And, doubtless, memory will not be idle or useless in this blessed work, if it be but by looking back to help the soul to value its enjoyment.  Our knowledge will be enlarged, not diminished; therefore the knowledge of things past shall not be taken away.  And what is that knowledge but a remembrance?  Doubtless, from that height the saint can look behind him and before him; and to compare past with present things must needs raise in the blessed soul an unconceivable esteem and sense of its condition.  To stand on that mount whence we can see the wilderness and Canaan both at once; to stand in heaven and look back on earth, and weigh them together in the balance of a comparing sense and judgment, how must it needs transport the soul and make it cry out:  Have the gales of grace blown me into such a harbour!  O, blessed way, and thrice blessed end!

And now if there be such a thing as indignation left how will it here let fly:  O vile nature that resisted so much and so long such a blessing!  Unworthy soul, is this the place thou camest so unwillingly towards?  Was duty wearisome?  Was the world too good to lose?  Didst thou stick at leaving all, denying all, and suffering anything for this?  Wast thou loth to die to come to this?  O false heart, that had almost betrayed me and lost me this glory!

But oh, the full, the near, the sweet enjoyment is that of the affections—­love and joy!  It is near, for love is of the essence of the soul; love is the essence of God, for God is love.  Oh, the high delights of this love!  The content that the heart findeth in it!  Surely love is both work and wages.

But, alas! my fearful heart scarce dares proceed.  Methinks I hear the Almighty’s voice saying to me, as to Job, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” But pardon, O Lord, Thy servant’s sin.  I have not pried into unrevealed things, nor with audacious wits curiously searched into Thy counsels; but, indeed, I have dishonoured Thy Holiness, wronged Thine Excellency, disgraced Thy saints’ glory by my own exceeding disproportionate pourtraying.  I bewail that my conceivings fall so short, my apprehensions are so dull, my thoughts so mean, my affections so stupid, expressions so low, and unbeseeming such a glory.  But I have only heard by the hearing of the ear.  Oh, let Thy servant see Thee and possess these joys, and then I shall have more suitable conceivings, and shall give Thee fuller glory!

III.—­HOW THE ETERNAL REST IS REACHED

Having thus opened to you a window towards the temple, and showed you a small glimpse of the back parts of that resemblance of the saints’ rest which I had seen in the Gospel-glass, it follows that we proceed to view a little the adjuncts and blessed properties of this rest, and first consider the eminent antecedents, the great preparations, the notable introduction to this rest; for the porch of this temple is exceeding glorious, and the gate of it is called beautiful.  And here offer themselves to our observation as the four corners of this porch the most glorious coming and appearing of the Son of God; His wonderful raising of our bodies from the dust, and uniting them again with the soul; His public and solemn proceedings in their judgment; His solemn celebration of their coronation, and His enthronising of them in their glory.