Page images
PDF
EPUB

This is that equitable or condecent fitness that God, as governor of the world, has wisely appointed and made necessary before our entrance into heaven. Christ himself our forerunner, and the captain of our salvation, was made perfect through his sufferings,' and was trained up for his throne on high by enduring the contradiction of sinners, and the variety of agonies which attended his life and death in this lower world, this stage of conflict and sufferings. See Heb. ii. 10. and xii. 1.

Though we cannot pretend by our labours in the race to have merited the prize, yet we must labour through the race before we receive it. Our conflicts cannot pretend to have deserved the crown which is promised, but we must fight the battles of the Lord before we obtain it. This was St. Paul's encourage. ment and hope, 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge will give me, and not to me only, but to all those who love his appearance." There is a great deal of divine wisdom in this appointment, that the children of God may be "counted in this sense, worthy of his kingdom for which they also suffer," 2 Thes. i. 5. and that the relish of those satisfactions may be doubled to all the sufferers.

8. 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 con

templation of the blessed God' in his nature and his various perfections the business of glorified souls? God teaches his children, whom he is training up for glory, to practise this holy contemplation: He fixes. their thoughts upon the wonders of his nature and his grace, his works of creation and providence, the blessings of his redeeming love by his Son Jesus, and the terrors of his justice which shall be executed 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,' O may I dwell for ever in the midst of thy light, and see all thy wondrous glories diffused around me, and make my joys everlasting!

Are we told that heaven consists also in "behold. ing 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 anguish 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 beloved,' says the soul, and this is my friend,' whom I shall see with joy in the upper world: He

[ocr errors]

is altogether lovely, and he demands my highest love.

Is it part of the happiness of heaven to converse with the blessed God by holy addresses of acknowledgements 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," 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: Worthy art thou, O Lord, to receive glory and honour, for thou hast created all things for thy pleasure: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and strength, glory and blessing, for thou was slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood out of every kindred and nation.” Now it is evident that those whose hearts and lips are joyfully fitted to pronounce this holy song, and to join in this harmony, are fitted also for these blessed employments of the heavenly state: And yet at the same time they abase themselves in the dust of humility, and with the living creatures or angels they fall down before the throne, and with the elders they cast down their crowns at his foot, they confess themselves the sons of earth and dust, and would appear as nothing while God is all, Rev. iv. 9, 10. and v. 8.

Are all the powers of glorified nature in heaven active in the unknown services of God and Christ there? So the saints are trained up for this service and this activity here on earth, by diligence and de

light in their less noble employments, the inferior labours and duties that providence demands of them here, whereby they are prepared for more glorious employment on high; for heaven is no idle or unactive state.

Do some of the satisfactions of the heavenly world arise from the sweet society of the blessed above, their fervent love to each other, their mutual delight in holy converse, the joy that arises in the heart of each upon a survey of the happiness of all the holy and blessed inhabitants? Does benevolence and goodness of every kind overflow in the heavenly world? It is plain that God is training up his own children for this blessedness, by employing them in this manner while they are here below: He is in some measure fitted for this heaven, who can say, the

saints are the excellent of the earth, in whom is all my delight:' I love them from my soul, because they love my God and my Saviour. I see the image of the Father, and of Jesus his Son in them, and I cannot but love that image wheresoever I behold it. I feel myself ready to rejoice when my fellow christians partake of joy, and I long for that temper of mind when I shall delight myself in the felicity of all my fellow saints in perfection, and shall make their heaven a part of my own. But I proceed not here, because this would anticipate what I design hereaf

ter.

[ocr errors]

9. God is pleased to work up his people to a preparation for the heavenly state, by giving them a pledge and earnest of the blessedness of heaven,' that

is, by sending his own Spirit into their hearts under this very character, both as the spring of divine life, and as the evidence of our hope, and sometimes bestowing upon them such 'foretastes of the heavenly world,' by the operations of his holy Sirit, which are too joyful and glorious to be fully expressed in mortal language; but we shall attempt something of it in another discourse.

I proceed now to seek what inferences or edifying remarks may be made upon our meditations thus far.

Rem. 1. We learn from my text what are the brightest, the plainest, and the surest evidences of our interest in the heavenly blessedness: Are we trained up to it, and prepared for it?' Has the blessed God wrought up our souls to any hopeful degrees of this preparation: Has he in any measure made us meet for this inheritance of the saints in light?

I grant the scripture teaches us, that it is by a true and living faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that we obtain a title to eternal life, according to the proposals of the covenant of grace in the gospel; but our preparation for heaven by a holy and heavenly temper of mind and conduct of life, is the fairest and most uncontested evidence of the truth and life of our faith, and such a proof of it as will stand the test both in life and death, in this world, and in the world to come. If we would manifest our faith in Christ to be sincere and genuine and effectual for our salvation, we must make it appear that we are growing up into the image of Christ in all things, we must be formed after the likeness of the Son of God, who

« PreviousContinue »