Greetings,
The following is from The Saints’ Everlasting Rest (1650) by Richard Baxter (1615-1691). I especially commend it to those engaged in
serious spiritual growth.
Reader, heaven is above
thee, and dost thou think to travel this steep ascent without labour and
resolution? Canst thou get that earthly
heart to heaven, and bring that backward mind to God, while thou liest still
and takest thine ease? If lying down at
the foot of a hill, and looking toward the top and wishing we were there, would
serve the turn, then we should have daily travellers for heaven. But “the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and violent men take it by force.”
There must be violence used to get these first-fruits, as well as to get
the full possession. Dost thou not feel
it so, though I should not tell thee?
Will thy heart get upwards, except thou drive it? Thou knowest that heaven is all thy hopes;
that nothing below can yield thee rest; that a heart seldom thinking of heaven
can fetch but little comfort thence; and yet dost thou not lose thy
opportunities, and lie below, when thou shouldst walk above and live with
God? Dost thou not commend the sweetness
of a heavenly life, and judge those the best Christians who use it, and yet
never try it thyself? As the sluggard
that stretches himself on his bed and cries, O that this were working! so dost
thou talk, and trifle, and live at thine ease and say, O that I could get my
heart to heaven! How many read books and
hear sermons, expecting to hear of some easier way, or to meet with a shorter
course to comfort than they are ever likely to find in Scripture? Or they ask for directions for a heavenly
life, and if the hearing them will serve, they will be heavenly Christians; but
if we show them their work, and tell them they cannot have these delights on
easier terms, then they leave us, as the young man left Christ, sorrowful.
Yours & His,
DED
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