The blessedness of the righteous discoursed from Psal. 17, 15 /The blessednesse of the righteous discoursed from Psal. 17, 15 /

Have we been dreaming all this while, that God hath been revealing to us this glorious state? and setting this lovely prospect before our eyes? Did it become us not to open our eyes, while he was opening Heaven to us, and representing the state which he designed to bring us to? or will we say we have seen it, and yet desire it not? Have we been deaf and dead, while he hath been calling us into eternal glory? have all our senses been bound up all this while? Hath he been speaking all along to senseless Statues, to Stocks, and Stones, while he expected reasonable, living souls should have received the voice, and have returned an obedient, complying answer? And what answer could be expected to such a call, (a call to his Glory) below this. We desire it Lord, we would fain be there.

Have we been dreaming all this while, that God hath been revealing to us this glorious state? and setting this lovely prospect before our eyes? Did it become us not to open our eyes, while he was opening Heaven to us, and representing the state which he designed to bring us to? or will we say we have seen it, and yet desire it not? Have we been deaf and dead, while he hath been calling us into eternal glory? have all our senses been bound up all this while? Hath he been speaking all along to sensless Statues, to Stocks, and Stones, while he expected reasonable, living souls should have received the voice, and have returned an obedient, complying answer? And what answer could be expected to such a call, (a call to his Glory) below this. We desire it Lord, we would fain be there.

And if, we say we have not been all this while a sleep, we saw the light that shone upon us, we heard the voice that called to us; wherewith shall we then excuse our selves, that our desires were not moved? that our Souls were not presently in a flame? was it then that ⟨p. 342⟩we thought all a mere fiction? that we durst not give credit to his word, when it brought us the report of the everlasting Glory? will we avow this? Is this that we will stand by? or what else have we left to say? have we a more plausible reason to allege, that the discovery of such a glory moved us not to desire it; then that we believed it not? sure this is the truth of our case. We should feel this heavenly fire always burning in our breasts, If our Infidelity did not quench the coal. If we did believe, we could not but desire. But doth not the thoughts of this shake our very souls, and fill us with horror, and trembling? We that should be turned into indignation, and ready to burn our selves with our own flame, and all about us, if one should give us the lie; that we should dare to put the lye upon the Eternal Truth! upon him whose Word gave stability, and being to the world, who made and sustains all things by it. That awful Word! That Word that shivers Rocks, and melts down Mountains, that make the inanimate Creation tremble, that can in a moment blast all things, and dissolve the frame of Heaven and Earth, (which in the mean time it upholds) is that become with us fabulous, lying breath? Those God-breathed Oracles, those Heavenly Records, which discover, and describe this blessed state, are they false and foolish Legends; must that be pretended at last (if men durst) that is so totally void of all pretence? what should be the gain or advantage accruing to that Eternal, All-sufficient being. What