A27017:2076
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.
O how can my heart then conceive that joy, which I shall have in my admittance into the Celestial Temple, and into the Heavenly Host, that shall do nothing but praise the Lord for ever: When we shall say to Christ, Here am I, and the children thou hast given me; and when Christ shall present us all to his Father, and all are ⟨p. 813⟩gathered, and the Body completed! If the very Word of God were sweeter to Job then his necessary food;1 and to Jeremiah, was the very joy and rejoicing of his heart; and to David, was sweeter then the Honey and Honeycomb;2 so that he crieth out, O how I love thy Law! it is my meditation continually: and if thy Law had not been my delight, I had perished in my troubles. O then how blessed a day will that be, when we fully enjoy the Lord of this Word! and shall need these written precepts and promises no more! but shall in stead of these love-letters, enjoy our beloved; and in stead of these promises, have the happiness in possession; and read no book but the face of the glorious God! How far would I go to see one of those blessed Angels, which appeared to Abraham, to Lot, to John &c. Or to speak with Enoch or Elijah or any Saint, who had lived with God? especially if he would resolve all my doubts, and describe to me the celestial habitations? How much more desirable must it needs be to live with those blessed Saints and Angels,3 and to see and possess as well as they? It is written of Erastus, that he was so desirous to learn, that it would be sweet to him even to dye, so he might but be resolved of those doubtful questions wherein he could not satisfy himself. How sweet then should it be to me to dye, that I may not only be resolved of all my doubts, but also know what I never before did think of, and enjoy what before I never knew? It was a happy dwelling that the twelve Apostles had with Christ; to be always in his company, and see his face, and hear him open to them the mysteries of the Kingdom: But it will be another kind of happiness to dwell with him in Glory. It was a rare privilege of Thomas to put his fingers into his wounds to confirm his faith, and of John to be called the Disciple whom Jesus loved, on whose breast at supper he was wont to lean▪ But it will be another kind of privilege which I shall enjoy, when I shall see him in his glory, and not in his wounds; and shall enjoy a fuller sense of his Love then John then did;