499 / 674
A1sc.
viii.1
A SOUL
PREPARED
FOR
NEAVEls%
4
71
Of
how
great moment
and
importance
is
it then for
each
of
us to
examine ourselves
with
watchful diligence
and
sincerity,
whether
we
are
in any measure fitted for
the
blessedness above
:
And
to
this end
we
may
run over
in
our
enquiries
all the
former
steps
of
preparation.
Let
us
enquire
of
our
souls
then,
am
I
so
fully
per-
suaded
of
this
state of
future
happiness, as
to
resolve,
this
shall
be my aim, this
-my
everlasting pursuit
?
Have
we
seen this blessedness
in
the
various
representations
of
it
in
the word
of
God,
as
the most amiable
and desir-
able
thing,
and
have
we
set
our
faces to
travel
thither
with
an
holy
purpose
and
determination, through
grace,
never
to
tire or
grow weary till
we
arrive
at
the enjoyment
of
it
?
Have
we
fixed
our hope and expectation
upon
the
blessed promises in the word,
and
are
we
by these
pro-
mises
endeavouring
daily to cleanse
ourselves from all
defilements
of
flesh
and
spirit,
andtto
perfect holiness in
the
fear
of
God
?
Do
we
obtain any victories over our
spiritual
enemies,
and
maintain onr pious
conflicts
against
all the oppositions
which
we
meet
with in
our
way
?
Do
we
labour
to
suppress
every rising
ferment
of
envy,
pride,
wrath, sensuality, and those
corrupt appe-
tites and passions
which
render
us
unfit for
that
holy
and
heavenly
world?
Are
our hearts
daily more
mortified to
the
things
of
this
world,
the enjoyments
of
flesh
and
sense, which
are not
to
be
found
in
heaven
?
Are
our
hearts more
weaned from the sensual satisfactions
and
intemperate
delights of the animal
life
?
Are
we
dead
to
the
temptations
-of
gold
and
silver,
the
grandeurs
and the
gaieties, and
splendors
of
this
present
low
Iife
of
flesh
and
blood, which
are
no
part nor
portion
of
the heavenly
felicity
?
Do
we view
the
tempting things
of
this world
with
a
holy indifference,
and
possess
and
use them
with
affections
só calm
and
so
cool,
as becomes a
rank
of
beings
that
have a nobler,
a
richer,
and a more exalted
hope? Have
we
found the
labours and burdens,
the
sor-
rows and
afflictions
of
the
present
state,
happy instru-
ments
to
prepare
us
for
the
blessedness above, by
curing
all
our
vain
and carnal desires
?
Are
we in
any measure
imitators
of
those
who
have
gone before.us through
faith
and patience,
and are
made possessors
of
the
promised.
joy
?"
Hcb.
vi. 12.
«
Are
we
followers
of
God
as
dear
children
?
".12pb.
v.
1.
Have
we
the image
of
our heavenly'