N17286:618
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.
Why did Christ pronounce his disciples eyes and ears blessed, but as they were the doors to let in Christ by his works and words into their heart? Blessed are the eyes that so see, and the ears that so hear, that the heart is thereby raised to this heavenly frame. Sirs, so much of your hearts as is empty of Christ and heaven, let it be filled with shame and sorrow, and not with ease.
But let me turn my reprehension to exhortation, that you would turn this conviction into reformation. And I have the more hope, because I here address myself to men of conscience, that dare not wilfully disobey GOD; yea, because to men whose portion is there, whose hopes are ther• •nd who have forsaken all that they may enjoy this glory; and shall I be discouraged from persuading such to be heavenly-minded? If you will not hear and obey, who will? Whoever ⟨p. 277⟩thou art therefore that readest these lines, I require thee, as thou tenderest thine allegiance to the God of heaven, as ever thou hopest for a part in this glory, that thou presently take thy heart to task; chide it for its wilful strangeness to GOD; turn thy thought from the pursuit of vanity, bend thy sold to study eternity; habituate thyself to such contemplations, and let not those thoughts be seldom and cursory, but settle upon them; dwell here, bathe thy soul in heaven's delights; drench thine affections in these rivers of pleasure; and if thy backward soul begin to flag, and thy thoughts to fly abroad, call them back, hold them to their work, put them on, bear not with their laziness; and when thou hast once tried this work, and followed on till thou hast got acquainted with it, and kept a close guard upon thy thoughts till they are accustomed to obey, thou wilt then find thyself in the suburbs of heaven, and as it were in a new world; thou wilt then find that there is sweetness in the work and way of GOD, and that the life of christianity is a life of joy: thou wilt meet with those abundant consolations which thou hast prayed, and panted, and groaned after, and which so few christians obtain, because they know not the way to them, or else make not conscience of walking in it.