32. Degrees in the glory of a Christian

Degrees in the glory of a Christian

There be degrees of glory. There is glory begun here in grace, and there is the glory of the soul after death, and the glory both of soul and body for ever in heaven, and these make way one to another. A Christian is glorious while he lives, and he grows in glory while he lives. He is more glorious when he dies, for then his soul hath perfectly the image of Christ stamped upon it. But he is most glorious at the day of resurrection, when body and soul shall be glorious, when he shall put down the very sun itself. All glory shall be nothing to the glory of the saints, ’They shall shine as the sun in the firmament,’ Daniel 12:3. And indeed there will be no glory but the glory of Christ and of his spouse; all other glory shall vanish and come to nothing. But the glory of the King of heaven and his queen that he hath chosen to himself to solace himself eternally with, when the spiritual marriage shall be accomplished, they shall be for ever glorious together. Why then should we be afraid of death? For then there shall be a further degree of glory of the soul, and after that a further degree of body and soul, when our bodies shall be conformable to the glorious body of Christ, when they shall be spiritual, as it is in 1 Corinthians 15:44. I beseech you, therefore, let, us learn this to comfort ourselves against those dark times of dissolution, when we shall see an end of all other glory. All worldly glory shall end in the dust, and lie down in the grave; when we must say that ’rottenness is our father,’ and the ’worm our mother,’ Job 17:14. We can claim no other kin in regard of our body, yet then we shall be more glorious in regard of our souls. Christ shall put a robe of glory upon us, and then afterward we shall be more glorious still.

Therefore it is base infidelity to be afraid of our dissolution, when indeed it is not a dissolution, but a way to glory. We should rather consider the conjunction, than the dissolution. Death takes in pieces body and soul, but it joins the soul to Christ. It makes the soul more glorious than it was before. We go from glory to glory. Our Saviour Christ saith, ’He that believeth in me shall never die,’ John 11:26. What doth he mean by that?

Indeed, we shall never die, for grace shall be swallowed up of glory. As soon as ever the life of nature is gone, he lives the life of glory presently. So he never dies. There is but a change of the life of grace and of nature for the life of glory.

What that glory shall be at that day, it is a part of that glory to know; for indeed it is beyond expression, and beyond the comprehension of our minds. They cannot conceive it nor our tongues express it. Peter, as I said, seeing but a glimpse of it, said, ’It is good for us to be here.’ He forgot all his former troubles and afflictions. If such a little glimpse of glory could so possess the soul of that blessed man Peter, as that it made him forget all his former miseries, and all his afflictions whatsoever, to be in love with that condition above all others, what shall the glory of heaven be then! Shall we think then of our former misery, and baseness, and trouble, and persecutions? Oh no.

Use 4. Again, let us be exhorted by this to try the truth of grace in us, by our care to grow and proceed from glory to glory, still to be more glorious in Christianity. Beloved, of necessity it must be so. Let us not deceive ourselves in our natural condition. Do we content ourselves that we live a sick man’s life? No. We desire health. When we have health, is that all? No. When we have health, we desire strength too, that we may encounter oppositions. Is it so in nature, that life is not enough, but health; and that is not enough, but strength too? And is it not so much more in the new creature, in the new nature, in the divine nature? If there be life, there will be a desire to have health, that our sick souls may be more and more healed; that our actions that come from our faculties sanctified be not sick actions; that they be not weak languishing actions; that we may have healed souls; that God together with pardoning grace may join healing grace, to cure our souls daily more and more, that we may be more able to performances. And then, when we have got spiritual health, let us desire spiritual strength to encounter oppositions and temptations, to go through afflictions, to make way through all things that stand in our way to heaven. Let us not deceive ourselves. This will be so. If there be truth of grace, still a further and further desire of grace, carrying us to a further and further endeavour. The more we grow in grace, the more God smells a sweet sacrifice from us; that that comes from us is more refined and less corrupt. It yields better acceptance to God. And then for others, the more we grow in grace, the more we grow in ability, in nimbleness, and cheerfulness to do them good; and that that comes from us finds more acceptance with others, being carried with a strong spirit of love anddelight, which alway is accepted in the eyes of men. The more we grow in grace, the more cheerful we shall be in regard of ourselves. The better we are, the better we may be; the more we do, the more we may do. For God further instils the oil of grace, to give us strength and cheerfulness in good actions, so that they come off with delight. Our own cheerfulness increaseth as our growth increaseth. In a word, you see glory tends to glory, and that is enough to stir us up to grow in it. Seeing glory here, which is grace, tends to glory in heaven, we should never rest till we come to that perfection; till the glory of grace end in glory indeed. For what is the glory of heaven but the perfection of grace? And what is the beginnings of grace here but the beginnings of glory? Grace is glory begun, and glory is grace perfected. Therefore, if we would be in heaven as much as may be, and enter further and further into the kingdom of God, as Peter saith, 2 Peter 1:5, seq., let us be alway adding grace to grace, and one degree to another. Put somewhat to the heap still, that so we may go from glory to glory, from knowledge to knowledge, from faith to faith, from one degree to another.

Obj. But it will be objected that Christians sometimes stand at a stay, sometimes they seem to go back.

Ans. In a word, to answer that, some because they cannot see themselves in growing, they think they grow not at all. It is but ignorance; for we see the sun moves, though we see him not in moving. We know things grow, though we see them not in growing. Therefore it follows not, that because we perceive not our growth from grace to grace, that therefore we grow not. But put the case indeed that Christians decay in their first love and in some grace. There is a suspension of growth. It is that they may grow in some other grace. God sees it needful they should grow in the root, and therefore abaseth them in the sense of some infirmity, and then they spring out amain again. As after a hard winter comes a glorious spring, upon a check grace breaks out more gloriously. And there is a mystery in God’s government in that kind, that God often increaseth grace by the sight and sense of our infirmities. God shews his powerful government in our weakness; for God’s children never hate their corruption more than when they have been overcome by it. Then they begin to be sensible of it, that there is some hidden corruption that they discerned not before, that it is fit they should take notice of. The best man living knows not himself till he comes to temptation. That discovers himself to himself. Temptation discovers corruption and makes it known, and then stirs up hatred for it. As love stirs up endeavour, so hatred aversation* and loathing. It is profitable for God’s children to fall sometimes. They would never be so good as they are else. They would not wash for spots; but when they see they are foul indeed, then they go to wash. But this is a mystery; God will have it so for good ends.

It checks the disposition of some good people. They think they have not grace, because they have but a little. This phrase shews that we have not all at once. God carries us by degrees, ’from glory to glory,’ from one degree of grace to another. God’s children, when they have truth of grace wrought in them, their desires go beyond their endeavour and strength. Their desires are wondrous large, and their prayers are answerable to their desires. Therefore in the Lord’s prayer what say we? ’Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,’ Matthew 6:10. Can it be so in this world? No. But we must pray till we come to it. We must pray till we come to heaven, where prayer shall cease. So the prayers and desires of God’s people transcend their endeavours. Their prayers are infinite. Hereupon, the chief thing in conversion being the desire, the turning of the stream of the will, when they find their will and their desire good, and their endeavour to fall short of their purposes, they say, Surely I have no good, because I have not that I would have, as if they should have heaven upon earth. We must grow ’from glory to glory.’ And thank God for that beginning. It is God’s mercy that he would work the least degree of grace in such rebellious hearts as all of us have; that he would work any goodness, any change, though never so little. God looks not to the measure, so much as to truth. For he will bring truth to perfection, though it be never so little. Let us be comforted in it. And it is God’s government, to bring his children to glory by little and little, that so there may be a dependence of one Christian upon another; the weaker on the stronger: and that there may be pity, and sweet affections of one Christian to another; and that there may be perpetual experience of God’s mercy in helping weak Christians; and a perpetual experience of that which is the true ground of comfort, justification; that we must needs be justified, and stand righteous before God, by Christ’s absolute righteousness, having experience of our imperfect righteousness. So a little measure of grace in us is for great purpose. Therefore let none be discouraged, especially considering that God, whom we desire to please, values us by that little good we have, and esteems us by that condition he means to bring us to ere long to perfection. So long as we take not part with our corruptions, but with the Spirit of God, and give way to him, and let him have his work in us; so long be of good comfort in any measure of grace whatsoever.