N17286:338
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 6: An Exhortation to Seriousness in seeking Rest.
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.
5. Quest. What if you had seen the process of the judgment of the great day? If you had seen the judgment set, and the books opened, and the most stand trembling on the left hand of the judge, and Christ himself accusing them of their rebellions and neglects, and remembering them of all their former slightings of his grace, and at last condemning them to perpetual perdition? If you had seen the godly standing on the right hand, and Jesus Christ acknowledging their faithful obedience, and adjudging them to the possession of the joy of their LORD? What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this? Why, this fight thou shalt one day see, as sure as thou livest. And why then should not the foreknowledge of such a day awake thee to thy duty?
Quest. What if you had once seen hell open, and all the damned there in their ceaseless torments, and had heard them crying out of their slothfulness in the day of their visitation, and wishing that they had but another life to live, and that GOD would but try them once again? one crying out of his neglect of duty, and another of his loitering and trifling, ⟨p. 157⟩when he should have been labouring for his life? What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this? What if you had seen heaven opened, as Stephen did, and all the saints there triumphing in glory, and enjoying the end of their labours and sufferings? What a life would you lead after such a sight as this? Why, you will see this with your eyes before it be long.
Quest. What if you had once seen hell open, and all the damned there in their ceaseless torments, and had heard them crying out of their slothfulness in the day of their visitation, and wishing that they had but another life to live, and that GOD would but try them once again? one crying out of his neglect of duty, and another of his loitering and trisling, ⟨p. 157⟩when he should have been labouring for his life? What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this? What if you had seen heaven opened, as Stephen did, and all the saints there triumphing in glory, and enjoying the end of their labours and sufferings? What a life would you lead after such a sigt as this? Why, you will see this with your eyes before it be long.