2. They had affurance of heaven, as well as faith to discern it. Affurance is a lump of fugar, indeed, in the bitter cup of death; nothing fweetens like it. So 2 Cor. v. 1. fo Job xix. 26, 27. This puts rofes into the pale cheeks of death, and makes it amiable, 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56. and Rom. viii. 38, 39.

3. Their hearts were weaned from this world, and an inordinate affection to a terrene life, Phil. iii. 8. all was dung and drofs for Chrift; they trampled under foot what we hug in our bofoms. So it is faid, Heb. x. 34. "Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves," &c. And fo it must be with us, if ever we obtain a complacency in death.

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4. They ordered their converfations with much integrity, and fo kept their confciences pure, and void of offence; Acts xxiv. 16. "Herein do I exercise myself," &c. and this was their comfort at last, 2 Cor. i. 12. "This is our rejoicing," &c. So Job xxvii. 5. "My integrity will I not let go till I die :" Oh! this unftings death of all its terrors.

5. They kept their love to Chrift at the height: that flame was vehement in their fouls, and made them defpife the terror, and defire the friendly affiftance of death, to bring them to the fight of Jefus Christ, Phil. i. 23. So Ignatius, O how I long, &c. Thus it must be with you, if ever you make death eligible and lovely to you, which is terrible in itself. There is a loveliness in the death, as well as in the life of a Chriftian: "Let me die "the death of the righteous," faid Balaam.

Inference 2. Muft we put off these tabernacles of flesh? How neceffary is it, that every foul look out in feafan, and make provifion for another habitation? If you must be turned out of one house, you must provide another, or lie in the streets, This the apostle comforted himself with, that "if uncloathed, he "fhould not be found naked," 2 Cor. v. 1. a building of God, a house not made with hands. You must turn out, and that fhortly, from thefe earthly habitations. Oh! what provision have you made for your fouls against that day? The foul of Adrian was at a fad lofs, when he faw he must be turned out of this world; O animula vagula, blandula, heu quo vadis! But it was Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob's privilege, that God had prepared for them a city, Heb. xi. 16.

* Many cry out on a death-bed, O fend for Minifters and Chriftians to pray! Alas! what can they do then? Is that a time for fo great a work to be fhuffled up in a hurry, amidst diftractions, and agonies.

I know it is a common prefumption of moft men, that they fhall be in heaven, when they can be no longer on earth. Praefumendo fperant, et fperando pereunt. But a few moments will convince them of their fatal mistake; their poor fouls will meet with a confounding repulfe, like that, Mat. vii. 22. There is indeed a city full of heavenly manfions prepared for fome; but who are they that are entitled to it, and may confidently expect to be received into it? To be fure, not the prefumptuous, who make a bridge of their own fhadows, and fo fall and perish in the waters. Brethren, it is one of the most folemn enquiries you were ever put upon and therefore I befeech you, fee whether your characters fet you among thofe men, or no.

1. Thofe that are new-born, fhall be cloathed with their new houfe from heaven, when death uncloaths them of these tabernacles: the New Jerufalem hath none but new born inhabitants, Pet. i. 3, 4. and Chrift tells us, John iii. all o3. thers 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 difappointed. You mult be regenerated, or damned. This alters the temper of thy heart, and fuits it to the life of God, which is indifpenfably neceffary to them that fhall live with him. Elfe heaven would be no heaven to us, Rom. viii. 7. and therefore we must be wrought this way to it, 2 Cor. v. 5. No privilege of nature, no duties of religion avail without this, Gal. vi. 15. If morality, without regeneration, could bring men to heaven, why are not the Heathens there? If ftrictnefs in duty, without regeneration, why not the Pharifees there? Believe it, neither names, nor duties, no nor the blood of Chrift, ever did, or shall bring one foul to glory without it. O then thou that boafteft of a house in heaven, lay thine hand on thy heart, and afk 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 darknefs now light in the Lord." (3.) In my practice and converfation? Eph. ii. 12, 13. 1 Cor. vi. II. If not, my foul is destitute of an habitation in the city of God; and when I die, my body muft lie in the lonely houfe of the grave, that dark vault and prifon, and my foul be shut out from God into outer darkness.

2. Those that live as ftrangers, and pilgrims on earth, seeking a better place, and fiate, than this world affords them, for them God hath made preparations in glory, Heb. xi. 13, 16. If you be frangers on earth, you are the inhabitants of heaven.

Now there be fix 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 people, 2 Cor. v. 8. endnungai, to be unpeopled. These are none of my fellow-citizens, we must go two ways at death. 2. They fet not their affections on things prefent, as their portion, 2 Cor. iv. 18. Pfal. 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. Esvovtal. So the rule guides them, Rom. xii. 2. and so their course is teered; at leaft intended, Phil. iii. 20. our TO HONITEVμA, QUr trade is in heaven. (4.) Their dialect, and language, differs from the natives of this world. Their language is earthly, 1 John iv. 5, 6. but thefe have a pure lip, Zeph. iii. 9. (5.) Their fociety, and chofen companions are not of this world, Pfal. xvi. 3. They are a company of themselves, Acts iv. 21. (6.) Their spirit, and temper of heart is not after the world, 1 Cor. ii. 12. They have another spirit, Numb. xiv, 24. These things difcover us to be ftrangers on earth, and confequently, the men for whom God hath prepared heavenly habitations when we die.

3. Thofe that live and die by faith, fhall 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 fame place, Heb. xi. 13. They lived by faith, and when they died, they died embracing the promifes, which is characteristical of thofe that thall dwell in that heavenly city; and implies, (1.) Intimate acquaintance with the promises, they are things well known, and familiarized to them. The word aswaraμevol, Salutantes, faluting them, is a metaphor, from the manner of parting betwixt two dear, and intimate friends. The faith of a Chriftian embraces the promises in its arms, as dear friends use to do at parting, and faith, Farewel, fweet promifes, from which I have fucked out fo much relief and refreshment in all the troubles of my life; I must now live no more by faith on you, but by fight: O you have often cheared my foul, and been my fong in the house of my pilgrimage. (2.) It implies the firm credit, that a believer gives to things unfeen, upon the grounds of the promises, as if he did fenfibly take and grafp them in his very arms and bofom. They take Chrift, and all the invisible things in the promifes, into their fenfible embraces, 1 Pet. i. 8. Faith is to them instead of eyes. (3.) It implies the fincerity of a believer's profeffion, who dares truft to that at last gafp, which he profeffed to believe in the midft of life, and the comforts of this VOL. III. K k

world. As he profeffed to believe in health, fo you shall find his actings, when his eye and heart-ftrings are breaking, Rom. xiv. 9. Chrift, in the promifes, was his profeffed joy and life, and this is what he grafps at death, and lays his last hold on, (4.) It fhews you whence all a believer's comforts come, in life and death. O it is from the promises, Chrift in the promifes is the fpring of their confolation. This they fetch their comfort from, when the world cannot adminifter one drop of refreshment to them. There be two great works faith performs for the faints, one in life, the other in death: in life, it is the principle of mortification to their fins; in death, it is the spring of confolation to their hearts: it makes them die whilft they live, and live when they die.

4. Thofe that love the perfon, and appearance of Christ, have a mark that fets them among the inhabitants of heaven, and glory, 2 Tim. iv. 8. but then this love must be, (1.) fincere, and without hypocrify. (2.) Supreme, and above all other beloveds. (3) Conforming the foul to Chrift; if fincere, and fupreme, it will be transformative. (4) Longing to be with him. Such love is a mark of fouls for whom heaven is prepared.

Infer. 3. Muft we put off our tabernacles, and that shortly? What a fpur is this to a diligent redemption, and improvement of time? This is the ufe Peter made of it here, and every one of us fhould make. It was faid of Bishop Hooper, he was fparę in his diet, fpare in his words, but most of all fpare in his time. You have but a little time in thefe tabernacles; what pity it is to waste much out of a little?

(1.) Great is the worth and excellency of time, all the treafures of the world cannot protract, stop, or call back one minute of time. O what is man that the heavenly bodies should be wheeled about by Almighty Power in conftant revolutions, to beget time for him! Pfal. viii. 3.

(2.) More precious are the feafons, and opportunities that are in time for our fouls; thofe are the golden fpots of time, like the pearl in the oyster-fhell, of much more value than the fhell that contains it. There is much time in a short opportunity. There is a day on which our eternal happiness depends, Luke xix. 41, 42. Heb. iv. 7.

(3.) Invaluable are the things which God doth for men's fouls in time. There are works wrought upon mens hearts in a seafonable hour in this life, which have an influence into the foul's happiness throughout eternity. There is a time of mercy, a time of love, viz. of illumination, and converfion; and on

that point of time, eternal life hangs in the whole weight of

t.

(4.) Loft opportunity is never to be recovered by the foul any more, Ezek. xxiv. 13. Rev. xxii. 11. To come before the opportunity, is to come before the bird be hatched; and to come after it, is to come when the bird is flown. There is no calling back time, when it is once paft. See this in the examples you find, Luke xiii. 26. Ecclef. ix. 10.

(5.) It is wholly uncertain to every foul, whether the prefent day may not determine his leafe in this tabernacle, and a writ of ejection be served by death upon his foul to morrow, James. iv. 13. Luke xii. 20.

(6.) As foon as ever time fhall end, eternity takes place. The ftream of time delivers fouls daily into the boundleis ocean of vaft eternity. Ab hoc momento pendet caternitas. We are now measured by time, hereafter by eternity.

(7.) In eternity all things are fixed and unalterable. We have no more to do, all means and works are at an end, John ix. 4. and Ecclef. xi. 3. "As the tree falls, fo it lies." Oh that thefe weighty confiderations might lie upon your hearts, as long as you are in thefe tabernacles! If they did, (1.) The unregene rate would not fo defperately hazard their eternal happiness, by trifling away their precious feafons under the gofpel. Oh how many aged finners, gray-headed finners, hear me this day, who in fifty or fixty years never redeemed one folemn hour, to take their poor fouls afide out of the clutter and diftracting noife of the world, to afk, and debate this queftion with them, Oh my foul, how ftands the cafe with thee in reference to the world to come! They have found no time to bethink themselves in what world their fouls fhall be landed, when time fhall deliver them up into eternity. Their whole life hath been but a continual diverfion from one trifle to another; they have been serious in trifles, and trifled in things moft ferious: this will afford horrid reflections in the world to come. (2.) The regenerate would not caft away the comfort of their lives, in the evidences of eternal life, at fo cheap a rate as they do. May I not fay to you as the apostle doth, Heb. v. 12. for the time you have had under the gospel you might have attained a rich treasure, both of grace, 2nd comfort; Turpe eft fenex elementarius. Is it not fhameful and inexcufable, to be, where you were twenty years past? Oh! let these things fink deep into every foul.

Inference 4. Muft we fhortly put off these our tabernacles ? Then flack your pace, and cool yourselves; he not too eager in the