Evidences of Preparedness for Heaven¹

Thomas Case

1. Truly this one thing would amount to an evidence (and not the least evidence): an active endeavour to assure ourselves that we have a share in this inheritance of the saints. This would indicate that we have a high estimate of this state, as most incomparably and absolutely eligible for heaven. This is the very language of a heaven-born soul: What have I to count upon but my treasure which is in heaven? What business have I on earth comparable to this: to make sure of my portion in heaven? For this cause I was born, and for this end I came into the world. The whole earth, compared with heaven, is but a dunghill.

2. Especially if the holiness of heaven do kindle those desires in us more than the happiness. When a poor soul can truly say, I should not account it a heaven were it not a land of holiness, a land flowing with milk and honey, of pure and immaculate joys – that there the beauty of holiness shines forth with inconceivable lustre and glory. And there, says the soul, I shall be in some degree like my God, glorious in holiness. This is not only an evidence of heaven, but heaven itself.

3. A universal hatred of sin is a good token that heaven is designed for you, for hatred of sin is the negative part of holiness, and heaven is a place provided by God on purpose, so that the saints may be as holy there as they wish without disturbance or reproach. Do not fear to think much and often of heaven; if sin is an offence to you, if sin be a hell on earth to you, heaven is designed for you to be your paradise. Do not fear to be often solacing yourself by contemplating that place where sin never entered; or if it did, it was cast out as soon as ever it was conceived. Indeed it is but a fancy which men have taken up, that they love happiness while they continue to love sin. A chaste love of heaven can never consist with the love of impure lusts. Sin is the devil’s image, holiness is God’s; he does not love the beauty of holiness that would have the devil advanced to heaven. If men would not have it so, why else do they give sin such free entertainment in their own bosoms, and will by no means give it a bill of divorce?

¹An edited extract from A Prospect of Heaven, one of the books included in The Select Works of Thomas Case. Case (1598-1682) was a noted Puritan.

1. A superlative love to Him that has purchased heaven for us, and us for it – that is, the Lord Jesus Christ – is an infallible evidence of our right to it, and our interest in it. And a strong motive for gracious souls to be often in heaven in their contemplations is that, by the eye of faith, they may behold, not the purchase only, but the Purchaser, whom having not seen we love, and whom loving, we would fain see.

This is the glory of everyone that is so affected; thus it is expressly said, “The things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (1 Cor 2:9). Do you love the Lord Jesus? Ascend often in the chariot of love, so that you may see His face and, in His face, the glory and beauty of heaven. Surely such as do not love Christ, and yet think they love heaven, are miserably mistaken; they know neither heaven nor Christ, and may well cry out, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Is 44:20).