Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

Head II, prepare for‘Death. 429
Heart difengag’d from the World is an heavenly
one: And then are we ready for Heaven, when
our Heart is there, before us, Matth. vi. 21.
Fourthly, Be diligent in gathering and laying up
Evidences of your Title to Heaven, for your Sup-
1 port and Comfort at the Hour ofDeath. The Ne-
gled hereof mars the Joy and Confolation, which
fome Chriftians might otherwife have at their Death.
Wherefore examine your felves frequently, as to
your fpiritual State ; that Evidences, which ly hid
and unobfervcd, may be brought to Light and ta¬
ken notice of. And, if you would manage this
| Work fuccefsfully, make folemn ferious Work of it.
Set apart fome Time for it. And, alter earneft
Prayer to God, through Jefus Chrift, for the cn-
lightning Influences of his Holy Spirit, whereby ye
may be enabled to underftand his own Word, and
to difeern his own Work in your Souls; fifl: your
felves before the Tribunal of your Confciences, that
ye may judge your felves, in this weighty Matter.
And in the firft Place, Let the Marks of a re¬
generate State be fixed, from the Lord’s Word :
And have Recourfe to fome particular Text for that
Purpofe ; fuch as Prov. viii. 17./ love them that
love me. Compare Luke xiv. 26. If any Man come
to me, and hate not his Father and Mother, and
Wife, and Children, and Brethren, and Sifters, yea,
and his own Life alfo, he cannot he my Difaple.
Pfal. cxix. 6. I’ben jball hiot be ajhamed : Wloen l
have Refpeff unto all thy Commandments. Pfal.
xviii. 2-$. I was alfo upright before him: And I
kept my felf from mine Iniquity. Compare Rom.
' vil 22, 23. For I delight in the Law of God, after
the inward Man : But I fee another Law in my
Members, waning againjl they Law of my Mind,