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A
SOUL
PREPARED
FOR
HEAVEN.
"[DISC:VIM
tien,
and alters our state
from
the
condemnation
of
hell,
to the
favour and
love
of
God
:
But
this
latter
prepara-
tion
implies
a real
change
of
our nature
by
sanctifying
.grace,
and
gives
.us
a
temper
of
soul
suited
to the busi-
ness
and
blessedness
of
the heavenly world.
This
is
the
preparation
which
my
text
speaks
of.
The great
enquiry therefore
at
present
is,
" What
are
those steps, or
gradual
operations,
by
which
the
blessed
God
works
us
up
to this
fitness
for heaven
?"
And here
I
shall not run
over
all
the parts and
linea-
ments
of
the
new
creature,
which
is
formed
by
regenera-
tion, nor
the
particular operations of converting
grace,
whereby
we
are
convinced
of
sin,
and
led to faith
and
re-
pentance, and
new obedience,
though these
are
all
neces-
sary
to this
end
;
but I shall
confine myself only to
those-
things
which have
a more immediate reference
to the
hea-
venly
blessedness,
and
they
are
such
as
follow
:
1.
"
God
works
us
up to
a preparation
for the
hea-
venly
felicity, by
establishing
and
confirming our
belief,
that
there
is
a
heaven provided
for the
saints,
and
by
giving
us some
clearer acquaintance
with
the nature, the
business,
and the
blessedness
of
this
heaven."
All
this
is done
by the gospel
of
Christ, and
by
the
secret opera
tion
of
the
blessed
God, teaching
us
to Understand
his
gospel.
Alas
!
how
ignorant
were
the heathen
sages,
about
any
future
state for
the righteous
?
How bewildered
were
the
best
of
them
in all
their
imaginations
?
How vain
were
all
their
reasonings upon this
subject; and how
little
satisfaction could they
give to an
honest enquirer,
whe-
ther
.
there
was
any reward provided
for
good
men
be-
yond this
life
?
The
light of nature
was
their
guide
;
and
those
in
whom this feeble
taper burned
with the
fairest
lustre, were
still
left
in
greatdarkness
about futurity.
As
the
gentile philosophers
were left
in great uncertainties
whether there
was
any heaven
or
no, so
were
their
conceptions
of
heavenly things very
absurd and ridicu-
lous;
and their
various
fancies
about
the
nature
and
enjoyments
of
it,
were all
impertinence.
And
how
little
knowledge had
the
patriarchs
them-
selves,
if
we may
judge
of
their
knowledge by
the
five
booksof
Moses, which
give
no plain and express promise
of
future happiness
in
another. world,
neither
to
Abel
nor