This love of Christ, if I may so say, will keep the saints in an
employ, even when they are in heaven; though not an employ, that is
laborsome, tiresome, burdensome, yet an employ that is dutiful,
delightful, and profitable; for although the work and worship of
saints in heaven is not particularly revealed as yet, and so it doth
not yet appear what we shall be, yet in the general we may say,
there will be that for them to do that has not yet by them been
done; and by that work which they shall do there, their delight will
be unto them. Nor will this at all derogate from their glory. The
angels now wait upon God, and serve him; the Son of God is now a
minister, and waiteth upon his service in heaven. Some saints have
been employed about service for God after they have been in heaven;
and why we should be idle spectators when we come thither, I see not
reason to believe. It may be said, They there rest from their
labors. True, but not from their delights. All things then that once
were burdensome, whether in suffering or service, shall be done
away, and that which is delightful and pleasurable shall remain.
Now, just as the gates were opened to let in the men, I looked in
after them, and behold, the city shone like the sun; the streets
also were paved with gold, and in them walked many men with crowns
on their heads, palms in their hands, and golden harps to sing
praises withal. There were also of them that had wings; and they
answered one another without intermission, saying, "Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord." And after that they shut up the gates; which when I
had seen, I wished myself among them.
"Strive to enter in." "Enter in"--into heaven, that is the meaning,
where the saved are and shall be--into heaven, that place, that
glorious place where God and Christ and angels are, and the souls of
just men made perfect. "Enter in:" that thing included though not
expressed in the words, is called in another place the "mount Zion,
the heavenly Jerusalem, the general assembly and church of the
first-born which are written in heaven." And therefore the words
signify unto us that there is a state most glorious, and that when
this world is ended; and that this place and state is likewise to be
enjoyed by a generation of men forever. Besides, this word "enter
in" signifies that salvation to the full is to be enjoyed only
there, and that there only is eternal safety; all other places and
conditions are hazardous, full of snares, imperfections,
temptations, and afflictions. But there all is well; there is no
devil to tempt, no desperately wicked heart to deliver us up, no
deceitful lust to entangle, nor any enchanting world to bewitch us;
there all shall be well to all eternity. Further, all the parts of
and circumstances that attend salvation, are only there to be
enjoyed: there only is immortality and eternal life; there is the
glory and fulness of joy and the everlasting pleasures; there is God
and Christ to be enjoyed by open vision; and more, there are the
angels and the saints; there is no death nor sickness, no sorrow nor
sighing for ever; there is no pain, nor persecution, nor darkness to
eclipse our glory. O this mount Zion! O this heavenly Jerusalem!