For though there may be an apparent mastery of the soul over the body, and of reason over vices, yet if soul and reason do not serve God as He has commanded, they can have no true dominion over the body and its passions.  How can the mind which is ignorant of the true God, and instead of obeying Him is prostituted to impure demons, be true mistress of the body and the vices?  Nay, the very virtues which it appears to itself to possess, by which it rules the body and the vices in order that it may obtain and guard the objects which it desires, being undirected to God, are rather vices than virtues.  For as that which makes flesh to live is not flesh but above it, so that which enables man to live in blessedness is not of man, but above him.

III.—­THE DESTINY OF THE JUST

Who is able to tell of the creation, with its beauty and utility, which God has set before the eyes of man, though here condemned to labour and sorrow?  The innumerable loveliness of sky, earth and sea, the abundance and wonder of light, the sun, moon and stars, the shade of trees, the colours and fragrance of flowers, the multitude of birds of varied hue and song, the many forms of animals, of which the smallest are more wonderful than the greatest, the works of bees more amazing than the vast bodies of whales—­who shall describe them?

What shall those rewards, then, be?  What will God give them whom He has predestined to life, having given such great things to those whom He has predestined to death?  What in that blessed life will He lavish upon those for whom He gave His Son to death?  What will the state of man’s spirit be when it has become wholly free from vice; yielding to none, enslaved by none, warring against none, but perfectly and wholly at peace with itself?

Who can say, or even imagine, what degrees of glory shall there be given to the degrees of merit?  Yet we cannot doubt that there will be degrees; and that in that blessed city no one in lower place shall envy his superior; for no one will wish to be that which he has not received, though bound in closest concord with him who has received.  Together with his reward, each shall have the gift of contentment, so as to desire no more than he has.  There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise.  For what other end have we, but to reach the kingdom of which there is no end?

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RICHARD BAXTER

THE SAINTS’ EVERLASTING REST

Richard Baxter, the Puritan author of one hundred and sixty-eight volumes, of which “The Saints Everlasting Rest” was, and is, the most popular, was born in 1615 during the reign of James I., and died in 1691, soon after the accession of William iii.  His lifetime, therefore, was coincident with the troubles of the Stuart House.  For fifty years Baxter was one of the best known divines in England.