A27017:1780
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. IX.
- 1§. 9.
9. Another thing I would advise you to, is this, Be a careful observer of the drawings of the Spirit, and fearful of quenching its motions, or resisting its workings; If ever thy soul get above this earth, and get acquainted with this living in heaven, the Spirit of God must be to thee as the Chariot to Elijah; yea, the very living principle by which thou must move and ascend. O then grieve not thy Guide,1 quench not thy Life, knock not off thy Chariot-wheels; if thou do, no wonder if thy soul be at a loss, and all stand still, or fall to the earth; you little think how much the life all your Graces, and the happiness of your souls doth depend upon your ready and cordial Obedience to the Spirit;2 When the Spirit urgeth thee to secret prayer, and thou refusest obedience; when he forbids thee thy known transgressions, and yet thou wilt go on; when he telleth thee, which is the way, and which not, and thou wilt not regard, no wonder if heaven and thy soul be strange: if thou wilt not follow the Spirit while it would draw thee to Christ, and to thy duty, how should it lead thee to heaven, and bring thy heart into the presence of God? O what supernatural help! what bold access shall that soul find in its approaches to the Almighty, that is accustomed to a constant obeying of the Spirit! And how backward, how dull, and strange, and ashamed, will he be to these addresses, who hath long used to break away from the Spirit that would have guided him: Even as stiff, and unfit, will they be for this Spiritual motion, as a dead man to natural. I beseech thee, Christian Reader, learn well this lesson, and try this course; let not the motions of thy body only, but also the very thoughts of thy heart, be at the Spirits bek. Dost thou not feel sometimes a strong impulsion, to retire from the world, and draw near to God? O do not now disobey, but take the offer, and hose up sail while thou mayst have this blessed gale. When this wind blows strongest, thou goest fastest, either forward or backward. The more of this Spirit we resist, the deeper will it wound; and the more we obey, the speedier is our pace: As he goes heaviest that hath the wind in his face, and he easiest that hath it in his back.