6. _Lastly_, Now we appear and depart again, but then we shall abide with God for ever. Now we go down from the mount of converse with God, into the world of temptation, and sin, and business, and care: We appear upon mount Horeb, or Pisgah, and we take a little view of the promised land: but we go down again as the children of Israel did, to fight with the Canaanites, the giants that are in the valley, our mighty sins, our strong corruptions. In this valley of tears we must have a conflict before we get to the promised land; there every worshipper has in his hand a palm of complete victory; Rev. vii. 9. and he is for ever discharged from fighting: _Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God; and he shall go no more out_; Rev. iii. 12. So necessary is the presence of the saints in heaven, that our Lord Jesus Christ has represented them as pillars of that building. God dwelling in the midst of his saints, counts himself dwelling in one of his glorious heavens: and every saint there is, as it were, a pillar, and a support of it: We are _lively stones_ in that building in which God will for ever inhabit. Now we come to the house of God as visitants; but there as inhabitants, as the _children_ of God, who _abide for ever in the house_: There every saint obtains what holy David wished for, and that in the literal perfection of it, that he might _dwell in the house of the Lord for ever_; Ps. xxvii. 4. and xxiii. 6. Use. The only reflection I shall make on the second part of my discourse, is this, that we should raise our hope, our consolation, and our joy, by a meditation of such future worship in heaven as this is, when we lie under many weaknesses, restraints, and defilements, in our best worship on earth. O! how would this hope rejoice our hearts, if we could but live upon it! What secret comfort would it be to a poor humble soul, who is hindered from drawing near to God in worship now, because his affections are perpetually ready to wander, to think that he shall come and appear before God hereafter, and see him without ceasing, and his thoughts shall never wander from his God. When he complains under the temptations of Satan, and absence of God from his ordinances, what a pleasure to think he is going above to worship at the _general assembly_, where Satan never enters, and where God never conceals himself; but appears universally gracious, and without a frown; where the God of glory and mercy appears unchangeably, and for ever the same.