A27017:599
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
THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. PART II. › Chapter 5 › Section 3
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.
3. But especially in those latter Ages when the world was grown more wise and learned, did God purposely choose the weak, the foolish, the unlearned to confound them; A company of poor Fishermen, Tentmakers, and such like, must write the Laws of the Kingdom of Christ; must dive into the Spiritual Mysteries of the Kingdom; must silence the Wise, and Disputers of the world; and must be the men that must bring in the world to believe. Doubtless, as Gods sending David, an unarmed Boy, with a Sling and a Stone against an armed Giant, was to make it appear, that the victory was from himself: So his sending these unlearned men to Preach the Gospel, and subdue the world, was to convince both the present and future generations, that it was God, and not man that did the work.
3. But especially in those latter Ages when the world was grown more wise and learned, did God purposely chuse the weak, the foolish, the unlearned to confound them; A company of poor Fishermen, Tentmakers, and such like, must write the Laws of the Kingdom of Christ; must dive into the Spiritual Mysteries of the Kingdom; must silence the Wise, and Disputers of the world; and must be the men that must bring in the world to believe. Doubless, as Gods sending David, an unarmed Boy, with a Sling and a Stone against an armed Gyant, was to make it appear, that the victory was from himself: So his sending these unlearned men to Preach the Gospel, and subdue the world, was to convince both the present and future generations, that it was God, and not man that did the work.
4. Also the course they took in silencing the learned adversaries, doth show us how little use they made of these Humane helps. They disputed not with them by the precepts of Logic: Their Arguments were to the Jews the Writings of Moses and the Prophets; and both to Jews and Gentiles, the miracles that were wrought; They argued more with deeds, then with words: The blind, the lame, the sick that were recovered, were their visible Arguments. The Languages which they spake, the Prophesies which they uttered, and other such supernatural gifts of the holy Ghost upon them; these were the things that did convince the world. Yet this is no president to us, to make as little use of Learning as they, because we are not upon the same work, nor yet supplied with their supernatural furniture.