A27017:1988
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. VIII.
- 1§. 8.
6. Compare the things which thou shalt enjoy above, with the excellency of those admirable works of Providence, which God doth exercise in the Church, and in the World. What glorious things hath the Lord wrought? and yet we shall see more glorious then these. Would it not be an astonishing sight, to see the Sea stand as a Wall on the right hand, and on the left, and the dry Land appear in the midst, and the people of Israel pass safely through, and Pharaoh and his people swallowed up? what if we should see but such a sight now? If we had seen the ten Plagues of Egypt, or had seen the Rock to gush forth streams, or had seen Manna or Quails rained down from Heaven, or had seen the Earth open, and swallow up the wicked, or had seen their Armies slain with Hailstones, with an Angel, or by one another. Would not all these have been wondrous, glorious sights? But we shall see far greater things then these. And as our sights shall be more wonderful, so also they shall be more sweet: There shall be no blood nor wrath intermingled; we shall not then cry out as David, Who can stand before this Holy Lord God? Would it not have been an astonishing sight, to have seen the Sun stand still in the Firmament? or to have seen Ahaz Dial go ten degrees backward? Why, we shall see when there shall be no Sun to shine at all; we shall behold for ever a Sun of more incomparable brightness. Were it not a brave life, if we might still live among wonders and miracles? and all for us, and not against us? if we could have drought or rain at our prayers, as Elijah? or if we could call down fire from Heaven to destroy our enemies? or raise the dead to life, as Elisha? or cure the diseased, and speak strange languages, as the ⟨p. 767⟩Apostles? Alas, these are nothing to the wonders which we shall see and possess with God! and all those wonders of Goodness and Love! We shall possess that Pearl and Power it self, through whose virtue all these works were done; we shall our selves be the subjects of more wonderful mercies then any of these. Jonah was raised but from a three days burial, from the belly of the Whale in the deep Ocean; but we shall be raised from many years rottenness and dust; and that dust exalted to a Sun-like glory; and that glory perpetuated to all eternity. What sayest thou, Christian, Is not this the greatest of miracles or wonders?