A27017:191
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.
SECT. II.
The second stream that leadeth to Paradise,1 is that Great work of Jesus Christ, in raising our Bodies from the dust, and uniting them again unto the Soul. A wonderful effect of infinite Power and Love.2 Yea, wonderful indeed, saith Unbelief, if it be True. What, saith the Atheist and Sadducee, shall all these scattered bones and dust become a man? A man drowned in the Sea is eaten by fishes, and they by men again, and these men by worms, what is become of the body of that first man? shall it rise again? Thou fool! (for so Paul calls thee,) dost thou dispute against the power of the Almighty? Wilt thou pose him with thy Sophistry? Dost thou object difficulties to the Infinite Strength? Thou blind Mole! Thou silly Worm! Thou little piece of creeping, breathing clay! Thou dust! Thou nothing! Knowest thou who it is, whose Power thou dost Question? If thou shouldst see him, thou wouldst presently dye. If he should come and dispute his cause with thee, couldst thou bear it? Or if thou shouldst hear his voice, couldst thou endure? But come thy way; let me take thee by the hand, and do thou a little follow me: and let me with Reverence (as Elihu) plead for God; and for that power whereby I hope to arise. Seest thou this great massive body of the earth? What beareth it? and upon what foundation doth it stand? Seest thou this vast Ocean of waters. What Limits them? and why do they not overflow and drown the Earth? Whence is that constant Ebbing and Flowing of her Tides? Wilt thou say from the Moon, or other Planets? and whence have they that power of effective influence? Must thou not come to a Cause of Causes, that can do all things? and doth not Reason require thee, to conceive of that cause as a perfect Intelligence and voluntary Agent, and not such a blind worker and empty notion as that Nothing is which thou callest Nature? Look upward: Seest thou that Glorious body of Light, the Sun How many times bigger is it then all the Earth? and yet how many thousand miles doth it run in one minute of an hour? and that without weariness, or failing a moment? What thinkest thou? Is not that power able to effect thy Resurrection, which doth