Page images
PDF
EPUB

(6.) Think with yourselves, if you have any thing of importance to do in this world, or have any momentous scene of life to pass through, how diligent are you in preparation for it. If you are but to visit the court of a prince, or to go to make your addresses to any great man of honor and power, or to be admitted into any numerous society of a superior character, how diligently do you endeavour to furnish yourselves with such knowledge of the common ceremonies of life, and such ornaments about your body, as may render you acceptable amongst those whom you are going to converse with: and does not an entrance into the, court of heaven, into the presence of a God of holiness, and into the society of pure and blessed spirits, require some solicitude and care about those ornaments and qualifications which are necessary for so solemn and glorious an appearance? If you are designing in this life to commence any trade or business for your employment and your support, you are willing to serve an apprenticeship for seven years, in order to a preparation for the exercise of this public business; and can you not afford one day in a week to learn the business of heaven, and to prepare for the blessedness of it?

And let parents also consider with themselves, what pains they have taken that their children may be fit for the trades and employments of life to which they design them, and then let each inquire of their own consciences, have I ever done so much to train up my son for the heavenly world, to fit him for the appearance before God, and saints and angels, and for all the unknown services of that celestial country?

(7.) Go on yet further, O impenitent sinners, and consider with yourselves, what a blessedness it is to be prepared for heaven; for then you are prepared for death, and at once you take away all the terrors of it. O what an unspeakable happiness is it to pass

through this world daily without the fear of dying; what is it that makes life so bitter to multitudes of souls, and every malady or accident so frightful to them, but the perpetual terrors of death? Think what a divine satisfaction it is to walk up and down in this desert land, ready prepared for an entrance into the land of promise, the inheritance of the saints in light: think of the solid joy and inward consolation of those souls who feel in themselves an habitual readiness for a departure hence, and who are wrought up by divine grace to a preparation for the business and the joys above. Think of the victory over death, which is obtained by such a readiness for heaven, and how glorious a thing it is to meet that last enemy the king of terrors, and encounter him without fear, and to triumph over him with divine language, “0 death, where is thy sting?" How joyful a scene would it be to take leave of all our friends in this land of mortality, with an assured hope that we are entering into a happier climate and a better country, ready prepared for all the more glorious scenes that shall meet us in the invisible world?

It is an amazing thing to me, how the children of men, who are dying daily off from this stage of life, who must all shortly die, and enter into a world of eternal futurity, should be no more concerned about a preparation for their departure hence: that they should be so stupidly thoughtless of a world to come, while they are on the very borders of it, and eternal joy or eternal sorrow depends upon this one ques tion, Am I prepared for heaven or not? O these two awful regions of the unseen world! where the love of God shines with its brightest glories, or where the vengeance of God is discovered in all its anguish and horror! One of these will be the certain and eternal dwelling-place of the souls that are prepared for them, and there must they pass their long immortality, either in joy or in sorrow, without a change; and yet the foolish and besotted tribes of mankind

seem to have abandoned all thought and concern about them. A dangerous lethargy or distraction! What shall we do to cure sinners of this madness? shall I try to rouse these indolent unthinking wretches out of their dangerous and mortal slumbers with the loudest voice of thunder and divine terror? But the Jethargy of sin is proof against all these terrors and thunders. Shall I call for a fountain of tears into my eyes, and weep over them with the tenderest sympathy and compassion! But they feel not any meltings of pity for themselves, nor are their hearts to be softened by all our tears and wailings. Shall I beseech them in the name of Christ, by the bowels of his dying love, and the blood and anguish of his suf◄ ferings for our salvation? But even these divine and astonishing instances of tenderness and mercy make no impression on their souls. While satan holds them in his chains, they are sleeping the sleep of death. O for a word of Sovereign and Almighty grace to reach the centre of their spirits! To shake all the powers of their nature! To awaken them to behold their eternal interest! And to prepare for heavenly felicity. Awake, O sleepers, ere the angel of death seize you, and the grave shuts its mouth upon you; then all your seasons and hopes of mercy are cut off for ever, and you will awake hopeless immortals.

I shall conclude this discourse with one word of exhortation to those who are in any measure wrought up to a preparation for the heavenly blessedness. O happy creature! Whatsoever pains you have taken, whatever conflicts you have endured in the matter of your own salvation, yet let God and his grace have all the honor of this work. It is to God you owe your sacrifices of praise. He that hath wrought you up for this felicity is God. It was he who awakened you first, and set you a thinking of your most important concerns: it was he that led you first into the way of salvation by Jesus Christ his Son, and

hath thus far crowned your labors and your prayers with success and blessing. Every stumbling-block in your way might have thrown you down to perdition: every temptation might have turned you back from this glorious pursuit: every enemy of your souls might have discouraged or overcome you, if God and his grace had not been engaged on your side.

It is he hath upheld you when you were falling, he hath taken you by the hand, and led you right onward when you were wandering, and he hath supported you by his divine cordials of promise when you were fainting. It is God who hath enabled you to maintain your conflict with all the mighty obsta cles of your faith and hope; it is his grace hath renewed your nature, hath weaned you from this vain flattering world, and given you a sacred relish of divine blessedness. It is he who hath formed you again after his own image, and hath trained you up, and made you meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. Call up all your powers to praise his goodness, and say, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name: bless the Lord for ever, and forget not all his benefits. It is God who hath called me out of darkness into his marvellous light, and given me to see the things that belong to my everlasting peace. It is God who washed away my iniquities in the blood of his own Son, and hath renewed me unto holiness by his blessed Spirit. It is God who hath taken me out of the family of sin and satan, and given me a place among his children; who hath begun to prepare me for the joys and blessings of heaven, and in his own time he will fulfil all my hopes, and complete my felicity." Walk before him with all holy care and watchfulness, and take heed that you lose not the things which you have wrought, nor the things which God hath wrought in you, but that, persevering to the end, you may receive the full reward, and obtain the crown of everlasting life. Amen.

DISCOURSE IX.

NO PAIN AMONG THE BLESSED.

REV. xxi. 4.

Neither shall there be any more pain.

THERE have been some divines in ancient times, as well as in our present age, who suppose this prophecy relates to some glorious and happy event here on earth, wherein the saints and faithful followers of Christ shall be delivered from the bondage and miseries to which they have been exposed in all former ages, and shall enjoy the blessing which these words promise. Among these writers some have placed this happy state before the resurrection of the body; others make it belong to that first resurrection which is spoken of in Rev. xx. 6. But let this prophecy have a particular aspect upon what earthly period soever, yet all must grant it is certainly true concerning the heavenly state, from whose felicities, taken in the literal sense, these figurative expressions are derived, to foretel the happiness of any period of the church in this world; and in this sense, as part of our happiness in heaven, I shall understand the words here, and propose them as the foundation for my present discourse.

Among the many things that make this life uncomfortable, and render mankind unhappy here be low, this is one that has a large influence, viz. that in this mortal state we are all liable to pain, from which we shall be perfectly delivered in the life to come. The Greek word, which is here translated pain, signifies also toil and fatigue and excessive labor of the body, as well as anguish and vexation of (VI.)

C C

« PreviousContinue »