500 / 674
!SA
A SOUL
PREPARED
POR
HEAVbtt.
[DISC.
V1Yi.
Father
created
anew in
us,
and
do
we
walk
as
our
Lord
Jesus
Christ
also
walked,
while he
was
in this wilderness
travelling
to his
Father's
house
?
Are our earnest
desires
towards this
sort of
felicity
excited and raised
high
?
Have
we
a_
strong tendency
of
soul to
the
holy enjoy-
ments
of
the
upper
world
?
Do
we sigh
and groan after
a
complete freedom
from
sin,
and
a
deliverance
from
every
temptation
?
I)o
we
employ ourselves
with
pleasure
in the work and
business
of
heaven,
in
the
holy
contem-
plation of God,
in a
delightful survey-of
the person and
offices
of
his Son
Jesus,
his
wondrous
condescension,
and
his
amazing compassion
?
Do
we
take pleasure
in
conversing
with
God our
Father
by holy addresses
of
praise
and thankfulness?
Do
we
love all
the
saints, and
delight
in
their
society,
and
do
we
rejoice
to
spend our
time with them
in
heavenly conversation, though
they
may be
amongst the lower ranks
of
life
here
on
earth
?
And
do
we diffuse
our love through
all who
wear the
image
of God,
and take
a
pleasing satisfaction
of
soul
in
their
increase
of
holiness,
and
rejoice
in
their joys?
If
God
has thus
fitted thee,
"
O
christian,
in
this
man-
ner, for the mansions
of
the
happy
world,
then surely
he has set thee
apart
for
himself,-
he has begun eternal
life
in
thee,
the dawn
of eternal
glory
is
risen upon thee,
and
he will
bring thee into the complete noon of
blessed-
ness,
into the
overflowing light
of
divine
beatitudes."
"
Arise and shine,
O
christian, for
thy
light
is
come,
the
glory
of
the Lord
is
risen upou thee,"
Is.
lx. I.
thou
hast
no
need
to
ascend into heaven
to
search
for thy
evi-
dences among the decrees of God, and to
pry
into
the
rolls
of electing
grace
;
for
if
thou hast been
trans-
formed
into
a heavenly temper,
thy-
name
is
surely
"
written,
in
the
Lamb's book
of
life
;"
heaven
is
begun
within thee, and
God
will fulfil his own work.
Remark
II.
"
What
a
solid
comfort is it to poor,
mourning,
troubled,
afflicted
souls
under
all
their sor-
rows,
their
frailties,
their
temptations, and infirmities
here
on
earth,
that
they have
a clear
evidence
of
heaven
within
them." This
is
such
a
peace
as
Jesus
Christ
left
to
his
disciples
by
legacy;
John
xiv. 27.
Such as the world
cannot
give,"
and
such
as
the world
cannot
take
away.
This
is
a spring
of
constant and
divine consolation
to
those
who
seem to
be
worn
out
with old age
or infirmities