N17286:833
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.
Reader, it is (under GOD) in thy own choice now, whether thou wilt live this blessed life or not; and whether all this pains which I have taken for thee, small prosper or be lost. If it be lost through thy laziness. (which GOD forbid) thou wilt prove the greatest loser thyself.
O man, what hast thou to mind, but GOD and heaven? art thou not almost out of this world already? ⟨p. 396⟩dost thou not look every day, when one disease or other will let out thy soul? doth not the bier stand ready to carry thee to the grave? and the worms wait to feed upon thy face and heart? what if thy pulse must beat a few strokes more? and what if thou hast a sew more breaths to fetch, before thou breathe thy last? and what if thou hast a few more nights to sleep, before thou sleep in the dust? Alas, what will this be, when it is gone? and is it not almost gone already? Shortly thou wilt see thy glass run out, and say thyself, my life is done! my time is gone! there is nothing now, but heaven or hell: where then should thy heart be now, but in heaven? Didst thou but know what a dreadful thing it is to have a doubt of heaven, when a man lies dying, it would rouse thee up.
O what a life might men live, if they were but willing and diligent! GOD would have our joys to be far more than our sorrows; yea, he would have us to have no sorrow, but what tendeth to joy: and no more than our sins have made necessary for our good. How much do those christians wrong GOD and themselves, that either make their thoughts of GOD the inlet of their sorrows, or let these offered joys He by, as neglected or forgotten! Some there be that say, it is not worth to much time and trouble, to think of the greatness of the joys above. But as these men obey not the command of GOD, which requireth them to have their affections on things above; so do they wilfully make their own lives miserable, by refusing the delights that GOD hath set before them. And yet if this were all, it were a smaller matter; if it were but loss of their comforts, I would not say much: but see what abundance of other mischiefs follow the absence of these heavenly delights.