N17286:222
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
Part 2 › Chapter 3: They shall lose all Things that are comfortable, as well as Heaven.
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.
CHAP. III. They shall lose all Things that are comfortable, as well as Heaven.
HAVING showed you those considerations which will then aggravate their misery, I am next to show you their additional losses, which will aggravate it. For as godliness hath the promise both of this life, and that which is to come; and as GOD hath said, That if we first seek his kingdom and righteousness, all things else shall be added to us: so also are the ungodly threatened with the loss both of spiritual and of corporal blessings; and because they sought not first Christ's kingdom and righteousness, therefore shall they lose both it, and that which they did seek, and there shall be taken from them even that little which they have. If they could but have kept their present enjoyments, they would not have much cared for the loss of heaven: but catching at the shadow for the substance, they now find they have lost both; and that when they rejected Christ, they rejected all things. If they had lost and forsaken all for Christ, they would have found all again in him; for he would have been all in all to them: but now they have forsaken Christ for other things, they shall lose Christ, and that also for which they did forsake him.
HAVING shewed you those considerations which will then aggravate their misery, I am next to shew you their additional losses, which will aggravate it. For as godliness hath the promise both of this life, and that which is to come; and as GOD hath said, That if we first seek his kingdom and righteousness, all things else shall be added to us: so also are the ungodly threatened with the loss both of spiritual and of corporal blessings; and because they sought not first Christ's kingdom and righteousness, therefore shall they lose both it, and that which they did seek, and there shall be taken from them even that little which they have. If they could but have kept their present enjoyments, they would not have much cared for the loss of heaven: but catching at the shadow for the substance, they now find they have lost both; and that when they rejected Christ, they rejected all things. If they had lost and forsaken all for Christ, they would have found all again in him; for he would have been all in all to them: but now they have forsaken Christ for other things, they shall lose Christ, and that also for which they did forsake him.