SERM.

3dly, HAVING our Converfation in XVI. Heaven, fignifies in the last place, according to the most strict and proper Import of the word in the Original; having our Citizenship, our Home, our proper Country and Habitation there. The State of Heaven, the Happiness which God has promised in the Life to come, to those who fhall qualify themselves for it by the Habits of Virtue here; is in Scripture reprefented under the defcription of a glorious City. Rev. xxi. 10. He fhewed me that great City, the Holy Jerufalem, defcending out of Heaven from God; having the Glory of God, and so on. And even the Antient Prophets, ufed from the beginning the fame expreffions; As appears in many paffages of Ifaiah; And Tobit xiii. 16. Jerufalem, faith he, fhall be built up with Saphires, and her Walls ---- with pure Gold. Of this new and heavenly Jerufalem, the Apostle defcribes the Patriarchs of old to have been Citizens, while their dwelling on Earth was but as in a foreign Country: Heb. xi. 9. By Faith, Abrabam fojourned in the land of Promife, as in a ftrange Country ; ---- For he looked for a

City which bath Foundations, (in the ori- SER M. ginal it is, he expected The City which bath XVI. The Foundations; that is, the Foundations of pretious Stones, alluding to the Prophetic expreffions ;) whofe Builder and Maker is God. And ver. 13. These all, that is, the Patriarchs, died in Faith, not baving received the Promifes, but having feen them afar off; and were perfwaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth; For they that fay fuch things, declare plainly that they feek a Country, even better Country, that is, an heavenly; Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a City. And All who imitate the Obedience of these Patriarchs, in all Ages and in all Nations of the World, by a Life of Virtue and true Goodness; are in like manner represented in Scripture, as being Members of the fame heavenly City. Eph. ii. 19. re are no more Strangers and Foreigners, but Fellow-citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the Foundation of the Apoftles and Prophets, Jefus Chrift himself

a

XVI.

1 Pet. ii.

II.

SER M. being the chief corner-ftone; In whom all the Building fitly framed together, groweth unto an Holy Temple in the Lord. In the prefent world, upon account of the tranfitorinefs of This mortal life, we are ftyled Strangers and Sojourners, 1 Chr.xxix. 15; and are exhorted, as Pilgrims, to pass the Time of our fojourning here in Fear, 1 Pet. i. 17. For here we have no continuing City, but we feek One to come, Heb. xiii. 14. A city to come; that is, the New, the heavenly Jerufalem: For fo St Paul tells us, Gal. iv. 26. Jerufalem which is above, is the Mother of us all; that is, our proper Home and Country. Heb. xii. 22. Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the City of the Living God, the heavenly ̈TM Jerufalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels, To the general Assembly and Church of the firft-born that are written in Heaven, and to God the Judge of All, and to the Spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jefus the Mediator of the New Covenant ̧ In purfuance of which elegant Defcription, virtuous and good men, raifed and quickened together with Chrift from the Death of Sin, are, by a lively figure, faid

to

to fit together (even Now) in heavenly SER M. places, in (or with) Chrift Jefus, Eph. ii. XVI. 6. And to dwell in Heaven: Rev. xiii. 6.. he, (that is, Antichriftian Tyranny) opened his mouth in Blafphemy against God, to blafpheme his Name and his Tabernacle, and them that dwell in Heaven. To blafpheme them that dwell in Heaven; that is, as 'tis explained in the following Verfe, to make War with and overcome the Saints; to perfecute the true Worshippers of God, whofe Converfation is in Heaven.

II. HAVING thus at large explained the Meaning of this Phrase, of having our Converfation in Heaven; it remains that I proceed, in the 2d place, to confider the Ufes and Advantages which may arife to us therefrom. And

ift, IF we take the Phrase in Either of the Two former Senfes, as fignifying that we Meditate frequently upon the Heavenly State, or (which is the natural conSequence of delighting in fuch Meditation,) set our Hearts and Affections thereon; the Advantage and Benefit of so doing, is, that it will continually put us upon preparing and qualifying ourselves, by the Practice

of

SER M. of Virtue, for the enjoyment of That XVI. Bleffed State. Ecclus. vii. 36. What foever

thou takeft in hand, remember the End; and thou shalt never do amifs. The Great reafon, why the World is generally fo vitious; is because men feldom meditate upon the final Confequences of Wickedness, and seldom seriously reflect upon the real State of their own Souls. They are like one, who, walking towards a Precipice, shuts his Eyes, and perceives not that there is Any Danger. Confideration, is the Eye of the Soul: And if this Light that is in us, be itself Darkness; if our Meditations be never fixt upon the things which can no otherwise be discerned but by serious and impartial Meditation; how great muft the

Darkness and Blindness of our Minds be! Men upon a Bed of Sickness, and at the Approach of Death, generally have very right Notions of this Matter; And fince what will Then be True, we are fure cannot but be equally True Now; wife men will always endeavour, to fix those Thoughts upon their Minds by timely Attention, and make them useful at present; which hereafter will fix themselves upon