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The Saints' Everlasting Rest - Richard Baxter

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Chapter 7<br />

<strong>The</strong> necessity of diligently seeking the <strong>Saints'</strong> <strong>Rest</strong><br />

If there be so certain and glorious a rest for the saints, why is there no<br />

more earnest seeking after it? One would think, if a man did but once hear of<br />

such unspeakable glory to be obtained, and believed what he heard, he would<br />

be transported with the vehemency of his desire after it, and would almost<br />

forget to eat and drink, and would care for nothing else, and speak of and<br />

inquire after nothing else, but how to get this treasure. And yet people who<br />

hear of it daily, and profess to believe it as a fundamental article of their<br />

faith, as little mind it, or labor for it, as if they had never heard of any such<br />

thing, or did not believe one word they hear. This reproof is applicable to the<br />

worldly-minded, to the profane multitude, to formal professors, and even to<br />

the godly themselves.<br />

<strong>The</strong> worldly-minded are so taken up in seeking the things below, that<br />

they have neither heart nor time to seek this rest. O foolish sinners, "who<br />

hath bewitched you?" <strong>The</strong> world bewitches men into brute beasts, and draws<br />

them even to madness. See what riding and running, what scrambling and<br />

catching for a thing of nought, while eternal rest lies neglected! What<br />

contriving and caring to get a step higher in the world than their brethren,<br />

while they neglect the kingly dignity of the saints! What insatiable pursuit of<br />

fleshly pleasures, while they regard the praises of God, the joy of angels, as a<br />

tiresome burden! What unwearied diligence in raising their posterity,<br />

enlarging their possessions, (perhaps for a poor living from hand to mouth,)<br />

while judgment is drawing near! but how it shall go with them then, never<br />

brings them to one hour's consideration! What rising early and sitting up late,<br />

and laboring from year to year, to maintain themselves and children in credit<br />

till they die! but what shall follow after they never think! Yet these men cry,<br />

"May we not be saved without so much ado?" How early do they rouse up<br />

92

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