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Viii
PREFACE.
In
the
life
of
the Rev.
Mr.
John
Janeway,
fellow
of
King's
College,
Cambridge, who died in
1657, we
are told,
that
his
conversion
was in
a
great
.measure,
occasioned
by
his
reading
several parts
of the Saint's
Rest. And
in
a
letter
which he afterwards
wrote to
a near relative, speaking
with
a
more immediate
re-
ference to
that
part of
the
book which
treats of
hea-
venly
contemplation, he
says,
" There
is
a
duty,
" which,
if
it
were exercised,
would
dispel all cause
of
"melancholy
;
I
mean
heavenly meditation, and
con
"
templation of the things
which
true
Christian reli-
"gion
tends
to.
If
we
did
but
walk
closely
with
God
"one
hour, in a day in
this
duty,
oh
what
influence
"would it
have upon
the
whole day
besides,
and,
" duly
performed, upon
the
whole life!
This
duty,
with
its usefulness, manner, and directions,
I
knew
"in
some
measure
before,
but
had
it
more pressed
"
upon me by Mr.
Baxter's
Saint's
Everlasting
Rest,
"[a
book]
that
can scarce
be
over-
valued,
for
which
I
"
have cause
for
ever to
bless
God"
This
excellent
young minister's
life
is
worth reading,
were
it
only to
see
how
delightfully
he was
engaged in heavenly
con-
templation,
according to
the
directions
in
the Saint's
Rest.
It
was
the
example
of
heavenly contemplation,
at
the
close
of
this
book, which
the Rev.
Mr.
Joseph
Allein,
of
Taunton,
so
frequently quoted
in conversa-
tion, with this
solemn
introduction,
"Most
divinely
"says that
man
of
God,
holy
Mr. Baxter."
Dr.
Bates,
in his
dedication
of
his
funeral sermon
for Mr.
Baxter to
Sir
Henry Ashurst,
Bart.
tells
that
religious
gentleman, and
most
distinguished friend
and executor of
Mr. Baxter,
"
He
was
most
worthy
"of
your
highest
esteem
and love;
for
the
first im-
"
pressions
of heaven upon
your
soul
were in read-
"
ing
his
invaluable book
of the
Saint's
Everlasting
"
Rest."
In
the
life
of
the
Rev.
Mr.
Matthew Henry,
we
have
the
following character given us
of
Robert
War-
burton, Esq. of
Grange,
the
son
of the eminently
re-
ligious
Judge Warburton,
and father of Mr.
Matthew