expectations fully satisfied, and Hope turned into full fruition. O may I but be able with stronger faith, and fuller confidence to say [that Heaven is mine, and when this tabernacle is dissolved, I shall be with Christ,] my life and my death will be delightful, and I need not complain for want of pleasure. Let who will take the pleasures of the flesh, may I but have this. In prayer, in meditation, in holy conference, in every duty, it is the expectation of approaching blessedness that drops in sweetness into all. No wonder if it can sweeten a course of duty, when it can make light the greatest sufferings, and turn pain into pleasure, and death into life, as being unworthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed.
Most of your comforts do come in by the way of your thoughts. And what Thoughts should so rejoyce the soul as the thoughts of our abode with Christ for ever? If a day in the Courts of God be so delightful, what is ten thousand millions of ages in the Court of Glory? and all then as fresh as at the first day? There it is that our sin will be put off: Our carnal enmity laid by: our temptations will be over: our enemies will all have done: our fears and sorrows will be at an end; Our desires will be accomplished: Our differences be reconciled: Our charity perfected, and our expectations fully satisfied, and Hope turned into full fruition. O may I but be able with stronger faith, and fuller confidence to say [that Heaven is mine, and when this tabernacle is dissolved, I shall be with Christ,] my life and my death will be delightful, and I need not complain for want of pleasure. Let who will take the pleasures of the flesh, may I but have this. In prayer, in meditation, in holy conference, in every duty, it is the expectation of approaching blessedness that drops in sweetness into all. No wonder if it can sweeten a course of duty, when it can make light the greatest sufferings, and turn pain into pleasure, and death into life, as being unworthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed.