ABOVE THE LAW. 273
* iu lioliness and righteousnes all the days of our life.' Wliosoever, there- fore, are in a state of deliverance, have grace granted them whereby they may serve God in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life ; they are changed into the same image,
' From glory to glory.'
By glory is meant especially grace here, and that which accompanies the grace of God, the favour of God. When we are persuaded of it by the Spirit, by which grace is wrought in us, upon grace iu us there follows peace, and joy, and comfort, and many such things which the Scripture accounts to be glory.
We say there are four degrees of the glory of a Christian.
First, initial glory, in his first conversion, and thereupon, the knowledge of his deliverance from that cursed and damnable state that he is in ; the knowledge, likewise, of his title to life everlasting. He comes to have friendship with God ; he comes to have his nature renewed, that he may be friends with God. There must be an assimilation by the Spirit, like God, in a holy disposition. Now, upon the favour of God we come to be friends with God, and to have our natures altered ; and hereupon comes those glorious qualifications, as peace, and jo}-, and consolation in all con- ditions, and liberty, and boldness to the throne of grace. This is glory, beloved ! Is it not a glory to be friends with God, and to have God deal with us as friends ? to reveal his secrets to us of his love and grace in Christ ? to discover the hidden mysteries of his love to us, that was hid from the beginning of the world ? We never know it till our effectual calling, till our first conversion, for God to be friends with us all our lives : Abraham was the friend of God. And then to have our nature renewed, to have our shame laid aside. Indeed, sin makes us shameful. It is the dishonour and abasement of the soul. The very change of our nature to be such as God may delight in, this is glory. The image of God is glory. Therefore in Rom. iii. 23, et alibi, it is said we are stripped and ' deprived of the glory of God' since the fall, that is, of the image of God, by Adam's sin, whereby we resembled God in holiness ; so grace whereby we resemble God is the image and likeness of God, and that is the glory of man. If one should ask, What is the best glory of a man ? that intriusecal glory that characteriseth a man indeed ? It is the stamp of Christ upon him, the image of the second Adam, in his soul to be like him.
And hereupon those glorious qualifications that follow upon it, glorious peace, and glorious joy ; glorious and unspeakable comfort, above all dis- comforts whatsoever ; as indeed the comforts of religion are comforts triumphing and prevailing above all discomforts. There are no comforts but those in religion, that are above the discomforts we meet with iu this world. For what can be set against the wrath of God, against hell and damnation, but the comforts of the gospel ? Now when a man is in the state of grace, and hath these glorious things following him, sweet and glo- rious peace that passeth understanding, that all the world, and all the devils in hell cannot shake, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and comforts above all discomforts whatsoever : and then glorious liberty he hath to come into the presence of God upon all occasions, being a friend of God — are not these things glorious, beloved ? And these belong to every Christian.
Second, Now as a Christian gwirs i)i assurance of his salvation and further friendship u-ith God, and further peace and joy and comfort, there is a further degree of glory. The growth of grace is glory. Therefore in 2 Pet. i. 5, seq., h^ follows the point at large. "When we add grace to grace, he
VOL. IV. ^ S
274 EXCELLENCY OF THE GOSPEL
saith it gives a further entrance into the kingdom of God : for the kingdom of God is begun in grace here ; and the further we grow in grace, the more we enter into the kingdom of grace ; and the further we enter into that, the nearer we are to the kingdom of glory.
Third, The next degree of glory is when the soul enjoys the presence of God in heaven.
Fourth, Then the upshot and conclusion, the closure and consummation of all, at the day of judf/ment, when body and soul shall be united again. Then is perfect glory. Here it is insinuated, when he saith we are changed from glory to glory, that is, from grace to grace, till all end in glory, which is the perfection of all in heaven, when bod_y and soul shall be both glorious, * from glory to glory.'
In this is considerable, first, that grace is glory : and then, that grace being glory, is growing in a continual course till it come to perfection. We grow ' from glory to glory,' from one degree of grace to another.