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. VIII.

BUt Oh the full,* 1.1 the near, the sweet enjoyment, is that of the Af∣fections, Love and Joy: It's near; for Love is of the Essence of the Soul, and Love is the Essence of God: For God is Love, 1 John 4.8, 16. How near therefore is this Blessed Closure? The Spirits phrase is, God is Love, and he that dwelleth in Love, dwell∣eth in God, and God in him, Vers. 16. The acting of this affection wheresoever, carryeth much delight along with it: Especially when the object appears deserving, and the Affection is strong. But O what will it be, when perfected Affections, shall have the strongest, perfect, incessant actings, upon the most perfect object, the ever Blessed God? Now the poor soul complains, Oh that I could love Christ more! but I cannot, alas, I cannot: Yea, but then thou canst not chuse but love him: I had almost said, forbear if thou canst. Now thou knowest little of his Amiableness, and therefore lovest little: Then thine eye will affect thy heart, and the continual view∣ing of that perfect beauty, will keep thee in continual ravishments of Love. Now thy Salvation is not perfected, nor all the mercies purchased, yet given in: But when the top stone is set on, thou shalt with shouting cry, Grace, Grace: Now thy Sanctification is imperfect, and thy pardon * 1.2 and Justification not so compleat as then

it shall be: Now thou knowest not what thou enjoyest, and there∣fore lovest the less; But when thou knowest much is forgiven, and much bestowed, thou wilt Love more. Doth David, after an imperfect deliverance, sing forth his Love? Psal. 116.1. I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voyce, and supplications. What think you will he do eternally? And how will he love the Lord, who hath lifted him up to that Glory? Doth he cry out, O how I love thy Law!* 1.3 My delight is in the Saints on earth, and the ex∣cellent, Psal. 16.3. How will he say then, O how I love the Lord! and the King of Saints, in whom is all my delight? Christians, doth it not now stir up your love, to remember all the experiences of his Love? To look back upon a life o•• mercies? Doth not kind∣ness melt you? and the Sun-shine of Divine Goodness warm your frozen hearts? What will it do then, when you shall live in Love, and have All, in him, who is All? O the high delights of Love! of this Love! The content that the heart findeth in it! The satisfacti∣on it brings along with it! Surely Love is both work and wages.

And if this were all, what a high favour, that God will give us leave to love him! That he will vouchsafe to be embraced by such Arms, that have embraced Lust and Sin before him! But this is not all: He returneth Love for Love; nay, a thousand times more: As perfect as we shall be, we cannot reach his measure of Love. Christian, thou wilt be then brim full of Love; yet love as much as thou canst, thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved. Dost thou think thou canst overlove him? What! love more then Love it self? Were the Arms of the Son of God open upon the Cross, and an open passage made to his Heart by the Spear, and will not Arms and Heart be open to thee in Glory? Did he begin to love before thou lovedst, and will he not continue now? Did he love thee an enemy? thee a sinner? thee who even loathedst thy self? and own thee when thou didst disclaim thy self? And will he not now unmeasurably love thee a Son? thee a perfect Saint? thee who returnest some love for Love? Thou wast wont injuriously to Question his Love: Doubt of it now if thou canst. As the pains of Hell will convince the rebellious sinner of Gods wrath, who would never before believe it: So the Joys of Heaven will convince thee throughly of that Love, which thou wouldst so hardly be perswaded of. He that in love wept over the old Hierusalem neer her Ruines; with what love will he rejoyce over the new Hierusa∣lem

in her Glory? O methinks I see him groaning and weeping over dead Lazarus, till he force the Jews that stood by to say, Be∣hold how he loved him: Will he not then much more by rejoycing over us,* 1.4 and blessing us, make all (even the damned, if they see it) to say, Behold how he loveth them? Is his Spouse while black, yet comely? Is she his Love, his Dove, his undefiled? Doth she ravish his heart with one of her eyes? Is her Love better then wine? O believing soul, study a little, and tell me, What is the Harvest which these first fruits foretel? and the Love which these are but the ear∣nest of? Here, O here, is the Heaven of Heaven! This is the Saints fruition of God! In these sweet, mutual, constant actings and em∣bracements of Love, doth it consist? To Love, and be beloved: These are the Everlasting Arms that are underneath, Deut. 33.27. His left hand is under their heads, and with his right hand doth he em∣brace them, Cant. 2.6. Reader, stop here, and think a while, what a state this is; Is it a small thing in thine eyes to be beloved of God? to be the Son the Spouse, the Love, the delight of the King of Glory? Christian, believe this, and think on it; Thou shalt be eternally em∣braced in the Arms of that Love, which was from everlasting, and will extend to everlasting: Of that Love, which brought the Son of Gods Love from Heaven to Earth, from Earth to the Cross, from the Cross to the Grave, from the Grave to Glory: That Love, which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffetted, spit upon, crucified, pierced; which did fast, pray, teach, heal, weep, sweat, bleed, dye: That Love will eternally embrace thee. When perfect created Love, and most perfect uncreated love meet toge∣ther, O the blessed meeting! It will not be like Joseph and his Bre∣thren, who lay upon one anothers necks weeping; It will break forth into a pure Joy, and not such a mixture of joy and sorrow as their weeping argued: It will be Loving and rejoycing, not loving and sorrowing: Yet will it make Pharoahs (Satans) court to ring with the News, that Josephs Brethren are come; that the Saints are arrived safe at the bosom of Christ, out of the reach of hell for ever. Neither is there any such love as Davids and Jonathans; shutting up in sorrows, and breathing out its last into sad lamenta∣tions for a forced separation: No; Christ is the powerful attra∣ctive, the effectual Loadstone, who draws to it all like it self; All that the Father hath given him, shall come unto him; even the Lover, as well as the Love, doth he draw; and they that come

unto him, he will in no wise cast out, John chap. 6. vers. 37, 39. For know this, Beleever, to thy everlasting comfort; that if these Arms have once embraced thee, neither sin, nor hell, can get thee thence for ever. The Sanctuary is inviolable, and the Rock im∣pregnable, whither thou art fled, and thou art safe lockt up to all Eternity. Thou hast not now to deal with an unconstant creature, but with him, with whom is no varying, nor shadow of change, even the Immutable God. If thy happiness were in thine own hand, as Adams, there were yet fear; But it's in the keeping of a faith∣ful Creator. Christ hath not bought thee so dear, to trust thee with thy self any more. His Love to thee will not be as thine was on earth to him, seldom and cold, up and down, mixed (as Agu∣ish bodies) with burning and quaking, with a Good day and a bad: No; Christian, he that would not be discouraged by thine enmity, by thy loathsom, hateful nature, by all thy unwilling∣ness, unkinde Neglects, and churlish resistances; he that would neither cease nor abate his Love for all these, Can he cease to love thee, when he hath made thee truly Lovely? He that keepeth thee so constant in thy love to him, that thou canst challenge tribulati∣on, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword, to se∣parate thy Love from Christ if they can, Rom. 8.35. How much more will himself be constant? Indeed he that produced these mutual embracing Affections, will also produce such a mutual con∣stancy in both, that thou mayst confidently be perswaded, as Paul was before thee, That neither Death, nor Life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heighth, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Vers. 38, 39. And now are we not left in the Apostles admiration? What shall we say to these things? Infinite Love must needs be a mystery to a finite capacity. No wonder if Angels desire to pry into this mystery:* 1.5 And if it be the study of the Saints here, to know the heighth, and bredth, and length, and depth of this Love, though it passeth knowledg: This is the Saints Rest in the Fruition of God by Love.

Notes

• * 1.1

  §. 8. 3. Affections. 1. Love.
• * 1.2

  I know it's commonly said, That Ju∣stification hath no de∣grees; but yet it is taken for several Acts, whereof that of Christ ab∣solving and acquitting us at the last Judgment is the most com∣pleat Justifica∣tion.
• * 1.3

  Psal. 119.97.
• * 1.4

  John 11.33.35, 36. Cant. 1.5. & 5.2. & 6.9. & 4.9, 10, &c.
• * 1.5

  1 Pet. 1.12. Eph. 3.18.