A27017:1028
The Saints' Everlasting Rest
The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is showed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is shewed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by Rob. White for Thomas Underhil and Francis Tyton, 1650
THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. PART. III. › Chapter 7 › Section 1
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.
3. How canst thou open the Bible, and read a Chapter, or hear a Chapter read, but it should terrify thee? Methinks every leaf should be to thee as Belshazzars writing upon the wall,1 except only that which draws thee to try and reform: If thou read the Promises, thou knowest not whether ever they shall be fulfilled to thee, because thou art uncertain of thy performance of the Condition: If thou read the Threatenings, for any thing thou knowest thou dost read thy own sentence. I do not wonder if thou art an enemy to plain preaching, and if thou say of it, and of the Minister and Scripture it self as Ahab of the Prophet, I hate him, for he doth not prophecy good concerning me, but evil, 1 Kings 22.8.
3. How canst thou open the Bible, and read a Chapter, or hear a Chapter read, but it should terrifie thee? Methinks every leaf should be to thee as Belshazzars writing upon the wall,1 except only that which draws thee to try and reform: If thou read the Promises, thou knowest not whether ever they shall be fulfilled to thee, because thou art uncertain of thy performance of the Condition: If thou read the Threatnings, for any thing thou knowest thou dost read thy own sentence. I do not wonder if thou art an enemy to plain preaching, and if thou say of it, and of the Minister and Scripture it self as Ahab of the Prophet, I hate him, for he doth not prophecy good concerning me, but evil, 1 Kings 22.8.
4. I wonder how thou canst without terror approach God in prayer, or any duty. When thou callest him thy Father, thou knowest not whether thou speak true or false: When thou needest him in thy sickness, or other extremity, thou knowest not whether thou hast a friend to go to, or an enemy. When thou receivest the Sacrament, thou knowest not whether thou take thy blessing or