A27017:1985
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. VII.1
- 1§. 7.
5. Compare also the Excellencies of heaven with those glorious works of the Creation which our eyes do now behold: What a deal of wisdom, and power, and goodness appeareth in and through them to a wise Observer? What a deal of the Majesty of the great Creator doth shine in the face of this fabric of the world?1 surely his Works are great and admirable, sought out of them that have pleasure therein:2 This makes the study of natural Philosophy so pleasant, because the Works of God are so excellent: What rare workmanship is in the body of a man? yea, in the body of every beast? which makes the Anatomical studies so delightful?3 what excellency in every Plant we see? in the beauty of Flowers? in the nature, diversity, and use of Herbs? in Fruits, in Roots, in Minerals, and what not? But especially if we look to the greater works: if we consider the whole body of this earth, and its creatures, and inhabitants; the Ocean of waters, with its motions and dimensions, the variation of the Seasons, and of the face of the earth; the intercourse of Spring and Fall, of Summer and Winter; what wonderful excellency do these contain? Why, think then in thy Meditations, if these things which are but servants to sinful man, are yet so full of mysterious worth; what then is that place where God himself doth dwell? and is prepared for the just who are perfected with Christ? When thou walkest forth in the Evening, look upon the Stars, how they glisten, and in what numbers they bespangle the Firmament: If in the day time,4 look up to the glorious Sun; view the wide expanded encompassing heavens, and say to thy self, what glory is in the least of yonder Stars? what a vast, what a bright resplendent body hath yonder Moon, and every Planet? O what an unconceivable glory hath the Sun? Why, all this is nothing to the glory of Heaven; yonder Sun must there be laid aside as useless, for it would not be seen for the brightness of God: I shall live above all yonder glory, yonder is but darkness to the lustre of my Fathers House, I shall be as glorious as that Sun my self; yonder is but as the wall of the Palace-yard; as the Poet aith, If in Heavens outward Court such beauty be, What is the glory which the Saints do see? So think of the rest of the Creatures: This whole earth is but my