it was no more then had been allowed amongst them in the case of their famous Hercules he afterwards demonstrates the utter absurdity and impossibility of the fiction in regard it might appear by Authentick records that Crispus was alive long after Constantine became Christian surviving to the twentieth year of his reign and subscribing laws with him Notwithstanding the Story sufficiently evidences that the Pagans had entertained such a sinister conceit of Christianity as that it favoured vice and licentiousness and thereupon were prejudiced against it But to pass over their crasse misapprehensions and come to the Jews they also had alike dishonourable opinions of the Christian institution as a doctrine of looseness And these they seem to have taken up partly upon occasion that they observed our Saviour to lay no great stress upon their idle traditions which they were infinitely scrupulous about partly also because though they could not but observe that he was a most holy and diligent observer of the Law yet in some cases as that of the Sabbath and such like he interpreted it ex aequo bono and made the letter submit to the reason and sense of it whereupon they cried out he dissolved the law Neither was it a small accession to their suspicions that upon all occasions he exposed the sanctimoniousness of their admired Pharisees whose reputation was so great with them that they were ready to think all Religion was struck at when the inward rottenness of those painted sepulchres was discovered But above all they seem to have been confirmed in this ill opinion of Christ Jesus and his doctrine when they noted that whereas the grave and demure Pharisees the learned Scribes the chief Priests and Rulers and all the zealots of their Religion stood at a distance and defied this new doctrine those that resorted to our Saviour and became his disciples were generally persons not only of mean quality but had been many of them formerly infamous for their life and conversation for so we find in the first and second verses of this Chapter Then drew near unto him all the Publicans and sinners for to hear him and the Scribes and Pharisees murmured saying This man receiveth sinners and eateth with them whereupon our Saviour takes up this and other Parables in this Chapter For the more clear understanding of which occasion and consequently of the scope of the whole Parable these things following are to be considered § II. 1. That the Jews as to the affair of Religion were wont to distinguish themselves into three ranks or classes the first and most eminent amongst them were the Pharises or Separatists as their name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly imports called also frequently in their own writings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we may appositely render Frieries or Fraternities a very precise and strict sort of men in their way as who obliged themselves to the most strict measures of ritual observance fasting twice a week frequent and curious in their washings long in their prayers broad in their phylacteries demure in their behaviour stately in their meine starched and stiff in every thing They had a custome of disfiguring their faces to seem pale and mortified and as they had artificial faces so they had consciences too wondrous tender and sensible of little punctilio's and the veriest trifle that was out of the road of their sect but brawny and insensible of the highest violations of the laws of God Their Religion was a kind of clock-work drawn up by the hand and moving in a certain order but without life or sense In short they had all the outward shews of admirable men but nothing else their devotions being calculated to take men not to please God and to better their interest and reputation with the people not to benefit the world or improve their own tempers However what by their own confident pretensions and what by the credulity of those that take all for gold that glisters these men obtained the reputation of the first rate of Religionists In the second rank were those which were called Sapientum discipuli the disciples of the wise men these did not constitute a peculiar sect as the former neither did they oblige themselves to all the punctuality and phantastry which the other did but they were such as applied themselves diligently to the study of the law and governed themselves by the traditions of the great Rabbins and by such interpretations as they had been pleased to make upon the Text. These I take it are those who are commonly called by the name of Scribes in the New Testament and sometimes Lawyers also for that those two names were of the same signification seems to be evident by S. Luk. 11. 44 45. When our Saviour had a great while inveighed against the Pharisees and at last had joined the Scribes with them Then answered one of the Lawyers and said Master now thou reproachest us also And these men whether called Lawyers or Scribes or Wise men though they distinguished themselves by no peculiar garb and cognizance as the former nor made a sect in Religion yet because they devoted themselves to the study of their religious writings were looked upon as conservators of their Religion and arrived at a great opinion of sanctity Insomuch that there is a well known saying amongst the Jews that if but two men were to be saved or have a part in the other world the one would certainly be a Pharisee and the other a Scribe And in relation to this opinion of theirs our Saviour saith to his disciples Matth. 5. 20. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter into the Kingdome of heaven i. e. if you be my disciples indeed you must outstrip those two admired sorts of men as much as they are supposed to outgoe all others The third rank were ordinary Jews called in contempt populus terrae the people of the land who lived a common life without any nicety of observation or peculiar note of distinction These men might perhaps live honestly and it may be also exceed both the former in real vertues of the soul but forasmuch as they exacted of themselves nothing singular nor affected any curiosity they had no remark upon them but were valued much after the rate that we commonly signify when we say a good honest moral well-meaning man But now for such as were found guilty of living in any open and scandalous sins such as fornication and the like these were held and that deservedly enough in no rank of Religion and amongst these they reckoned Publicans also that is such as being native Jews became instruments of the Roman power collecting tribute for them of their own Nation and both the one and the other of these were in no other estimation then Heathens for so we find Publicans and Sinners Heathens and Publicans commonly joined together under the same brand of reproach and contempt
famish Ordinary men must depend upon common providence but sure you may expect something more signal and worthy of that relation if it be true that you are the Son of God No saith our Saviour Man lives not by bread only c. If I am the Son of God as I am assured I am I must so much the more be at my Father's disposal and not prescribe to him He hath several ways to supply my necessity and I will leave the particular manner of it to his election Then the Devil taketh him and sets him upon a pinacle of the Temple and urges him If thou be the Son of God east thy self down for it is written he shall give his Angels charge over thee c. q. d. To be the Son of God and to have it set off with no pomp nor illustrious circumstance is a very mean thing unworthy of you and useless to you Assure your self if he own you in that quality and relation he will interpose between you and the greatest danger you can incurr and by some such experiment you shall draw the eyes of all men upon you Both this and the former attack are like to that of his Brethren Jo. 7. 4. If thou do these things shew thy self to the world q. d. Consult thy same and reputation aggrandize thy self by some magnificent circumstance or other But saith our Saviour it is written thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God i. e. I am not to require other proofs of God's power or providence over me then he thinks fit to give I must not thrust my self upon danger but when he casts me upon it then I may assure my self of his interposition for my safety NOW since this temptation to pride was the engine with which the first Adam was ruined and the second Adam assaulted there can be little reason to doubt but it is so also with the generality of men And albeit the more visible and immediate motives to some sins may be profit or pleasure yet that which is the first wheel and sets all on work is as I have hinted an arrogant opinion of our own worth or wisedom and derogation from the Divine Wisedom or justice in the frame of his Laws and methods of his providence as if he had not consulted so well the conveniency of our natures but that we could provide better for our selves then he hath done if we were permitted to be our own carvers from whence proceeds an impatience of his government and an inclination to rebell and cast off his yoke as it were easie to make appear in all the instances of sin whether intemperance fornication injustice or any the like but that I think it needless in so plain a case BUT there is one thing I cannot omit to observe in further confirmation of this point namely that our Saviour when he came into the world to restore mankind knowing well their disease like a wise Physician of Souls finds it necessary to cure them by the contrary therefore in the first place he prescribes to them a profound humility as the most sovereign Antidote against sin and the onely principle of stability in vertue he I say considering they had fallen by pride lays the foundation of their recovery in lowliness of spirit injoyning that men submit their own reasonings to the wisedom of God and by faith depend upon him And declaring that those who will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven or receive his religion must do it as little children that is must come to it without pride or prejudice and be ready to believe what he dictates to them without dispute or diffidence and in short must deny themselves and follow him Which one lesson if we thoroughly learn we cut off all the Avenues of Satan and everlastingly secure our selves against all temptation to Apostasy from Religion and rebelling against God 2. THE second instance of the Son's defection is his departure from his Father He gathers all together and takes his journey into a far Countrey Whereas the Elder Son always abides with his Father this Youngster as he desired not to be at his Father's provision so he was equally unwilling to be under his eye and the awe of his presence the inspection of a Father would check his freedom and restrain him in the full swing of pleasure he designed to take Home was an homely thing dull and tedious to him but a foreign Countrey would gratify his curiosity and minister some new delights to him Besides there he should be without controll accountable to no body which was the very thing his pride had made most valuable with him NOW that he had obtained what he desired his portion and his liberty he valued not the comfort of his Father's countenance nor needed his counsel nor set by his blessing for indeed he intended so to live as that he could not hope for it THUS the Prodigal Son and every habitual sinner treads in his steps Longinqua Regio saith S. Austin Q. Evan. l. 2. c. 33. is oblivio Dei by the far Country is meant forgetfulness of God And saith S. Jerome To depart from God is not local for God is every-where present but to be alienated in our minds and affections from him Agreeably to which in the 73. Psal v. 26. where we reade They that forsake the Lord shall perish the vulgar Latine strictly following the Hebrew hath it qui elongant se à Deo those that put themselves as far off from God as they can And so Holy Job chap. 21. 14. notes it to be the humour of profane and profligate persons to say to the Almighty depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy way For it is manifest that as the sense of God is the great support and comfort of all good men in trouble their great animation and encouragement in all good duties and of mighty efficacy upon them to preserve them from all temptation to evil so it is equally the dread and torture of all wicked men and that which if it doth not check and restrain their wickedness will be sure to deprive them of the pleasure of it Wherefore when they cannot hinder that observant Majesty from overlooking them they are forced for their own quiet to be so absurd as to put the grossest gullery upon themselves and content themselves with the sottish security of turning away their eyes from beholding him THUS Adam when he had sinned hid himself in the Garden from the presence of the Lord for not only the Majesty Power and Justice of God strike a terrour to a guilty Conscience but the very contemplation of such purity and perfection shames and reproaches it Nor is the apprehension of God only troublesome to the offender after he hath committed sin but it is able to blast the very Embryo to nip it in the bud to disturb the deliberations and to be sure defeats much of the pleasure of conception For if the
forty nights and Nineveh shall be destroyed Notwithstanding the absoluteness of the sentence and the nearness of the execution the Ninevites were not out of hope but that if repentance were interposed their ruine might yet be prevented and it succeeded accordingly with them for as they believing God's word by the Prophet expected nothing but sudden destruction if they had not repented so they trusting in the goodness and exorableness of the Divine Majesty upon repentance applied themselves seriously thereto and were preserved WHEREFORE saith the relenting sinner Forasmuch as although I know not the limits of the Divine Mercy yet this I know that nothing can set limits thereto but his own wisedom and he is never so straitned but that if the case be pitiable and he see reason of mercy he can shew it consistently with his Justice here I will cast anchor I will indeavour to render my self an object of mercy and trust upon his goodness I never yet heard that any man miscarried in this bottome or that a Penitent was cast away I have often heard that God would have saved men but they would not but I never heard of any that resorted penitently to his mercy and were rejected nor do I think that Hell it self can furnish one instance of the man that can upbraid God's goodness and say I would but God would not Thus the consideration of the Divine Nature is everlastingly pregnant of incouragements to repentance and is the spring of all motion to Godward were it not for which never any had been reclaimed from a course of sin or begun a reformation But so much of that 2. IN the Second place another incouragement to this penitent resolution we are speaking of is an apprehension that it is not impossible to become perfectly new men notwithstanding our pre-ingagements in the ways of sin Opinion of absolute impossibility as we have noted before is equal to real impotency checks all motion nips all indeavour in the very bud stifles and lays asleep all the powers of the mind But hope and apprehension of feasibleness spirits all industry actuates all faculties raises the spirits and is the spring of all the great actions in the world Some daring men have effected things beyond their own expectations but no brave exploit was ever performed by such as despaired of accomplishing it nor was ever any force defeated that did praelibare victoriam and resolve to conquer When once a conceit had possessed the Midianites that they should be conquered by Gideon's Army though grounded only upon an odde dream of a brown Loaf tumbling down upon their Tents their hearts presently melted in them their spirits were emasculated and a mighty Host became an easy prey to the inconsiderable numbers which Gideon led against them And the Lord of hosts would never suffer Israel to be led on to the conquest of the Land of Canaan so long as the rumor of Giants and Anakims and walled Cities ran in the minds of the people nor untill they were brought to a confidence that they were able to conquer that good Land In like manner if the sinner think either his sins too great to be forgiven or that it is too late to mend i. e. either despair of God's grace or of his mercy he is utterly lost indeed that therefore which puts him forward upon resolution is an apprehension that God's grace is sufficient for him THE returning Prodigal saith It is true I find I have gone a great way from my Father's house and wearied my self with my own wandrings yet sure it is not impossible but I may reach home again And I saith the sinner have gone a great way towards my own undoing having indulged my passions and dethroned my reason inslaved my will weakned all my powers and hardened my own Conscience by a long course and custome of sin yet in the words of Holy Job There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease though the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof die in the ground yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant Job 14. 7 8 9. Though I have weakened my powers yet I am a man still though I have destroyed my self yet there is hope in the God of Israel and his hand is not shortened that he cannot save TVLLY is reported to have affirmed repentance to be impossible namely for a man to retrieve himself and take up a new course contrary to that to which he hath been long habituated and no doubt it is very difficult so to do as may sufficiently appear both by what we have said already and also by that of the Prophet Jer. 13. 23. Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doe evil Where the Holy Ghost intimates inveterate custome to be equal to nature it self and accordingly we find by too sad experience that there are very few that doe exuere hominem shake off the yoke of custome Facilis descensus Averni Sed revocare gradus c. And upon this account it is that the conversion of old sinners is called a New Birth and a New Creation in the language of Holy Scripture Notwithstanding as our Saviour said of rich men That it was harder for a Camel to goe through the eye of a needle then for such a man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yet to prevent mistakes adds With men it is impossible but with God all things are possible So it is in this case He can cause dry bones to live and of Stones raise up Children to Abraham The Holy Spirit can awaken those powers that were in a dead sleep Conscience is not so callous but it may be rendered soft and sensible again the will and other faculties of men though they are perverted yet are not extinct and being stirred up by the grace of God may exert themselves in a new strain oppose their old customs and introduce new habits AS custome bore down and overgrew Nature formerly so new customes may supplant the old ones and make a new Nature It is a well-known Story that when Zopyrus a great pretender to the skill of reading men's temper and inclination in their countenances had pronounced of Socrates that he was a lewd and intemperate man the Company who knew well the remarkable vertue of Socrates laughed the cunning man out of countenance till Socrates relieved him saying that indeed his inclination was naturally such as Zopyrus had pronounced but that Philosophy and the culture and care of himself had altered him to what he was BUT the Holy Scriptures as they contain both more excellent institutions of vertue and holiness then all Philosophy and more effectual methods of reclaiming and recovering men from vice and debauchery so in the History thereof they afford us the
something on man's part though very little and that they call Attrition by which they mean some slight sorrow for sin which they say together with the sacrament of penance or confession will reconcile a man to God without so much as contrition or true and hearty sorrow for the evil of sin this is the express doctrine of the Church of Rome and is very like the common doctrine of the Jews that confession and sacrifice were sufficient for repentance and reconciliation as if sin had no great evil in it self or no great contrariety to the divine nature only for form or order sake he thought fit that some shame or mulct should be put upon it and so a few tears or something of no great moment shall quit all the old score and purchase a new licence to sin again 3. ANOTHER opinion goes further yet requiring not only external expressions and the forms and solemnities of repentance but real and hearty sorrow for sin that a man's Conscience be really troubled and in great anguish for his sin and when this is done all is well from such trouble of Conscience they date their conversion and this they are always reflecting upon as a security not only against the sins committed before it but that from that time God sees no more sin in them as if like as it was at the Pool of Bethesda when the Angel had moved the waters all that stept in were healed These men ordinarily please themselves with melancholy complaints of themselves cry out of a naughty heart a hard heart c. and think this will doe their business as if so soon as the Patient is grown sensible of his case he were cured and to feel the smart were all one as to have the sore healed LASTLY a fourth sort go further yet and require not only contrition but resolution of obedience but content themselves and incourage men to a great degree of confidence though this resolution be never put in execution Thus a great many Saints are canonized from the Gallows and the Clinick or death-bed repentance is greatly countenanced Men commence Saints per saltum as they say as the Romans made Gentlemen Momento turbinis exit Marcus Dama in the turning of an hand a lewd and flagitious person starts up a great Saint The ground of this opinion is they suppose that which is undoubtedly true that God knows men's hearts but then they infer that which is very dangerous that therefore so that be turned right it is no matter with him whether there proceed any fruits worthy of repentance and amendment of life TO all these I might further adde those that reckon the change of opinion being of an admired Sect coming over with great zeal to a new party a demure garb an austere temper or at most some partial reformation to be sufficient signs of regeneration which fancy agrees too well to the humour of a great part of men of this age but I shall not need to proceed further in reckoning up these mistakes nor do I think it necessary to apply a particular confutation to doctrines so very absurd at the first view but I will now as I promised demonstrate the necessity of the doctrine I have asserted which will be an effectual detection of the fallacy of all these other now recired And this I will do by these four arguments § II. FIRST if God in the Holy Scripture doth require of those that have lived wickedly as the condition of their absolution and reconciliation to himself that they be not only sorry for their sins and resolve upon a new course but expresly calls for actual performance of such resolutions and real reformation then those must be strangely bold and presumptuous men that will conceive hopes of pardon upon any other terms But that this which we assert and nothing less is the declared condition of mercy these following passages amongst innumerable others do abundantly evince The first I take notice of is that of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. I. Vers 11 13 c. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the bloud of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-Goats Bring no more vain oblations incense is abomination to me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn meeting And when you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you yea when ye make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of bloud Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil Learn to doe well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as searlet they shall be as white as snow c. Of like import is that of the Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 18. Vers 21 22 28. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and doe that which is lawfull and right he shall surely live he shall not die All the transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed he shall surely live he shall not die So also Micah 6. 6 7 8. Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God shall I come before him with the burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousand rivers of Oil shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to doe justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God IN all which places God puts a slight upon all the most solemn expressions of penitence when they are dis-joined from actual amendment of life And touching Sacrifice it is very remarkable that though that was a rite of God's own allowance for the expiation of sin and had also conjoined with it the guilty persons confession of his fault and that particularly as Maimonides assures us and considering the usual cost of the oblation was a mulct upon the sinner and some kind of reparation to God yet this is declared of no efficacy without reformation THUS it was in the Old Testament and in the New the case is plainer if it be possible for thus John the Baptist preaches that they should not think it sufficient to submit to the baptism of repentance But bring forth fruits worthy of repentance Matt. 3. 8. And such is the discourse of our Saviour himself Matth. 7. 21. Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter
into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven q. d. It is not all the importunity of prayers or addresses that will avail without obedience So the Apostle St. Paul 2 Tim. 2. 19. The foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth who are his and let him that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity q. d. The election of God shall not be frustrate nor the ends of Christ's death defeated nevertheless let no man pretend to be concerned in the one nor interested in the other but he that is really a good and holy man And not to heap up Scriptures unnecessarily in so plain a case upon this account it is that Religion is described by a walk a course a warfare a life c. because that which God requires indispensably of men is not an agony or passion for their miscarriages or a resolution of amendment but an habit of vertuous conversation and all this is graphically represented by our Saviour in a Parable not unlike this before us Matt. 21. vers 28 29 c. What think you a certain man had two Sons and he said to the first Son go work to day in my Vineyard He answered and said I will not but afterwards he repented and went And he came to the second and said likewise And he answered and said I goe Sir but went not Whether of them twain did the will of his Father c. The case was this the Scribes and Pharisees and Rulers of the Jews made a great shew of piety they complemented God with prayers and other addresses and seemed ready prest for his service whereas the Publicans and Harlots had lived with as little pretence of piety as morality yet these at last being convinced of their danger come to repentance and really perform what the other did but promise And this puts me in mind of a story in Plutarch very applicable to the present purpose It happened that the Image of Minerva the great Goddess of Athens was to be new made and in a case which they esteemed of so great moment all care was taken to employ the most accurate and able Workman whereupon every Artist both desirous of the honour and profit by some means or other recommends himself to the employment but amongst the rest appears one who in a long and eloquent Oration magnifies his own ability in that kind and drew all men's eyes upon him till at last another rises up and uses only this short but significant saying What-ever that man hath said I will perform This man no doubt was entertained for the employment and most assuredly the man who actually performs his vows and doth what others talk of or make pretences to is the only person that finds acceptance with the Almighty For SECONDLY it would beget in the minds of men very mean and unworthy notions of God as an easy Majesty should he suffer himself to be put off with complemental addresses or divert his just indignation without honourable satisfaction and to think to prevail with him by costly Sacrifices and Oblations would speak him a necessitous Deity that could either be pleased with such trifles or were fond of such empty things as men dote upon it would also take away all the veneration of his Laws and divest him of that glorious Attribute of Justice if he could be supposed to dispense with obedience upon any of these conditions To imagine that sighs and tears and melancholy reflections upon our selves would propitiate him charges him with severity and cruelty as if he took pleasure in the calamities and sufferings of his Creatures it makes him appear like to the Pagan Idol Baal whose Priests not onely with vehement importunity called upon him from Morning till Noon O Baal hear us 1 Kings 18. but in a frantick mood leaped upon the Altar and cut themselves with Knives and Lancets till the bloud gushed out that by this means they might move his compassion towards them And which is worse yet no man that considers these things can reasonably doubt but God may abate his Creatures these things if he pleases and then the consequence is very sad for if he be supposed to require those things as the conditions of his favour which he may abate all Religion is made arbitrary and the most fundamental reason of obedience destroyed and the horrible imputation laid upon God that if he damn any it is because he rigidly insists upon such things as he might have indulged NOW all these things being intolerable it must needs be true that the only way of propitiating the Divine Majesty is by being sincerely good by ingenuous compliance with his Laws by actual reformation for this renders him truely great and just and good this is a reasonable service worthy of his excellency when all the powers of man are made subject to him and we love him with all our might and soul and strength BUT if it be said all this may be done by the resolution of the mind to amend though no such thing actually follow because God sees things in their causes and knowing the hearts of men needs not the fruits since he foresees it in the roots To this I answer that where it pleases God by cutting off the thread of men's lives to interrupt the prosecution of their intended reformation there it is reasonable to hope that he will accept the will for the deed but wherever he affords opportunity of executing men's intentions there at least can be no just expectation that he should admit of less then what is both so agreeable to his revealed will and also so much necessary to the interest of his glory inasmuch as it is fit that the divine sovereignty as well as the justice and wisedom of his Laws all which have been violated by sin should be vindicated and justified by the sinners retracting his own act and doing contrary to that wherein he had offended and that by letting his good works shine before men he may glorify his heavenly Father as heretofore he hath dishonoured him by his neglects and disobedience But THIRDLY if it were both consistent with the declaration of the divine will and also with his glory and interest to admit of any thing less then actual reformation at the hands of the sinner and could God be supposed inclinable to dispense with it yet the very condition of Heaven and the state and condition of the other world will necessarily require it The Apostle tells us Hebr. 6. 9. there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. some things that carry such a relation to the other world that a man cannot be damned with them nor saved without them Or as the same Apostle saith elsewhere 1 Col. 12. there are certain things that make men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the saints in light and on the other hand it is in the nature of