402 THE HAPPIZSESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. (DISC. Ii. the wilderne:, and unknown countries in a glorious ex- ercise of faith, were riot prepared for a greater intimacy with God, and nearer views of his glory in heaven, than Sampson and Jephthah; those rude heroes, who being appointed of .God for that service, spent their days in bloody work, in hewing down the Philistines and the Ammonites ? For we read little of their acquaintance with God, or converse with him, beside a petition now and then, or a vow for victory and for slaughter ; and we should hardly have charity enough to believe they were saved, if St. Paul had not placed them among the ex- amples of faith in his eleventh chapter to the Hebrews. Can we ever believe that the thief upon the cross, who .spent his life in plundering and mischief, and made a single though sincere profession of the name of Jesus just in his dying hour, was prepared for the same high station and enjoyment in paradise, so near the right-hand of Christ, as the great apostle Paul, whose prayers and sermons, whose miracles of labour and suffering filled up and finished a long life, and honoured his Lord and Saviour more than all the twelve apostles besides ? Can we imagine that the child that isjust born into this world under the friendly shadow of-the covenant of grace, and weeps and dies, and is taken to heaven, is fit to be pos- sessor of the same glories, or raised to the same degree there, as the studious, the laborious, and the zealous christian, that has lived above fourscore,years on earth, and spent the greatest part of his life in the studies of re- ligion, the exercises of piety, and the zealous and painful services of God and his country ? Surely if all these which I have named must have. knowledge and joy in the future world, it is hard to find how such án exact equity shall be displayed in the distribution of filial rewards, as the word of God so frequently de- scribes. Objection. But in the parable of the labourers hired to work in the vineyard ; Mat. xx. 9, 12, Does not every man receive his penny, they who were called at the first and third hour, and they who were called at the last ? Were not their rewards all equal, those who had wrought but one hour, and those who had borne the burden and heat of the day. Answer. It is not the design of this parable to repre-
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