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. XVI.* 1.1

8. WE shall Rest also from all our own personal sufferings,8 1.2 whether natural and ordinary, or extraordinary from the afflicting hand of God. And though this may seem a small thing, to those that live in continual ease, and abound in all kinde of prosperity; yet me thinks, to the daily afflicted soul, it should make the fore-thoughts of Heaven delightful: And I think we shall meet with few of the Saints, but will say, That this is their own case. O, the dying life that we now live? As full of suffer∣ings, as of days and hours! We are the Carkasses that all Cala∣mities prey upon: As various as they are, each one will have a snatch at us; and be sure to devour a morsel of our comforts: When we bait our Bulls and Bears, we do but represent our own condition; whose lives are consumed under such assaults, and spent in succession of fresh encounters. All Creatures have an enmity against us, ever since we made the Lord of all our enemy. And though we are reconciled by the blood of the Covenant, and the price is paid for our full deliverance; yet our Redeemer sees it fit, to leave this measure of misery upon us, to make us know for what we are beholden, and to minde us of what we would else forget; to be serviceable to his wise and gracious designes, and advantagious to our full and final Recovery. He hath sent us as Lambs among Wolves; and sure there is little Rest to be expect∣ed. As all our Senses are the inlets of sin; so are they become the inlets of our sorrow. Grief creeps in at our eyes, at our ears, and almost every where: It seiseth upon our head, our hearts, our flesh, our Spirits, and what part doth escape it? Fears do devour us, and darken our Delights, as the Frosts do nip the tender Buds: Cares do consume us, and feed upon our Spirits, as the scorching Sun doth wither the delicate Flowers. Or, if any Saint or Stoick have fortified his inwards against these, yet is he naked still with∣out;

and if he be wiser then to create his own sorrows, yet shall he be sure to feel his share: he shall produce them as the meritorious, if not as the efficient cause. What tender pieces are these dusty bodies? what brittle Glasses do we bear about us? and how many thousand dangers are they hurried through? and how hard∣ly cured, if once crackt? O the multitudes of slender Veins, of tender Membranes, Nerves, Fibres, Muscles, Arteries, and all sub∣ject to Obstructions, Exesions, Tensions, Contractions, Resoluti∣ons, Ruptures, or one thing or other to cause their Grief! Every one a fit subject for pain, and fit to communicate that pain to the whole. What noble part is there that suffereth its pain or ruine alone? whatever it is to the sound and healthful, methinks to such as my self, this Rest should be acceptable, who in ten or twelve yeers time have scarce had a whole day free from some dolor. O the weary nights and days! O the unserviceable languishing weak∣ness! O the restless working vapors! O the tedious nauseous me∣dicines! besides the daily expectations of worse! and will it not be desireable to Rest from all these? There will then be no crying out, O my Head, O my Stomack, or O my Sides, or O my Bowels: No, no, sin and flesh, and dust and pain, will be all left behinde together. O what would we not give now for a little ease, much more for a perfect cure? how then should we value that perfect freedom? If we have some mixed comforts here, they are scarce enough to sweeten our crosses; or if we have some short and smiling intermissions, it is scarce time enough to breathe us in, and to prepare our tacklings for the next storm. If one wave pass by, another succeeds: And if the night be over, and the day come, yet will it soon be night again. Some mens Feavers are continual, and some intermittent; some have Tertians, and some Quartans; but more or less, all have their fits. O the blessed tranquillity of that Region, where there is nothing but sweet con∣tinued Peace! No succession of Joy there, because no intermissi∣on. Our lives will be but one Joy, as our time will be changed into one Eternity. O, healthful place, where none are sick! O, fortunate Land, where all are Kings! O, place most holy, where 〈◊〉〈◊〉 are Priests! How free a State, where none are servants, save to their supream Monarch? For it shall come to pass, that in that day 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Lord shall give us Rest, from our sorrow, and our fear, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the ha••d bondage wherein we served, Isai. 14.3. The poor

man shall no more be tired with his incessant labors: No more use of Plough, or Flail, or Sythe, or Sicle: No stooping of the Servant to the Master, or the Tenant to the Landlord: No hun∣ger, or thirst, or cold, or nakedness: No pinching Frosts, nor scorching Heats.* 1.3 Our very Beasts who suffered with us, shall also be freed from their bondage; our selves therefore much more; Our faces shall no more be pale or sad;* 1.4 our groans and sighes will be done away; and God will wipe away all tears from our eyes, Revel. 7.15, 16, 17. No more parting of friends asunder, nor voyce of Lamentation heard in our dwellings: No more breaches, nor disproportion in our friendship, nor any trouble ac∣companying our relations: No more care of Master for Servants, of Parents for Children, of Magistrates over Subjects, of Mini∣sters over people. No more sadness for our Study lost, our Preaching lost, our Intreaties lost, the Tenders of Christs blood lost, and our dear Peoples Souls lost. * 1.5 No more marrying, nor giving in marriage, but we shall be as the Angels of God. O, what room can there be for any evil, where the whole is perfectly filled with God? Then shall the ransomed of the Lord return and come to Sion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flie away, Isai. 35.10. Hold out then a little longer, O my soul, bear with the infirmities of thine earthly Tabernacle; endure that share of sorrows, that the love of thy Father shall impose; submit to his indignation also, because thou had sinned against him; it will be thus but a little while; the sound of thy Redeemers feet are even at the door; and thine own deliverance neerer then many others. And thou who hast often cried in the language of the Divine Poet, [Sorrow was all my soul; I scarce beleeved, till Grief did tell me roundly, that I lived] shalt then feel, That God and Joy is all thy Soul, the fruition of whom, with thy freedom from all these sorrows, will more sweetly and more feelingly make thee know, and to his eternal praise acknowledg, That thou livest.

And thus we shall Rest from all Afflictions.

Notes

• * 1.1

  § 16.
• 8 1.2

  From all our own per∣sonal suffer∣ings.
• * 1.3

  Rom 8.19, 20, 21, 22.
• * 1.4

  Revel. 21.3, 4.
• * 1.5

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Pares Angelis. Haymo ex∣poundeth this too boldly, and I think falsly.

  Quod viri in suo sexu resur∣gent foeminae in sexu muliebri. Erunt haben∣tes membra genitalia, non autem volun∣tatem coeundi. Hom. in Do∣minic. 18. in Matth. 22. I see no ground to conceit such a difference of Sex hereafter. Mr. Herbert.