N17286:142
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: extracted from the works of Mr. Richard Baxter, by John Wesley, M.A. late fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.
Philadelphia: printed by Prichard & Hall, 1790
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.
2. As there must be conviction, so also sensibility. GOD works on the heart, as well as the head: both were corrupted, and out of order. The principle of new life doth quicken both. All true spiritual knowledge doth pass into affections. The great things of sin, of grace, and Christ, and eternity, which are of weight, one would think to move a rock; yet shake not the heart of the carnal professor, nor pierce his soul to the quick: though he should be a constant preacher of them to others, yet they little affect himself: when he is pressing them upon the hearts of others, you would little think how insensible is his own soul: his invention procureth him zealous and moving expressions, but they cannot procure him answerable affections.
2. As there must be conviction, so also sensibility. GOD works on the heart, as well as the head: both were corrupted, and out of order. The principle of new life doth quicken both. All true spiritual knowledge doth pass into affections. The great things of sin, of grace, and Christ, and eternity, which are of weight, one would think to move a rock; yet shake not the heart of the carnal professor, nor pierce his soul to the quick: though he should be a constant preacher of them to others, yet they little affect himself: when he is pressing them upon the hearts of others, you would little think how insensible is his own soul: his invention precureth him zealous and moving expressions, but they cannot procure him answerable affections.
The things that the soul is thus convinced and sensible of, are especially these:
1. The evil of sin. The sinner is made to know and feel, that the sin, which was his delight, is a more loathsome thing than toads or serpents, and a greater evil than plague or famine, or any other calamities: it being a breach of the righteous law of the most high GOD, dishonourable to him, and destructive to the sinner.