N17286:442
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.
Object. 4. Oh, but saith another, it is my friends that are my afflicters: they disclaim me, and will scarce look at me; they censure me, and backbite me, and slander me, and look upon me with a disdainful eye; if it were others, I could bear it, I look for no better from them: but when those that are my delight, and that I looked for comfort and refreshing from, when those are as thorns in my sides, who can bear it?
Answ. 1. Whoever is the instrument, the affliction is from GOD, and the provoking cause from thyself: and were it not fitter that thou look more to GOD and thyself?
2. Dost thou not know, that good men are still sinful in part? and that their hearts are naturally deceitful, and desperately wicked, as well as others? Learn therefore a better lesson from the prophet, Mich. vii. 5, 6, 7. Trust not (too much) in a friend, nor put confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom: but look rather for the LORD, and wait for the GOD of thy salvation.