A27017:2049
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.
Ah drowsy, earthy, blockish heart! How coldly dost thou think of this reviving day? Dost thou sleep when thou thinkest of eternal Rest? Art thou hanging earthward, when heaven is before thee? Hadst thou rather sit thee down in dirt and dung, then walk in the court of the Palace of God? Dost thou now remember thy worldly business? Art thou looking back to the Sodom of thy lusts? Art thou thinking of thy delights and merry company? wretched heart! Is it better to be there, then above with God? is the company better? are the pleasures greater? Come away; make no excuse, make no delay, God commands, and I command thee,1 come away, gird up thy loins: ascend the mount; and look about thee, with seriousness and with faith. Look thou not back upon the way of the wilderness, except it be when thine eyes are dazzled with the glory, or when thou wouldst compare the Kingdom with that howling desert; that thou mayest more sensibly perceive the mighty difference. Fix thine eye upon the Sun it self; and ⟨p. 795⟩look not down to Earth as long as thou art able to behold it; except it be to discern more easily, the brightness of the one, by the darkness of the other. Yonder, far above yonder, is thy Fathers glory; yonder must thou dwell when thou leavest this Earth; yonder must thou remove, O my soul, when thou departest from this body: And when the power of thy Lord hath raised it again, and joined thee to it; yonder must thou live with God for ever. There is the glorious New Jerusalem, the Gates of Pearl, the foundations of Pearl, the Streets and Pavements of transparent Gold: Seest thou that Sun which lighteth all this world; why, it must be taken down as useless there, or the glory of Heaven will darken it, and put it out; even thy self shall be as bright as yonder shining Sun: God will be the Sun, and Christ the Light, and in his Light shalt thou have light.
Ah drowsie, earthy, blockish heart! How coldly dost thou think of this reviving day? Dost thou sleep when thou thinkest of eternal Rest? Art thou hanging earthward, when heaven is before thee? Hadst thou rather sit thee down in dirt and dung, then walk in the court of the Palace of God? Dost thou now remember thy worldly business? Art thou looking back to the Sodom of thy lusts? Art thou thinking of thy delights and merry company? wretched heart! Is it better to be there, then above with God? is the company better? are the pleasures greater? Come away; make no excuse, make no delay, God commands, and I command thee,