1ISCOI RSE VIII. 4 Soul prepared for heaven. Cor. v. S. Now he that bath wrought us for the self -saine thing, is God. WHEN this apostle designs to entertain our hope in the : noblest manner, and raise our faith to its highest joys, he gene- : rally calls our thoughts far away from. all present and visible things, and sends them forward to the great and glorious clay of the resurrection : He points our meditations to take a distant prospect of the final and complete happiness of the saints in hea- ven, when their bodies shall be raised shining and immortal ; whereas it is but seldom, that he, takes notice of the heaven of separate souls, or that part of our future happiness which com- mences at the hour of death. But in this chapter, the holy writer seems to keep both these heavens in his eye, and speaks of that blessedness, which the spirits of the just shall enjoy, in the pre- sence of the Lord, as soon as they are absent from the body, and yet leads our souls onwards also to our last and most perfect state of happiness, which is delayed till our corruptible bodies shall be raised from the dust, and mortality shall be swallowed up in life. We know, saith -he in the first verse of this chapter, we know that as soon as our mortal tabernacle in which we now dwell, is dissolved, we have a building ready for us in the heavens; that is, an investiture in a glorious state of holiness and immortality, which waits to receive our spirits when we drop this dying flesh : Yet the felicities of this paradise, or first heaven, shall receive an unspeakable addition and advancement, when Christ shall come the second time, with all his saints, to complete our sal - vation." But which heaven soever we arrive at, whether it. be this of the separate state, or that when our bodies shall be restored, still we must he wrought up to a proper fitness for it by God himself; and as the end of this serse tells us, he gives us his own Spirit as an earnest of these future blessings. The ob- servation which shall be the subject of my discourse, is this : " 'Those who shall enjoy the heavenly blessedness hereafter, must be prepared for it here in this world, by the operation of the blessed God." Here we must take notice, in the first place, that since we are sinful and guilty creatures in ourselves, and have forfeited all our pretences to the favour of God and happiness, we must he restored to his favour, we must have our sins forgiven, we must be justified in his sight with an everlasting righteousness, wè must be adopted as the children of God, and have a right and title given us to the heavenly inheritance, before we can
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