495 / 674
Disc.
VIIi.]
A
SOUL
PREPARED
POR HEAVEN.
475
wards
?
The
review
of
the waves and the storms wherein
we
had
been
tossed for
a
long season, and had been
almost shipwrecked there.
will
make the peaceful haven
of
eternity, to
Which
we shall
arrive, much more agree-
-able to
every one
of
the
sufferers
;
2
Gor.
iv. 17.
Our
light
afflictions, which
are but
for
a moment,
are
in
this way
working
for us a
far
more
exceeding
and
eternal
weight
of
glory, and
preparing
us
for the posses-
sion
of
it.
But
it
should
be
added
also,
that
the prize
of
life,
and
the
crown
of
glory,
is
much more
honourably
bestowed
on
those
who
have been long fighting, running,
and
labour-
ing
to
obtain
it.
Heaven
will
appear
as
a
condecent
re-
ward of
all
the faithful
servants of
God
upon earth, and a
divine recompence
of
their labours and sufferings;
2
Tfiess.
i. 6.
As
"
it
is
a
righteous thing
with
God
to
re-
compense tribulation
to
them
that trouble
you, so to give
to
those who
are troubled rest and salvation." This
is
that
equitable or condecent
fitness
that
God,
as
Gover-
nor
of
the
world,
has
wisely
appointed and
made neces-
sary before
our entrance into
heaven.
Christ himself
our
forerunner, and
the
Captain of
our
Salvation,
was
made perfect through
sufferings
;"
Heb.
ii.
10,
and
was
trained
up
for
his
throne
on high
"
by
enduring
the
con-
tradiction of
sinners,"
and the variety
of
agonies which
attended
his life
and death in this lower world, this stage
of
conflict
and
sufferings
;
Heb.
xii.
ì
-3.
Though
we
cannot pretend
by
our
labours
in
the
race
to have
merited
the prize,
yet
we
must
labour
through.
the
race before
we
receive
it.
Our
conflicts
cannot pretend
to have deserved the crown
which
i$
promised,
but
we
must
fight
the
battles of
the
Lord
before
we
obtain
it.
This
was St.
Paul's encouragement and
hope,
2
Tim.
iv.
7,
8,
" I
have
fought
the
good
fight,
I
have finished
my'
course,
I
have
kept
the-
faith,
henceforth there
is
laid up
for
me
a
crown
pf
righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous
Judge,
will
give
me,
and
not
to me
only,
but
to all
those
who
love
his
appearance." There
is
a
great
deal
of
divine wisdom
in
this appointment,
that
the chil-
dren
of
God
may
be
counted
in
this
sense
worthy
of
his
kingdom for which
they
also suffer
;"
e
Thess.
i.
5. and
that
the relish
of
those
satisfactions
may
be
doubled
to
all
the
sufferers.