400 THE RAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. DISC. II. the way of merit, for it is our Lord Jesus Christ alone, who has purchased all those unknown blessings, yet he will distribute them according to the different charac- ters and degrees of holiness which bis saints possessed on earth ; and those larger degrees of holiness were also the free gift of God our Saviour. I have Often represented it to my own thoughts under- this comparison. Here is a race appointed ; here area thousand different prizes, purchased by some prince to be bestowed on the racers : And the prince himself gives them food and wine, according to what proportion he pleases, to strengthen and animate them for the race Each has a particular stage appointed for him ; some of shorter, and some of longer distance. When every racer comes to his own goal, he receives a prize in most exact proportion to his speed, diligence, and length of race: And the grace and the justice of the prince shine glo- riously in such a distribution. Not the foremost of the racers can pretend to have merited the prize ` for the prizes were all paid for by the prince himself; and it was he that appointed the race, and gave them spirit and strength to run; and yet there is a most equitable pro- portion observed in the reward, according to the 'labours of the race. Now this similitude represents the matter so agreeably to the apostle's way of speaking, when he compares the christians life to a race; I Cor. ix. 24, kc. Gal. v. 7. Philip. iii. 14. 2 Tim. iv. 7. Heb. xii. 1. that I think it may be called almost a scriptural description of the present subject. The reason of man and the light of nature, entirely concur with scripture in this point. The glory of hea- ven is prepared for those who are prepared for it in a state ofgrace; Rom. ix. 23. It is Grid who makes each of us " meet for our own inheritance among the saints inlight;" C'ch i. 12. and then he bestows on us that in- heritance. As grace fits the soul for glory, so a larger degree of grace advances and widens the capacity of the soul, and prepares it to receive a larger degree s f glory. The work ofgrace is but the means, the reward of glöry is the end : Now the wisdom of God always tits and adjusts the means in a due proportion to answer the end he de- signs, and the same wisdom' ever makes the end answer-
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