N17286:440
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 10: The Reason of the Saints Afflictions here.
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.
Answ. 1. For that duty which tendeth to thy own benefit, it doth not disable thee; but is the greatest help that thou canst expect. Thou usest to complain of coldness, and dullness, and worldliness, and security: if affliction will not help thee against all these, by warning, quickening, rousing thy spirit, I know not what will. Sure thou wilt repent throughly, and pray fervently, and mind GOD and heaven more seriously, either now or never.
Answ. 1. For that duty which tendeth to thy own benefit, it doth not disable thee; but is the greatest help that thou canst expect. Thou usest to complain of coldness, and dulness, and worldliness, and security: if affliction will not help thee against all these, by warning, quickening, rouzing thy spirit, I know not what will. Sure thou wilt repent throughly, and pray fervently, and mind GOD and heaven more seriously, either now or never.
2. As for duty to others, and service to the church, it is not thy duty when GOD doth disable thee. He may call thee out of the vineyard in this respect, even before he call thee by death. If he lay thee in the grave, and put others in thy place, is this any wrong to thee? So if he call thee out before thy death, and set others to do the work, shouldst thou not be as well content? Must GOD do all the work by thee? Hath he not many others as dear to him, and as fit for the employment? But alas, what deceitfulness lieth in these hearts! When we have time, and health, and opportunity to work, then we loiter, and do our Master but poor service: but when he layeth affliction upon us, then we complain that he disableth us for his work, and yet perhaps we are still negligent in that part of the work which we can do. So, when we are in health and prosperity, we forget the public, and are careless of other men's miseries and wants, and mind almost nothing but ourselves; but when GOD afflicteth us, though he excite us more to duty for ourselves, yet we complain that he disableth us for our duty to others: as if on a sudden we were grown so charitable, that we regard other men's souls more man our own! But is not the hand of flesh in all this dissimulation, ⟨p. 193⟩