A27017:2009
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. XIII.
- 1§. 13.
11. Compare thy mercies thou shalt have above, with the mercies which Christ hath here bestowed on thy soul; and the glorious change which thou shalt have at last, with the gracious change which the Spirit hath wrought on thy heart: Compare the comforts of thy glorification, with the comforts of thy sanctification. There is not the smallest grace in thee, which is genuine and sincere, but is of greater worth then the riches of the Indies; not a hearty desire and groan after Christ, but is more to be valued, then the Kingdoms of the World: A renewed nature is the very Image of God; Scripture calleth it by the name of [Christ dwelling in us] and [the Spirit] of God abiding in us: It is as a beam from the face of God himself; it is the Seed of God remaining in us; it is the only inherent beauty of the rational soul; it ennobleth man above all nobility; it fitteth him to understand his Makers pleasure, to do his VVill, and to receive his Glory. Why think then with thy self, If this grain of Mustard seed be so precious, what is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God? If a spark of life which will but strive against corruptions, and flame out a few desires and groans, be so much worth; how glorious then is the Fountain and End of this life? If we be said to be like God, and to bear his Image, and to be holy as he is holy; when, alas, we are pressed down with a body of sin; Sure we shall then be much liker God, when we are perfectly holy and without blemish, and have no such thing as sin within us. Is the desire after Heaven so precious a thing? what then is the thing it self which is desired? Is the love so excellent? what then is the beloved? Is our joy in foreseeing and believing, so sweet? what will be the joy in the full possessing? O the delight that a Christian hath in the lively exercise of some of these affections! What good do's it to his very heart, when he can feelingly say, He loves his Lord? what sweetness is there in the very act of loving? yea, even those troubling Passions of Sorrow and Fear, are yet delightful, when they are rightly exercised: How glad is a poor Christian, when he feeleth his heart begin to melt? and when the thoughts of sinful unkindness will dissolve it? Even this Sorrow doth yield him matter of Joy. O what will it then be,