Use 3: Of Trial: Let Us Examine Whether We Shall Go to This Kingdom When We Die; Heaven Is Called a Kingdom Prepared (Matthew 25)

Quest. How shall we know this kingdom is prepared for us?

Answ. If we are prepared for this kingdom.

Quest. How may that be known?

Answ. By being heavenly persons: an earthly heart is no more fit for Heaven than a clod of dust is fit to be a star; there is nothing of Christ or grace in such a heart: it were a miracle to find a pearl in a gold mine; and it is as great a miracle to find Christ the pearl of price in an earthly heart: would we go to the kingdom of Heaven? are we heavenly?

1. Are we heavenly in our contemplations? do our thoughts run upon this kingdom? do we get sometimes upon Mount Pisgah, and take a prospect of glory? Thoughts are as travelers; most of David's thoughts traveled Heaven's road (Psalm 139:17). Are our minds [reconstructed: heavenized] (Psalm 48:12). Walk about Zion, tell the towers thereof, mark you well her bulwarks: do we walk into the heavenly mount, and see what a glorious situation it is? Do we tell the towers of that kingdom? While a Christian fixes his thoughts on God and glory, he does as it were tread upon the borders of the heavenly kingdom, and he peeps within the veil; as Moses who had a sight of Canaan, though he did not enter into it; so the heavenly Christian has a sight of heaven, though he be not yet entered into it.

2. Are we heavenly in our affections? do we, [in non-Latin alphabet], set our affections on the kingdom of Heaven (Colossians 3:2)? If we are heavenly we despise all things below, in comparison of the kingdom of God: we look upon the world but as a beautiful prison; and we cannot be much in love with our fetters though they are made of gold; our heart is in Heaven. A stranger may be in a foreign land to gather up his debts owing him, but he desires to be in his own kingdom and nation; so we are here a while as in a strange land, but our desire is chiefly after the kingdom of Heaven, where we shall be for ever. The world is the place of a saint's abode, not of his delight; is it thus with us? Do we like the patriarchs of old desire a better country (Hebrews 11:16)? This is the temper of a true saint, his affections are set on the kingdom of God; his anchor is cast in Heaven, and he is carried there with the sails of desire.

3. Are we heavenly in our speeches? Christ after his resurrection did speak of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). Are our tongues tuned to the language of the heavenly Canaan (Malachi 3:16)? Then they that feared the Lord spoke often to one another. Do you in your visits season your discourses with Heaven? There are many say, they hope they shall be saved, but you shall never hear them speak of the kingdom of Heaven; perhaps of their wares and drugs, or of some rich purchase they have got, but nothing of the kingdom. Can men travel together in a journey and not speak of the place they are traveling to? are you travelers for Heaven, and never speak a word of the kingdom you are traveling to? Herein many discover they do not belong to Heaven, for you shall never hear a good word come from them; Verba sunt speculum Mentis, Bernard. The words are the looking-glass of the mind, they show what the heart is.

4. Are we heavenly in our trading? Is our traffic and merchandise in Heaven? Do we trade in the heavenly kingdom by faith? A man may live in one place and trade in another, he may live in Ireland and trade in the West Indies; so do we trade in the heavenly kingdom? They shall never go to heaven when they die, who do not trade in Heaven while they live. Do we send up to Heaven volleys of sighs and groans? Do we send forth the ship of prayer there, which fetches in returns of mercy? Is our communion with the Father and his Son Jesus (1 John 1:3; Philippians 3:20)?

5. Are our lives heavenly? Do we live as if we had seen the Lord with bodily eyes? Do we emulate and imitate the angels in sanctity? Do we labor to copy out Christ's life in ours (1 John 2:6)? It was a custom among the Macedonians on Alexander's birthday to wear his picture about their necks set with pearl and diamond: do we carry Christ's picture about us? and resemble him in the heavenliness of our conversation? If we are thus heavenly, then we shall go to the kingdom of Heaven when we die; and truly there is a great deal of reason why we should be thus heavenly in our thoughts, affections, conversation, if we consider,

(1.) The main end why God has given us our souls is, that we may mind the kingdom of Heaven: our souls are of a noble extraction, they are akin to angels, a glass of the Trinity, as Plato speaks. Now is it rational to imagine that God would have breathed into us such noble souls only to look after sensual objects: were such bright stars made only to shoot into the earth? Were these immortal souls made only to seek after dying comforts? Had this been only the end of our creation, to eat and drink, and converse with earthly objects, worse souls would have served us. Sensitive souls had been good enough for us; what need our souls be rational and divine to do only that work which a beast may do?

(2.) Great reason we should be heavenly in our thoughts, affections, conversation, if we consider what a blessed kingdom Heaven is; it is beyond all hyperbole; earthly kingdoms do scarce deserve the names of cottages compared with it. We read of an angel coming down from heaven, who did tread with his right foot upon the sea, and with his left on the earth (Revelation 10:2). Had we but once been in the heavenly kingdom, and viewed the superlative glory of it, how might we in a holy scorn trample with one foot upon the earth, and with the other foot upon the sea: there are rivers of pleasure, gates of pearl, sparkling crowns, white robes, may not this make our hearts heavenly; it is a heavenly kingdom, and only such go into it as are heavenly.