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A.
SOUL
PREPARED
FOR HEAVEN.
[DISC.
VIII:
may
be
prepared
to
dwell with him
in
the
world
to come
;"
Rom. viii.
29.
I
John
iv. 17.
We must
have the
same
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
glo-
rious
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
com-
pany
for such
pure
and perfect
beings,
beauteous,
and
shining
in holiness, while
we
are
defiled with
the iniqui-
ties
of our
natures, and ever
falling
into
new
gùilt and
pollution
?
Happy
souls, who
can
say,
through
grace,
I
have
"
walked
in
the light
as
God
is in
the
light
;"
I
John
i.
7.
and
I
trust;
O Father,
I
shall
dwell for
ever
with
thee there.
I
have
been a follower
of the Lamb
through
the
thorny
and
rugged passages
of
this wilder-
ness,
and
I
humbly hope
I
shall
sit
with thee, O
Jesus,
upon a throne,
glorious and
holy.
I
have been
a com-
panion of them
who have finished
the christian
race,
who
have fought the good
fight,
and
obtained the
victory,
and
Í
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
!
6.
The
grace
of
God
works us
up
to
a
preparation
for
heaven,
"
by
carrying
us
through
those
trials and
suffer-
ings,
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 addi-
tional
sweetness does he
find in
rest
and repose
?
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
our-
selves
released
from all the trials
and
distresses,
and
suf-
ferings which
we
have sustained in
our
travels thither