“The pilgrims spoke about the glory of the place with the Shining Ones, who replied that the beauty and glory of it was inexpressible. Then they said it was ‘Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect.’
‘You are going now,’ they said, ‘to the Paradise of God, wherein you shall see the tree of life and eat of its never-fading fruits. When you come there, you shall have white robes given to you, and you shall walk and talk every day with the King, even all the days of eternity.
There you shall not see again such things as you saw when you were in the lower region upon the earth. You shall not see sorrow, sickness, affliction, and death, ‘for the former things are passed away.’
You are now going to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to the prophets, men whom God has taken away from the evil to come and who are now resting upon their beds, each one walking in his righteousness.’
Christian and Hopeful asked, ‘What must we do in the holy place?’
The Shining Ones answered, ‘You must receive the comforts of all your toil and have joy for all your sorrow; you must reap what you have sown, even the fruit of all your prayers, tears, and sufferings in your journey for the King.
In that place you must wear crowns of gold and enjoy the perpetual sight and vision of the Holy One, for ‘there you shall see Him as He is.’
There also you shall serve Him continually with praise, shouting, and thanksgiving, Him whom you desired to serve in the world, though with much difficulty, because of the infirmity of your flesh.
There your eyes shall be delighted with seeing, and your ears with hearing the pleasant voice of the Mighty One. There you shall enjoy your friends again, those who have gone before you, and there you shall with joy receive all those who follow you to this holy place.'”
–John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress: From This World to That Which is to Come, Ed. C.J. Lovik (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1678/2009), 217-218.
