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THE
SCALE
OF EL$.SSSDAÉS9.
[SEEM,
Rrr,.
rash
champions, those
rude and
bloody ministers*
of
providence
?
Or
can
we
think
that
St.
Paul, the great-
est
of
the apostles,
who
laboured
more than
they,
all,
and
was in sufferings
more
abundant
than
the
rest;
who
spent
a
long
life in
daily services
and deaths for the sake
of
Christ,
is
not
fitted for,
and advanced to
a
rank
of
blessedness
superior
to
that
of
the crucified thief; who
became
a christian but a
few
moments,
at
the
end
of
a
life of impiety
and plunder
?
Can I persuade
myself;
that a
holy man, who has known much
of God
in this
world,
and spent
his age on
earth
in
contemplation
of
the divine
excellencies, who
has
acquired
a
great degree
of
nearness to
God
in
devotion, and
has served
him,
and
suffered for him,
even
to old age
and martyrdom,
with
a
sprightly and faithful
zeal:
can
I
believe
that
this,
man,
who
has been
trained up
all
his
life
to converse
with
God,
and
is
fitted
to
receive
divine
communications
above
his
fellows,
shall dwell no
nearer
to
-God
here-
after, and
share
no
larger
a
degree
of
blessedness,
than
the little babe
who
just
entered
into this world to
die
out
of
it,
and
who
is
saved, so
far as
we
know,
merely
-by
the spreading
veil
of
the covenant
of
grace,
drawn over
it
by
the hand
of
the parent's
faith?
Can
it
be,
that
the
great
judge
who cometh,
and
his
reward
is
with
him,
to
render
to
every one according
to
his
works,
will make no
distinction
between Moses and Sampson, between the
apostle
and
the
thief;
between the
aged
martyr and
the
infant,
in
the
world to come
?
And
"yet
after
all
it
may be
matter
of
enquiry, whether
the
meanest saint
among the
sons
of
Adam, has
not
soné
sort
of
privilege above
any
rank
of
angels,
by
being
of
a
kindred-
nature
to
our
Emmanuel,
to
Jesus
the
Son
of God
?
But
this leads me
to
'the
Fourth
degree
of
BLESSEDNESS.
IV. Let
us
stand
still again,
,and
wonder yet more at
*
These
expressions
may be
sufficiently
justified,
if
we consider Jep-
thah's
rash
vow
of sacrifice, which
fell
upon
his
only
child;
and'Samp-
soh's
rude
or
unbecoming conduct
in his
amours with
the
Philistine
woman
Timnah, the harlot at
Gaza, and
his
Delilah at
Sorek, his bloody
quarrels, and
his
manner of
life:
The
learned
and
pious
Dr.
Owen,
as
f
have been often informed by
his
intimate friend
Sir
John
Hartopp,
called
him
arude
believer.
Ile
might have
a
strong faith of
Miracles;
lieb. xi.
32.
but a
small
share of
that
faith
which purifies the
heart.