A27017:1806
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.
1Therefore this is the great task in hand, and this is the work that I would set thee on; to get these Truths from thy head to thy heart, and that all the Sermons which thou hast heard of Heaven, and all the notions that thou hast conceived of this Rest, may be turned into the blood and spirits of Affection, and thou mayest feel them revive thee, and warm thee at the heart, and mayest so think of heaven as heaven should be thought on.
1Therefore this is the great task in hand, and this is the work that I would set thee on; to get these Truths from thy head to thy heart, and that all the Sermons which thou hast heard of Heaven, and all the notions that thou hast conceived of this Rest, may be turned into the blood and spirits of Affection, and thou maist feel them revive thee, and warm thee at the heart, and maist so think of heaven as heaven should be thought on.
- 1Contemplationis accessus duo sunt, unus in intellectu, alter in affectu unus in lumine, alter in fervour, unus in acquisition, alter in Devotion. Bernard. in Cant. Ser. 46.Contemplationis accessus duo sunt, unus in intellectu, alter in affectu unus in lumine, alter in fervore, unus in acquisitione, alter in Devotione. Bernard. in Cant. Ser. 46.
There are two accesses of Contemplation (saith Bernard) one in Intellection, the other in Affection, one in Light, the other in Heat, one in Acquisition, the other in Devotion. If thou shouldst study of nothing but Heaven while thou livest, and shouldst have ⟨p. 693⟩thy thoughts at command, to turn them hither on every occasion, and yet shouldst proceed no further then this; this were not the Meditation that I intend, nor would it much advantage or better thy soul; as it is thy whole soul that must possess God hereafter, so must the whole in a lower measure possess him here. I have showed you in the beginning of this Treatise, how the soul must enjoy the Lord in Glory, to wit, by knowing, by loving, and joying in him; why, the very same way must thou begin thy enjoyment here.