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A27017 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 ... Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Herbert, George, 1593-1633. 1650 (1650) Wing B1383; ESTC R17757 797,603 962

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not of the world and therefore the world hates them who have forsaken all for Christ and having taken up the Cross do follow him with patient waiting till they inherit the promised Glory SECT V. 4. I Add That this Happiness consists in obtaining the End where I mean the ultimate and principal end not any end secundum quid so called subordinate or less principal Not the end of conclusion in regard of time for so every man hath his end But the end of Intention which sets the Soul a work and is its prime motive in all its actions That the chief Happiness is in the enjoyment of this End I shall fully shew through the whole Discourse and therefore here omit SECT VI. BUt it is a great doubt with many whether the obtainment of this glory may be our end nay concluded that its mercenary yea that to make Salvation the end of Duty is to be a Legalist and act under a Covenant of Works whose Tenor is Do this and Live And many that think it may be our end yet think it may not be our ultimate end for that should be onely the glory of God I shall answer these particularly and briefly SECT VII 1. IT 's properly called mercenary when we expect it as wages for work done and so we may not make it our end Otherwise it is only such a mercenariness as Christ commandeth For consider what this end is It 's the fruition of God in Christ and if seeking Christ be mercenary I desire to be so mercenary 2. It 's not a note of a Legalist neither It hath been the ground of a multitude of Late mistakes in Divinity to think that Do this and Live is onely the language of the Covenant of Works It 's true in some sence it is but in other not The Law of Works onely saith Do this that is perfectly fulfil the whole Law and Live that is for so doing But the Law of Grace saith Do this and Live too that is Beleeve in Christ seek him obey him sincerely as thy Lord and King forsake all suffer all things and overcome and by so doing or in so doing as the Conditions which the Gospel propounds for Salvation you shall live If you set up the abrogated duties of the Law again you are a Legalist if you set up the duties of the Gospel in Christs stead in whole or in part you err still Christ hath his place and work Duty hath its place and work too Set it but in its own place and expect from it but it s own part and you go right Yea more how unsavory soever the phrase may seem you may so far as this comes to trust to your Duty and Works that is for your own part and many miscarry in expecting no more from them as to pray and to expect nothing the more that is from Christ in a way of Duty For if duty have no share why may we not trust Christ as well in a way of disobedience as duty In a word you must both use and trust duty in Subordination to Christ but neither use them nor trust them in Co-ordination with him So that this derogates nothing from Christ for he hath done and will do all his work perfectly and enableth his people to Theirs Yet he is not properly said to do it himself he beleeves not repents not c. but worketh these in them that is enableth and exciteth them to do it SECT VIII IF I should quote all the Scriptures that plainly prove this I should transcribe a great part of the Bible I will bring none out of the Old Testament for I know not whether their Authority will here be acknowledged But I desire the contrary minded whose consciences are tender of abusing Scripture and wresting it from the plain sence to study what tolerable interpretation can be given of these following places which will not prove that Life and Salvation may be yea must be the end of Duty Joh 5.39 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Mat. 7.13 Luk. 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate Phil. 2.12 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Rom. 2.7 10. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life Glory honor and peace to every man that worketh good c. 1 Cor. 9.24 So run that you may obtain 2 Tim. 2.5 A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully 2 Tim. 2.12 If we suffer with him we shall reign with him 1 Tim. 6.12 Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life 1 Tim. 6.18 19. That they do good works laying up a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life Phil. 3.14 If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the Dead I press toward the mark for the price of the high calling c. Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and enter in by the gates into the City Mat. 25. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit c. for I was hungry and ye c. Mat. 9. Blessed are the pure in heart c. they that hunger and thirst c. Be glad and rejoyce for great is your reward in Heaven Luk. 11.28 Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it Yea the escaping of Hell is a right end of Duty to a Beleever Hebr. 4.1 Let us fear least a promise being left us of entering into his Rest any of you should seem to come short of it Luk. 12.5 Fear him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell yea whatsoever others say I say unto you Fear him 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep under my body and bring it in subjection lest when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away Multitudes of Scriptures and Scripture Arguments might be brought but these may suffice to any that beleeve Scripture SECT IX 3. FOr those that think this Rest may be our end but not our ultimate end that must be Gods glory onely let them consider What God hath joyned man must not separate The glorifying himself and the saving his people as I judg are not two Decrees with God but one Decree to glorifie his mercy in their salvation So I think they should be with us one Intention We should aim at the glory of God not alone considered without our salvation but in our salvation Therefore I know no warrant for putting such a Question to our selves as some do Whether we could be content to be damned so God were glorified Sure I am Christ himself is offered to faith in terms for the most part respecting the welfare of the sinner more then his own abstracted glory he would be
these frail noisom diseased Lumps of flesh or dirt that now we carry about us so far shall our sense of Seeing and Hearing exceed these we now possess For the change of the senses must be conceived proportionable to the change of the body And doubtless as God advanceth our sense and enlargeth our capacity so will he advance the happiness of those senses and fill up with himself all that capacity And certainly the body should not be raised up and continued if it should not share of the Glory For as it hath shared in the obedience and sufferings so shall it also do in the blessedness And as Christ bought the whole man so shall the whole partake of the everlasting benefits of the purchase The same difference is to be allowed for the Tongue For though perhaps that which we now call the tongue the voyce or language shal not then be Yet with the forementioned unconceiveable change it may continue Certain it is it shall be the everlasting work of those Blessed Saints to stand before the Throne of God and the Lamb and to praise him for ever and ever As their Eyes and Hearts shall be filled with his Knowledg with his Glory and with his Love so shall their mouthes be filled with his praises Go on therefore Oh ye Saints while you are on Earth in that Divine Duty Learn Oh learn that Saint-beseeming work for in the mouthes of his Saints his praise is comely Pray but still praise Hear and Read but still praise Praise him in the presence of his people for it shall be your Eternal work Praise him while his Enemies deride and abuse you You shall praise him while they shall bewail it and admire you Oh Blessed Employment to sound forth for ever Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Honor Glory and Power Revel 4.11 And worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing for he hath Redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kinred and tongue and people and Nation and hath made us unto our God Kings and Priests Revel 5.12 9 10. Alleluja Salvation and Honor and Glory and Power unto the Lord our God Praise our God all ye his servants and ye that fear him small and great Alleluja for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth Revel 19.1 5 6. Oh Christians this is the Blessed Rest A Rest without Rest For they Rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Revel 4.8 Sing forth his praises now ye Saints It is a work our Master Christ hath taught us And you shall for ever sing before him the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Revel 15.3 SECT VI. ANd if the Body shall be thus employed Oh how shall the Soul be taken up As its powers and capacities are greatest so its action strongest and its enjoyment sweetest As the bodily senses have their proper aptitude and action whereby they receive and enjoy their objects so doth the Soul in its own action enjoy its own object By knowing by thinking and Remembering by Loving and by delightful joying this is the Souls enjoying By these Eyes it sees and by these Arms it embraceth If it might be said of the Disciples with Christ on Earth much more that behold him in his Glory Blessed are the Eyes that see the things that you see and the Ears that hear the things that you hear for many Princes and great ones have desired and hoped to see the things that you see and have not seen them c. Mat. 13.16 17. Knowledg of it self is very desireable even the knowledg of some evil though not the Evil it self As far as the Rational Soul exceeds the Sensitive so far the Delights of a Philosopher in discovering the secrets of Nature and knowing the mystery of Sciences exceeds the Delights of the Glutton the Drunkard the unclean and of all voluptuous sensualists whatsoever so excellent is all Truth What then is their Delight who know the God of Truth What would I not give so that all the uncertain questionable Principles in Logick Natural Philosophy Metaphysicks and Medicine were but certain in themselves and to me And that my dull obscure notions of them were but quick and clear Oh what then should I not either perform or part with to enjoy a clear and true Apprehension of the most True God How noble a faculty of the Soul is this Understanding It can compass the Earth It can measure the Sun Moon Stars and Heaven It can fore-know each Eclipse to a minute many years before Yea but this is the top of all its excellency It can know God who is infinite who made all these a little here and more much more hereafter Oh the wisdom and goodness of our Blessed Lord He hath created the Understanding with a Natural Byas and inclination to Truth as its object and to the Prime Truth as its Prime Object and lest we should turn aside to any Creature he hath kept this as his own Divine Prerogative not communicable to any Creature viz. to be the Prime Truth And though I think not as some do that there is so neer a close between the Understanding and Truth as may produce a proper Union or Identity Yet doubtless it 's no such cold touch or disdainful embrace as is between these gross earthly Heterogeneals The true studious contemplative man knows this to be true who feels as sweet embraces between his Intellect and Truth and far more then ever the quickest sense did in possessing its desired object But the true studious contemplative Christian knows it much more who sometime hath felt more sweet embraces between his Soul and Jesus Christ then all inferior Truth can afford I know some Christians are kept short this way especially the careless in their watch and walking and those that are ignorant or negligent in the dayly actings of Faith who look when God casts in Joys while they lie idle and labor not to fetch them in by beleeving But for others I appeal to the most of them Christian dost thou not sometime when after long gazing heaven-ward thou hast got a glimpse of Christ dost thou not seem to have been with Paul in the third Heaven whether in the body or out and to have seen what is unutterable Art thou not with Peter almost beyond thy self ready to say Master it 's good to be here Oh that I might dwell in this Mount Oh that I might ever see what I now see Didst thou never look so long upon the Sun of God till thine Eyes were dazled with his astonishing glory and did not the splendor of it make all things below seem black and dark to thee when thou lookest down again Especially in thy day
as much less then a simple Unit Lay by thy perplexed and contradicting Chronological Tables and fix thine eye on this Eternity and the Lines which remote thou couldst not follow thou shalt see altogether here concentred Study less those tedious Volumns of History which contain but the silent Narration of Dreams and are but the pictures of the actions of shadows And in stead of all study frequently study throughly this one word Eternity and when thou hast learned throughly that one word thou wilt never lo●k on Books again What! Live and Never die Rejoyce and Ever rejoyce● O what sweet words are those Never and Ever O happy souls in Hell should you but escape after millions of ages and if the Origenists Doctrine were but True O miserable Saints in Heaven should you be dispossessed after the age of a million of Worlds But O this word Everlasting contains the accomplished perfection of their Torment and our Glory O that the wicked sinner would but soundly study this word Everlasting Methinks it should startle him out of his deadest sleep O that the gracious soul would believingly study this word Everlasting Methinks it should revive him in his deepest Agony And must I Lord thus live for ever Then will I also love for●ever Must my Joyes be immortal And shall not my thanks be also immortal Surely if I shall never lose my glory I will also never cease thy praises Shouldst thou but renew my Lease of these first Fruits would I not renew thy Fine and Rent But if thou wilt both perfect and perpetuate me and my Glory as I shall be thine and not mine own so shall my Glory be thy Glory And as all did take their Spring from thee so all shall devolve into thee again and as thy glory was thine ultimate end in my glory so shall it also be mine end when thou hast crowned me with that Glory which hath no end And to thee O King Eternal Immortal Invisible the onely wise God shall be the Honor and Glory for ever and ever Amen 1 Tim. 1.17 SECT XX. ANd thus I have endevored to shew you a glimpse of the approaching Glory But O how short are my expressions of its excellency Reader if thou be an humble sincere believer and waitest with longing and laboring for this Rest thou wilt shortly see and feel the truth of all this then wilt thou have so high an apprehension of this blessed state that will make thee pity the ignorance and distance of Mortals and will tell thee then all that is here said is spoken but in the dark and falls short of the truth a thousand fold In the mean time let this much kindle thy desires and quicken thine endevors Up and be doing run and strive and fight and hold on for thou hast a certain glorious prize before thee God will not mock thee do not mock thy self nor betray thy soul by delaying or dallying and all is thine own What kinde of men doest thou think Christians would be in their lives and duties if they had still this Glory fresh in their thoughts What frame would their spirits be in if their thoughts of Heaven were lively and believing Would their hearts be so heavy And their countenance so sad Or would they have need to take up their comforts from below Would they be so loath to suffer And afraid to die Or would they not think every day a yeer till they did enjoy it The Lord heal our carnal hearts lest we enter not into his REST because of our unbelief CHAP. VIII The People of God described SECT I. HAving thus performed my first task of Describing and explicating the Saints Rest it remains that now I proceed unto the second and shew you what these People of God are and why so called for whom this Blessed Rest remaineth And I shall suit my speech unto the quality of the subject While I was in the Mount I felt it was good being there and therefore tarried there the longer and were there not an extream disproportion between my conceivings and that Subject yet much longer had I been And could my capacity have contained what was there to be seen I could have been contented to have built me a Tabernacle there Can a prospect of that happy Land be tedious or a discourse of eternity be too long except it should detain us from actual possession and our absence move us to impatiency But now I am descended from Heaven to Earth from God to man and must discourse of a Worm not six foot long whose life is but a span and his yeers as a post that hasteth by my discourse also shall be but a span and in a brief touch I will post it over Having read of such a high and unspeakable Glory a stranger would wonder for what rare Creature this Mighty Preparation should be and expect some illustrious Sun should now break forth but behold onely a shell full of Dust animated with an invisible rational soul and that rectified with as unseen a restored power of Grace and this is the Creature that must possess such Glory You would think it must needs be some deserving piece or one that bringeth a valuable price But behold One that hath nothing and can deserve nothing and confesseth this yet cannot of himself confess it neither yea that deserveth the contrary misery and would if he might proceed in that deserving but being apprehended by Love he is brought to him that is All and hath done and deserved All and suffered for all that we deserved and most affectionately receiving him and resting on him he doth in and through him receive All this But let us see more particularly yet what these People of God are They are a small part of lost mankinde whom God hath from Eternity predestinated to this Rest for the Glory of his Mercy and given to his Son to be by him in a special maner Redeemed and fully recovered from their lost estate and advanced to this higher Glory all which Christ doth in due time accomplish accordingly by himself for them and by his Spirit upon them To open all the parts of this half-description to the full will take up more time and room then is allowed me therefore briefly thus 1. I meddle onely with Mankinde not with Angels nor will I curiously enquire whether there were any other World of men created and destroyed before this had Being nor whether there shall be any other when this is ended All this is quite above us and so nothing to us Nor say I the sons of Adam onely because Adam himself is one of them 2. And as it s no more excellent a creature then Man that must have this possession so is it that man who once was lost and had scarcely left himself so much as man The heirs of this Kingdom were taken even from the Tree of execution and rescued by the strong hand of love from the power of the
wils this will be a griping thought to their hearts What thinks this wretched creature had I not enemies enough in the world but I must be an enemy to my self God would neither give the devil nor the world so much power over me as to force me to commit the least transgression if I had not consented their temprations had been in vain they could but intice me it was my self that yielded and that did the evil and must I needs lay hands upon mine own soul and imbrew my hands in my own blood who should pitty me who pittied not my self and who brought all this upon mine own head When the enemies of Christ did pull down his Word and Laws his Ministry and Worship the news of it did rejoyce me when they set up dumb or seducing or ungodly Ministers in stead of the faithful Preachers of the Gospel I was glad to have it so when the Minister told me the evil of my ways and the dangerous state that my soul was in I took him for mine enemy and his Preaching did stir up my hatred against him and every Sermon did cut me to the heart and I was ready to gnash my teeth in indignation against him If a drunken Ceremonious Preacher did speak me fair or read the Common Prayer or some toothless Homily instead of a searching plain-dealing Sermon why this was according to my own heart never was I vvilling of the means of mine own welfare never had I so great an enemy as my self never did God do me any good or offer me any for the welfare of my soul but I resisted him and vvas utterly unwilling of it he hath heaped mercy upon me and renewed one deliverance after another and all to intice my heart unto him and yet vvas I never heartily willing to serve him He hath gently chastized me and made me groan under the fruit of my disobedience and yet though I promised largely in my affliction I was never unfainedly vvilling to obey him Never did a good Magistrate attempt a Reformation but I vvas against it nor a good Minister labour the saving of the Flock but I vvas ready to hinder as much as I could nor a good Christian labour to save his soul but I vvas ready to discourage and hinder him to my power as if it vvere not enough to perish alone but I must draw all others to the same destruction O vvhat cause hath my vvife my children my servants my neighbours to curse the day that ever they saw me As if I had been made to resist God and to destroy my own and other mens souls so have I madly behaved my self Thus will it gnaw upon the hearts of these wretches to remember that they were the cause of their own undoing and that they vvilfully and obstinately persisted in their Rebellion and were meer Voluntiers in the service of the Devil They vvould venture they vvould go on they would not hear him ●hat spoke against it God called to them to hear and stay but they vvould not Men called Conscience called and said to them as Pilates vvife Have nothing to do vvith that hateful sin for I have suffered many things because of it but they vvould not hear their Will vvas their Law their Rule and their Ruine SECT XV. TEnthly and lastly It will yet make the vvound in their Consciences much deeper vvhen they shall remember that it vvas not onely their own doing but that they vvere at so much cost and pains for their own damnation What great undertakings did they ingage in for to effect their ruin To resist God to conquer the Spirit to overcome the power of Mercies Judgments and the Word it self to silence Conscience all this did they take upon them and perform What a number of sins did they manage at once vvhat difficulties did they set upon even the conquering of the power of Reason it self What dangers did they adventure on Though they walked in continual danger of the wrath of God and knew he could lay them in the dust in a moment though they knew they lived in danger of eternal perdition yet would they run upon all this What did they forsake for the service of Satan and pleasures of sin They forsook their God their Conscience their best Friends their eternal hopes of salvation and all They that could not tell how to forsake a lust or a little honor or ease for Christ yet can lose their souls and all for sin O the labour that it costeth poor wretches to be damned Sobriety they might have at a cheap rate and a great deal of health and ease to boot and yet they will rather have Gluttony and Drunkenness with poverty and shame and sickness and belchings and vomitings with the outcries and lamentations of wife and children and Conscience it self Contentedness they might have with ease and delight yet will they rather have Covetousness and Ambition though it cost them study and care and fears and labour of body and minde and 〈◊〉 continual unquietness and distraction of spirit and usually a shameful overthrow at the last Though their anger be nothing but a tormenting themselves and Revenge and Envy do consume their spirits and keep them upon a continual ●ack of disqu●et though uncleanness destroy their bodies and states and names and though they are foretold of the hazard of their eternal Happiness yet will they do and suffer all this rather then suffer their souls to be saved How fa●t runs Gehezi for his Leprosie what cost and pains is Nimrod at to purchase an universal confusion How doth an Amorous Amnon pine himself away for a self destroying lust How studiously and painfully doth Absalon seek a hanging Ahitophels reputation and his life must go together even when they are struck blinde by a Judgment of God yet how painfully do the Sodomites grope and weary themselves to finde the door what cost and pains are the Idolatrous Papists at for their multifarious Wilworship How unweariedly and unreservedly have the Malignant enemies of the Gospel among us spent their estates and health and limbs and lives to overthrow the power of Godliness and set up Formality to put out the light that should guide them to heaven and how earnestly do they still prosecute it to the last How do the Nations generally rage and the people imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth setting themselves and the Rulers taking counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ that they may break the bonds of his Laws asunder and cast away the cords of his Government from them though he that sitteth in heaven do laugh them to scorn though the Lord have them in derision though ●e speak to them in his vvrath and vex them in his sore displeasure and re●solve them that yet in despite of them all He vvill set his King upon his holy Hill of Sion Yet vvill they spend and tire out themselves as long as they are able
raise within us Were we throughly perswaded That every Word in the Scripture concerning the unconceivable joyes of the Kingdom and the unexpressible Blessedness of the life to come were the very Word of the Living God and should certainly be performed to the smallest tittle O what astonishing apprehensions of that life would it breed what amazing horror would seize upon our hearts when we found our selves strangers to the conditions of that life and utterly ignorant of our portion therein what love what longings would it raise within us O how it would actuate every affection how it would transport us with joy upon the least assurance of our title If I were as verily perswaded that I shall shortly see those great things of Eternity promised in the Word as I am that this is a chair that I sit in or that this is paper that I write on would it not put another Spirit within me would it not make me forget and despise the world and even forget to sleep or to eat And say as Christ I have meat to eat that ye know not of O Sirs you little know what a through belief would work Not that every one hath such affections who hath a true Faith But thus would the acting and improvement of our Faith advance us Therefore let this be a chief part of thy business in Meditation Produce the strong Arguments for the Truth of Scripture plead them against thy unbelieving nature answer and silence all the cavils of infidelity Read over the Promises study all confirming Providences call forth thine own recorded experiences Remember the Scriptures already fulfilled both to the Church and Saints in former ages and eminently to both in this present age and those that have been fulfilled particularly to thee Get ready the clearest and most convincing Arguments and keep them by thee and frequently thus use them Think it not enough that thou wast once convinced though thou hast now forgot the Arguments that did it no nor that thou hast the Arguments still in thy Book or in thy Brain This is not the acting of thy Faith but present them to thy understanding in thy frequent meditations and urge them home till they force belief Actual convincing when it is clear and frequent will work those deep impressions on the heart which an old neglected forgotten conviction will not O if you would not think it enough that you have Faith in the habit and that you did once beleeve but would be daily setting this first wheel a going Surely all the inferior wheels of the Affections would more easily move Never expect to have Love and Joy move when the foregoing Grace of Faith stands still And as you should thus act your assent to the Promise so also your Acceptation your Adherence your Affiance and your Assurance These are the four steps of Application of the Promise to our selves I have said somewhat among the Helps to move you to get Assurance But that which I here aim at is That you would daily exercise it Set before your Faith the Freeness and the Universality of the Promise Consider of Gods offer and urging it upon all and that he hath excepted from the conditional Covenant no man in the world nor will exclude any from Heaven who will accept of his offer Study also the gracious disposition of Christ and his readiness to entertain and welcome all that will come Study all the Evidences of his love which appeared in his sufferings in his preaching the Gospel in his condescention to sinners in his easie conditions in his exceeding patience and in his urgent invitations Do not all these discover his readiness to save did he ever yet manifest himself unwilling remember also his faithfulness to perform his engagements Study also the Evidences of his Love in thy self look over the works of his Grace in thy soul If thou do not finde the degree which thou desirest yet deny not that degree which thou findest look after the sincerity more then the quantity Remember what discoveries of thy state thou hast made formerly in the work of self-examination how oft God hath convinced thee of the sincerity of thy heart Remember all the sonner testimonies of the Spirit and all the sweet feelings of the favor of God and all the prayers that he hath heard and granted and all the rare preservations and deliverances and all the progress of his Spirit in his workings on thy soul and the disposals of providence conducing to thy good The vouchsafing of means the directing thee to them the directing of Ministers to meet with thy state the restraint of those sins that thy nature was most prone to And though one of these considered alone may be no sure evidence of his special love which I expect thou shouldst try by more infallible signes yet lay them altogether and then think with thy self Whether all these do not testifie the good will of the Lord concerning thy salvation and may not well be pleaded against thine unbelief And whether thou maist not conclude with Sampsons Mother when her husband thought they should surely die If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these Judg. 13.22 23. SECT V. ● WHen thy Meditation hath thus proceeded about the truth of thy Happiness the next part of the work is to meditate of its Goodness That when the Judgment hath determined and Faith hath apprehended it may then past on to raise the Affections 1. The first Affection to be acted is Love the object of it as I have told you is Goodness Here then here Christian is the Soul reviving part of thy work Go to thy Memory thy Judgment and thy Faith and from them produce the excellencies of thy Rest take out a copy of the Record of the Spirit in Scripture and another of the sentence registred in thy Spirit whereby the ●●anscendent glory of the Saints is declared Present these to thy affection of Love open to it the Cabinet that contains the Pearl shew it the Promise and that which it assureth Thou needest not look on Heaven through a multiplying Glass open but one Casement that Love may look in Give it but a glimpse of the back parts of God and thou wilt finde thy self presently in another world Do but speak out and Love can hear do but reveal these things and Love can see It s the bruitish love of the world that is blinde Divine love is exceeding quick sighted Let thy Faith as it were take thy heart by the hand and shew it the sumptuous buildings of thy Eternal Habitation and the Glorious Ornaments of thy Fathers house shew it those Mansions which Christ is preparing and display before it the Honors of the Kingdom Let Faith lead thy heart into the presence of God and draw as neer as possibly thou