of shewing his fidelity, his zeal, his love, his gratitude : but being called " to fight a good fight," and having approved himself " a good soldier of Jesus Christ," he shall receive, together with the approbation of his Lord, a brighter crown, and a more glorious inheritance, than could have been awarded to him at the period of his first conversion.]
3. For his own eternal glory —
[Doubtless the first exercise of mercy towards a repent- ing sinner brings much glory to God : and if at the first mo- ment of his conversion every saint were translated to glory, he would have abundant reason to adore and magnify the grace to which he was so greatly indebted. But of the patience, the forbearance, the long-suffering, the compassion, and the faith- fulness of God, he would have a very indistinct and inadequate conception. It is by his inward trials and conflicts that he acquires the fuller discovery of these perfections, and is pre- pared to give God the glory of them in a better world. The shouts of one who is but a babe in Christ will, on his intro- duction to the divine presence, no doubt be ardent : but what will be the acclamations of a soul that has passed through all the eventful scenes of arduous and long-protracted warfare ! Of what wonders will he have to speak ! or rather, how may we conceive of him as prostrating himself in silent adoration through his overwhelming sense of the divine goodness, whilst the less-instructed and less-indebted novice rends the air with acclamations and hosannahs ! Yes verily : if the angels stand round about the saints, as not having so near an access to God as they, so we may conceive of the less-privileged saints as standing round about the elders, in whom " God will be more admired," and by whom he will be more " glorified1."]
We must not however dismiss this subject without adding a few words,
1. Of caution: —
[It is, as we have said, the fate of man in this world still to carry about with him a corrupt nature, which proves a source of much trouble and distress : nor can any man hope to get rid of it, till he shall be liberated by death itself. Never- theless, it is our own fault that the corruptions which remain within us are not more weakened and subdued. Let any one read the account given of the different tribes, in the first chapter of the book of Judges, and say whether he does not impute blame to the Israelites themselves, for suffering the nations, whom they were ordered to extirpate, to retain so formidable a power in the midst of them™? Had they
1 2 Thess. i. 10. with Rev. vii. 9—12. »' Judg. i. 21, 27, 29—35.