The saints everlasting rest

5. Compare also the excellencies of heaven with those glorious works of the creation which our eyes now behold. What a deal of wisdom, and power, and goodness appeareth in and through them to a wise observer! What a deal of the majesty of the great Creator doth shine in the face of this fabric of the world! Surely his works are great and admirable, sought out of them that have pleasure therein. This makes the study of natural philosophy so pleasant, because the works of GOD are so excellent: what rare workmanship is in the body of a man! yea, in the body of every beast! which makes the anatomical studies so delightful. What excellency in every plant we see! in the beauty of flowers! in the nature, diversity and use of herbs! in fruits, in roots, in minerals, and what not! But especially if we look to the greater works; if we consider the whole body of this earth, and its creatures, and inhabitants; the ocean of waters, with its motions and dimensions, the variation of the seasons, and of the face of the earth; the intercourse of spring and fall, of summer and winter; what wonderful excellency do these contain! Why, then think if these things which are but servants to sinful man, are yet so full of mysterious worth; what is that place where GOD himself doth dwell, prepared for the just who are perfected with Christ!

When thou walkest forth in the evening, look upon the stars, in what number they bespangle the firmament: if in the day time, look up to the glorious sun; view the wide-expanded heavens, and say to thyself, what glory is in the least of yonder stars! What a vast, what a resplendent body hath yonder moon, and every planet! What an inconceivable glory hath the sun! Why, all this is nothing to the glory of heaven. Yonder sun must there be laid aside as useless; for it would not be seen for the brightness of GOD. I shall live above all yonder glory: yonder ⟨p. 361⟩sun is but darkness to the lustre of my Father's house; I shall be as glorious as that sun myself.