Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

The unregenerate would find fault with heaven on several accounts. As (1.) That it is a strange country. Heaven is the renewed man's native country: his Father is in heaven; his mother is Jerusalem, which is above, Gal. iv 26 He is born from above, John iii 3. Heaven is his home, 2 Cor. v. 1. Therefore he looks on himself as a stranger on this earth, and his head is homeward, Heb. xi. 16 They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly. But the unregenerate man is the man of the earth, Psal. x. 18. written in the earth, Jer. xvii 13. Now, home is home, be it never so homely, therefore he minds earthly things, Philip. iii. 19. There is a peculiar sweetness in our native soil; and hardly are men drawn to leave it, and dwell in a strange country. In no case does that prevail more, than in this; for unrenewed men would quit their pretensions to heaven, were it not that they see they cannot make a better of it. (2.) There is nothing thereof what they delight most in, as most agreeable to the carnal heart, Rev. xxi. 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it, any thing that defileth. When Mahomet gave out paradise to be a place of sensual delights, his religion was greedily embraced: for that is the heaven men naturally choose. If the covetous man could get bags full of gold there, and the voluptuous man can promise himself his sensual delights there; they might be reconciled to heaven, and meet for it too: but since it is not so, tho' they may utter fair words about it, truly it has little of their hearts. (3.) Ever• corner there is filled with that, which of all things they have the least liking of: and that is holiness, true holiness, perfect holiness Were one that abhors swine's flesh, bidden to a feast, where all the dishes were of that sort of meat, but variously prepared; he would find fault with every dish at the table, notwithstanding all the art used to make them palatable. It is true, there is joys in heaven, but it is holy joy: there are pleasures ⟨p. 161⟩in heaven, but they are holy pleasures: there are places to stand by in heaven, but it is holy ground. That holiness that casts up in every place, and in every thing there, would mar all to the unregenerate (4.) Were they carried thither, they would not only change their place, which would be a great heart break to them: but they would change their company too.