There be degrees of glory. There is glory begun hero in grace, and there is the glory of the soul after death, and the gloiy both of soul and body for ever in heaven, and these make way one to another. A Christian is glorious while he lives, and he grows in glory while he lives. He is more glorious when he dies, for then his soul hath perfectly the image of Christ stamped upon it. But he is most glorious at the day of resurrection, when body and soul shall be glorious, when he shall put down the very sun itself. All glory shall be nothing to the glory of the saints, ' They shall shine as the sun in the firmament,' Dan. xii. 3. And indeed there wiU be no glor}^ but the glory of Christ and of his spouse ; all other glory shall vanish and come to nothing. But the glory of the King of heaven and his queen that he hath chosen to himself to solace himself eternally with, when the spiritual marriage shall be accomplished, they shall be for ever glorious together. Why then should we be afraid of death ? For then there shall be a further degree of glory of the soul, and after that a further degree of body and soul, when our bodies shall be conformable to the glorious body of Christ, when they shall be spiritual, as it is in 1 Cor. XV. 44. I beseech you, therefore, let us learn this to comfort our- selves against those dark times of dissolution, W'hen we shall see an end of all other glory. All worldly gloiy shall end in the dust, and lie down in the grave ; when we must say that ' rottenness is our father,' and the ' worm our mother,' Job. xvii. 14. We can claim no other kin in regard of our body, yet then we shall be more glorious in regard of our souls. Christ shall put a robe of glory upon us, and then afterward we shall be more glorious still.
Therefore it is base infidelity to be afraid of our dissolution, when indeed it is not a dissolution, but a way to gloiy. We should rather consider the conjunction, than the dissolution. Death takes in pieces body and soul, but it joins the soul to Christ. It makes the soul more glorious than it was before. We go from glory to glory. Our Saviour Christ saith, ' He that believeth in me shall never die,' John xi. 2G. What doth he mean by that ?
Indeed, we shall never die, for grace shall be swallowed up of glory. As soon as ever the life of nature is gone, he lives the life of glory presently. So he never dies. There is but a change of the life of grace and of nature for the life of glory.
WhsLt that glory shall be at that day, it is a part of that glory to know ; for indeed it is beyond expression, and beyond the comprehension of our minds. They cannot conceive it nor our tongues express it, Peter, as I said, seeing but a glimpse of it, said, ' It is good for us to be here.' He forgot all his former troubles and afflictions. If such a little glimpse of glory could so possess the soul of that blessed man Peter, as that it made
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him forget all liis former miseries, and all his alllictions whatsoever, to be in love with that condition above all others, what shall the glory of heaven be then ! Shall we think then of our former misery, and baseness, and trouble, and persecutions ? Oh no.
Use 4, Again, let us be exhorted by this to try the truth of grace in tis, h]! onr care to ijrow and proceed from f/lonj to ;/lonj, still to be more glorious in Christianity. Beloved, of necessity it must be so. Let us not deceive ourselves in our natural condition. Do we content ourselves that we live a sick man's life ? No. We desire health. When we have health, is that all ? No. When we have health, vre desire strength too, that we may encounter oppositions. Is it so in nature, that life is not enough, but health ; and that is not enough, but strength too ? And is it not so much more in the new creature, in the new nature, in the divine nature ? If there be life, there will be a desire to have health, that our sick souls may be more and more healed ; that our actions that come from our facul- ties sanctified be not sick actions ; that they be not weak languishing actions ; that we may have healed souls ; that God together with pardoning grace may join healing grace, to cure our souls daily more and more, that we may be more able to performances. And then, when we have got spiritual health, let us desire spiritual strength to encounter oppositions and temptations, to go through afflictions, to make way through all things that stand in our way to heaven. Let us not deceive ourselves. This will be so. If there be truth of grace, still a further and further desire of grace, carrying us to a further and further endeavour.