The Saint's Everlasting Rest

on ministers, and those that have children and servants,

CHAPTER X-The Saint's Rest is not to be expected on earth.

3. And from losing our way to it;

4. They quicken our pace towards it;

5. They chiefly incommode our flesh; and

6. Under them are often the best foretastes of rest,

By the unreasonableness of resting in present comforts,

1. 'Tis idolatry;

2. It contradicts God's end in giving them;

3. 'Tis the way to have them refused, withdrawn, or imbittered;

6. The creatures, without God, aggravate our misery ;

Also by the unreasonableness of our unwillingness to die, and possess

the saint's rest.

223

CHAPTER XI.-The importance of leading a heavenly life upon earth.

'Tis reasonable to delight in thinking of heaven,

234

Christians exhorted to it, by considering,

235

1. It will evidence their sincere piety;

237

2. 'Tis the highest excellence of the Christian temper;

9. Without it, we disobey the commands, and lose the most gracious

and delightful discoveries of the word of God;

253

10. Our hearts should be with God, as his is so much on us; and

255

CHAPTER XII.-Directions how to live a heavenly life upon earth.

I. Avoid the hinderances to such a life:

7. Nor rest in preparatives to a heavenly life.

5. Take heed of a proud spirit ;

6. And a slothful spirit,

II. Practise the duties which will promote this life:

1. Esteem heaven the only treasure and happiness;

2. Labour to know your interest in it;

3. And how near it is;

4. Frequently and seriously talk of it;

5. Strive in every duty to raise your heart nearer to it;

6. To the same purpose improve every object and event;

7. Be much in the angelical work of praise;

8. Maintain believing thoughts of God's infinite love ;

10. Take due care of your bodily health.

256

258

CHAPTER XIII.-The nature of heavenly contemplation, with the time,

9. Observe and cherish the motions of God's Spirit;

place, and temper, fittest for it.

The duty itself recommended to the reader,

seasonable, every day, particularly Lord's days;

especially, when in a devout temper, or an afflicted state,

or in the views of death:

The place, fittest for this duty, is the most retired;

The temper, fittest for this duty, is,

1. When our minds are most clear of the world,

2. And most solemn and serious.

CHAPTER XIV.-What use heavenly contemplation makes of consideration,

These affections need not always be exercised in this order, nor all at

one time,

Soliloquy and prayer are also useful in heavenly contemplation.

CHAPTER XV.-Heavenly contemplation assisted by sensible objects, and

guarded against a treacherous heart.

The difficulty of maintaining a lively impression of heavenly things, 326

Sensible objects may assist heavenly contemplation,

1. If we draw strong suppositions from sense;

2. If objects of sense and faith are compared,

328

ib.

1. The heart's backwardness to this duty,

To guard heavenly contemplation against a treacherous heart, consider,

329

2. Its trifling in it,

3. Its wandering from it,

4. And its too abruptly putting an end to it.

CHAPTER XVI.-Heavenly contemplation exemplified, and the whole work

concluded:

A Christian prepared for the work, may contemplate,

"The excellency of heavenly rest;

Its nearness, dreadful to sinners, joyful to saints;

"Its dear purchase;

"And its difference from earth,

"He may plead with his heart,

May banish unbelief,

"And pity a careless world,

"He may view heavenly rest, as the object of love,

And of joy,

"He may lament his heart's indisposition to such joy,

"He may view heavenly rest, as the object of desire,'

Evil consequences of neglecting such contemplation,

Saints excited to be constant in it,

The author's concluding prayer,

SAINT's

EVERLASTING REST.

HEBREWS iv. 9.

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of Goll.

CHAPTER I.

THE INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NATURE OF THE SAINT'S REST.

§1. The important design of the apostle in the text, to which the author earnestly bespeaks the attention of the reader. 2. The saint's rest defined, with a general plan of the work. 3. What this rest pre-supposes. §4. The author's humble sense of his inability fully to shew what this rest contains. § 5. It contains, (1) A ceasing from means of grace; § 6. (2) A perfect freedom from all evils; § 7. (3) The highest degree of the saint's personal perfections, both in body and soul; § 8. (4) The nearest enjoyment of God the chief good; § 9-14. (5) A sweet and constant action of all the powers of soul and body in this enjoyment of God; as, for instance, bodily senses, knowledge, memory, love, joy, together with a mutual love and joy. § 15. The author's humble reflection on the deficiency of this account.

§ 1. IT 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 God 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 an 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, he had more ado 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 glutton 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 bestows most of this epistle against this distemper, 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 farther 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 all his duty and sufferings, the life and sum of all gospel promises and Christian privileges. What more welcome to men, under personal afflictions, tiring duties, successions of sufferings, than rest? It is not our comfort only, but our stability. Our liveliness in all duties, our enduring tribulation, our honouring of God, the vigour 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. now, reader, whatever thou art, young or old, rich or poor, I intreat thee, and charge thee, in the name of thy Lord, who will shortly call tree to a reckoning, and judge thee to thy everlasting unchange

And

« Önceki Devam »

Kitaplar

The Saint's Everlasting Rest: Or a Treatise of the Blessed State of the ...