N17286:708
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.
THUS I have opened to you the nature of this duty; I proceed to direct you in the work; where I shall, first, show you how you must set upon it; secondly, how you must behave in it; and thirdly, how you shall shut it up. I advise thee, 1. Somewhat concerning the time. 2. Somewhat concerning the place. And 3. Somewhat concerning the frame of thy spirit.
THUS I have opened to you the nature of this duty; I proceed to direct you in the work; where I shall, first, shew you how you must set upon it; secondly, how you must behave in it; and thirdly, how you shall shut it up. I advise thee, 1. Somewhat concerning the time. 2. Somewhat concerning the place. And 3. Somewhat concerning the frame of thy spirit.
And 1. for the time, I advise thee that as much as may be, it be set and constant. Proportion out such a part of thy time to the work.
Stick not at their scruple, who question the stating of times as superstitious: if thou suit out thy time to the advantage of the work, and place no religion in the time itself; thou needest not to fear lest this be superstition. As a workman in his shop will have a set place for every one of his tools, or else when be should use it, it may be to seek; so a christian should have a set time for every ordinary duty, or else when he should practise it, it is ten to one but he will be put by it. Stated time is a hedge to duty, and defends it against many temptations to omission. GOD hath stated none but the LORD'S day himself; but he hath left it to be stated by ourselves, according to every man's condition and occasions, lest otherwise his law should have been a burden or a snare. Yet hath he left us general rules, which by the use of reason, and christian prudence, may help us to determine the fittest times.