A27017:924
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 5 › Section 5
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.
what haste doth Plague and Famine make? and all because we will not make haste: The Spur of God is in our sides, we bleed, we groan, and yet we do not mend our pace; The Rod is on our backs, it speaks to the quick; our lashes are heard through the Christian world, and yet we stir no faster then before: Lord, what a senseless, sottish, earthly, hellish thing is a hard heart! that we will not go roundly and cheerfully toward heaven without all this ado! no nor with it neither! where is the man that is serious in his Christianity? Methinks men do every where make but a trifle of their eternal state; they look after it but a little upon the by, they do not make it the task and business of their lives. To be plain with you, I think nothing undoes men so much as complementing, and jesting, in Religion. O, if I were not sick my self of the same disease, with what tears should I mixed this Ink? and with what groans should I express these sad complaints? and with what hearts-grief should I mourn over this universal deadness? Do the Magistrates among us seriously perform *their portion of the work? ⟨p. 347⟩Are they zealous for God? Do they build up his House? and are they tender of his Honour? Do they second the Word? and encourage the Godly? and relieve the Oppressed? and compassionate the Distressed? and let fly at the face of sin and sinners, as being the disturbers of our peace, and the only cause of all our miseries? Do they study how to do the utmost that they can for God? to improve their power and parts, and wealth, and honour, and all their interests for the greatest advantage to the Kingdom of Christ, as men that must shortly give account of their Stewardship? or do they build their own houses, and seek their advancements and stand upon, and contest for their own honours, and do no more for Christ then needs they must, or then lies in their way, or then is put by others into their hands, or then stands with the pleasing of their friends, or with their worldly interests? which of these two courses do they take? and how thin are those Ministers that are serious in their work? Nay, how mightily do the very best fail in this above all things!2 Do we cry out of mens disobedience to the Gospel in the evidence and power of the Spirit, and deal with sin as that which is the fire in our Towns and houses? and by force pull men out of this fire?