Secondly, That the beatifical vision shall be seen by all the saints, and communicated to all the saints ; they shall all have a happy and blessed fruition and possession of God. All the vessels of glory shall be filled to the brim with a clear sight of God, and with a full enjoy- ment of God ; and yet doubtless, for all this, some saints shall appre- hend more of God than others, and comprehend more of God than others, and enjoy more of God than others. Though all shall be filled with those everlasting springs of pleasure and delight that be at God's right hand, Ps. xvi. 11, yet some shall be able to take in more of those pleasures of paradise than others shall. Though all the widow's vessels were filled to the brim with oil, yet, doubtless, some being greater and larger than others, they accordingly contained more oil than others, 2 Kings iv. 3-8 ; and so it will be with the saints when they come to heaven. There shall be no lack of glory to any of the saints in glory. All the saints shall be filled with glory according to their capacity. If you bring a thousand vessels of different sizes to the sea, the sea fills them all. Though their sizes differ, and some are bigger, and others lesser, yet all are filled, every little vessel hath its fill as well as the greater ; so every saint shall have his fill of glory when he comes to glory ; the felicity of every saint shall be perfect God will be all in all to all saints, Ps. xvii. 15.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 369
Thirdly, All saints shall be freed from all evils alike ; they shall all be freed from the aching head, and from the unbelieving heart ; they shall all alike be free from the evil of sin, and from the evil of sufferings ; there shall not be a saint in glory that shall ever feel a pricking brier or a grieving thorn, Ezek. xxviii. 24 ; there all sorrow- shall be removed from all their hearts, and all tears shall be wiped from all their eyes. Rev. vii. 17.
Fourthly and lastly. The degrees of glory that saints shall have in heaven shall not be given out to them upon the account of their merits, or the dignity of their persons, or the worthiness of their works, but upon the account of Grod's mere mercy and grace, who in the day of retribution will delight to crown his own gifts, not our merits ; and where he shall find the greatest measures of grace and holiness, there he will, of his own free mercy, bestow the greatest measure of glory. l Well, friends, remember this, you must always carefully distinguish between the essence and substance of glory, and between degrees and measures of glory. Now the essence and sub- stance of glory, which consists in the saints' full communion with God, and in their perfect conformity to God, and in their universal subjection to God, and in their everlasting fruition of God, be common to all the saints, so that no one saint shall have more of the essence and substance of glory than another has, yet the degrees and measures of glory shall be distributed to some more, to some less. Now that there shall be different degrees of glory in heaven, answerable to the different degrees of grace and holiness that the saints reach to here on earth, and that God will at last proportion his rewards according to the different degrees of labour, service, and sufferings of his people in this world, may be made evident, 1. By clear scriptures ; 2. By arguments. ISTow there are several scriptures that speaks out this truth. Take these for a taste :
[1.] First, that 1 Cor. iii. 8, * Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one : and every man shall receive his own reward accord- ing to his own labour/ The apostle having compared his own and Apollos' work together, adds, ' That both should receive their reward according to their work ' — that is, as their work differed, so should their reward differ. Though they both preached one and the same doctrine, and had both one and the same design and purpose, viz., to bring in souls to Christ, and to build up souls to Christ, yet according to their different degrees of labour, so should be their different degrees of reward. Though no man should work in God's vineyard for nought, yet he that was most faithful, diligent, and laborious in planting or in watering God's husbandry, should have the greatest reward. Paul and Apollos shall at last receive their different reward according to their dif- ferent labom-; or nearer the original, they shall each of them receive, top iScov fiiadov \i]\(r€Tat Kara rov lSlov kottov, their proper reward accord- ing to their proper work.
[2.] A second scripture is that 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42, 'There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star differeth from another in glory ; so also is the
* Deus nihil coronal nisi dona tua, When God crowneth U3, he doth but crown his own gifts in us, &c, — Augustine.
370 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, BARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
resurrection of the dead.' Mark here is the full stop, and these words are not to be referred to those following words, viz., ' That the body is sown in corruption, and riseth again in incorruption.' For the apostle speaks not here of the difference between glorious and inglorious, cor- ruptible and incorruptible things ; but he speaks here of the difference that is between heavenly and glorious things ; ' for,' saith he, * one star differs from another in glory.' It is very observable that the compari- son runs between the glorified condition of some saints that shall rise, and other some that shall rise in the great day. So that look, as one star differs from another star in glory, so one saint shall differ from another saint in glory at the resurrection of the dead. Though every star is bright, shining, and glorious, yet some stars are more bright, shining, and glorious than others are ; so, though every saint will shine gloriously in heaven, yet some saints shall have a greater lustre, glory and shine upon them than others shall. Look, as some heavenly bodies are more glorious than others, so in the morning of the resur- rection some saints shall be more glorious than others, &c.