The Saint's Everlasting Rest: A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in HeavenBaxter, Richard
Religion
The Saint's Everlasting Rest: A Treatise of the Blessed State of the Saints in Their Enjoyment of God in Heaven
Baxter, Richard
Devotional literature
she falls to the earth; so is the frame of the soul most delightful and
divine, while it keeps in the views of God by contemplation: Alas, we
make there too short a stay, fall down again, and lay by our music!
§ 31. But, "O thou, the merciful Father of Spirits, the attractive of
love, and ocean of delights, draw up these drossy hearts unto thyself,
and keep them there till they are spiritualized and refined; and second
thy servant's weak endeavors, and persuade those that read these lines
to the practice of this delightful, heavenly work! O suffer not the soul
of thy most unworthy servant to be a stranger to those joys, which he
describes to others; but keep me, while I remain on earth, in daily
breathings after thee, and in a believing, affectionate walking with
thee! And when thou comest, let me be found so doing; not serving my
flesh, nor asleep with my lamp unfurnished; but waiting and longing for
my Lord's return! Let those who shall read these heavenly directions,
not merely read the fruit of my studies; but the breathings of my active
hope and love: That, if my heart were open to their view, they might
there read the same most deeply engraven with a beam from the face of
the Son of God; and not find _vanity_, or _lust_, or _pride_ within,
when the _words of life_ appear without; that so these lines may not
witness against me; but, proceeding from the heart of the _writer_, may
be effectual, through thy grace, upon the heart of the reader, and so be
the savor of life to both! Amen."
_Glory be to God in the highest; on earth peace; good will towards men._
FINIS.
[Illustration: PHILLIPS]
The Trustees of Phillips Academy, to whom is committed the distribution
of the pious bounty of the late Lt. Gov. PHILLIPS wishing to co-operate
in the same benevolent and useful design, affectionately recommend this
inestimable book to the serious and careful perusal of every person into
whose hands it may fall.
Reader, whoever thou art, the work before you is the production of one
of the ablest and best of men, whose praise is in all the churches.
Though dead, he is instructing thousands by his numerous and excellent
practical writings, which have survived him. Among these, his _Saints'
Rest_, has been most highly esteemed. He wrote it in the near view of
death, when in feeble health, and for his own immediate use; and he
testifies that he derived "more benefit from it, than from all the other
studies of his life." Few books have ever received higher commendations,
been translated into more languages, passed through more numerous
editions, been more read, or more useful in the Christian church than
this. No person of a serious mind can read it without profit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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