The Saints' Everlasting Rest - Richard Baxter

entertainest them more. God hath written the names of his people in heaven,
as you use to write your names or marks on your goods; and shall we be
attempting to raze them out, and to write our names on the doors of hell? But
blessed be "God, whose foundation standeth sure;" and who "keepeth us by
his power, through faith, unto salvation."
3. Labor to apprehend how near thy rest is. What we think near at hand,
we are more sensible of than that which we behold at a distance. When
judgments or mercies are afar off, we talk of them with little concern; but
when they draw close to us, we tremble at, or rejoice in them. This makes
men think on heaven so insensibly, because they conceive it at too great a
distance; they look on it as twenty, thirty, or forty years off. How much
better were it to receive "the sentence of death in ourselves," and to look on
eternity as near at hand! While I am thinking and writing of it, it hasteneth
near, and I am even entering into it before I am aware. While thou are
reading this, whoever thou art, time posteth on, and thy life will be gone, "as
a tale that is told." If you verily believed you should die tomorrow, how
seriously would you think of heaven to-night! When Samuel had told Saul,
"Tomorrow shalt thou be with me," this struck him to the heart. And if Christ
should say to a believing soul, "Tomorrow shalt thou be with me," this would
bring him in spirit to heaven beforehand. Do but suppose that you are still
entering into heaven, and it will greatly help you more seriously to mind it.
4. Let thy eternal rest be the subject of thy frequent serious discourse,
especially with those that can speak from their hearts, and are seasoned
themselves with a heavenly nature. 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. It is a pity so much time is spent in vain conversation and
useless disputes, and not a serious word of heaven among them. Methinks we
should meet together on purpose to warm our spirits with discoursing of our
rest. To hear a Christian set forth that blessed, glorious state, with life and
power, from the promises of the Gospel, methinks should make us say, "Did
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