The saints everlasting rest, or, A treatise of the blessed state of the saints in their enjoyment of God in glory wherein is shewed its excellency and certainty, the misery of those that lose it, the way to attain it, and assurance of it, and how to live in the continual delightful forecasts of it and now published by Richard Baxter ...

SECT. XV.

* 1.16. AGain, many a Soul lies long in trouble, by taking up their Comforts in the beginning upon unsound or uncertain grounds. This may be the case of a gracious Soul, who hath better grounds, and doth not see them: And then when they grow to more ripeness of Understanding, and come to find out the insuffi∣ciency of their former grounds of Comfort, they cast away their Comfort wholy, when they should only cast away their rotten props of it, and search for better to support it with. As if their Comfort and their Safety were both of a nature, and both built on the same Foundation, they conclude against their Safety, because they have discovered the mistake of their former Comforts. And there are many much applauded Books and Teachers of late who further the delusion of poor Souls in this point, and make them be∣lieve, that because their former Comforts were too Legal, and their perswasions of their good estate were ill grounded, therefore them∣selves were under the Covenant of Works only, and their spiritual condition as unsound as their Comforts: These men observe not, That while they deny us the use of Marks to know our own state, yet they make use of them themselves to know the states of others: Yea and of false and insufficient Marks too. For to argue from the Motive of our perswasion of a good estate, to the goodness or

badness of that estate, is no sound arguing: It followeth not that a man is unregenerate, because he judged himself regenerate upon wrong grounds. For perhaps he might have better grounds, and not know it; or else not know which were good and which bad. Safety and Comfort stand not always on the same bottom. Bad grounds do prove the Assurance bad which was built upon them, but not always the Estate bad. These Teachers do but toss poor Souls up and down as the waves of the Sea, making them believe that their Estate is altered as oft as their conceits of it alter. Alas, few Christians do come to know either what are solid grounds of Comfort, or whether they have any such grounds themselves in the infancy of Christianity. But as an Infant hath life before he know∣eth it, and as he hath misapprehensions of himself and most other things for certain years together, and yet it will not follow that therefore he hath no life or reason: So is it in the case in hand. Yet this should perswade both Ministers and Believers themselves to lay right grounds for their Comfort in the beginning, as far as may be. For else usually when they find the flaw in their Com∣forts and Assurance, they will judg it to be a flaw in their Safety and Real Estates. Just as I observe most persons do who turn to Errors or Heresies: They took up the Truth in the beginning upon either false or doubtful grounds; and then when their grounds are overthrown or shaken, they think the doctrine is also overthrown, and so they let go both together; as if None had solid Arguments, because They had not; or none could manage them better then They. Even so when they perceive that their Arguments for their good estate were unsound, they think that their Estate must needs be as unsound.

Notes

• * 1.1

  §. 15. So some think they are Gods peo∣ple, because they are of such a party, or such a strict opini∣on; and when they change their opinion they change their com∣fort. Some that could have no com∣fort while they were a∣mong the Or∣thodox, as soon as they have turned to such or such a Sect, have comfort in abundance; partly through Satans delusion, and partly because they think their change in Opinion hath set them right with God, and therefore they rejoyce. So many Hypocrites, whose Religion lieth only in their Opinions, h••ve their Comfort also only there.