A27017:890
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. III. › Chapter 4 › Section 10
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.
Fourthly, If thy stout spirit do make so light of hell, why then doth the approach of death so much affright thee? Didst thou never find the sober thoughts of death to raise a kind of dread in thy mind? Wast thou never in a fever, or a consumption, or any disease wherein thou didst receive the sentence of death? If thou wast not, thou wilt be before ⟨p. 334⟩long: and then when the Physician hath plainly told thee that there is no hopes, O how cold it strikes to thy heart? Why is death to men the King of terrors else? and the stoutest champions then do abate their courage? O but the grave would be accounted a palace or a Paradise, in comparison of that place of Torment which thou desperately slightest.
Fourthly, If thy stout spirit do make so light of hel, why then doth the approach of death so much affright thee? Didst thou never finde the sober thoughts of death to raise a kind of dread in thy mind? VVast thou never in a feaver, or a consumption, or any disease wherein thou didst receive the sentence of death? If thou wast not, thou wilt be before ⟨p. 334⟩long: and then when the Physitian hath plainly told thee that there is no hopes, O how cold it strikes to thy heart? VVhy is death to men the King of terrors else? and the stoutest champions then do abate their courage? O but the grave would be accounted a palace or a Paradise, in comparison of that place of Torment which thou desperately slightest.
5. If all this be nothing, go try thy strength by some corporal torment: As Bilney before he went to the stake, would first try his finger in the candle: so do thou; Hold thy finger a while in the fire, and feel there whether thou canst endure the fire of Hell: Austin mentioneth a chaste Christian woman who being tempted to uncleanness by a lewd Ruffian, she desireth him for her sake to hold his finger an hour in the fire; he answereth, It is an unreasonable request; How much more unreasonable is it (saith she) that I should burn in Hell for the satisfying of your lust? Lo say I to thee: If it be an intolerable thing to suffer the heat of the fire for a year, or a day, or an hour, what will it be to suffer ten thousand times more for ever? What if thou were to suffer Lawrence his death, to be roasted upon a Gridiron? or to be scraped or pricked to death as other Martyrs were? Or if thou were to feed upon toads for a year together? If thou couldest not endure such things as these, how wilt thou endure the eternal flames?