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BERM.
VII.1
FALLING SHORT
OF
HEAVEN.
123
If
the
question were
put
to
us,
Who are the persons
that
are
fit
to
stand in the
court of God
above,,
to be
the inhabitants and ornaments
of
heaven
?
We
should
be ready to
say,
the
beautiful
"and
the ingenious, the
souls
of
a sweet
disposition,
and the
persons
of
grace-
ful behaviour.
We arc tempted
to
think
that
the
xvell-
born, the
wise,
the
affable,
and the
well-
accomplished,
should
all be
made saints,
and the favourites
of
God
;
but
he sees
with
other
eyes, he
determines
his
special
love by
other
principles, and makes
another sort
of
dis-
tinction
by
his
sovereign
saving grace,
unguided
and
unallured
by
the
merit
of
man.
1
Cor.
i.
26, 27,
28,
29.
Ye
see
your
calling,
brethren,
hgw
that
not
many
wise men
after
the flesh, not
many
mighty,
not
many
noble,
are
Called;
But
God
hath
chosen
thefoolish things
of
the
world,
to
confound
the
wise; and God
hath
chosen
the
weak
things
of
the
world,
to
confound the
things
which
are mighty;
and
base
things
of
the
world,
and
things
which
are
despised,
bath
God
chosen
;
yea,
and
things
which
are
not,
to
bring
to
nought things
that
are,
that
no
flesh
should
glory
in hispresence.
What
would become
of
the morose,
the rough
natu-
ral
tempers,
if
God
loved
none
but
such as were lovely
in
our
eyes?
What
would become
of
all
the deformed
and the most uncomely
pieces
of
human
nature
;
the
clownish,
and the weak,
and
base things
of
this
wòrld,.
if
God
should chuse
none
but
the
fair,
and the
well
-
bred, the
well- figured,
and the
honourably;
?
If
this
were
the
rule of
his
conduct, what dismal
distinction
would light
upon thousands, and
some
good men too,
who
must wear
in
their
faces,
in
this world,
the
dread
-
ful
sentence of
their damnation
in
the next?
But the
great and
sovereign
God
acts
by
other measures;
he
lays down to
himself divine rules,
that
are
to
us
un-
known, and
must
be
for ever
unsearchable.
Some, who
are endowed
with
native
excellencies,
he
adorns
with
heavenly graces, and they shine
as
jewels
set
in
rings
of
gold
:
Others,
who
have scarce
any thing
in
them amiable
by
nature, are
the objects
of
divine
love,
and made
vessels
of
grace; though
these do
never
make
so
charming an
appearance
among
men. Moses
the
meek
and
.obliging,
Jonah
the rough and the peevish,
were both beloved
of
God;
for he made saints and pro-