A27017:386
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.
1This Conviction is not by mere Argumentation, as a man is convinced of the verity of some inconcerning consequence by dispute; but also by the sense of our desperate misery, as a man in famine of the necessity of food, or a man that hath read or heard his sentence of condemnation, is convinced of the absolute necessity of pardon; or as a man that lies in prison for debt, is convinced of the necessity of a surety to discharge it. Now the sinner finds himself in another case, then ever he was before aware of; he feels an insupportable burden upon him, and sees there is none but Christ can take it off; he perceives that he is under the wrath of God, and that the Law proclaims him a Rebel and Out-law, and none but Christ can make his peace; he is as a man pursued by a Lyon, that must perish if he find not present sanctuary; he feels the curse doth lie upon him, and upon all he hath for his sake, and ⟨p. 153⟩Christ alone can make him blessed; he is now brought to this Dilemma; either he must have Christ to justify him, or be eternally condemned; he must have Christ to save him, or burn in Hell for ever; he must have Christ to bring him again to God, or be shut out of his presence everlastingly. And now no wonder, if he cry as the Martyr Lambert, None but Christ, none but Christ. It is not Gold but Bread, that will satisfy the hungry; nor any thing but pardon that will comfort the condemned.2 All things are now but dross and dung; and what we accounted gain, is now but loss, in comparison of Christ. For as the sinner seeth his utter misery, and the disability of himself, and all things to relieve him; so he doth perceive, that there is no saving mercy out of Christ: The truth of the threatening, and tenor of both Covenants, do put him out of all such hopes.3 There is none found in Heaven or Earth, that can open the sealed Book, save the Lamb; without his blood there is no Remission; and without Remission there is no Salvation. Could the sinner now make any shift without Christ, or could any thing else supply his wants, and save his soul;4 then might Christ be disregarded: But now he is convinced, that there is no other name, and the necessity is absolute.