A27017:198
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.
It is but that the foundations of the prison may be shaken, and so the doors fly open: The terror will be to thy Jailer, but to thee Deliverance. Oh therefore at what ⟨p. 54⟩hour of the night soever thy Lord come,1 let him find thee, though with thy feet in these stocks, yet singing praises to him, and not fearing the time of thy deliverance. If unclothing be the thing thou fearest; Why it is, that thou mayst have better clothing put on. If to be turned out of doors be the thing thou fearest; Why remember, that when this Earthly house of thy Tabernacle is dissolved, thou hast a building of God, 2an house not made with hands, Eternal in the Heavens. How willingly do our Soldiers burn their Huts, when the siege is ended? being glad that their work is done, that they may go home and dwell in houses? Lay down then cheerfully this bag of loathsome filth, this Lump of Corruption: thou shalt undoubtedly receive it again in Incorruption. Lay down freely this terrestrial, this natural body: believe it, thou shalt receive it again a celestial, a spiritual body. And though thou lay it down into the dirt with great dishonour; thou shalt receive it into Glory with honour: And though thou art separated from it through weakness; it shall be raised again, and joined to thee, in mighty power. When the Trumpet of God shall sound, the Call; Come away, 3arise ye Dead; Who shall then stay behind? Who can resist the powerful Command of our Lord? When he shall call to the Earth and Sea; O Earth, give up thy Dead; O Sea, give up thy Dead: Then shall our Sampson break for us the bonds of Death. And as the Ungodly shall, like Toads from their holes, be drawn forth whether they will or no; so shall the Godly, as prisoners of hope, awake out of sleep, and come with Joy to meet their Lord. The first that shall be called, are the Saints that sleep; and then the Saints that are then alive shall be changed. For Paul hath told us by the Word of the Lord, That they which are alive, and remain to the Coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump of God: and the Dead in Christ shall rise first. Then they which are alive, and remain,