220 1-12 NATURE OF SANCTIT+TCATION or divest us of it: For (4.) Its acts, indeed, are tran- sient, but its fruits abide for ever in their reward. They who die in the Lord rest from their labours, and their worksfollow them, Rev. xiv. 13. Godis not unrighteous, toforget their labour of love, Heb. vi. 10. There is not any effect or fruit of holiness, not the least, not the giving öf a cup ofcoldwater to a disciple of Christ, in the name of a disciple, but it shall be had in everlasting remembrance, and abide for ever in its eternal reward. Nothing shall be lost, but all the fragments of it shall be gathered tip and kept safe for ever. Every thing else, how specioussoever it be in this world, shall be burnt up and consumed as hay and stubble; when the least, the meanest, the most secret fruit of holiness, shall be gathered as gold and silver, durable substance, into God's treasury, and become a part of the riches of the inheritance of the saints in glory. Let no soul fear the loss ofany labour in any of the duties of holiness, in the most secret contest against sin, for inward, puri ty, for outward fruitfulness, in the mortification of sin, resistance of temptations, improvement of grace, in pa- tience, moderation, self-denial, 'contentment, all that you do know, and what you donot know, ,Sall all be revived, called over, and abideeternally in your reward. Our Father, who now seeth in secret, will one day re- ward openly. And themore we abound in these things, the more will God be glorified in the recompense of reward. But this is not all, nor that which I intend. It abides (2.) For ever, and passeth over into glory in its principle or nature. The love wherewith we now adhere to God, and by which we act the obedience /:' faith towards the saints faileth not, it ends not when ;glory comes on, but is a part of it, 1 Cor. xiii. 8. It is true somegifts shall be done away, as useless, in a state ofperfection and glory, as the apostle there dis- eourseth; and some graces shall cease as to some espe- cial acts and peculiar exercise, as faith and hope, so far as they respect things unseen and future. But all those graces, whereby holiness is constituted, and wherein it doth consist, for the substanceof them as they contain the image of God, as by them we are united, and do adhere unto God in Christ, shall, in their present na- ture, improved into perfection, abide for ever. In our knowledge of them, therefore, have we ourprincipal insight into our eternal condition in glory. And this is 'as a firm foundation of consolation, -so a part of our chiefest joy in this world. Is it not a matter of un- speakable joy and refreshment, that these poor bodies we carry about us, after they have been made a prey unto death, dust, worms, and corruption, shahbe rais- ed and restored to life and immortality, freed from pains, sickness, weakness, weariness, and vested with those qualities in comformity to Christ's glorious body, which yet we understand not.? It is so also, that these souls which now animate and rule in us, shall be deliv- ered from all their darkness, ignorance, vanity, insta- bility, and alienation from things spiritual and heavenly. But -this is not all. These poor low graces, whichnow live, and are acting in us, shall be continued, preserv- ed, purified, and perfected, but in their nature be the same as now they are, as our souls and bodies shall be. That love, whereby we now adhere to God as our chiefest good, that faith whereby we are united to Christ our everlasting head, that delight -in any of the ways or ordinances of God, wherein he is enjoyed, ac- cording as he hath promised his presence in them; that love and good-will which we have for all those in whom is the Spirit, and on whom is the image of Christ, with the entire principle of spiritual life and holiness which is now begun in any of us, shall beall purified, enhan- ced, perfected, and pass into glory. That very holi- ness which we here attain, those inclinations and dispo- sitions, those frames of mind, those powers and abilities in obedience and adherence unto God, which here con- tend with the weight of their own weakness and im- perfections, withtheopposition that is continually made against them by the body of death that is utterly to be abolished, shall be gloriously perfected into immutable habits, unchangeably acting our souls in the enjoy- ment of God. And this also manifesteth of how much concernment it is unto us, to be acquainted with the doctrine of it, and of how much more to be really in- terested in it. Yea, Sect. 12. (5.) There is spiritual and heavenly glory in it in this world. From hence is the church, the King's daughter, said to be all glorious within, Psal. xlv. 13. Her inward adorning with the graces of the Spirit, making her beautiful in holiness, is called glo- ry, and is so; so also the progress and increase of be lievers herein is called by ourapostle, their being chang- ed from glory to glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18. from one degree of glorious grace unto another. As this, next unto the
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