The saints' everlasting rest

Front matter

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Contents

meompimcr's proiage, .%. . GE, . . Oe 5 CHAPTER I.

ltd account of = of the saints’

c CHAPTER II.

Chapter IV

‘The character of the persons for whom this rest is de- Ch AUS UCT och CHAP TER Yv.

_ The great misery of those who lose the saints’ rest, . 107

4 CHAPTER VI.

The misery of those who, besides losing the saints’ rest, lose the ee of 4 and suffer the torments of pS) A a i . + gis o* 128

CHAPTER VII.

The necessity of diligently seeking the saints’ rest, . 149

CHAPTER VIII.

How to discern our title to the saints’ rest, . . . . 180 CHAPTER IX.

The duty of the i of God to excite others to seek this Se arr : . ‘eb ae a 59

& CHA P TER X.

‘The saints’ rest is not to be expected on earth, . . . 248

4 : , CONTENTS.

- wey * ;

m G-~ « q°- GHAPTER XI.

The importance of ae a heavenly life upon qerthy 274 « * CHAPTER XI.” ’

Directions how to lead a heavenly life upon earth, ~. 306

CHAPTER XIII. ™

The nature of heavenly aes ae with the time, place, and temper fittest fo 0") 4 UR ae 337

4 BAPTER XIV.

What use heavenly contemplation makes of considerati

the affections, soliloquy, and prayer, a CHAPTER XV. ) Heavenly contemplation assisted by sensible objects, ar guarded against a treacherous heart, . . 2. . « 9 CHAPTER XVI. * Heavenly contemplation exemplified, and the whole y condladeds 2° f 1-2 bv BS ES 5 ee

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“PREFATORY NOTICE.

Ricuarp Baxter, the author of the Saints’ Rest, so

well known to the world by this and many other bidet!

S lent and useful writings, was a learned, laborious, and

»- eminently holy divine of the last age. He was born near oe in 1615, and died at London in 1691.

His ministry, in an unsettled state, was for many

a years employed with great and extensive success both

in London and in several parts of the country; but he

was nowhere fixed so long, or with such entire satis-

_, faction to himself, and apparent advantage to others, as

a at Kidderminster. His abode there was indeed intel!

rupted, partly by his bad health, but chiefly by the ca-

_ lamities of a civil war; yet in the whole it amounted to

fom years; nor was it by any means the result of his own. choice, or that of the inhabitants of Kidderminster, that he never setiled there again, after his going from thence in 1660. Before his coming thither, the place Was overrun with ignorance and profaneness; but, by = the divine blessing on his wise and faithful cultivation, « the fruits of righteousness sprung up in rich Apiitidande. Due at first found but a single instance or two of daily family prayer in a whole street; and on his going away ut one family or two could be found in some streets *that continued to neglect it. And on Lord’s days, ina stead of the open profanation to which they had been so = long accustomed, a person in passing through the town 2 in the intervals of public worship, might overhear hundreds of families engaged in singing psalms, reading the Scriptures and other good books, or such sermons as they had taken down while they heard them from the pulpit. His care of the souls committed to his charge, and the suecess of his labors among them, were truly remarkable; for the number of his stated communicants rose to six hundred, of whom he himself declared there were not twelve concerning whose sincere piety he had not reason to entertain Bod hope. Blessed be God, the religious spirit which was thus happily introdtieedl is yet to be traced in the town and neighborhood in some degree—O that it were in a greater—and_in proportio: as that spirit remains, the name of Mr. Baxter continues in the most honorable and affectionate remembrance.

As a writer, he has the approbation of some of is 2 greatest contemporaries, who best knew him, and were under no temptation to be partial in his favor. Dr. Bar-— row said, “His practical writings were never mended, and his controversial ones seldom confuted.” With a view to his casuistical writings, the honorable Robert — Boyle declared, ‘‘ He was the fittest man of the age for a casuist, poco he feared no man’s displeasure, nor hoped for any man’s preferment.”? Bishop Wilkins observed of him, that ‘he had cultivated every subject he had handled ; that if he had lived in the primitive times, he would have been one of the fathers of the church ; and that it was enough for one age to produce such a person as Mr. Baxter.’’? Archbishop Usher had such high thoughts of him, that by his earnest importunity he put him upon writing several of his practical discourses, particularly that celebrated piece, his Call to the Unconverted. Dr. Manton, as he freely expressed it, “thought Mr. Baxter came nearer the apostolical writ-

COMPILER’S PREFACE. y ings than any man in the age.” And it is both asa preacher and a writer that Dr. Bates considers him, when, in his funeral-sermon he says, ‘‘In his sermons there was a rare union of arguments and motives to convinee the mind and gain the heart. A1l the fountains of reason and persuasion were open to his discerning eye. There was no resisting the force of his discourses, without denying reason and divine revelation. He had a marvellous facility and copiousness in speaking. There was a noble negligence in his style, for his great mind could not stoop to the affected eloquence of words; he despised flashy oratory, but his expressions were clear and powerful ; so convincing the understanding, so entering into the soul, so engaging the affections, that those were as deaf as adders who were not charmed by so wise a charmer. He was animated with the Holy Spirit, and breathed celestial fire, to inspire heat and life into dead sinners, and to melt the obdurate in their frozen tombs. His books, for their number—which amounted to more ‘than one hundred and twenty—and the variety of matter in them, make a library. They contain a treasure of controversial, casuistical, and practical divinity. His books of practical divinity have been effectual for more numerous conversions of sinners to God than any printed in our time; and while the church remains on earth, will be of continual efficacy to recover lost souls. There is a vigorous pulse in them, that keeps the reader awake and attentive.’”’ To these testimonies may not improperly be added that of the editors of his practical works in four folio volumes; in the »preface to which they say, ‘Perhaps there are no writings among us that have more of a true Christian spirit, a greater mixture of - judgment and affection, or a greater tendency to revive 4 g COMPILER’S PREFACE.

pure and undefiled religion ; that have been more esteemed abroad, or more blessed at home, for awakening the secure, instructing the ignorant, confirming the wavering, comforting the dejected, recovering the profane, or improving such as are truly serious, than the practical works of this author.”” Such were the apprehensions of eminent persons who were well acquainted with Mr.

Baxter and his writings. It is therefore the less remarkable that Mr. Addison, from an accidental and very imperfect acquaintance, but with his usual pleasamyanes and candor, should mention the following incident: “I once met with a page of Mr. Baxter. Upon the perusal , of it, 1 conceived so good an idea of the author’s piety that i bought the whole book.”

Whatever other causes might coneur, it must chiedyae be ascribed to Mr. Baxter’s distinguished reputation as a preacher and a writer, that, presently after the Restoration, he was sprinted one of the chaplains in ordinary to king Charles II., and preached onee before him in that capacity; as also that he had an offer made him by lord-chancellor Clarendon, of the bishoprie of Hereford, which, in a respectful letter to his ae he saw proper to Sacha

The ‘ Saints’ Rest”’ is deservedly ee Mhoinca one of the most valuable parts of his practical works. He wrote it when he was far from home, without any book to consult but his Bible, and in such an ill state of health as to be in continual expectation of death for many months; and therefore, merely for his own use, he fixed his thoughts on this heavenly subject, ‘‘ which,” says he, “hath more benefited me than all the studies of my life.”’” At this time he could be little more than thirty years old. He afterwards preached over the subject in

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~ his weekly lecture at Kidderminster, and in 1650 published it ; indeed it appears to have been the first that ever he published of all his practical writings. Of this book Dr. Bates says, “It was written by him when languishing in the suspense of life and death, but has the signatures of his hely and vigorous mind. To allure our desires, he unveils the sanctuary above, and discovers - the glories and joys of the blessed in the divine presence, by a light so strong and lively, that all the glittering vanities of this world vanish in the comparison, and a sincere believer will despise them, as,one of - mature age does the toys and baubles of children. To __ excite our fear, he removes the screen, and makes the ; _ everlasting fire of hell so visible, and represents the ' tormenting passions of the damned in such dreadful colors, as, if duly considered, would check and control the unbridled, licentious appetites of the most sensual wretches.” —~--—

Heayenly rest is a subject in its own nature so universally important and interesting, and at the same time so truly engaging and delightful, as sufficiently accounts for the great acceptance which this book has met with; and partly, also, for the uncommon blessing which has

attended Mr. Baxter’s manner of treating the subject, both from the pulpit and the press. For where are the operations of divine grace more reasonably to be expected, or where have they, in fact, been more frequently discerned, than in coneurrence with the best adapted: means? And should it appear that persons of distinguishing judgment and piety have expressly ascribed their first religious impressions to the hearing or reading the important sentiments contained in this book ; or, after a long series of years, have found it both tr the counterpart and the improvement of their own divine life; will not this be thought a considerable recommendation of the book itself?

Among the instances of persons that dated their true conversion from hearing the sermons on the saints’ rest when Mr. Baxter first preached them, was the Rey. Thomas Doolittle, M. A., who was a native of Kidderminster, and at that time a scholar about seventeen years old, whom Mr. Baxter himself afterwards sent to Pembroke Hall, in Cambridge, where he took his degree. Before his going to the university, he was upon trial as an attorney’s clerk, and under that character, being ordered by his master to write something on a Lord’s day, he obeyed with great reluctance, and the next day _ returned home, with an earnest desire that he might not — apply himself to any thing, as the employment of life, but serving Christ in the ministry of the gospel. His praise is yet in the churches, for his pious and useful labors as a minister, a tutor, and a writer.

In the life of the Rev. John Janeway, Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge, who died in 1657, we are told that his conversion was, in a great measure, occasioned by his reading the Saints’ Rest. And in a letter which he afterwards wrote to a near relative, speaking with a more immediate reference to that part of the _ book which treats of heavenly contemplation, he says, “There is a duty which, if it were exereised, would | dispel all cause of melancholy: I mean heavenly meditation and contemplation of the things to which the true Christian religion tends. If we did but walk closely with God one hour in a day in this duty, O what influ- - ence would it have upon the whole day besides, and, duly performed, upon the whole life. This duty, with its usefulness, manner, and directions, I knew in some measure before, but had it more pressed upon me by Mr. Baxter’s Saints’ Everlasting Rest, a book that can scarce be overvalued, and for which I have cause for ever to bless God.”? This excellent young minister’s life is worth reading, were it only to see how. delightfully he was engaged in heavenly contemplation, according to. the directions in the Saints’ Rest.

- It was the example of heavenly contemplation, at the close of this book, which the Rev. Joseph Alleine so frequently quoted in conversation, with this solemn introduction, ‘ Most divinely says that man of God, holy Mr. Baxter.”

Dr. Bates, in his funeral-sermon, dedicated to Sir Henry Ashurst, says to that religious gentleman and most distinguished friend and executor of Mr. Baxter, “He was most worthy of your highest esteem and love; for the first impressions of heaven upon your soul were in reading his invaluable book of the Saints’ Everlasting Rest.”

In the life of the Rev. Matthew Henry we have the following character given us of Robert Warburton, Esq., of Grange, the son of the eminently religious Judge Warburton, and the father of Matthew Henry’s second wife, “He was a gentleman that greatly affected retirement and privacy, especially in the latter part of his life: the Bible and Mr. Baxter’s Saints’ Everlasting Rest used to lie daily before him on the table in his parlor; he. spent the greatest part of his time in reading and prayer.”

In the life of that honorable and most religious knight, Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston, we are told that “he was constant in secret prayer and reading the Scriptures ;

afterwards he read other choice authors; but not long before his death he took a singular delight in reading Mr. Baxter’s Saints’ Everlasting Rest and preparations thereunto; which was esteemed a gracious event of divine Providence, sending it as a guide to bring him more speedily and directly to that rest.’

Besides persons of eminence, to whom this book has been precious and profitable, we have an instance, in the Rev. James Janeway’s Token for Children, of a little boy, whose piety was so discovered and promoted by reading it, as the most delightful book to him next to the Bible, that the thoughts of everlasting rest seemed, even while he continued in health, to swallow up all other thoughts ; and he lived in a constant preparation for it, and appeared more like one that was ripe for glory, than an inhabitant of this lower world. And when he was in the sickness of which he died before he was twelve years old, he said, “I pray, let me have Mr. Baxter’s book, that I may read a little more of eternity before | go into it.”’

Nor is it less observable that Mr. Baxter himself, taking notice, in a paper found in his study after his death, what a number of persons were converted by reading his Call to the Unconverted, accounts of which he had received by letter every week, expressly adds, “This little book, the Call to the Unconverted, God hath blessed with unexpected success, beyond all that I have written, except the Saints’ Rest.’ With an evident reference to this book, and even during the life of the author, the pious Mr. Flavel affectionately says, “ Mr. Baxter is almost in heaven—living in the daily views and cheerful expectation of the saints’ everlasting rest with God; and is left for a little while among us,

OCOMPILER’S PREFACE. 13 as a great example of the life of faith.’ And Mr. Baxter himself says, in his preface to his Treatise of Self- Denial, “‘I must say, that of all the books which I have written, I peruse none so often for the use of my own soul in its daily work, as my Life of Faith, this of Self- Denial, and the last part of the Saints’ Rest.” On the whole, it is not without good reason that Dr. Calamy remarks concerning it, ‘‘ This is a book for which multitudes will have cause to bless God for ever.’

This excellent and useful book now appears in ‘the form of an abridgment; and therefore, it is presumed, will be more likely, under the divine blessing, to diffuse its salutary influence among those that would otherwise have wanted opportunity or inclination to read over the larger volume. In reducing it to this smaller size, I have been very desirous to do justice to the author, and at the same time promote the pleasure and profit of the serious reader. And I hope these ends are in some measure answered ; chiefly by dropping things of a digressive, controversial, or metaphysical nature; together with prefaces, dedications, and various allusions to some peculiar circumstances of the last age; and particularly by throwing several chapters into one, that the number of them may better correspond with the size of the volume; and sometimes by altering the form, but not the sense, of a period, for the sake of brevity; and when an obsolete phrase occurred, changing it for one more common and intelligible. I should never have thought of attempting this work, if it had not been suggested and urged by others : ad by some very respectable names, of whose learning, judgment, and piety I forbear to avail myself. However defective this performance may appear, the labor of ii—if it may be called a labor—has been,

I bless God, one of the most delightful labors of my life.

‘Certainly the thoughts of everlasting rest may be as delightful to souls in the present day, as they have ever been to those of past generations. I am sure such thoughts are as absolutely necessary now; nor are temptations to neglect them either fewer or weaker than formerly. The worth of everlasting rest is not felt, because a thousand trifles are preferred before it. But were the divine reasonings of this book duly attended to—and O that the Spirit and grace of the Redeemer may make them so!—then an age of vanity would become serious ; minds enervated by sensuality would soon resume the strength of reason, and display the excellence of Christianity ; the delusive names of pleasure would be blotted out by the glorious reality of heavenly joy upon earth; every station and relation in life would be filled up with the propriety and dignity of serious religion ; every member of society would then effectually contribute to the beauty and happiness of the whole; and every soul would be ready for life or death, for one world or another, in a well-grounded and cheerful persuasion of having secured a title to that rest which remaineth to the people of God.

B. F.

KipDERMINSTER, Dec. 25, 1758.

THE

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SAINTS’ EVERLASTING REST.

“THERE REMAINETH THEREFORE A REST UNTO THE PEOPLE OF GOD.”—HEsREws 4:9.

Chapter I. Introduction—some Account Of The Nature Of The Saints’ Rest

The important design of the apostle in the text, to which the author earnestly bespeaks the attention of the reader. The saints’ rest defined, with a general plan of the work. What this rest presupposes. The author’s humble sense of his inability fully to show what this rest contains. It contains, 1. A ceasing from means of grace; 2. A perfect freedom from all evils; 3. The highest degree of the saints’ personal perfection, both in body and soul; 4. The nearest enjoyment of God the chief good; 5. A sweet and constant action of all the powers of soul and body in this enjoyment of God.

Ir was not only our interest in God, and actual enjoyment of him, which was lost in Adam’s fall, but all spiritual knowledge of him, and true disposition towards such a felicity. When the Son of (rod comes with recovering grace, and discoveries of a spiritual and eternal happiness and glory, he finds not faith in man to believe it. As the poor man, that would not believe any one had such a sum as a hundred pounds, it was so far above what himself possessed, so men will hardly now believe there is such a happiness as once they had, much less as Christ hath now procured. When God would give the Israelites his Sabbaths of rest, in a land of rest, 1t was harder to make them believe it than to overcome their enemies and procure it for them. And when they had it, only as a small intimation and earnest of an incomparably more glorious rest through Christ, they yet believe no more than they — possess, but say, with the epicure at the feast, Sure there is no other heaven but this! or, if they expect more by the Messiah, it is only the increase of their earthly felicity. The apostle aims most of this epistle against this obduracy, and clearly and largely proves that the end of all ceremonies and shadows is to direct them to Jesus Christ, the substance; and that the rest of Sabbaths and Canaan should teach them to look for a further rest, which indeed is their happiness. “My text is his conclusion after divers arguments—a conclusion which contains the ground of all the believer’s comfort, the end of al. his duty and sufferings, the hfe and sum of all ta pel promises and Christian privileges. PT ea

‘What more welcome to men under personal afflictions, tiring duties, disappointments, or sufferings,

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than rest? It is not our comfort only, but our sta- “pility. Our liveliness in al} duties, our enduring of tribulation, our honoring of God, the vigor of our love, thankfulness, and all our graces, yea, the very being of our religion and Christianity, depend on the believing, serious thoughts of our rest. And now, reader, whoever.thou art, young or old, rich or poor, I ‘entreat thee and charge thee, in the name of thy Lord, who will shortly call thee to a reckoning, and judge theeto thy everlasting, unchangeable state, that thou give not these things the reading only,. and so dismiss them with a bare approbation ; but that thou set upon this work, and take God in Christ for thy only rest, and fix thy heart upon him above all. May the living God, who is the portion and rest of his saints, make these our carnal minds so spiritual, and our earthly hearts so heavenly, that loving him, and delighting in him, may be the work of our lives; and that neither I that write, nor you that read this book, may ever be turned from this path of life; “lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest,’ we should ‘come short of it,” through our own unbelief or negligence. The saints’ rest is the most happy state of a Christian ; or, it is the perfect, endless enjoyment of God by the perfected saints, according to the measwre of their capacity, to which their souls arrive at death, and both soul and body most fully after the resurrection and finaljudgment. According to this Saints? Rest, y definition of the saints’ rest, a larger account of its. nature will be given in this chapter ; of its preparatives, chap. 2; its excellencies, chap. 3; and chap. 4, the persons for whom it is designed. Further to illustrate the subject, some description will be given, chap. 5, of their misery who lose this rest; and chap. 6, who also lose the enjoyments of time, and suffer the torments of hell. Next will be shown, chap. 7, the necessity of diligently seeking this rest ; chap. 8, how our title to it may be discerned; chap. 9, that they who discern their title to it should help those that cannot; and chap. 10, that this rest is not to be expected on earth. It will then be proper to consider, chap. 11, the importance of a heavenly life upon earth; chap. 12; how to live a heavenly life upon earth; chap. 13, the nature of heavenly contemplation, with the time, place, and temper most fit for it; chap. 14, what use heavenly contemplation makes of consideration, affections, soliloquy, and prayer; and likewise, chap. 15, how heavenly contemplation may be assisted by sensible objects, and guarded against a treacherous heart. Heavenly contemplation will be exemplified, chap. 16, and the whole work concluded.

There are some things necessarily preswpposed in the nature of this rest: as,

That mortal men are the persons seeking it. For angels and glorified spirits have it already, and the — devils and damned are past hope:

That they choose God only for their end and happiness. He that takes any thing else for his happiness is out of the way the first step: ”

That they are destant from this end. This is the woful case of all mankind since the fall. When Christ comes with regenerating grace he finds no man sitting still, but all posting to eternal ruin, and making haste towards hell ; till, by conviction, _ he first brings them to a stand, and then, by conversion, turns their hearts and lives sincerely to himself. This end, and its excellency, is supposed to be known, and seriously intended. An unknown good moves not to desire or endeavor. And not only a distance from this rest, but the true knowledge of this distance, is also supposed. They that never yet knew they were without God and in the way to hell, never yet knew the way to heaven. , Can a man find he hath lost his God and his soul, ' and not cry, I am undone *?y The reason why so few obtain this rest.is, they will not be convinced that they are, in point of title, distant from it; and, in point of practice, contrary to it. Whoever sought for that which he knew not he had lost?, “ They that be whole need not a physician, but they that ALC SICK.” mam

The influence of a superior moving Cause is also supposed, else we shall all stand still and not move towards our rest. If God move us not, we cannot move. It is a most necessary part of our Christian wisdom, tv keep our subordination to God, and dependence on him. ‘ We are not sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.” ‘Without me,” says Christ,

“ye can do nothing.” ——

It is next supposed that they who seek this rest have an tnward principle of spiritual life. God does not niove men like stones, but he endows them with life, not to enable them to move without him, but in subordination to himself, the first mover.

And further, this rest supposes such an actual tendency of soul towards it as is regular and constant, earnest and laborious. He that hides his talent shall receive the wages of a slothful servant», Christ is the door, the only way to this rest. ‘ But strait is the gate and narrow is the way;” and we must strive, if we will enter; for ‘“‘many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able; which imphes, ‘that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.” Nor will it bring us to the end of the saints, if we begin in the spirit and end in the flesh. He only “that endureth to the end shall be saved.} And never did a soul obtain rest with God whose desire was not set upon him above all things else in the world. ‘Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” The remainder of our old nature will much weaken and interrupt these desires, but never overcome them. And, considering the opposition to our desires, from the contrary principles in our nature, and from the weakness of our graces, together with our continued distance from the end, our tendency to that end must be laborious, and with all our might. All these things are presupposed, in order to a Christian’s obtaining an interest in-heavenly rest.

Now we have ascended these steps into the outward court, may we look within the veil? May we show what this rest contains as weil as what -it presupposes? Alas, how little know I of that glory. The glimpse which Paul had, contained what could not or must.not be uttered. Had he spoken the things of heaven in the language of heaven, and none understood that language, what the better? The Lord reveal to me what I may reveal to you. The Lord open some light, and show both you and me our inheritance./ Not as to Balaam only, whose eyes were opened to see the goodliness of Jacob’s tents and Israel’s tabernacles, where he had no portion, and from whence must come his own destruction; not as to Moses, who had only a discovery instead of possession, and saw the land which he never entered; but as the pearl was revealed to the merchant in the gospel, who rested not till he had sold all he had, and bought it; and as heaven was opened to blessed Stephen, which he was shortly to enter, and the glory showed him which should be his own possession.