396 HAPPINESS OF SEPARATE SPIRITS. views of glory in heaven, than Sampson and Jephthah,. those rudeheroes, who being appointed of God for that service, spent their days in bloody work, in hewing downthe Philistines and the Ammonites @ For we react little of their acquaintance with God, or converse with him, beside a petition now and then, . or a vow for . victory and for slaughter; and we should, hardly have charity enough to believe they were saved, if St. Paul liad not placed them among the examples of faith . in his eleventh chapter to the Hebrews. Can we ever be- lieve that the thief upon the cross, who spent his life in plundering and mischief, and made a single though sincere pro- fession of the name of Jesus just in his dying hour, was prepared for the same high station and enjoymentin paradise, so near the right-.hand of Christ, as the great apostle Paul, whose prayers and sermons, whose miracles of labour and suffering filled up- and finished a long life, and honoured his Lord and Saviour more fl-an all the twelve apostles besides ? Can we imagine that the child that isjust born into thisworld under the friendly shadow of the covenant of grace, and weeps and dies, and is taken to heaven, is fit to be possessor of the same glories, or raised to the samedegree there, as the studious, the laborious, and the zealous christian,'that has lived above fourscore years on earth, and spent the greatest part of his life in the studies . of religion, the exercises of piety, and the zealous and painful services of God and his country ? Surely, if all these which I have named must have equal knowledge and joy in the future world, it is hard to find how such an exact equity shall be dis- played in the distributionof final rewards, as the wordof God se frequently describes. Object. But in the parable of the labourers hired towork in . the vineyard ; Mat. xx. 9, 12. Does not every man receive his penny, they who were called at the first and third hour, and they who were called at the last ? Were not their rewards all equal, those who had wrought but one hour, and those who hadborne the burden and heat y. the day. Answ. It is not the design of this parable to represent the final rewards attic. saints at the day of judgment ; but to she* that thenation of the Jews, who had been called to be the people of God above a thousand years before; and liad borne theburden and heat of the day, that is, the toil and bondage of many cere- monies, should have no preference in the esteem of God above i the Gentiles who were calledat thelast hour, or at the end of the Jewish dispensation ; for itis said, verse 16. the last shall befirst, and the first last, that is, the Gentiles, who waited long ere the gospel was preached to them, shall be the first in receiving it ; and the Jews to whom it was first offered, from an inward scorn and pride shall reject it, or receive it but slowly And Christ adds this confirmationof it, for many be called, but few chosen,
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