A27017:1810
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. VII.
- 1§. 7.
The second part of the Difference is drawn from its object, which is [Rest] or the most blessed estate of man, in his everlasting enjoyment of God in Heaven. Meditation hath a large field to walk in, and hath as many objects to work upon, as there are matters, and lines, and words in the Scripture, as there are known Creatures in the whole Creation, and as there are particular discernible passages of Providence, in the Government of the persons and actions, through the world: But the Meditation ⟨p. 695⟩that I now direct you in, is only of the end of all these, and of these as they refer to that end: It is not a walk from Mountains to Valleys, from Sea to Land, from Kingdom to Kingdom, from Planet to Planet: But it is a walk from Mountains and Valleys, to the Holy Mount Zion; from Sea and Land, to the Land of the Living; from the Kingdoms of this world, to the Kingdom of Saints; from Earth to Heaven; from Time to Eternity: It is a walking upon Sun, and Moon, and Stars; it is a walk in the Garden, and Paradise of God▪ It may seem far off; but spirits are quick; whether in the body, or out of the body, their motion is swift: They are not so heavy, or dull, as these earthly lumps; nor so slow of motion, as these clods of flesh. I would not have you cast off your other Meditations; but surely, as Heaven hath the preeminence in perfection, so should it have the preeminence also in our Meditation. That which will make us most happy when we possess it, will make us most joyful when we meditate upon it; especially, when that Meditation is a degree of Possession, if it be such affecting Meditation as I here describe.