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A
SOUL
PREPARED FOR HEAVEN.
463
future
blessings.
The
observation
which
shall
be
the
subject
of
my
discourse,
is
this
:
"
Those
who
shall
enjoy
the heavenly blessedness
hereafter, must
be
pre-
pared for
it
here
in this world, by
the
operation of the
blessed
God."
Here
we
must take notice,
in
the
first place,
that
since
we
are sinful and guilty creatures
in
ourselves, and
have
forfeited all
our
pretences
to
the favour
of God
and
hap-
piness,
we
must
be
restoted
to
his
favour,
we
must
have
our
sins forgiven,
we
must
be
justified
in his sight
with
an everlasting righteousness,
we
must be
adopted
as
the
children
of
God,
and have a
right and title
given
us
to
the
heavenly
inheritance,
before
we
can
enter
into
it,
or
possess
it;
and
this blessing
is
procured
for
us,
by
the
obedience and death
of
the
Son
of
God.
It
is
in
his
blood
that
we
find
an
atonement for our
iniquities,
and
we
must
be
made
heirs
of
glory,
by
becoming the
adopted children of
God, and
so we
are
joint
-heirs
with
his Son
Jesus, and
shall be glorified with
him;
Rom.
viii.
17.
And
it
is
by
a true
and living faith
in
the
Son
of
God,
that
we
become
partakers
of
this blessing.
"
God
has
set
förth
his Son
Jesus,
as
a propitiation
for sinners
through
faith
in his
blood
;"
Rom.
iii.
25.
"
We
are
justified
by
faith
in
his
blood, and have
hope
of
eternal
life
through
him
Rom.
v.
2.
We
also receive
our
adoption, and
"
become the
children
of
God through
faith
in
Christ Jesus
;"
Gal.
iii.
26.
and thereby
we
ob-
tain
a
title
to some
mansion
in
our Father's
house
in
heaven, since
Jesus our elder
brother,
and our
fore-
runner,
is
admitted
into
it
to
take
a
place
there
in
our
name.
This
is
a
very
considerable
part of
our
necessary
preparation
for
the heavenly world,
that
we
should
be
believers
in
the
Son
of
God, and
united
to him
by
a
living
faith
;
and this
"
faith also
is
the
gift
of God
;"
Eph.
ii.
8.
We
are
wrought
up
to
it
by his
grace.
But
as this does
not
seem to be
the
chief
thing designed
in
the
words
of
my
text,
I
shall pass
it
over
thus
briefly,
and
apply
myself to
consider
what
that further
fitness
or
preparation
for heaven intends,
for
which
we
are
said
here to
be
wrought
up
by
God
himself.
The
former
preparation
for heaven, may
rather
be said to
be
a rela-
tive change, which
is
included
in
our pardon or
justi
icaP
VOL.
7Y,
Ii