The Saints' Everlasting Rest

CHAP. IV. What this Rest containeth.

SECT. I.

But all this is only the outward Court, or at least not the holiest of all: Now we have ascended these steps, may we look within the veil? May we show what this Rest containeth, as well as what it presupposeth? But alas, how little know I of that, whereof I am about to speak! Shall I speak before I know? But if I stay till I clearly know, I shall not come again to speak. That glimpse which Paul saw,¹ contained that which could not, or must not be uttered, or both. And if Paul had had a tongue to have uttered it, it would have done no good, except his hearers had ears to hear it. If Paul had spoke the things of Heaven in the language of Heaven, and none understood that language, what the better? Therefore I'll speak, while I may, that little, very little which I do know of it, rather then be wholly silent: The Lord reveal it to me, that I may reveal it to you: and the Lord open some light, and show both you and me his Inheritance; Not as to Balaam only, whose eyes the vision of God opened, to see the goodliness of Jacobs tents, and Israels tabernacles, where he had no portion; but from whence must come his own destruction:² Nor as to Moses, who had only a discovery, in stead of possession, and saw the Land, which he never entered: But as the pearl was revealed to the Merchant in the Gospel, who rested not till he had sold all he had, and bought it: and as Heaven was opened to blessed Stephen, which he was shortly to enter, and the glory showed him, which should be his own possession.