N17286:825
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 10: An Example of this heavenly Contemplation, for the Help of the Unskilful.
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.
If the queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and see his glory; O how gladly should I pass from earth to heaven, to see the glory of that eternal majesty; and to attain myself that height of wisdom, in comparison of which the most learned on earth are but fools and idiots! If the heaven of glass which the Persian emperor framed, were so glorious a piece, and the heaven of silver which the emperor Ferdinand sent to the great Turk, because of their rare artificial representations and motions, what will the heaven of heavens be, which is not formed by the art of man, nor beautified like these childish toys, but it is the matchless palace of the great King, built by himself for the residence of his glory, and the perpetual entertainment of his beloved saints!
If the queen of Sheba came from Aethiopia to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and see his glory; O how gladly should I pass from earth to heaven, to see the glory of that eternal majesty; and to attain myself that height of wisdom, in comparison of which the most learned on earth are but fools and idiots! If the heaven of glass which the Persian emperor framed, were so glorious a piece, and the heaven of silver which the emperor Ferdinand sent to the great Turk, because of their rare artificial representations and motions, what will the heaven of heavens be, which is not formed by the art of man, nor beautified like these childish toys, but it is the matchless palace of the great King, built by himself for the residence of his glory, and the perpetual entertainment of his beloved saints!
I cannot here enjoy my parents, or my beloved friends without some delight; what will it then be to ⟨p. 391⟩live in the perpetual love of GOD! For brethren here to live together in unity how good and pleasant a thing is it! To see a family live in love; husbands, wives, parents, children, s•••ants, doing all in love to one another! O then, what a blessed society will be the family of heaven and those peaceable inhabitants of the new Jerusalem! Where is no division, nor disaffection, nor strangeness, nor deceitful friendship; never an angry thought or look, never an unkind expression, but all one in Christ, who is one with the Father, and live in the love of love himself.