Of Glorification Begun and Perfected

Glorification, more generally taken, includes the whole of believers’ honour and pleasure in time and eternity.

I. The commencement of it in this life, which has been con¬

sidered in the preceding chapters, may be summed up in, 1 Our high state of honour as the spouse and members of Christ, anti the friends, favourites, children, kings, and priests of God, in, and together with him, 1 Cor. i. 30. 2 Cor. v. 21. Eph. i. 3 — 7. 1 John iii. 1. Rev. i. 0. 2. Our spiritual manifestations and knowledge of God in Christ, Psal. xxvii. 4. lxviii. 24. lxiii. 2. Heb. xi. 1, 27. 2 Cor. iii. 18. iv. 18. 3. Our honourable

conformity to. God in holiness of heart and life, 2 Cor. iii. 18. Exod. xv. II. 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. Matth. v. 48. 4. Our familiar

intercourse with, and communications from God, Psal. cxliv. 15. xxxiii. 12. xvi. 5, 6 xxxiv. 8. xxxvi. 6 — 9. lxv. 4. xxv. 14. lxxxiv. 11. lxxxv. 12. 5. Our spiritual comforts, arising from

certain views of our present and future happiness, Psal. xxxii. 2. ciii. 1 — 5. xxiii civ. 34. xxxi. 19. Heb. vi. 17, 18. Isa. xl. 1, 2. li. 7, 12. lx. 19, 20.

II. At death, the souls of believers enter upon the enjoyment of perfect honour and happiness. 1. Their death being unstinged, by virtue of Christ’s blood applied to them, Hos. xiii. 14. Isa. xxv. 8, comes to them as an inestimable legacy bequeathed in his testament, 1 Cor. iii. 22. Isa. li. 11, and pro¬ cured by his infinitely kind intercession, John xvii. 24. 2. Their soul, not being killed with their body, Matth. x. 28, they long for death, Luke ii. 28 — 30. Phil. i. 23. 2 Cor. v. 1 — 8, and commit their departing soul to Christ, Psalm xxxi. 5. Acts vii. 59. 3. In its departing moment, it is made perfectly free from ism, and conformed to God hi holiness, Heb. xii. 23. Rev. xxi, 4, 27. 1 John iii. 2. Eph. v. 25 — 27. Jude 24. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 4. Being separated from their body, it is immediately conveyed by angels into the heavenly state, in which it is inexpressibly active and happy, Luke xvi. 22, 23. xxiii. 42, 43. Acts vii. 59. 2 Cor. v. 1 — 8. John xvii. 24. Rev. xiv. 13. Phil, i 23. These scriptures, together with those that mention only two forms of the future state, or of the way to it, Matth. vii. 13, 14. Rom.

ii. 7 — 10; or, which prove the perfection of Christ’s satisfaction for the sins of his people, manifest that there is no purgatory or middle state, between heaven and hell.

III. At the last day, 1. The bodies of believers having,

through their continued union to Christ, rested in their graves perfectly freed from all sin and trouble, Rev. xiv. 13. 1 Thess. iv. 16. Isa. lvii. 2, shall, by virtue of this union, and the powei’ful influence of his indwelling Spirit, be raised to life, strong, immortal, glorious, and spiritual, Isa. xxvi. 19. Job xix. 25 — 27. Rom. viii. 11, 23. Phil. iii. 21. 1 Cor. xv. 42 — 49. 2. Their complete persons shall be publicly acknowledged before all angels and men by Christ, as his redeemed bride, dear children, beloved friends, and obedient people, and acquitted from all the false charges which had been cast upon them, and absolved from all their real faults, Luke xii. 8. Matth. x. 32. xxv. 34 — 40. 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. 3. All of them in one assembly

or body, shall be publicly and solemnly adjudged and invited, and blessed of the Father, and heirs of his prepared kingdom, to take an everlasting possession of it, Psal. xcvi. 13. xcviii. 9. Matth. xxv. 34. 4. Along with Christ their Head, and attended by millions of angels, they shall be admitted into their heavenly state, while new heavens and a new earth are formed for enlarging the objects of their delightful contemplation, Mat. xxv. 46. Psalm xiv. 15. Isa. xxxv. 10. 2 Pet.

iii. 10, 13.

IV. Through all eternity they shall be made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God, Psalm xxxi. 19. 2 Cor. iv. 17. 1. No evil thing, sin, or sorrow, shall ever enter, Rev. xx. 14,

15. xxi. 4, 8, 25, 27. xxii. 3, 5, 15. Isa. xxxv. 10. li. 11.

lx. 20. 2. Everv thing calculated to promote true happiness

shall be enjoyed in full perfection, Rev. vii. 17. Isa. xxxv. 10. lx. 19, 20. 1 Cor. xv. 28. 2 Cor. iv. 17. — Their place of abode shall be inexpressibly delightful, — a better country, — a city, a temple, and an house, having foundations, built by God, — a new Jerusalem, — Zion, — Godds kingdom, palace, throne, paradise, barn, garner, — Abrahams bosom, the third heaven, &c. Heb. xi.

16, 10. Rev. xxi. xxii. 1 — 5. Matth. xiii. 43. v. 34. Psalm xiv. 15. Isa. lxvi. 1. Luke xxiii. 43. 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. Rev. Ji. 7.

iii. 21. Matth. iii. 12. xiii. 30. viii. 11. Luke xvi. 22. 2 Cor. v. 1. John xiv. 2. — Their eternally and immutably fixed condition, in this abode, shall be most glorious, — a treasure, joy i peace, rest, glory, an exceeding weight of glory, — the joy of the Lord, — light, life, — an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, — a walking with Christ in white, robes, — a sitlvig with Christ on his throne, or at a splendid banquet, Matth. vi. 20. Isa. lvii. 2. Psalm lxxiii. 24. 2 Cor. iv. 17. Mat. xxv. 21, 23. Col. i. 12. Matth. xix. 17. Psalm xvi. 11. 1 Pet. i. 4. Rev. iii. 5, 21.

ii. 20. vii. 17. Matth. viii. 11. — They shall enjoy the most delightful fellowship with angels and perfected saints, Matth. viii. 11. Heb. xii. 22, 23. Rev. v. 9 — 13, and with Christ as their elder brother, John xii. 26. xiv. 3. xvii. 24. Psalm xxii. 22. Heb. xii. 24. 1 Thess. iv. 17; and shall enjoy God himself in every known excellency of his nature, manifested through Christ, as their all in all, Heb. xii. 24. Psalm xliii. 4. lxxiii. 26. 1 Cor. xv. 28.

In this state of the full enjoyment of God is included, 1. An immediate vision with the eyes of their understanding, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 1 John iii. 2. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Psalm xvii. 15. John xvii. 24, 25. xiv. 10. 2 Cor. iv. 6; — while their bodily eyes behold the glorified body of Christ and these of his saints. 2. The most full experience of the goodness and love of God, Rev. vii. 17. Isa. lx. 19, 20. 1 Cor.

xv. 28. 3. Perfect likeness to God in his imitable, and cor¬

respondence of heart with his inimitable perfections, Psalm xvii. 15. 1 John iii. 2. 4. Inexpressible love to God, and to

all around for his sake, 1 Cor. xiii. 8, 13. 5. Inconceivable

delight and joy, expressed in unceasing and enraptured songs of praise to God, through, and together with Christ, Rev. vii. 17. v. 9 — 13. Psal. xvi. 11. xvii. 15. xliii. 4. Isa. xxxv. 10. lx. 18 — 20. — -All this happiness will be everlasting, if not perpetually increasing by means of the heart-enlarging influence of such fellowship with God, 1 Thess. iv. 17. Matth. xxv. 46. Isa. lx. 19. li. 11. The everlasting love and covenant of God, the everlasting merit of Christ’s righteousness, and the power of his intercession, secure the eternity of it, Jer. xxxi. 3. Isa. liv. 8 — 10. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Dan, ix. 24. Heb. ix. 12. x. 14. vii. 25. — In this happy state there will be different degrees of glory, graciously proportioned to those of their sanctification on earth. 1. Their state is represented as having different degrees of glory, John xiv. 2. 1 Cor. xv. 41, 421 iii. 8, 14, 15. 2 Cor. ix. 5, 6. Matth. xix. 29. 2. There will be different

degrees of torment in hell, proportioned to men’s sinfulness, Matth. xi. 22, 24.

Reflect. But, O my soul, in what form am I to die, — to rise again, — and to live for ever? Shall I certainly die in the Lord? and, when he appears, shall I appear with him in glory? Shall I be for ever with him, — for ever like him, by seeing him as he is? God forbid, that I should either commence or continue a preacher of Christ, before mine eternal interest in him be secured. How dreadful if, after lighting up his friends to their high mansions of bliss, I be turned downward into everlasting darkness, and bottomless pits of woe! — be driven away from Jesus Christ, as a wrnrker of iniquity, into ever¬ lasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels! — But, if I am a true, an experienced Christian, having a call from God to the ministerial work, let me bend all my powers, — all my prayers, — all my labours, — all my cares, to try how much Christ may be enjoyed, imitated, and served upon earth. — Let my lot, in earnestly following and preaching him, be as poor and distress¬ ful as it will, it is enough, that all be seasoned with the love, the blood, the presence, the influence, of the great God my Saviour. — I had ten thousand times rather be outwardly ruined with Christ, than reign with Caesars. — But what shall it be to enter into the joy of my Lord! — to reign in life with him! and for ever possess the redeeming three, as my infinite all in all! — my God and my all! — Unquestionably bliss inexpressible, inconceivable I