I know it is a common presumption of most men, that they shall be in heaven, when they can be no longer on earth, Presumendo sperant, et spera?ido pereunt. But a few moments will convince them of their fatal mistake ; their poor souls will meet with a con- founding repulse, like that, Matth. vii. 9,% There is indeed a city full of heavenly mansions prepared for some ; but who are they that are entitled to it, and may confidently expect to be received mto it ? To be sure, not the presumptuous, who make a bridge of their own shadows, and so fall and perish in the waters. Brethren, it is one of the most solemn enquiries you were ever put upon : and therefore I beseech you, see whether your characters set you among those men, or no.
1. Those that are new-born, shall be clothed with their new house from heaven, when death unclothes them of these tabernacles: the New Jerusalem hath none but new-born inhabitants, 1 Pet. i. 3, 4. and Christ tells us, John iii. 3. all others are excluded. Glory is the privilege of grace. Let nature be adorned, and cultivated how It will, if not renewed by grace, there is no hope of glory. You must be born again, or turned back again from the gates of heaven disappointed. You must be regenerated, or damned. This alters the temper of thy heart, and suits it to the life of God, which is indispensably necessary to them that shall hve with him.
* Many cry out on a death-bed, O send for ministers and Christians to pray ! Alas ! what can they do then ? Is that a time for 50 great a work to be shuffled up in a hurry, amidst distractions, and agonies.
A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MAX. lo
Else heaven would be no heaven to us, Rom. vlii. 7. and therefore we must be brought this way to it, 2 Cor. v. 5. No privilege of nature, no duties of religion avail without this, Gal. vi. 15. If morahty, without regeneration, could bring men to heaven, why are not the Heathens there ? If strictness in duty, without regene- ration, why are not the Pharisees there ? Believe it, neither names, nor duties, no, nor the blood of Christ, ever did, or shall bring one soul to glory without it. O then, thou that boastest of a house in heaven, lay thine hand on thy heart, and ask it ; Am I a new creature, i. e. Am I renewed, (1.) In my state and condition? 1 John iii. 14. past from death to life. (2.) In my frame and temper ? Eph. v. 8. " Once darkness, now light in the Lord.'" (3.) In my practice and conversation.? Eph. ii. 12, 13. 1 Cor. vi. 11. if not, my soul is destitute of an habitation in the city of God ; and when I die, my body must lie in the lonely house of the grave, that dark vault and prison, and my soul be shut out from God into outer darkness.
2. Those that live as strangers, and pilgrims on earth, seeking a better place, and state, than this world affords them ; for them God hath made preparations in glory, Heb. xi. 13, 16. If you be strangers on earth, you are the inhabitants of heaven. Now there be six things included in this character. 1. They look not on this world as their own home, nor on the people of it, as their own peo- ple, 2 Cor. V. 8. ixdrifjbrigai, to be unpeopled. These are none of my fellow-citizens, we must go two ways at death. 2. They set not their affections on things present, as their portion, 2 Cor. iv. 18. Psal. xvii. 13, 14. Their bodies are here, their hearts in heaven. 3. Their carriage, and manner of life, not like the men of this world, 1 Pet. iv. 4. ^ivtZovrai. So the rule guides them, Rom. xii. 2. and so their course is steered ; at least intended, Phil. iii. 20. our ro nta'kiriMihd^ OUT trade is in heaven. (4.) Their dialect and language differ from the natives of this world. Their language is earthly, 1 John iv. 5, 6. but these have a pu7'e lip, Zech. iii. 9. (5.) Their society, and chosen companions are not of this world, Psal. xvi. 3. They are a company of themselves. Acts iv. 21. (6.) Their spirit, and temper of heart are not after the world, 1 Cor. ii. 12. They have another spirit, Numb. xiv. 24. These things discover us to be strangers on earth, and consequently, the men for whom God hath prepared heavenly habitations when we die.
3. Those that live and die by faith, shall not fail to be received into a better habitation by death. This is another character of them that shall be received into glory, laid down in the same place, Heb. xi. 13. They lived by faith, and when they died, they died em-
14 A TREATISE OF THE SOUL OF MA?J.
bracing the promises, which is characteristical of those tliat shall dwell in that heavenly city; and implies, (1.) Intimate acquaint- ance with the promises, they are things well known, and familiarized to them. The word accaca/xsvo/, Salutantes, saluting them, is a metaphor, from the manner of parting betwixt two dear and inti- mate friends. The faith of a Christian embraces the promises in its arms, as dear friends use to do at parting, and saith, Farewell, sweet promises, from which I have sucked out so much rehef and refreshment in all the troubles of my life ; I must now live no more by faith on you, but by sight : O you have often cheered my soul, and been my song in the house of my pilgrimage. (2.) It implies the firm credit that a believer gives to things unseen, upon the grounds of the promises, as if he did sensibly take and grasp them in his very arms and bosom. They take Christ, and all the invi- sible things in the promises, into their sensible embraces, 1 Pet. i. 8. Faith is to them instead of eyes. (3.) It implies the sincerity of a believer's profession, who dares trust to that at the last gasp, w^hich he professed to believe in the midst of life, and the comforts of this world. As he professed to believe in health, so you shall find his actings, when his eye and heart-strings are cracking, Rom. xiv. 9. Christ, in the promises, was his professed joy and hfe, and this is what he grasps at death, and lays his last hold on. (4.) It shews you whence all a believer"'s com.forts come, in life and death. O, it is from the promises, Christ in the promises is the spring of their consolation. This they fetch their comfort from, when the world cannot administer one drop of refreshment to them. There be two great works faith performs for the saints, one in life, the other in death : in life, it is the principle of mortification to their sins ; in death, it is the spring of consolation to their hearts ; it makes them die whilst they live, and live when they die.
4. Those that love the person and appearance of Christ, have a mark that sets them among the inhabitants of heaven, and glory, 2 Tim. iv. 8. but then this love must be, (1.) Sincere, and without hypocrisy. (2.) Supreme, and above all other beloveds. (3.) Con- forming the soul to Christ ; if sincere and supreme, it will be trans- formative. (4.) Longing to be wdth him. Such love is a mark of souls for whom heaven is prepared.