The Saints' Everlasting Rest - Richard Baxter

3. They also lose all delightful affections toward God: that transporting
knowledge; those delightful views of his glorious face; the inconceivable
pleasure of loving him; the apprehensions of his infinite love to us; the
constant joys of his saints, and the rivers ot consolation with which he
satisfies them. Is it nothing to lose all this? The employment of a king in
ruling a kingdom, does not so far exceed that of the vilest slave, as this
heavenly employment exceeds that of an earthly king. God suits men's
employment to their natures. Your hearts, sinners, were never set upon God
in your lives, never warmed with his love, never longed after the enjoyment
of him; you had no delight in speaking or hearing of him; you had rather
have continued on earth, if you had known how, than to be interested in the
glorious praises of God. Is it meet, then, that you should be members of the
celestial choir?
4. They shall be deprived of the blessed society of angels and glorified
saints. Instead of being companions of those happy spirits, and numbered
with those triumphant kings, they must be driven down to hell, where they
shall have companions of a far different nature and quality. Scorning and
abusing the saints, hating them, and rejoicing at their calamities, was not the
way to obtain their blessedness. Now you are shut out of that company, from
which you first shut out yourselves; and are separated from them with whom
you would not be joined. You could not endure them in your houses, or
towns, or scarcely in the kingdom. You took them, as Ahab did Elijah, for
the "troublers of the land;" and, as the apostles were taken, for "men that
turned the world upside down." If any thing fell out amiss, you thought all
was owing to them. When they were dead or banished, you were glad they
were gone, and thought the country well rid of them. They molested you by
faithfully reproving your sins. Their holy conversation troubled your
consciences, to see them so far excel you. It was a vexation to you to hear
them pray or sing praises in their families. And is it any wonder if you be
separated from them hereafter? The day is near when they will trouble you
no more. Betwixt them and you will be a great gulf fixed. Even in this life,
69