164 TtjE WORLD TO COME. did in this world, that we may be prepared to dwell with him in the world to come ; Rom. viii. 29. 1 John iv. 17. We must have the saine temper and spirit of holiness wrought in us, that we may be imitators of all the holy ones that dwell in heaven, and that we may be followers of the saints, who have been strangers and travellers in this world in all former ages. How can we hope to have free conversation with glorious beings, which are so unlike to ourselves, as God, and Christ, and angels, are unlike to the sinful children of men ? How can we imagine ourselves to be fit company for such pure and perfect beings, beauteous, and shining in holiness, while we are defiled with the iniquities of our natures, and ever falling into new guilt and pollution ? Happy souls who can say, through grace, I have " walked in the light as God is in the light ;" 1 John i. 7. and I trust, O Father, 1 shall dwell for ever with thee there. I have been a follower of the Lamb through the throny and rugged passages of this wilderness, and I humbly hope I shall sit with thee, O Jesus, upon a throne, glorious and holy. I have been a companion of them who have finished the christian race, who have fought the good fight, and obtained the victory, and I trust I shall have a name and a place amongst all you holy ones who have fought and overcome. O for a heart and tongue furnished for such appeals to all the blessed inhabitants of paradise, the possessors of those mansions on high ! ti. The grace of God works us up to a preparation for heaven, by carrying us through those trials and sufferings, those labours and conflicts here in this life, which will not only make heaven the sweeter to us, but will make it more honourable for God himself to bestow this heaven upon us." When the spirits of a creature are almost worn out with the toilsome labours of the day, what an additional sweetness does he find in rest and re- pose ? What an inward relish and satisfaction to the soul, that has been fatigued under a long and tedious war with sins and temptations, to be transported to such a place where sin cannot follow them, and temptation can never reach them ? How will it enhance all the felicities of the heavenly world when we enter into it, to feel ourselves released from all the trials and distresses, and sufferings which- we have sustained in our travels thither - wards ? The review of the waves and the storms wherein we had been tossed for a long season, and had been almost shipwrecked there, will make the peaceful haven of eternity, to which we shall arrive, much more agreeable to every one of the sufferers ; 2 Çòr. iv. 17. Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment,; are in this way working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and preparing us for the possession of it. But it should be added also, that the prize of life, and the Grown of glory is touch more honourably bestowed on those who
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