A27017:1536
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
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.
1SECT. VI.
- 1§. 6.
5. Consider, thou seekest Rest where it is not to be found; and so wilt lose all thy labour; and (if thou proceed) thy souls eternal Rest too. I think I shall easily evince this, by these clear demonstrations following.
5. COnsider, thou seekest Rest where it is not to be found; and so wilt lose all thy labor; and (if thou proceed) thy souls eternal Rest too. I think I shall easily evince this, by these clear demonstrations following.
First, Our Rest is only in the full obtaining of our ultimate end: But that is not to be expected in this life; therefore, neither is rest to be here expected. Is God to be enjoyed in the best Reformed Church, in the purest and powerfullest Ordinances here, as he is in Heaven? I know you will all confess, he is not: How little of God (not only the multitude of the blind world, but ⟨p. 565⟩sometimes) the Saints themselves do enjoy, even under the most excellent Means; let their own frequent complainings testify. And how poor comforters are the best Ordinances and Enjoyments, without God, the truly Spiritual Christian knows. Will a stone rest in the Air in the midst of its fall, before it comes to the Earth? No, because its centre is its end. Should a Traveller take up his rest in the way? No, because his home is his journeys end. When you have all that Creatures and Means can afford, have you that you sought for? Have you that you believed, pray, suffer for? I think you dare not say so. Why then do we once dream of resting here? We are like little Children strayed from home; and God is now fetching us home; and we are ready to turn into any house, stay, and play with every thing in our way, and sit down on every green bank; and much ado there is to get us home.