892 fIAPPINUS OF sE"FARATE SPIRITS. extending to the life to come, as well as to this life : Now though neither 94' them can be merited by works, but all are entirely conferred by grace, yet, as one observes here, " The Lordbath fixed a proportion between the work and the reward ; so that as one has different degrees of goodness, the other shall have tiff- ferent degrees of excellency. Our Saviour assures us, that the torments of hell shall admit of various degrees and distinctions ; some will be more exquisite and terrible than others ; It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day ofjudgment, who never sinned against half so much light, than it shall be for Chorazin, Beth- saida, and Capernaum where Christ himself had preached his gospel, and confirmed it with most evident miracles ; Mat. xi. 21-24. 'And the servants who did not the will of their Lord, shall be beaten with more or fewer stripes, according to their cif: ferent degrees of knowledge and advantages of instruction ; Luke xii. 47, 4$. Now may we net, by a parallel reasoning, suppose there will be various orders and degrees of reward in heaven, as well as punishment in hell ; since there is scarce a greater variety among the degrees of wickedness among sinners on earth, than there is of holiness among the saints.? When the apostle is describing the glories of the body at thegreat resurrec, tion, he seems to represent, the differences glory that shall be conferredon different saints, by the difference of the great Jinni- varies of heaven ; l Cor. xv, 41, 42. " There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars : for one star differs from another in glory : So also is the resurrection of the dead; The prophet Daniel led the way to this description, and the same Spirit taught the apostle the same language ; Dan. xii. 2, O. And many of them, that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting; contempt; and they that be wise shall shine, with common gloryas the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many tq righteousness, shall have a peculiar lustre, As the stars for ever and ever. And if therebe a difference in the visibleglories of the saints at the resurrection, if those who turn mon-q to - righteousness shall sparkle inthat day, withbrighter beams than those who are only wise for their owl' salvation ; the same reason leads us to believe a difference of spiritual glory in the state of separate spi- rits, when the recompence of their labours is begun. So 1 Cor, iii. 8. He that plantethand he that watereth are one, and every Inca shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. , ff sit be rewarded aline, the apostle would not have said, each man Shall receive according to his own labour. Surely since there is a distinction of labours, there will be a distinction of rewards too. And it is with this view that the same apostle exhorts the Cclina
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