main. There shall be a renovation of all things, say most, and that only the fashion of the world, that is, the outward form and corruptible qualities, shall be destroyed ; and so the earth shall be found no more as it was, but shall be made most beautiful and glorious, being to be * delivered into the glorious liberty,' as far as it is capable, ' of the sons of God,' Kom. viii. 19-22 ; being to be freed from corruption and bondage ; and with these I close. The sum of the 21st verse is, that the creature shall not be always subject to vanity, but shall have a manumission from bondage ; of the which deliverance, three things are declared ; First, Who the creature [is], that is, ' the world ;' Secondly, From what, from ' corruption,' which is a bondage ; Thirdly, Into what estate, into ' the glorious liberty of the sons of God.' Some here note the time of the deliverance of the creature, namely, when the children of God shall be wholly set free ; for though they have here a freedom unto righteousness, from the bondage of sin, yet they have not a freedom of glory, which is from the bondage of misery. But others take it for the state itself which shall be glorious, not the same with the children of God, but proportioned according to its kind with them ; for it is most suitable to the liberty of the faithful, that as they are renewed, so also should their habitation. And as when a nobleman mourneth, his servants are all clad in black ; so it is for the greater glory of man, that the creatures, his servants, should in their kind partake of his glory. And whereas some say that it is deliver- ance enough for the creature, if it cease to serve man, and have an end of vanity, by annihilation, I affirm, it is not enough, because this 21st verse notes, not only such deliverance, but also a further estate which it shall have after such deliverance — namely, to communicate in some degree, with the children of God in glory. Certainly the creatures, in their kind and manner, shall be made partakers of a far better estate than they had while the world endured ; because that God shall fully and wholly restore the world, being fallen into corrup- tion through the transgression and sin of mankind. And this doth more plainly appear by the apostle's opposing subsequent liberty against former bondage ; which, that he might more enlarge, he calleth it not simply freedom or liberty, but liberty of glory, as it is in the Greek text,i meaning thereby, according to the phrase and pro- priety of the Hebrew tongue, glorious liberty, or liberty that bringeth glory with it ; under which term of glory, he compriseth the excellent estate that they shall be in after their delivery from their former base- ness and servitude. As for those words, of the ' sons of God,' to which we must refer the glorious liberty before mentioned, they must be understood by a certain proportion or similitude thus ; that as in that great day, and not before, God's children shall be graciously freed from all dangers and distresses of this life whatsoever, either in body or soul, and on the other side, made perfect partakers of eternal blessed- ness ; so the creatures then, and not before, shall be delivered from the vanity of man, and their own corruption, and restored to a far
^ eXevOepiav t^s So^tjs. If any shall inquire what shall be the particular properties, works, and uses of all and every creature after the last judgment, I answer, (1 .) That as to these things the word is silent, and it is not safe to be wise above what is written ; (2.) Here is place for that which Tertuliian calls a learned ignorance.
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better estate than at present they enjoy; which also may further appear by the words the apostle useth, setting glorious liberty, deliver- ance and freedom, against servile bondage and slavery. Chrysostom reads Bt,a, for the glorious liberty of the sons of God : as if the end or final cause of their deliverance were pointed at, namely, that as God made the world for man, and for man's sin subdued it to vanity ; so he would deliver it and restore it for men, even to illustrate and en- large the glory of God's children. I could, by variety of arguments, prove that this deliverance of the creature that our apostle speaks of, shall not be by a reduction into nothing, but by an alteration into a better estate. But I must hasten to a close.
Ver. 12, ' And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.' The judge, before whom all do appear, is our dear Lord Jesus, ' who hath the keys of hell and death in his hands,' Kev. i. 18 ; Acts xvii, 30, 31, and who is designed and appointed by God the Father to be the judge of quick and dead. He hath authority, and a commission mider his Father's hand, to sit and act as judge. Here you see that John calleth the judge absolutely God, but Christ is the judge; therefore Christ is God absolutely ; and he will appear to be God in our nature in that great day.