2S0 EXCELLENCY OF THE GOSPEL
will not be outsliined by anything. Therefore, those that can sec so far into the Hfc of another man, as they love it, and honour the grace of God in another man, it is a sign there is some work of glory begun in them. Men can endure good things in books, and by reports, and good things of men that are dead, etc., but they cannot endure good things running in their eyes. Especially when it comes in a kind of competition and comparison, they love not to be outshined.
' From glory to glory.'
We see the state of God's children here, and the state in heaven, come both under one name ; both are ' glory.' The children of God are kings here, they shall be kings in heaven, The}^ arc saints here, as they be saints in heaven. There is an adoption of grace as well as an adoption of glory, Kom. viii. 30, et alihi. There is a regeneration here of our souls ; there is a regeneration of soul and body then. We are new creatures here ; and we shall be new creatures there.
Quest. Why do all come under one name, the state of glory in heaven, and the state of grace here ? Is there no difference ?
Ans. Yes. But the difference is in degrees, and not otherwise. For heaven rcust be begun here. If ever we mean to enter into heaven here- after, we enter into the suburbs here. We must be new creatures here. We are kings here ; we are heirs apparent here ; we are adopted here ; we are regenerate here ; we are glorious here, before we be glorious hereafter. Therefore, beloved, we may read our future state in our present. We must not think to come de scelo in ccehuii, as he saith [j], out of the filth of sin to heaven, but heaven must be begun here. You see both have the same name, grace, and glory. Therefore, wouldst thou know what thy condition shall be afterwards ? Eead it in thy present disposition. If there be not a change and a glorious change here, never look for a glorious change hereafter. What is not begun in grace shall never be accomplished in glory. Both grace here and glory hereafter coming under the same name, it forceth this.
And likewise it is a ground of comfort ; for why have we the same term here ? When we are in the state of grace, why are we decked and adorned with the same title as w^e shall be in heaven ?
It is partly for certainty. Grace is glory, as well as the perfection of it is glory, to shew that where grace is truly begun it will end in glory. All the powers in the world cannot interrupt God's gracious progress and way. What is begun in grace will end in glory. Where the foundation is laid, God will be sure to put up the roof. He never repents of his beginnings. Solomon saith that the ' righteous is like to the sun,' that grows brighter and brighter, till he come to his full strength, Prov. iv. 18. So the state of the godly grows more and more, from light to light, till he come to full strength. The state of the wicked is clean contrary. The state of the wicked is like the declining da3\ The sun grows down and down till it be twilight, and thence to darkness, and then to utter darkness. So they being dark in themselves, they grow from the darkness of misery and terror of conscience to eternal darkness, black, dismal darkness in hell. But the state of the godly it is like the course of the sun after midnight, that is grow- ing up, up still, till it come to mid-day. So the state of the godly it is alway on the mending hand; it is always a growing state; it is a hopeful condition. They go from glory to glory. And therefore let us be assured of eternal glory for the time to come, as sure as we are of the beginnings of grace here wrought. You see, then, a main difference between the godly and others
ABOVE THE LAW. 281
Other men grow hackv^avd, pro/icere in j)cjus, as we say. They take degrees back from worse to worse, till they end in utter desolation and destruction for ever. But the other riscth by degrees, till they come to that happiness that can admit no further degrees. All the glory of the world ends in vanity and in nothing ; but the glory of a Christian that begins in grace, you see it proceeds from glory to glory, alway growing and amending. If men were not spiritually mad, would they not rather be in a condition alway amending and growing more and more hopeful still, than to be in a condition alway declining, and most subject to decline when it is at the top. Thei'e is no consistence in any human felicity, but it is in prcecipite, near a downfall when it is at the highest. God's children are near rising when they are at the lowest. There is a spirit of glory lights, and not only so, but rests on them. It doth not light upon them and then go away. It is not as a flash or blaze of flax or so (/.•). But the Spirit rests and grows still upon them, ' from glory to glory.' The state of a Christian it is comfort- able, that is soundly converted, when he shall think every day brings me nearer my glory ; every day I rise I am somewhat happier than I was the day before, because I am somewhat more glorious and nearer to eternal glory ; when another wretch that lives in sins against conscience may say, I am somewhat nearer hell, nearer eclipsing, and ebbing, and declining than before. So every day brings terror to the one, and matter of comfort to the other.