§ 18. Yet proceed on. The soul that loves, ascends frequently, and runs familiarly through the streets of the _heavenly Jerusalem_, visiting the Patriarchs and prophets, saluting the apostles, and admiring the armies of martyrs: So do thou lead on thy heart as from street to street; bring it into the palace of the Great King; lead it, as it were, from chamber to chamber. Say to it; "Here must I lodge; here must I live; here must I praise; here must I love, and be beloved. I must shortly be one of this heavenly choir, and be better skilled in the music. Among this blessed company must I take up my place, my voice must join to make up the melody. My tears will then be wiped away; my groans be turned to another tune; my cottage of clay be changed to this palace; my prison-rags to these splendid robes; and my sordid flesh shall be put off, and such a sun-like spiritual body be put on: _For the former things are_ here _passed away_.[383] _Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God!_[384] When I look upon this glorious place, what a dunghill and dungeon, methinks is earth? O what difference betwixt a man feeble, pained, groaning, dying, rotting in the grave, and one of these triumphant, shining saints? Here shall I _drink of the river of pleasures, the streams whereof make glad the city of God_.[385] Must Israel, under the bondage of the law, _serve the Lord with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things_.[386] Surely I shall serve him with joyfulness and gladness of heart, for the abundance of glory. Did persecuted saints _take joyfully the spoiling of their goods_?[387] And shall not I take joyfully such a full reparation of all my losses? Was it a celebrated _day wherein the Jews rested from their enemies_, because it _was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day_?[388] What a day then will that be to my soul, whose rest and change will be unconceivably greater? _When the wise men saw the star_ that led to Christ, _they rejoiced with exceeding great joy_.[389] But I shall shortly see him, who is himself _the bright and morning star_.[390] If the disciples _departed from the sepulchre with great joy_, when they had but heard that their Lord _was risen from the dead_;[391] what will be my joy, when I see him reigning in glory, and myself raised to a blessed communion with him? Then shall I indeed have _beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness_; and _Sion_ shall be _made an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations_.[392] Why then do I not rise from the dust, and cease my complaints? Why do I not trample on vain delights, and feed on the foreseen delights of glory? Why is not my life a continual joy, and the savor of heaven perpetually upon my spirit?" [Footnote 383] Revelation xxi, 4. [Footnote 384] Psalm lxxxvii, 3. [Footnote 385] Psalm xxxvi, 8. xlvi, 4. [Footnote 386] Deuteronomy xxviii, 47.