The Saints' Everlasting Rest

But a heaven of the knowledge of God and his Christ; a delightful complacency in that mutual love: an everlasting rejoicing in the fruition of our God; a perpetual singing of his high praises; this is a heaven for a Saint, a spiritual Rest, suitable to a spiritual nature. Then, dear friends, we shall live in our own element. We are now as the fish in some small ⟨p. 99⟩vessel of water, that hath only so much as will keep him alive; but what is that to the full Ocean? we have a little Air let in to us, to afford us breathing; but what is that to the sweet and fresh gales upon Mount Zion? we have a beam of the Sun to lighten our darkness, and a warm Ray to keep us from freezing; but then we shall live in its light, and be revived by its heat for ever. O blessed be that hand which fetched a coal, and kindled a fire in our dead hearts, from that same Altar, where we must offer our Sacrifice everlastingly. To be locked up in Gold and in Pearl, would be but a wealthy starving; to have our Tables with Plate and ornament richly furnished without meat, is but to be richly famished; to be lifted up with humane applause, is but a very airy felicity; to be advanced to the Sovereignty of all the Earth, would be but to wear a Crown of Thorns; to be filled with the knowledge of Arts and Sciences, would be but to further the conviction of our unhappiness: But to have a nature like God, his very Image, holy as he is holy, and to have God himself to be our happiness, how well do these agree? Whether that in 2 Pet. 1.4. be meant (as is commonly understood) of our own inherent renewed nature, figuratively called Divine, or rather of Christs Divine Nature without us, properly so called; whereof we are also made partakers, I know not: But certainly were not our own in some sort Divine, the enjoyment of the true Divine Nature could not be to us a suitable Rest.

But a heaven of the knowledg of God and his Christ; a delightful complacency in that mutual love: an everlasting rejoycing in the fruition of our God; a perpetual singing of his high praises; this is a heaven for a Saint, a spiritual Rest, suitable to a spiritual nature. Then, dear friends, we shall live in our own element. We are now as the fish in some small ⟨p. 99⟩vessel of water, that hath only so much as will keep him alive; but what is that to the full Ocean? we have a little Air let in to us, to afford us breathing; but what is that to the sweet and fresh gales upon Mount Sion? we have a beam of the Sun to lighten our darkness, and a warm Ray to keep us from freezing; but then we shall live in its light, and be revived by its heat for ever. O blessed be that hand which fetcht a coal, and kindled a fire in our dead hearts, from that same Altar, where we must offer our Sacrifice everlastingly. To be lockt up in Gold and in Pearl, would be but a wealthy starving; to have our Tables with Plate and ornament richly furnished without meat, is but to be richly famished; to be lifted up with humane applause, is but a very airy felicity; to be advanced to the Soveraignty of all the Earth, would be but to wear a Crown of Thorns; to be filled with the knowledg of Arts and Sciences, would be but to further the conviction of our unhappiness: But to have a nature like God, his very Image, holy as he is holy, and to have God himself to be our happiness, how well do these agree? Whether that in