N34404:796
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses
Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses. / By Mr. Thomas Boston, late Minister of the Gospel at Etterick.
United States : s.n. Printed for the booksellers., M,DCC,LXXXVII. 1787
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.
DOCTRINE, The Saints shall be made completely happy in the Possession of the Kingdom of Heaven.
DOCTRINE, The Saints shall be made compleatly happy in the Possession of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Two things I shall here inquire into, (1.) The nature of this kingdom. (2) The admission of the saints thereto. And then I shall make some practical improvement of the whole.
FIRST, As to the nature of the kingdom of heaven, our knowledge of it is very imperfect; for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Cor. ii. 9. As, by familiar resemblances, parents instruct their little children, concerning things, of which otherwise they can have no tolerable notion: so our gracious God, in contemplation of our weakness, is pleased to represent to us heaven's happiness, under similitudes taken from earthly thing•, glorious in the eyes of men; since naked discoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earth•y resemblances, would be too bright for our weak eyes, and in them we would but lose ourselves. Wherefore now, one can but speak as a child of these things, which the day will fully discover.
FIRST, As to the nature of the kingdom of heaven, our knowledge of it is very imperfect; for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Cor. ii. 9. As, by fmiliar resemblances, parents instruct their little children, concerning things, of which otherwise they can have no tolerable notion: so our graciu God, in contemplation of our weakness, is pleased to represent to us heaven's happiness, under similitudes taken from earthly thing, glorious in the eyes of men; sice naked discoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earthy resemblances, would be too bright for our weak eyes, and in them we would but lose ourselves. Wherefore now, one can but speak as a child of these things, which the day will fully discover.