A27017:1034
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 2
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.
SECT. II.
IF this general uncertainty of the world about their Salvation were constrained or remediless,1 then must it be born as other unavoidable miseries, and it were unmeet either to reprove them for it, or exhort them from it: But, alas, the Common Cause is Wilfulness and Negligence; Men will not be persuaded to use the Remedy, though it be easy, and at hand, prescribed to them by God himself, and all necessary helps thereunto provided for them. The great means to conquer this Uncertainty is Self-Examination, or the Serious and diligent trying of a mans heart and state by the rule of Scripture. This Scripture tells us plainly who shall be saved, and who shall not: So that if men would but first search the Word to find out who be these men that shall have Rest, and what be their properties by which they may be known; and then next search carefully their own hearts, till they find whether they are those men or not; how could they choose but come to some Certainty? But, alas, either men understand not the nature and use of this duty, or else they will not be at the pains to try. Go through ⟨p. 386⟩a Congregation of a thousand men, and how few of them shall you meet with that ever bestowed one hour in all their lives in a close Examination of their title to Heaven? Ask thy own Conscience, Reader; When was the time, and where was the place, that ever thou solemnly tookest thy heart to task as in the sight of God, and examined it by Scripture Interrogatories, Whether it be Born again and Renewed, or not? Whether it be Holy, or not? Whether it be set most on God, or on creatures? on Heaven, or on Earth? and didst follow on this Examination till thou hast discovered thy Condition, and so past sentence on thy self accordingly?
IF this general uncertainty of the world about their Salvation were constrained or remediless,1 then must it be born as other unavoidable miseries, and it were unmeet either to reprove them for it, or exhort them from it: But, alas, the Common Cause is Wilfulness and Negligence; Men will not be perswaded to use the Remedy, though it be easie, and at hand, prescribed to them by God himself, and all necessary helps thereunto provided for them. The great means to conquer this Uncertainty is Self-Examination, or the Serious and diligent trying of a mans heart and state by the rule of Scripture. This Scripture tells us plainly who shall be saved, and who shall not: So that if men would but first search the Word to find out who be these men that shall have Rest, and what be their properties by which they may be known; and then next search carefully their own hearts, till they find whether they are those men or not; how could they chuse but come to some Certainty? But, alas, either men understand not the nature and use of this duty, or else they will not be at the pains to try. Go through