A27017:2119
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.
When he looketh back on the Wilderness of this World, he blesseth the believing, patient, despised Saints; he pitieth the ignorant, obstinate, miserable ⟨p. 847⟩World; and for himself, he saith as Peter, It is good to be here; or as David, It is good for me to draw near to God; for all those that are far from him, shall perish.
When he looketh back on the Wilderness of this VVorld, he blesseth the believing, patient, despised Saints; he pitieth the ignorant, obstinate, miserable ⟨p. 847⟩World; and for himself, he saith as Peter, It is good to be here; or as David, It is good for me to draw neer to God; for all those that are far from him, shall perish.
Thus as Daniel in his captivity, did three times a day open his window toward Jerusalem, though far out of sight, when he went to God in his Devotions; so may the believing Soul in this captivity to the flesh, look towards Jerusalem which is above: And as Paul was to the Colossians, so may he be with the Glorified Spirits,1 Absent in the flesh, but present in Spirit, joying in beholding their (Heavenly) Order. And as Divine Bucholcer in his last Sermon, before his death, did so sweetly descant upon those comfortable words, John 3.16. [Whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have Everlasting Life.] That he raised, and ravished the hearts of his (otherwise sad) hearers: So may the Meditating Believer do, (through the Spirits assistance) by his own heart. And as the pretty Lark doth sing most sweetly, and never cease her pleasant ditty, while she hovereth aloft, as if she were there gazing into the glory of the Sun; but is suddenly silenced when she falleth to the Earth: So is the frame of the Soul, most Delectable and Divine, while it keepeth in the views of God by Contemplation: But, alas, we make there too short a stay, but down again we fall, and lay by our music.