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the provisions of the heavenly world, and raises our desires and tendencies of soul towards them.' By nature our minds are estranged from God, and from all that is divine and holy; we have no desires after his love, nor delight in the thoughts of dwelling with God but when divine grace has effectually touched the heart, it ever tends upwards to that world of holiness and peace. So the needle, when it is touched by the load-stone, ever points to the beloved polestar, and seems uneasy when it is diverted from it, nor will it rest till it return thither again.

Do the sweet sensations of divine love make up a great part of the heavenly blessedness? The soul is in some measure fitted for it, who can say with David in Psal. iv. 7. "Lord lift thou up upon me the light of thy countenance, and it shall rejoice" my heart"more than if corn and wine, and oil abounded," and all earthly blessings were multiplied upon me; for in thy love is the life of my soul, and thy loving-kindness is better than life," Psal. Ixiii.

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Is the felicitating presence of God to be enjoyed in the future world, and shall we see his face there with unspeakable delight? Then those souls are prepared for heaven, who can say with the Psalmist, Psal. xliii. 2. "When shall I come and appear before God?" When shall I have finished my travels through this wilderness, that I may arrive at my Father's house?

This one thing have I desired, that I may dwell in the house of God for ever to behold the beauty of the Lord there," Psal. xxvii. 4. It is enough for me that I shall behold thy face in righteousness, and

I shall be satisfied when I awake" out of the dust "with thy likeness. With my soul have I desired thee, O Lord, in the night," in the darkness of this desert world I have longed for the light of thy face, "and with my spirit within me I will seek thee early. Whom have I in heaven but thee, neither is there any on earth that I desire beside thee," Psal. xvii. Isa. xxvi. Psaļ. lxxiii. O when shall the day come when there shall be no more distance and estrangement of my heart from God, but I shall feel all my powers for ever near him ?

Is the sweet society of Jesus to be enjoyed in the heavenly region, then those are prepared for this happiness who feel in themselves "a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better" than the most pleasureable scenes on earth, Phil. i. 23. “I am willing" and rejoice in the thought of it "rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," 2 Cor. v. 8. I behold in the light of faith the dawning glory of that day, when Jesus shall return from heaven, when he shall revisit this wretched world, and put an end to these, wretched scenes of vanity. "Behold he cometh in the clouds, and every eye shall see him." He comes into our world "to them that look for him," not to be made a sacrifice for sin, but to complete our salvation. I long to behold him, and I love the thought of his appearance, Rev. i. Heb. ix. 2 Tim. iv. &c.

Is there not only a freedom from pain and sorrow among the saints on high, but is there also an eternal release from all the bonds of sin and temptation?

Then that soul discovers a degree of preparation for it, who can say with an holy groan and grief of heart, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death?" Rom. vii. "In this tabernacle we groan indeed being burdened, and are desirous rather to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven," with our holy state of immortality, 2 Cor. v.

5. That God who has wrought these divine breathings in the soul will one day fulfil them all, and he is working up the Christian to a blessed meetness for this felicity, by awakening these wishes in the very centre of the heart. Happy heart, which feels these holy aspirations, these divine breathings!

6. The blessed God is pleased to work us up to a preparation for the heavenly world by forming the temper of our minds into a likeness to the inhabitants of heaven,' i. e. to God himself, to Christ Jesus the Son of God, to angels and saints, to the spirits of the just made perfect. From the children of folly and sin we must be transformed into the children of God, we must be created anew after his image, and resemble our heavenly Father, that we may be capable of enjoying his love, and rejoicing in his presence. We must be conformable to the image of his only begotten Son Christ Jesus, and walk and live as he did in this world, that we may be prepared to dwell with him in the world to come, Rom. viii. 29. 1 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 stran. gers and travellers in this world in all former ages.

How can we hope to have free conversation with glorious 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 company for such pure and perfect beings, beauteous, and shining in holiness, while we are defiled with the iniquities of our natures, and ever falling into new guilt and pollution? Happy souls, who can say through grace, I have walked in the light as God is in the light,' 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 wilderness, and I humbly hope I shall sit with thee, O Jesus, upon a throne glorious and holy. I have been a companion of them who have finished the Christian race, who have fought the good fight, and obtained the victory, and I 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!

7. The grace of God works us up to a preparation for heaven by carrying us through those trials and sufferings, 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 additional 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 ourselves released from all the trials and distresses and sufferings which we have sustained in our travels thitherwards? The review of the waves and the storms wherein we had been tossed for a long season, and had been almost shipwrecked there, will make the peaceful haven of eternity, to which we shall arrive, much more agreeable to every one of the sufferers, 2 Cor. iv. 17. "Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, are" in this way "working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,' and preparing us for the possession of it.

But it should be added also, that the prize of life, and the crown of glory, is much more honourably bestowed on those who have been long fighting, run. Heaven will appear

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ning, and labouring to obtain it. as a condecent reward of all the faithful servants of God upon earth, and a divine recompence of their labours and sufferings, 2 Thes. i. 6. As it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you, so to give to those who are troubled rest' and salvation.

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