§ 13. (9.) The last jewel of our crown is, that it will be an everlasting rest. Without this all were comparatively nothing. The very thought of leaving it, would embitter all our joys. It would be a hell in heaven, to think of once losing heaven: As it would be a kind of heaven to the damned, had they but hopes of once escaping. Mortality is the disgrace of all sublunary delights. How it spoils our pleasure, to see it dying in our hands! But, O blessed eternity! where our lives are perplexed with no such thoughts, nor our joys interrupted with any such fears! where we shall be _pillars in the temple of our God, and go no more out_.[180] While we were _servants_, we held by lease, and that but for the term of a transitory life; _but the son abideth in the house for ever_.[181] "O my soul, let go thy dreams of present pleasures, and loose thy hold of earth and flesh. Study frequently, study thoroughly, this one word, _eternity_. What! Live, and never die! Rejoice, and ever rejoice!" O happy souls in hell, should you but escape, after millions of ages! O miserable saints in heaven, should you be dispossessed, after the age of millions of worlds! This word, _everlasting_, contains the perfection of their torment, and our glory. O that the sinner would study this word, methinks it would startle him out of his dead sleep! O that the gracious soul would study it, methinks it should revive him in his deepest agony! "And must I, Lord, thus live for ever? Then will I also love for ever. Must my joys be immortal? And shall not my thanks be also immortal? Surely, if I shall never lose my glory, I will never cease thy praises. If thou wilt both perfect, and perpetuate me and my glory; as I shall be thine, and not my own; so shall my glory be thy glory. And as thy glory was thy ultimate end in my glory; so shall it also be my end, when thou hast crowned me with that glory which hath no end. _Unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only-wise God, be honor and glory, for ever and ever. Amen._"[182] [Footnote 180] Revelation iii, 12. [Footnote 181] John viii, 35. [Footnote 182] 1 Timothy i, 17.