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 ...

* 1.1SECT. V.

5. ANother Rule is this, That is ever better or best, which maketh the owner or possessor himself better or best. And

sure according to this Rule, there's no state like Heaven. Riches, honor, and pleasure, make a man neither better nor best: Grace here makes us better, but not best: That is reserved as the Prero∣gative of Glory. That's our Good, that doth us Good: and that doth us Good, which makes us Good: Else it may be Good in it self, but no good to us. External Good is at too great a distance to be our Happiness. It is not bread on our Tables, but in our stomacks that must nourish: nor blood upon our clothes or skin, but in the Liver, heart and veins which is our Life. Nay, the things of the world are so far from making the owners Good, that they prove, not the least impediments thereto; and snares to the best of men. Riches and honor do seldom help to humility; but of pride they occasionally become most frequent fomentors. The difficulty is so great of conjoyning Graciousness with Greatness, that it's next to an impossibility: And their conjunction so rare, that they are next to inconsistent. To have a heart taken up with Christ and Heaven, when we have health and abundance in the world, is neither easie nor ordinary. Though Soul and Body compose but one man, yet they seldom prosper both together. Therfore that's our chief Good, which will do us Good at heart: and that's our true Glory, that makes us all Glorious within: and that the Blessed day, which will make us holy and blessed men: which will not onely beautifie our House, but cleanse our Hearts: nor onely give us new Habitations, and new Relations, but also new Souls, and new Bodies. The true knowing living Christian complains more frequently and more bit∣terly of the wants and woes within him, then without him. If you over-hear his prayers, or see him in his tears, and ask him, what aileth him? he will cry out more, Oh my dark understanding! Oh my hard, my unbeleeving heart! rather then, Oh my dishonor! or Oh my poverty! Therefore it is his desired place and state which af∣fords a relief suitable to his necessities and complaints. And surely that is onely this Rest.

Notes

• * 1.1

  §. 5.