A27017:1848
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.
When Blessed Paul was ready to be offered up, what heavenly Exhortation doth he give the Philippians? what advice to Timothy? what counsel to the Elders of the Ephesian Church? Acts 20. How near was S. John to heaven in his banishment in Patmos, a little before his translation to Heaven? what heavenly discourse hath Luther in his last sickness? How close was Calvin to his Divine studies in his very sickness, that when they would have dissuaded him from it, He answers, Vultisne me otiosum a domino apprehendi? What, would you have God find me idle? I have not lived idly, and shall I ⟨p. 709⟩dye idly? The like may be said of our famous Reignolds. When excellent Bucholcer was near his end, he wrote his Book De Consol• ti•ne Decumbentium. Then it was that Tossianus wrote his Vade mecum. Then Doctor Preston was upon the Attributes of God; And then Mr Bolton was on the Joys of Heaven. It were end less to enumerate the eminent examples of this kind. It is the general temper of the spirits of the Saints, to be then most Heavenly when they are nearest to Heaven. As we use to say of the old and the weak, that they have one foot in the grave already, so may we say of the godly, when they are near their Rest, they have one foot (as it were) in Heaven already; When should a Traveller look homewards with joy, but when he is come within the sight of his home? Its true, the pains of our bodies, and the fainting of our spirits may somewhat abate the liveliness of our joy, but the measure we have, will be the more pure and spiritual, by how much the less it is kindled from the Flesh. O that we who are daily languishing, could learn this daily heavenly conversing! and could say as the Apostle in the forecited place, 2 Cor. 4.16, 17, 18! O that every gripe that our bodies feel, might make us more sensible of future ease! and that every weary day and hour might make us long for our eternal rest! That as the pulling down of one end of the balance is the lifting up of the other, so the pulling down of our bodies might be the lifting up of our souls! that as our souls were usually at the worst when our bodies were at the best, so now they might be at the best when our bodies are at the worst▪ why should we not think thus with our selves?