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SsER:1.
XXXIX.) THE RIGHT IMPROVEMENT
OF
LIFE.
159
run
a
long race
in
christianity
:
And yet many
of
these,
it
may
be,
would have possessed
but a
low
station, and
a
little
share
of
honour and happiness
in
those heavenly
regions,
if
they had been
cut
off from
the,
earth
in
their
younger
days,
and
been called away to heaven
immedi-
ately after their
conversion.
Surely,
if
you
have
spent ma-
ny
years
in
public labour for Christ, and zealous
devotion,
you have
endured cruel
mockeries, imprisonments
and
sharp
sorrows, for
the sake
of Christ
and
his gospel,
and
through
the course
of
a
long
life,
have
borne
a
constant
testimony
to
the faith
of Jesus,
there are superior glories
suited
to
yo
r
character
in
heaven, which wait
your
ar-
rival
there
Thus
I
rave
made it
appear,
in
various instances,
that
temporal
life
itself,
and the continuance
of
it,
becomes
a
real advantage to a true christian
;
which
was
the
-first
thing
I
proposed.
ut here
is
an objection
which may be
raised
against
t
ns
doctrine,
viz.
"
Do not
some
true
christians fall
into
grievous sins, when
theirlife
is
prolonged, whereby
their conscience is wounded, their garments
defiled,
their
professión blemished, and the holy name
of God
and
Christ
blasphemed
r
Is
long
life
therefore
any blessing
to
christians, since
we
are
so
uncertain
how
we
shall:
behave,
and
especially
if
we
behave
ill
?"
.
Answer
1..The.greatand natural
design,
and tendency
of
our
continuance
in
life, is
to do
more service
for God
and
men,
and obtain
more
blessings
for
our
own
souls;
to
grow
more
fit
for heaven, and
to
raise and
eniarge
our
crown.
If
we
abuse the
time
given us
for these blessed
purposes,. and
indulge
in
sinful lusts or follies,
it
is
highly criminal
in
us,
and
we
alone must
bear the blame.
Answer
2.
Sometimes
those very
sins
have
been
so
im-
pressed upon the conscience
by
the convincing spirit,
as
to
become a means to
awaken degenerate christians
to
greater
watchfulness,
greater
tenderness
of
conscience,
and
great
-
erdegrees
of
humility,
of
spirituality, and heavenly -mind-
edness
:
Those
very falls have
been made an occasion
of
their
rise and growth in
christianity
by
the
grace
of
that
God,
who
turns
darkness
into
light,
and
a
curse
into
a
blessing.
But
where
it
is
not
so,
God
is
not
to be
charged
with
injustice,
in
not
raising
us
to
higher degrees after
our