This rest containeth a sweet and constant action of all the powers of the soul and body in this fruition of God.  It is not the rest of a stone which ceaseth from motion when it attains the centre.  Whether the external senses, such as now we have, shall be continued and employed in this work is a great doubt.  For some of them, it is usually acknowledged, they shall cease, because their being importeth their use, and their use implieth our state of imperfection—­as there is no use for eating and drinking, so neither for taste.  But do not all senses imply our imperfection?  As the ore is cast into the fire a stone, but comes forth so pure a metal that it deserves another name, so far greater will the change of our body and senses be—­even so great as now we cannot conceive.  And, doubtless, as God advanceth our sense and enlargeth our capacity, so will He advance the happiness of those senses, and fill up with Himself all that capacity.

And if the body shall be thus employed, oh, how shall the soul be taken up!  As the bodily senses have their proper aptitude and action, so doth the soul in its own action enjoy its own object—­by knowing, by thinking, by remembering, by loving.  This is the soul’s enjoying.

Knowledge of itself is very desirable, even the knowledge of some evil, though not the evil itself.  As far as a rational soul exceeds the sensitive, so far the delights of a philosopher in discovering the secrets of Nature, and knowing the mysteries of science, exceed the delights of the glutton, the drunkard, the unclean, and of all voluptuous sensualists whatsoever—­so excellent is all truth.  What, then, is their delight who know the God of truth!  What would I not give so that all the uncertain, questionable principles in logic, natural philosophy, metaphysics, and medicine were but certain in themselves and to me, that my dull, obscure notions of them were but quick and clear.  Oh, what then should I not either perform or part with to enjoy a clear and true apprehension of the most true God!

How noble a faculty of the soul is this understanding!  It can compass the earth; it can measure the sun, moon, stars, and heaven; it can foreknow each eclipse to a minute many years before; yea, but the top of all its excellency is that it can know God, who is infinite, who made all these—­a little here, and more, much more, hereafter.  Oh, the wisdom and goodness of our blessed Lord!  He hath created the understanding with a natural bias and inclination to truth as its object, and to the prime truth as its prime object; and lest we should turn aside to any creature, He hath kept this as His own divine prerogative, not communicable to any creature, namely, to be the prime truth.