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PREFACE.
v ii
•* everlasting fire of hell so visible, and represents the
tormenting passions of the damned in those dreadful
“ colours, that, if duly considered, would check and
“ controul the unbridled licentious appetites of the
“ most sensual wretches.”
Heavenly rest is a subject, in its own nature so universally important and interesting, and at the same
time so truly engaging and delightful, as sufficiently
accounts for the great acceptance which this book has
met with ; and partly also for the uncommon blessing
which has attended Mr. Baxter’s manner of treating the subject, both from the pulpit and the press.—
Por where are the operations -of divine grace more
reasonably to be expected, or where have they in fact
been more frequently discerned, than in concurrence
with the best adapted means ? ' And should it appear,
that persons of distinguishing judgment and piety;
have expressly ascribed their first religious impressions to the hearing or reading the important sentiments contained in this book; or, after a long series
of years, have found it both the counterpart and the
improvement of their own divine life, will not this be
thought a considerable recommendation of the book
itself?
Among the instances of persons that dated their
true conversion from hearing the sermons on the
Saint’s Rest, when Mr. Baxter first preached them,
was the Rev. Tho. Doolittle, M. A. who was a native
of Kidderminster, and at that time a scholar, about
seventeen years old; whom Mr. Baxter himself afterwards sent to Pembroke hall, in Cambridge, where
he took his degree. Before his going to the university, he was upon trial as an attorney’s clerk, and
under that character being ordered by his master to
write something on the Lord’s day, he obeyed with
great reluctance, and the next day returned home,
with an earnest desire that he might not apply himself to any thing as the employment of life, but serving Christ in the ministry of the gospel. His praise
is yet in the churches, for his pious and useful labours,
as a minister, a tutor, and a writer.