The Saints' Everlasting Rest - Richard Baxter

love! We shall ourselves be the subjects of more wonderful mercies than any
of these. Jonah was raised but from a three days' burial in the belly of a fish;
but we shall be raised from many years' decay and dust; and that dust exalted
to the glory of the sun; and that glory perpetuated through eternity. Surely, if
we observe but common providences, as the motions of the sun; the tides of
the sea; the standing of the earth; the watering it with rain, as a garden; the
keeping in order a wicked, confused world; with many others, they are all
admirable. But what are these to the Sion of God, the vision of the divine
Majesty, and the order of the heavenly host?
Add to these, those particular providences which thou hast thyself
enjoyed and recorded through thy life, and compare them with the mercies
thou shalt have above. Look over the mercies of thy youth and riper age, of
thy prosperity and adversity, of thy several places and relations; are they not
excellent and innumerable, rich and engaging? How sweet was it to thee,
when God resolved thy doubts; scattered thy fears; prevented the
inconveniences into which thy own counsel would have cast thee; eased thy
pains; healed thy sickness; and raised thee up, as from death and the grave!
Think, then, "Are all these so sweet and precious, that without them my life
would have been a perpetual misery? Hath his providence on earth lifted me
so high, ‘and his gentleness made me so great?' How sweet, then, will his
glorious presence be! How high will his eternal love exalt me! And how
great shall I be made in communion with his greatness! If my pilgrimage and
warfare have such mercies, what shall I find in my home and in my triumph?
If God communicates so much to me while I remain a sinner, what will he
bestow when I am a perfected saint! If I have had so much at such a distance
from him, what shall I have in his immediate presence, where I shall ever
stand before his throne!"
Compare the joys above with the comforts thou hast here received in
ordinances. Has not the Bible been to thee as an open fountain, flowing with
comforts day and night? What suitable promises have come into thy mind; so
248