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. XII.* 1.1

3. THe Lord Jesus was willing to come from heaven to earth for us;* 1.2 and shall be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven for our selves and him? Sure if we had been once possess∣ed of Heaven, and God should have sent ••s to earth again, as he did his Son for our sakes, we should then have been loth to remove indeed: It was another kinde of change then ours is, which Christ did freely submit unto; to cloath himself with the garments of flesh, and to take upon him the form of a servant, to come from the bosome of the Fathers Love, to bear his wrath which we should have borne. Shall he come down to our hell? from the height of glory to the depth of misery? to bring us up to his E∣ternal Rest? and shall we be after this unwilling? Sure Christ had more cause to be unwilling, he might have said, What is it to me if these sinners suffer? If they value their flesh above their spirits, and their lusts above my Fathers Love, if they needs will sell their souls for nought; who is it fit should be the loser? and who should bear the blame and curse? Should I whom they have wronged? must they wilfully transgress my Law? and I undergo their deserved pain? Is it not enough that I bear the trespasse from them, but I must also bear my Fathers wrath? and satisfie the Justice which they have wronged? Must I come down from Heaven to Earth, and cloth my self with humane flesh? be spit up∣on and scorned by man? and fast, and weep, and sweat, and suffer? and bleed and dye a cursed death? and all this for wretched wormes, who would rather hazard all they had, and venture their souls and Gods favor, then they would forbear but one forbiden morsel? Do they cast away themselves so slightly? and must I re∣deem them again so dearly? Thus we see that Christ had much to have pleaded against his coming down for man; and yet he plead∣ed none of this: He had reason enough to have made him unwill∣ing; and yet did he voluntarily condescend. But we have no reason against our coming to him: except we will reason against our hopes, and plead for a perpetuity of our own calamities. Christ came down to fetch us up: and would we have him loose his blood and labor, and go away again without us? Hath he bought our Rest at so dear a rate? Is our inheritance purchased with the blood

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of God? And are we after all this loth to enter? Ah Sirs, it was Christ and not we, that had cause to be loth. The Lord forgive and heal this foolish ingratitude.

Notes

• * 1.1

  §. 12.
• * 1.2

  Cum dicis, Be∣ate vivere vo∣lo, bonam rem quaeris, sed non hìc, si habu∣it hìc istud Christus, habe & tu, in regi∣one mortis tuae: Quid ille in∣venit, attende. Venit de alia regione, et quid invenit nisi quod hic abun∣d••roit? labo∣res, dolores, mortem: Ecce quod hìc habes et quod abundat, man∣ducavit tecum. Quod hic in cella miseriae tuae abundavit, acetum hìc bi∣bit, fel hìc bibit: ecce quod in cella tua inve∣nit. At ad mag∣nam mensam te invitavit, mensam solis, mensam Angelorum, ubi ipse panis est. August. sup. Joann. 13.