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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 3 › Chapter 5: A Description of heavenly Contemplation.
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.
From the act, which I call the set and solemn acting of all the powers of the soul.
1. I call it the acting of them, for it is action that we are directing you in now, and not dispositions; yet these also are necessarily presupposed: it must be a soul that is qualified for the work, by the supernatural grace of the Spirit, which must be able to perform this heavenly exercise. It is a work of the living, and not of the dead: it is a work or all other the most spiritual, and therefore not to be well performed by a heart that is merely carnal. 2. I call this meditation the acting of the powers of the soul, meaning the soul as rational. It is the work of the soul; for bodily exercise doth here profit but little. The soul hath its labour and its ease, its business and its idleness, as well as the body; and diligent students are usually as sensible of the labour and weariness of their spirits, as they are of that of the members of the body. This action of the soul is it I persuade thee to. 3. I call it the acting of ALL the powers of the soul, to difference it from the common meditation of students, which is usually the mere employment of the brain. It is not a bare thinking that I mean, nor the mere use of invention or memory, but a business of a higher and more excellent nature.
1. I call it the acting of them, for it is action that we are directing you in now, and not dispositions; yet these also are necessarity presupposed: it must be a soul that is qualified for the work, by the supernatural grace of the Spirit, which must be able to perform this heavenly exercise. It is a work of the living, and not of the dead: it is a work or all other the most spiritual, and therefore not to be well performed by a heart that is merely carnal. 2. I call this meditation the acting of the powers of the soul, meaning the soul as rational. It is the work of the soul; for bodily exercise doth here profit but little. The soul hath its labour and its ease, its business and its idleness, as well as the body; and diligent students are usually as sensible of the labour and weariness of their spirits, as they are of that of the members of the body. This action of the soul is it I persuade thee to. 3. I call it the acting of ALL the powers of the soul, to difference it from the common meditation of students, which is usually the mere employment of the brain. It is not a bare thinking that I mean, nor the mere use of invention or memory, but a business of a higher and more excellent nature.