The saints everlasting rest

4. The last affection to be acted, is joy. This is the end of all the rest; love, desire, hope, tend to the raising of our joy. And is it nothing to have a deed of gift from GOD? Are his infallible promises no ground of joy? Is it nothing to live in daily expectation of entering into the kingdom? Is not my assurance of being glorified one day, a sufficient ground for inexpressible joy? Is it no delight to the heir of a kingdom, to think of what he must hereafter possess, though at present he little differ from a servant? Am I not commanded to rejoice in hope of the glory of God?

Here take thy heart once again as it were by the hand; bring it to the top of the highest mount; show it the kingdom of Christ, and the glory of it: say to it, All this will thy Lord bestow upon thee, who hast believed in him, and been a worshipper of him. It is the Father's good pleasure to give thee this kingdom. Seest thou this astonishing glory above thee? Why all this is thy own inheritance. This crown is thine, these pleasures are thine, because thou art Christ's, and Christ is thine; when thou wert married to him, thou hadst all this with him.

Here take thy heart once again as it were by the hand; bring it to the top of the highest mount; shew it the kingdom of Christ, and the glory of it: say to it, All this will thy Lord bestow upon thee, who hast believed in him, and been a worshipper of him. It is the Father's good pleasure to give thee this kingdom. Seest thou this astonishing glory above thee? Why all this is thy own inheritance. This crown is thine, these pleasures are thine, because thou art Christ's, and Christ is thine; when thou wert married to him, thou hadst all this with him.

Thus take thy heart into the land of promise; show in the pleasant hills and fruitful valleys; show it the clusters of grapes which thou hast gathered, and by those convince it that it is a blessed land, flowing with better than milk and honey: enter the gates of the holy city, walk through the streets of the New Jerusalem, walk about Sin, go round about her, tell the towers thereof, mark well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that thou mayst tell it to thy soul: The foundation is garnished with precious stones; the twelve gates are twelve pearls; the street of the city is pure gold, as it were transparent glass; there is no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the ample of it. It hath no need of sun or moon to shine in it, for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. This is thy rest, O my soul, and this must be the place of thy everlasting habitation: Let all the sons of Zion then rejoice, and the daughters of Jerusalem be glad; for great is the Lord, and greatly is he praised in the city of our God: beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion; God is known in her palaces for a refuge.