The Saints’ Rest is deservedly esteemed one of the most valuable parts of his practical works. Nor will it bring us to the end of the saints, if we begin in the spirit and end in the flesh. To have necessity supplied immediately from God, is the state of the saints in heaven.
As an essential part of the character of God’s people, they now enter into a cordial covenant with Christ. The pleasures of the flesh seemed more desirable to them than the glory of the saints.
The loss of heaven includes,
The aggravations of the loss of heaven;
The glorious personal perfection which the saints enjoy in heaven, is the great loss of the ungodly. The understanding of the ungodly will then be cleared to know the worth of that which they have lost. Though the understandings of the damned will not be sanctified, yet they will be cleared from a multitude of errors.
What sensibility of the worth of life has the condemned man that is going to he executed, compared with what he was wont to have in the time of his prosperity. Much more will the actual loss of eternal blessedness make the damned exceedingly apprehensive of the greatness of their loss;. It is one of the hardest things in the world to bring a wicked man to know that he is wicked, or to make him see himself in a state of wrath and condemnation.
It will torment them to think of the greatness of the glory they have lost. I was set upon the stage of the world; if I had believed in Christ I might now have had possession of the inheritance. It will wound them to think, “I had once the gales of the Spirit ready to have assisted me.
When they compare the value of the pleasures of sin with the value of “the recompense of reward,” how will the vast disproportion astonish them.
The enjoyments of time which the damned lose
The torments of the damned are exceedingly great
What a standing witness of the wrath of God is the present deplorable state of the Jews. The torments of the damned must be extreme, because they are the effect of divine vengeance. If thou art one of the people of God, this doctrine will be a comfort to thee, and not a terror.
O pity, pity on a poor soul!” Why, I do now, in the name of The Lord Jesus, cry to thee. If the blood of the Son of God be mercy, then we are engaged to God by mercy. It is far easier bearing the scoffs of the world than the lashes of conscience.
The joy of the promises and the joy of the Holy Ghost are one: add. And the action of the soul upon such excellent objects naturally bringeth consolation with it. It is a case of the greatest moment, where everlasting salvation or damnation is to be determined.
How lively will it make thee in the work of the Lord, and how profitable to all around thee. Observe, it is the consent of the heart, or will, which I especially lay down to be inquired after. It is not like that of the dissembling son, who said, “I go, sir; and went not.” If any have more of the.
Shows the nature of this duty; particularly,
The author laments that Christians do so little to help others to obtain the saints’ rest:.
Assigns various reasons why this duty is so much neglected, and answers some objections against it
Urges to the discharge of it, by several considerations
This duty is of another nature, and consists of the following things: in having our hearts affected with the misery of our brethren’s souls, in taking all opportunities to instruct them in the way of salvation, and in promoting their profit by public ordinances. Therefore we are commanded “to exhort one another daily,” and “with all long-suffering.” The fire is not always brought out of the flint at one stroke; nor men’s affections kindled at the first exhortation: and if they were, yet if they be not followed they will soon grow cold again. Let us inquire what may be the CAUSES OF THE GROSS NEGLECT of this duty; that the hinderances, being discovered, may the more easily be overcome.
They are guilty of the sins they should reprove, and this makes them ashamed to reprove. And with some, their ignorance of the duty hindereth them from performing it: either they know it not to be a duty, or at least not to be their duty. Let men see that you excel others in piety, compassion, and diligence in God’s work, as you do in the riches and honors of the world.
As for the ministers of the Gospel, it is the very work of their calling to help others to heaven. If any too little “savor the things of the Spirit,” let them be pitied, but not neglected. Consider how much the welfare of the church and the state depends on this duty.
I beseech you, for the sake of the children of your own flesh, teach them, admonish them, watch over them, and give them no rest till you have brought them to Christ.
How unreasonable to rest in present enjoyments;
When it is rotting in the grave thou shalt be a companion of the perfected spirits of the just. To “have their portion in this life,” is the lot of the most miserable, perishing sinners. It shows that we are insensible of the vanity of earth, when we are so loth to hear or think of a removal.
9 Without it we disobey the commands, and lose the most gracious and delightful discoveries of the word of God;. When the sun in the spring draws nearer to our part of the earth, how do all things congratulate its approach. The joy of the Lord is our strength,” and that joy must be drawn from the place of our joy; and if we walk without our strength, how long are we likely to endure.
Is not this the Christ?” Is not “the knowledge of God and him eternal life?” Is it not the glory of the saints to see his glory. This is the Christian of the right stamp, and all about him are better for him. As heaven is the perfection of all our mercies, so the promises of it in the Gospel are the very soul of the Gospel.
Since “the heavens must receive him until the times of the restitution of all things,”.
The hinderances to a heavenly life;
The duties which will promote a heavenly life
Watch, therefore especially resolve to keep from the occasions of sin, and out of the way of temptations. When the heavenly believer is blessing himself in his God, and rejoicing in hope of the glory to come; perhaps thou art blessing thyself in thy. Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God.” “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” This is plain dealing, and happy he that faithfully receives it. Studying and preaching of heaven more resembles a heavenly life than thinking and talking of the world does; and the resemblance is apt to deceive us. If your judgment once prefer the delights of the flesh before the delights of the presence of God, it is impossible your heart should be in heaven.
It is pity Christians should ever meet together without some talk of their meeting in heaven, or of the way to it, before they part. Dost thou hear the raging noise of the wicked and the confusions of the world. These delights, like the testimony of the Spirit, witness themselves to be of God, and bring the evidences of their heavenly parentage along with them.
The more of the Spirit we resist, the deeper will it wound; and the more we obey, the speedier will be our pace.
The fittest place for it
The fittest temper for it,
It is a work the most spiritual and sublime, and therefore not to be well performed by a heart that is merely carnal and earthly. I suppose them to be such as have a title to rest, when I persuade them to rejoice in the meditations of rest. And it is the work of the soul I am setting thee to, for bodily exercise here profiteth little.
And it must have all the powers of the soul to distinguish it from the common meditation of students; for the. As in the body, the stomach must turn the food into chyle and prepare for the liver, the liver and spleen turn it into blood and prepare for the heart and brain; so in the soul, the understanding must take in truths, and prepare them for the will, and that for the affections. So what good could all the glory of heaven have done us, or what pleasure should we have had in the perfection of God himself, if we had been without the affections of love and joy.
And what strength or sweetness canst thou possibly receive by thy meditations on eternity, while thou dost not exercise those affections of the soul by which thou must be sensible of this sweetness and strength. It is the mistake of Christians to think that meditation is only the work of the understanding and memory; when every school-boy can do this, or persons that hate the things which they think on. See David’s description of the blessed man: “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”.
As there is solemn prayer, when we set ourselves wholly to that duty; and ejaculatory prayer, when, in the midst of other business, we send up some short request to God; so also there is solemn meditation, when we apply ourselves wholly to that work; and transient meditation, when, in the midst of other business, we have some good thoughts of God in our minds.
