A27017:1725
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.
The door of the visible Church, is incomparably wider then the door of heaven; and Christ is so tender, so bountiful, and forward to convey his grace, and the Gospel so free an offer and invitation to all, that surely Christ will keep no man off; if they will come quite over in spirit to Christ, they shall be welcome; If they will come but only to a visible Profession, he will not deny them admittance there, because they intend to go no further, but will let them come as near as they will, and that they come no further shall be their own fault; and so it is not his readiness to admit such, nor the openness of the door of his visible Church that makes men Hypocrites, but their own wickedness; Christ will not keep such out among Infidels, for fear of making Hypocrites; but when the net is drawn unto the shore, the fishes shall be separated, and when the time of Harvest comes, then the Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and them that work iniquity, Matth. 13.41. There are many Saints (or sanctified men) that yet shall never come to heaven, who are only Saints by their separation from Paganism, into fellowship ⟨p. 652⟩with the visible Church, but not Saints in the strictest sense, by separation from the ungodly, into the fellowship of the mystical body of Christ, Heb. 10 29. Deut. 7.6. and 14, 2, 21. and 26.19. and 28.9. Exod. 19.6. 1 Cor. 7.13, 14. Rom. 11.16. Heb. 3.1. compared with ver. 12. 1 Cor. 3.17. and 14.33.