trsc. A SOUL PREPAYtED FOR HEAVEN. There are also many curious speculations and delight- ful amusements, which may lawfully entertain us while we are here; there are sports and recreations which may divert the flesh or the mind in a lawful manner, whilst we dwell in tabernacles of flesh and blood, and are encompassed with mortal things : But the soul that is wrought for heaven must arise to a holy indifference to all,the entertainments of.flesh and sense, and time, if it would put on the appearance of an heavenly inhabitant: Christians that would be ever ready for the glories ef.a better world must be such in some measure, as the epos. tle describes ; 1 Coy. vii. 29-31. " Theymust re- joice with such moderation in their dearest comforts of life, as though they rejoiced not; they must weep and mourn for the loss of them, with- such a divine self- government, as though they wept not; they must buy aa' though they possessed not; they must use this world as net abusing it in any instance; but must look upon the fashions and the scenes of it as vanishing things, and have their hearts set on the things that are above, where Christ Jesus is at the Father's right-hand ;''' Col. iii. 1, 9. If you ask me, what methods the blessed God uses án order to attain these ends, and to purify and refine the soul for heaven, I answer, he sometimes does it by sharp strokes ofaffliction, making our interests in the creature bitter to us, that we may be weaned from the relish of them, and the power of divine grace must accompany all his weaning providences, or the work will notbe done. Sometimes again he weans the soul from the lawful things of this world, by peripitting our earthly enjoy- ments to plunge us into difficulties, to seize the heart with anxieties, or to surround us with sore temptations : Then, when we feel ourselves falling into sin, andbruised or defiled thereby, we lose our former gust of pleasure in them ; and when we are recovered by divine grace, we are more effectually weaned from such kind of temp- tations for the future ; but it is impossible in the com- pass of a few lines to describe the various methods which the blessed , God uses to wean the spirit from all its earthly attachments, and to work it up to a meetness for the inheritance of the saints in-light. Blessed souls, who are thus loosened and weaned from sensible- things, though it be done by painful sufferings I Mit4
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=