With wicked men it is not so. Death unto them is a curse ; and the curse is the means of the conveyance of all evil, and not deliver- ance from any. Wherein they have been warmed and refreshed by the influences of the flesh, they shall be deprived of it. But their souls in their separate state, are pei'j)etually harassed v/ith all the disquieting passions which have been impressed on their minds by their con'upt fleshly lusts. In vain do such persons look for relief by death. If there be anything remaining of present good and use- fulness to them, they shall be deprived of it. And their freedom for a season from bodily pains wiU no way lie in the balance against that confluence of evils which death will let in upon them.
2. The " spirits of just men," being freed by death from the clog of the flesh, not yet refined, — all the faculties of their souls, and all
412 THE GLORY OF CHRIST.
the graces in them, as faith, love, and delight, are immediately set at liberty, enabled constantly to exercise themselves on God in Christ. The end for which they were created, for which our nature was en- dowed with them, was, that we might adhere unto God by them, and come unto the enjoyment of him. Being now freed wholly from all that impotency, perverseness, and disability unto this end, with all the effects of them, which came upon them by the fall ; they are carried with a full stream towards God, cleaving unto him with the most intense embraces. And all their actings towards God shall be natural, with facility, joy, delight, and complacency. We know not yet the excellency of the operations of our souls in divine things, when disburdened of their present weight of the flesh. And this is a second step towards the consummation of glory. For, —
In the resurrection of the body, upon its full redemption, it shall be so purified, sanctified, glorified, as to give no obstruction imto the soul in its operations, but be a blessed organ for its highest and most spiritual actings. The body shall never more he a trouble, a burden unto the soul, but an assistant in its operations, and participant of its blessedness. Our eyes were made to see our Kedeemer, and our other senses to receive impressions from him, according unto their capacity. As the bodies of wicked men shall be restored unto them to increase and complete their misery in their sufferings; so shall the bodies of the just be restored unto them, to heighten and consummate their blessedness.
3. These things are preparatory unto glory. The complete com- munication of it is by the infusion of a new heavenly light into the mind, enablinsf us to see the Lord Christ as he is. The soul shall not be brought into the immediate presence of Christ without a new power, to behold him and the immediate representation of his glory. Faith now doth cease, as unto the manner of its operation in this life, whilst we are absent from Christ. This light of glory succeeds into its room, fitted for that state and all the ends of it, as faith is for that which is present. And, —
4. In the first operation of this light of glory, believers shall so behold the glory of Christ, and the glory of God in him, as that there- with and thereby they shall be immediately and universally changed into his likeness. They shall be as he is, when they shall see him as he is. There is no growth in glory, as to parts ; — there may be as to degrees. Additions may be outwardly made unto what is at first re- ceived as by the resurrection of the body; but the internal light of glory and its transforming efficacy is capable of no degrees, though new revelations may be made unto it unto eternity. For the infinite -fountain of life, and light, and goodness, can never be fathomed, much less exhausted. And what God spake on the entrance of sin, by the
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE FAITH AND SIGHT OF IT. 413
way of contempt and reproach, " Behold, the man is become like one of us ! " upbraiding him with what he had foolishly designed ; — on the accomplishment of the work of his grace, he says in love and infinite goodness, " Man is become like one of us," in the perfect restoration of our image in him. This is the first effect of the light of glory.
Faith also, in beholding the glory of Christ in this life, is accom- panied with a transforming efficacy, as the apostle expressly declares, 2 Cor. iii. 1 8. It is the principle from whence, and the instnmiental cause whereby, all spiritual change is wrought in us in this life ; but the work of it is imperfect ; — first, because it is gradual, and then be- cause it is partial.
(1.) As unto the maimer of its operation, it is gradual, and doth not at once transform us into tlie image of Christ ; yea, the degrees of its progress therein are unto us for the most part imperceptible. It requires much spiritual wisdom and observation to obtain an experi- ence of them in our own souls. " The inward man is renewed day by day," whilst we behold these invisible things, 2 Cor. iv. 16-18. But how? — even as the outward man decays by age, Avhich is by insen- sible degrees and alterations. Such is the transformation which we have by faith, in its present view of the glory of Christ. And accord- ing to our experience of its efficacy herein, is our evidence of its truth and reality in the beholding of him. No man can have the least ground of assurance that he hath seen Christ and his glory by faith, without some effects of it in changing him into his likeness. For as on the touch of his garment by the woman in the Gospel, virtue went out ft'om him to heal her infirmity ; so upon this view of faith, an in- fluence of transforming power will proceed from Christ unto the soul.