89. For it is in vain that you say that you
preach repentance who remove the fruits of repentance. For men
are led to the pursuit of anything either by rewards or results, and
every pursuit grows slack by delay. And for this reason the Lord,
in order that the devotion of His disciples might be increased, said
that every one who had left all that was his, and followed God, should
receive sevenfold more both here and hereafter. S. Matt. xix. 29. First of all He promised the reward
here, to do away with the tedium of delay, and again
hereafter, that we might learn to believe that rewards will also
be given to us hereafter. Present rewards are then an earnest of
those hereafter.