A27017:936
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 6 › 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.
SECT. III.
2. Consider;1 Our diligence should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the work which we have to do, as well as to the Ends of it. Now the Works of a Christian here are very Many, and very Great: The Soul must be renewed; Many and great Corruptions must be mortified: Custom, and Temptations, and worldly Interests must be conquered: Flesh must be mastered; Self must be denied: Life, and friends, and credit, and all must be slighted: Conscience must be upon good grounds quieted; Assurance of Pardon and Salvation must be attained. And though it is God that must give us these, and that freely, without our own merit; yet will he not give them so freely, as without our earnest Seeking and Labour. Besides, there is a deal of knowledge to be got, for the guiding of our selves, for the defending of the Truth, for the direction of others; and a deal of skill, for the right managing of our parts: Many Ordinances are to be used, and duties performed, ordinary and extraordinary: Every Age, and year, and day, doth require fresh succession of duty; Every place we come in, every person that we have to deal with; every change of our own Condition, doth still require the renewing of our labour, and bringeth duty along with it: Wives, Children, Servants, Neighbours, Friends, Enemies, all of them call for duty from us: And all this of great importance too; so that for the most of it, if we miscarry in it, it would prove our undoing.
2. COnsider;1 Our diligence should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the work which we have to do, as well as to the Ends of it. Now the Works of a Christian here are very Many, and very Great: The Soul must be renewed; Many and great Corruptions must be mortified: Custom, and Temptations, and worldly Interests must be conquered: Flesh must be mastered; Self must be denyed: Life, and friends, and credit, and all must be slighted: Conscience must be upon good grounds quieted; Assurance of Pardon and Salvation must be attained. And though it is God that must give us these, and that freely, without our own merit; yet will he not give them so freely, as without our earnest Seeking and Labour. Besides, there is a deal of knowledg to be got, for the guiding of our selves, for the defending of the Truth, for the direction of others; and a deal of skill, for the right managing of our parts: Many Ordinances are to be used, and duties performed, ordinary and extraordinary: Every Age, and year, and day, doth require fresh succession of duty; Every place we come in, every person that we have to deal with; every change of our own Condition, doth still require the renewing of our labour, and bringeth duty along with it: Wives, Children, Servants, Neighbours, Friends, Enemies, all of them call for duty from us: And all this of great importance too; so that for the most of it, if we miscarry in it, it would prove our undoing.