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76
A
SOUL
PREPARED FOR HEAVEN.
[DIED.
V214.
7.
God
yet
further prepares
and
works
up
his
people
for
heaven
by
"
teaching
them some
of
the employments
of
the
heavenly
world,
and initiating
and
inuring
them
to
the
practice
thereof." Is
the contemplation
of
the
blessed
God,
in his
nature, and
his
various perfections, the
busi-
ness
of
glorified souls?
God
teaches
his
children
whom
he
is
training
up for
glory, to
practise
this holy
contem-
plation
:
He
fixes
their thoughts upon
the wonders of
his
nature and
his
grace,
his
works
of creation
and provi-
dence, the
blessings
of
his
redeeming
love
by his Son
Jesus,
and the
terrors
of
his
justice
which
shall
be
exe-
cuted
by
the
same
hand, while the soul
at
the
same time
can appeal
to
God
with holy delight,
"
My
Meditation
of
thee shall
be.
sweet indeed
;"
.Ps.
civ.
34.
0
may
I
dwell
for ever
in
the midst of
thy light, and
.see
all
thy
wondrous
glory diffused
around
me,
and make
my
joys
everlasting
?
Are
we
told
that
heaven consists
also
in
"
beholding
the
glory
of
Christ
;"
John
xvii.
24. And how
happily
does
God prepare
his
saints for this
part
of
heaven,
by
filling
their
thoughts with the various
graces and
honours
of
Jesus
the
Saviour? And
when they
are
in
their lonely
retirements,
they
trace the
footsteps of their
beloved
through
all
his
labours and
sorrows
in
this mortal state,
even from his
cradle
to
his
cross
;
they
follow him in
their
holy
meditations
to
his
agonies
in
the
garden,, to his an-
guish
of
soul
there
;
through
all
his
sufferings
in
death,
through
the grave
his bed
of
darkness,
and
trace
him on
still to
his
glorious
resurrection,
and to his
ascent
to
his
Father's
house, when
a bright cloud
like
a
chariot
bore
him
up
to
heaven with attending
angels
:
"This
is
my
be-
loved,
says
'the
soul, and
this
is
my
friend,"
whom
I
shall
see with
joy
in the
upper
world
:
He
is
altogether
lovely,
and
he
demands
my
highest
love.
It
is
part of
the happiness
of
heaven
to
converse
with
the
blessed
God
by
holy
addresses
of
acknowledgments
and
praise, as
it
is
described
in
Rev.
iv.
and
v.
and
vii.
"
They are
before the
throne of God
day
and
night,
and
.
serve
him
in his
temple
:
Rev.
vii.
15.
and
join
with holy
joy
to
pronounce
that
divine
song,
"
Blessing
and
honour
and
glory
and
power, be
to
him
that
sitteth
on
the throne,
and
to
the
Lamb for ever and ever
:"
chapter
v. 13.
"
Worthy
art
thou, O
Lord,
to
receive glory
and hcxiour
3