A27017:1876
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. VI.
- 1§. 6.
4. Meditation putteth reason in its Authority and preeminence. It helpeth to deliver it from its captivity to the senses, and setteth it again upon the throne of the soul. When Reason is silent, it is usually subject: For when it is asleep, the senses domineer: Now consideration wakeneth our reason from its sleep; till it rouse up it self as Sampson, and break the bonds of sensuality wherewith it is fettered: and then as a Giant refreshed with wine, it bears down the delusions of the flesh before it. What strength can the Lyon put forth when he is asleep? What is the King more then another man, when he is once deposed from his throne and authority? When men have no better Judg then the flesh; or when the joys of heaven go no further then their fantasy, no wonder if they work but as common things: sweet things to the eye, and beautiful things to the ear, will work no more then bitter and deformed: every thing worketh in its own place, ⟨p. 723⟩and every sense hath its proper object: Now it is spiritual reason excited by Meditation, and not the fantasy or fleshly sense, which must favour and judg of those superior Joys. Consideration exalteth the objects of faith, and disgraceth comparatively the objects of sense. The most inconsiderate men are the most sensual men.
4. MEditation putteth reason in its Authority and preheminence. It helpeth to deliver it from its captivity to the senses, and setteth it again upon the throne of the soul. When Reason is silent, it is usually subject: For when it is asleep, the senses domineer: Now consideration wakeneth our reason from its sleep; till it rowse up it self as Sampson, and break the bonds of sensuality wherewith it is fettered: and then as a Gyant refreshed with wine, it bears down the delusions of the flesh before it. What strength can the Lyon put forth when he is asleep? What is the King more then another man, when he is once deposed from his throne and authority? When men have no better Judg then the flesh; or when the joyes of heaven go no further then their fantasie, no wonder if they work but as common things: sweet things to the eye, and beautiful things to the ear, will work no more then bitter and deformed: every thing worketh in its own place,