X PREFACE. "in the daily views, and cheerful expectation, of the " Saint's everlasting Rest with God ; and is left for a " little while among us, as a great example of the life " of faith." And Mr. Baxter himself says, in his pre- face to his Treatise of Self= denial, ".I must say, that "of all the books which I have written, I pursue none " so often for the use of my own soul in its daily work "as my Life of Faith, this of Self-denial, and the last " part of the Saint's Rest." On the whole, it is not without good reason that Dr. Calamy remarks con- cerning it, " This is a book, for which multitudes will "have cause to bless God for ever." . This excellent and useful book now appears in the form of an abridgment, and therefore it is presumed will be the more likely, under a divine blessing, to diffuse its salutary influence among those that would otherwise have wanted opportunity or inclination to read over the large volume. In reducing it to this small size, I have been very desirous to do justice to the author, and at the same time to promote the plea - sure and profit of the serious reader. And, I hope, those ends are, in some measure, answered ; chiefly by dropping things of a digressive, controversial, or metaphysical _ nature ; together with prefaces, dedica- tions, and various allusions to some peculiar circum- stances of the last age: and particularly by throwing several chapters into one, that the number of' them may better correspond with the size of the volume; and sometimes by altering the form, but not the sense, of a period, for the sake of brevity; and when an Obsolete phrase occurred, changing it for one more common and intelligible. I should never have thought of attempting this work, if it had not been suggested ana urged by others; and by some very respectable names, of whose learning, judgment, and piety, I forbear to avail myself. However defective this per- formance may appear, the labour of it (if it may be called a labour) has been I bless God, one of 'the most delightful labours of my life.Certainly the thoughts of éverlasting rest may be as delightful to souls in the present day,. as they have ever been to those of past
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