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. V.* 1.1

3. I Call it the acting of [All] the powers of the soul, To dif∣ference it from the common Meditation of Students, which is usually the meer imployment of the Brain. It is not a bare thinking, that I mean, nor the meer use of Invention or Memory; but a business of a higher and more excellent nature: when Truth is apprehended only as Truth, this is but an unsavory and loose appre∣hension; but when it is apprehended as Good, as well as True, this is a fast and delightful apprehending: As a man is not so prone to live according to the Truth he knows, except it do deeply affect him, so neither doth his soul enjoy its sweetness, except Speculati∣on do pass to Affection: The Understanding is not the whole soul, and therefore cannot do the whole work; As God hath made several parts in man, to perform their several Offices for his nou∣rishing and life, so hath he ordained the faculties of the soul to perform their several Offices for his spiritual life; the Stomack must chy lisy and prepare for the Liver, the Liver and Spleen must sanguify and prepare for the Heart and Brain, and these must beget the vital and animal spirits &c. so the Understanding must take in Truths, and prepare them for the Will, and it must receive them, and commend them to the Affections: The best digestion is in the

bottome of the Stomack; the Affections are as it were the bot∣tome of the soul, and therefore the best digestion is there: While Truth is but a speculation swimming in the Brain, the Soul hath not half received it, nor taken fast hold of it; Christ and Heaven hath various Excellencies, and therefore God hath formed the soul with a power of divers wayes of apprehending, that so we might be capable of enjoying those divers Excellencies in Christ, even as the creatures having their severall uses, God hath given us several senses, that so we might enjoy the delights of them all: What the better had we been for the pleasant oderiferous flowers and perfumes, if we had not possessed the sense of Smelling? or what good would Language or Musick have done us, if God had not given us the sense of hearing? or what delight should we have found in meats or drinks, or sweetest things, if we had been de∣prived of the sense of tasting? Why so, what good could all the glory of Heaven have done us? or what pleasure should we have had, even in the goodness and perfection of God himself, if we had been without the affections of Love and Joy, whereby we are capable of being delighted in that Goodness? so also, what be∣nefit of strength or sweetness, canst thou possible receive by thy Meditations on Eternity, while thou dost not exercise those Affe∣ctions, which are the senses of the soul, by which it must receive this sweetness and strength?

This is it that hath deceived Christians in this business; They have thought that Meditation is nothing but the bare thinking on Truths, and the rolling of them in the Understanding and Memory? when every School-Boy can do this, or persons that hate the things which they think on.

* 1.2Therefore this is the great task in hand, and this is the work that I would set thee on; to get these Truths from thy head to thy heart, and that all the Sermons which thou hast heard of Heaven, and all the notions that thou hast conceived of this Rest, may be turned in∣to the blood and spirits of Affection, and thou maist feel them re∣vive thee, and warm thee at the heart, and maist so think of heaven as heaven should be thought on.

There are two accesses of Contemplation (saith Bernard) one in Intellection, the other in Affection, one in Light, the other in Heat, one in Acquisition, the other in Devotion. If thou shouldst study of nothing but Heaven while thou livest, and shouldst have

thy thoughts at command, to turn them hither on every occasion, and yet shouldst proceed no further then this; this were not the Meditation that I intend, nor would it much advantage or better thy soul; as it is thy whole soul that must possess God hereafter, so must the whole in a lower measure possess him here. I have shewed you in the beginning of this Treatise, how the soul must enjoy the Lord in Glory, to wit, by knowing, by loving, and joying in him; why, the very same way must thou begin thy enjoyment here.

So much as thy Understanding and Affections are sincerely acted upon God, so much dost thou enjoy him: And this is the happy Work of this Meditation. So that you see, here is some∣what more to be done, then barely to remember and think of Heaven; as Running, and Ringing, and Moving, and such like labors, do not onely stir a hand or a foot, but do strain and ex∣ercise the whole body, so doth Meditation the whole soul.

As the Affections of Sinners are set on the world, and turned to Idols, and faln from God, as well as the Understanding; so must the Affections of men be reduced to God, and taken up with him, as well as the Understanding; and as the whole was filled with sin before, so the whole must be filled with God now; as St. Paul saith of Knowledg, and Gifts, and Faith to remove mountains, that if thou have all these without Love,* 1.3 Thou art but as sounding Brass, or as a tinkling Cymbal; so I may say of the exercise of these, If in this work of Meditation, thou do exercise Knowledg, and Gifts, and Faith of Miracles, and not exercise Love, and Joy, thou dost nothing, thou playest the childe and not the man, the Sinners part, and not the Saints, for so will Sinners do also: If thy Meditation tends to fill thy Note-Book with notions and good sayings concerning God, and not thy heart with longings after him, and delight in him, for ought I know thy Book is as much a Christian as thou. Mark but Davids description of the blessed man, Psal. 1.3. His delight is in the * 1.4 Law of the Lord, and therein doth he meditate day and night.

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Notes

• * 1.1

  §. 5.
• * 1.2

  Contemplatio∣nis accessus duo sunt, unus in intellectu, al∣ter in affectu unus in lumi∣ne, alter in fervore, unus in acquisitione, alter in Devo∣tione. Bernard. in Cant. Ser. 46.
• * 1.3

  1 Cor. 13.1, 2.
• * 1.4

  Heb. Do∣ctrine.