Use 2. Is for the encouragement of poor weak Christians, who have the essentials of godliness, though they be weak, and have, not attained to the eminency of many others. These should not be dismayed ; there are persons of all sizes, and several degrees in heaven, and they are all possessed with the same common happiness : 2 Peter i. 2, ' To them that have obtained like precious faith with us.' Mean believers in some sense have like precious faith with an apostle, as to the great
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ends of the covenant ; the same jewel. Complectitur et puerulus, com- plectitur et gigas ; one holds with a strong, the other with a trembling hand ; the jewel is of the same value. The same sacrifice for sin ; we all depend upon the infinite mercies of the same God ; the same physician of souls hath us in cure who hath cured all others ; the same captain that hath saved others who are more eminent is conducting us to salvation, and is preparing us for the same estate which they hope to enjoy. They have no greater nor better high priest and mediator with God than we have ; they are going to the same place that we are, and we that they are ; only they have gotten the start a great way before us. But whilst we strive to overtake them, and make as much haste as we can, though we bewail our imperfections, yet we should not lose the comfort of our sincerity.
Doct. 2. Though the essential happiness of the saints be the same, yet there are degrees in glory.
Luke xix. 16-19. We read there of having authority over ten cities and five cities. More is required of the first servant and more is given him ; and more is required of the first servant than the second ; as we expect a horseman should come sooner than a footman. But more particularly to prove that there are degrees of glory. First, from scrip- ture : 2 Cor. ix. 6, ' He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully. As there is a differ- ence in the kind of the crop, according to the kind of the seed, Gal. vi. 6, 7, so according to the degree. Some do well, others do better ; so some fare well, others fare better, are more bountifully rewarded ; for God will deal more liberally with them who shall accordingly with greater fidelity acquit themselves in well-doing. There is a proportion observed. Again, the common happiness of the saints is to shine as the stars, Mat. xiii. and Dan. xii. 3 ; yet the apostle telleth us, that ' one star differeth from another in glory ; so shall it be in the resur- rection from the dead,' 1 Cor. xv. 41 ; namely, that their glory shall be according to their inequality in zeal, service, and faithfulness to God. Another place shall be that, 1 Cor. iii. 8, ' Every man shall, receive his own reward, according to his own labour ;' that is, accord- ing to the degree ; for he speaketh there of degrees of serviceableness in the church. Every man hath a labour of his own, that is, such a measure and degree of service appropriately his ; and so by conse- quence hath his own reward, somewhat which doth exactly answer his labour. Some have thought no, that the saints in heaven, their reward is exactly equal. It is true all shall have enough, but some more than others : so Eph. vi. 8, ' "Whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free;' that is, shall be punctually and particularly considered by God for it ; he shall receive the same, not for kind, but quantity and pro- portion ; they shall have in their reward a particular and appropriate consideration ; a bondman a bondman's reward, a freeman a freeman's reward ; every degree of goodness shall be considered by God : so there seemeth to be a distinction between a prophet's reward, and a righteous man's reward, and a disciple's reward, Mat. x. 41, 42. Add that con- cerning Zebedee's children, Mat. xx. 21, 22. She cometh to Christ, and prayeth that her two sons might sit one at his right hand and the
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other at his left in his kingdom. Christ doth not deny but that some- thing there is which may be signified by his right hand and his left; yea, rather asserts it ; for he saith, ' It shall be given to those for whom it is prepared of my Father.' There are some chiefest and highest places of glory and preferment in his kingdom, and he hath pre- pared these places for persons of the greatest worth and eminency in his service ; for these the greatest honours of the world to come are reserved.
Reasons of the point.
1. From the nature of that glory and blessedness we expect. It standeth in communion with God, and conformity to him, or the vision and full fruition of God, Ps. xvii. 15 ; 1 John iii. 2. Now the more holy the more suited to this happiness, and therefore have larger measures of it : Mat. v. 8, ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ;' Heb. xii. 14, ' Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.' We ' behold his face in righteousness.' Now we are more capacitated, vessels of a larger bore. It is unreasonable to imagine that clarified souls have no more fruition of God than those that only have grace enough to make a hard shift to get to heaven : Sicut se habet simpliciter ad simpliciter, ita magis ad magis. Holiness singly fits to see God, and without it we cannot see him. So a little holiness fits us to take in a little of God ; the more holiness the more of God.