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thus it was decidedly established, that Christian fortitude is superior to the brute force of any power upon earth.

Indeed so much had been often proved before by inferior spirits to that which Jesus displayed in his own character, and transmitted to his disciples: of which, among others, we have one remarkable and well known example in the behaviour of a practical philosopher, who had the courage to tell his tormentor, while having him bruised to death in a mortar, as they say, "Pound the shell of Anaxarchus; himself thou canst not hurt." And even this remarkable instance of a sovereign spirit has been often equalled, no doubt, and often is perhaps, by warriors in the new world, whom we call savages; but not for this trait of conquering their captors by patience, it is presumed.

8. Merit and Importance are often attached to power and dominion, though their proper place, or where they should rather attach, is with good works; but not necessarily with these either, notwithstanding it may so happen from the affinity of good works with merit and importance, that the two latter shall be regarded sometimes as constituents of a fallen creature, rather than as incidentals; which is more than can be properly said of either, that is, of either works or merit. One should be glad if it were otherwise, and if men were made up of merit particularly, instead of being as they are merely, and that not invariably, enriched with its presence: also, if merit was oftener attended with due importance, and had not the mortification of seeing importance so much oftener attached to the cause of insignificance. For in reason and equity merit should always go before importance, as a debt before payment; that being in reality what this merely may be, a creditable demand on its subject, or the party from which it proceeds, and to which it relates.

But according to the light in which it is here considered, merit will have two principal subjects: one inverse or putative, being the party to which it is lent or imputed,

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and more like its object; the other direct, or productive, being the party to bear or produce the same, which is the real subject, though the said merit may also be incidental to him in some respects, as before signified. For endea vour without success takes no reward with men: which makes its merit with such subjects often incidental and precarious. But with God, merit will never be incidental, any more than constituent, but an arbitrary allowance: so that all merit will be properly his in every case, and towards him likewise by the same allowance.

To make a further estimate of this incidental, or rather of its imputation, the particulars having been already considered; merit and importance towards men are to be estimated by several circumstances, and particularly by their extent, or the extent of their object and application, whether it be only to a single family, to a whole state, or to society at large, and by the importance of the respect in which they may happen; as some occasions of merit and importance are more important in themselves than others, in a human relation: but seeing that no man can benefit his Maker, all the advantage resulting from any work or performance having Him for its object, must depend on his spontaneous allowance and consequent imputation or note. Thus we say, "that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness" (Rom. iv. 9), which means imputed to him for merit; as the same was made merit also by imputation. But any human service will be meritorious towards its object, whether he impute it to the performer, or, as we say, give him credit for it, or not. This distinction seems to be clear enough however, and is of consequence, as it extends to futurity, where the Highest must be considered not only as the ultimate, but as the only real Rewarder; men having only this life to pay their debts in, or their credit either.

Thus the question of future merit, or merit towards futurity, is nearly the same with that of merit towards * Page 195

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God: and as all our merit towards God will depend on his allowance, so all knowledge of the same must remain with Him until it be fully and finally declared ; when the same will probably be found very different from common conception. "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth" (Sam. I. xvi. 7): and so we often find even at present by the disgrace of worldly minions, which shews the vanity of what we call intrinsic worth. It is not intrinsic worth that makes the difference originally, even between man and brute, much less between man and man; but the Will or Word of God in making intrinsic worth to all who have any cast of worth, by qualifying and allowing them to become instruments of his gracious purposes to others. For as the mode of our being is determined by, and indeed, a part of the Word of God, in the sphere of nature, so is that of our living by the same Word in his good Providence; and as it did not rest with ourselves to be born men, so neither does it to be good for any thing now that we are born. We own, indeed, that to be good for much is the way to be great, being the instruments of great good; also that goodness is a great happiness; and that to be good, in short, is to be happy and great: but what certain way is there, or has there ever been discovered, to goodness? Not education or instruction; not example, persuasion or coercion the way to goodness and consequent happiness proceeds only from one point, God the Fountain of Perfection, and lies straight forward between two dispensations, hedges as it were, his grace and kind providencethat inwardly this outwardly operating in behalf of the favoured object: so that our heavenly Father may be taxed by Satan continually, with a partial interference in the trial of every virtuous, and consequently happy man, as in that of constant Job, " Hast thou not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath?" (Job i. 10.)

So, God loved (that is, was favourable to) Abraham for example, hence his faith; and Abraham believed, hence

his reward. Upon which sort of dispensation the Psalmist avers, "And that Thou Lord art merciful: for Thou rewardest every man according to his work" (Ps. lxii. 12), or service and it must needs be accounted both merciful and liberal, to reward his creatures for the works that he enables them to do, or rather does by them. Indeed the notion of any other claim on the divine Rewarder, or of a capability to do and deserve well inherent in man, is contrary to reason and common sense, as well as to divine revelation. The Word of God informs us, that he has not conceded this inherent capability to any man: "I will not reprove thee because of thy sacrifices, or of thy burnt-offerings, because they were not alway before me (says he). I will take no bullock out of thine house, nor hegoat out of thy folds. For all the beasts of the forest are mine, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills" (Ps. 1. 8, 9, 10): and reason also teaches us, that it would be both impolitic and derogatory for any superior to put his servants and creatures in a way either to lay him under an obligation, or to do without him. But if we should say with St. Paul, that "godliness (or serving God especially) is great gain" (Tim. I. vi. 6) for ourselves, instead of merit towards God, we should be correct, because his service bears its own reward. He is never a moment in debt to any man, but makes them debtors to Himself by all the good they do. Among the sons of men, there is not a more degrading relation or predicament than debt; and we should be very cautious of regarding our Maker in this predicament, notwithstanding his gracious promises and the merciful allowance for his servants to draw upon Him in the manner aforesaid.

Where then was the beginning of Abraham's merit if not in that allowance? and for what did God ever give him the title of Friend, &c., if not for what He had given him before? All our merit towards God is derived from his bounty, in first giving us the means, and then paying us for what He gives. It is really as if a man should give

one a garden first, and then buy one's fruit at a good price. We dare not therefore arrogate to ourselves any merit either for well-doing or well-suffering in this state, or to found any expectation thereon with regard to the future, not only for the above mentioned, but for two other special reasons; 1, that our manner in doing and suffering is generally defective, and more suited to apology than to reward; 2, because the goodness of our doing and suffering, if any, is generally repaid here, as before observed, by the present gratification of some pleasurable feeling, whether of good or evil; of piety and benevolence, or of vanity and selfishness.

It were easy to enumerate other incidentals still of this sort, or other distinctions of this; and if the distinctions of this sort of incidentals are numerous on other accounts, others may still be derived from their payment or application, v. g. from the payment or application of such incidentals as fame, honour and distinction, authority, favour, credit, power and dominion, with all the merit and importance attending, or supposed to attend them. For if yielded to force these good incidentals will become force and compulsion; if to indesert, flattery, meanness, sycophantism; if to some objects rather than to others of equal desert, partiality. And owing to its foreign scite and consequent remoteness from observation, this kind of property is also very liable to be miscalculated, as well as mispaid; being overrated at one time, and underrated at another, both in the mild or persuasive and in the aspirate or coercive department. Even the proper objects of credit, authority, and the power of opinion, cannot always reckon on good payment from more than One in the world; and He does not belong to it: the Principal, First Author, Subject and Subjective of merit, who pays and deserves for all, yet is more robbed than all, by the ungrateful objects of his bounty.

No wonder then if the said objects should be very poor stewards, and very capricious dispensers of these inci

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