N29704:276
Meditations on the glory of the heavenly world. I. On the happiness of the…
Meditations on the glory of the heavenly world. I. On the happiness of the soul of believers, at the instant of their separation from their bodies. II. On the glory of the bodies of God's children, in the resurrection world, when they shall be as the angels of heaven. III. On the glory of both soul and body in the heaven of heavens, after the Day of Judgment, to all eternity. / By Increase Mather, D.D. ; [Six lines of quotations]
Boston in N.E. printed: : Sold by Timothy Green in Middle Street., 1711
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Believers HAVE A Well-grounded HOPE, OF Perfect Blessedness in Heaven. › Application 2: USE. II.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Consider, 3. There are but few comparatively, who have a sure well-grounded Hope of blessedness in Heaven. Many presume they have when they have not. Alas! there are but few that ever set one step in the Way which leads thither. Narrow is the Way which leads unto Life, and Few there be that find it; The Son of God Himself has so declared, Math. 7.14. It has ever been thus in all past Ages, that but few have gone to Heaven. The Old World before the Flood must needs be very full of People, because of the Longevity of those Patriarchs. If Jacob after the Flood had Lived four hundred years, he must have seen some Millions of his Posterity: but the first Patriarchs Lived some of them almost a thousand years; whence we conclude, that many Millions of Souls perished in that Universal deluge; ⟨p. 163⟩but how few Godly Souls were there among them? The Apostle calls them, The World of the Ungodly, 2 Pet. 2.5. When the Children of Israel came out of Egypt, they were Six hundred thousand fit for War: yet but two of them entered into Canaan. One of the Ancients observes, that as the Land of Canaan was a Type of Heaven, so that those two were a Type of the Small Number of Persons that shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven· Is it not said in the Prophet, I will take you One of a City, and Two of a Family, or Tribe, Jer. 3.14. Among those who have the Gospel Preached to them, but few are true Believers: Math. 22.14. For many are called, but few are chosen. Nay, i• is an awful Truth, that but few of those who belong to the Visible Church will be Saved. Church-Members, tremble at it▪ Rom 9.27. Though the Number of the Children of Israel be as the Sand of the Sea, a Remnant shall be Saved. What! but a Remnant among those who are in Number like the Sand of the Seas, and these also the Children of Israel, the Visible Church ⟨p. 264⟩and People of God? Verily, the Heirs of Heaven are but a Little, Little Flock.