-- CHAPTER VI: God's calling us unto his eternal glory is an investing us with a right to heaven
CHAPTER VI
God's calling us unto his eternal glory is an investing us with a right to heaven; and therefore, though yet we do not actually enjoy it, yet we may be assured that he will preserve us safe and secure until he has brought us to the possession of that glory.—Our being called unto an eternal glory imports that a spiritual life which is eternal is begun in our souls, and that by being called we are put into an eternal right of glory.—The reason of it, because he is the God of all grace, who calls us unto this glory.—What his glory implies: that it is a certain engagement on God's part that he will carry us through all temptations and difficulties unto it.
Who hath called us unto his eternal glory.—1 PETER 5:10.
The scope of these words in the 10th verse being to ensure us that God will carry those whom he hath called through all sufferings and temptations safe unto eternal life, my professed design hath been to draw arguments for this out of every word of the former part of this verse: 'But the God of all grace,' &c. I having despatched what arguments God's 'having called' us do contribute, I now come unto these other words, 'into his eternal glory.' There are three words which do serve as three heads to reduce these arguments unto:
1. He hath called us into glory.
2. Eternal glory.
3. His glory.
1. He hath called us into glory; that is, though not into the possession, yet unto as full a right thereunto, which upon calling we are instated in, as ever we shall have in heaven.
He saith not barely, he hath called us into grace, or into the state of grace, though that is elsewhere said in express terms: Rom. 5:7, 'We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand;' which is all one as if he had said, into the state of grace, as we may rightly from thence style it. And for our apostle so to have here spoken, would seem the more suitable to have followed upon that title he had given to God, the founder of all, in the words after, 'the God of all grace;' yea, and for him to have so spoken, might alone have served sufficiently to secure us, because this alone, for us to be put into the dominion of that estate of grace, affords abundant fortifications and securities unto us against the power of sin, or whatever else, according as the apostle in Rom. 6:14 speaks, 'Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace;' that is, if you be admitted once into grace, and under its dominion, and are become subjects thereof, ye are thereby taken into the protection of grace and the sovereignty thereof, and it is the greatest sovereign (as you have heard), and will be sure to take care of you.
But our apostle contents not himself to speak thus low, but fetches his main strength wherewith to hearten us against all assaults from a higher region of arguments; he flies up to the highest that can be,
'the God of all grace, who hath called us into glory,'—no loss. The first foot we set upon after our calling is into glory, and not into a state of grace only; he hath settled that upon us irrecoverably, and hath engaged himself, as he is a God of all grace, to see to it, to guard and bring us to that glory, as with a garrison, all along; for the whole of that glory is become our right. And sure if you have the God of all grace as the estator, and then the assurer of it to us, to maintain his own act, and then as for glory itself, the thing estated into, you are sure enough of that in all reason every way, upon the uttermost of securities that can be given, that is, virtually upon all and above all security whatsoever. And because this affordeth us the highest arguments, therefore it was he chose rather thus to express himself,
'Who hath called us into glory.'
This glory was the first-born of God's thoughts and of his intentions towards us, this was the first thing that rose up in the heart of the God of all grace in his good will to us, for it was the end and upshot of all his designs, and all other, in this life, are but as the means and the way thereto. This was his end, and his supreme end, next his own glory, and therefore first in intention, which moved him to call us:
Acts 13:48, 'As many as were ordained to eternal life, believed.' And accordingly being 'glorified' is placed lastly, as being the ultimate upshot of our being 'called' and 'justified,' which, as the means, are in execution placed first, Rom. 8:30. The ordaining of us to his glory was his highest rest and complacency: Luke 12:32, 'It is' (and was)
'the Father's pleasure to give you a kingdom;' and the place where it is to be enjoyed was the first of all his works: Mat. 25:34, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' It is that heaven which was created the first day, Gen. 1:1. Hence when election comes to break forth first in calling, God's heart is so intent upon this glory, as his first and last end, that although he suspend the giving us the possession for some years, yet he will not suspend the giving the full, complete right of the whole, and that from the first; he cannot forbear that, but instantly upon calling gives forth a patent of it, which is here expressed by a calling us into glory.
And as God then estated us into it, so Christ also as then received us into it: Rom. 15:7, 'Receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.' He hath now received us into an indefeasible right thereunto, although that when we come to die we all still cry out to him for another receiving of us; as Stephen, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,' that is, into the actual possession of what, as to right, he had received us into before. And we find the Scripture elsewhere at the same, and no lower, rate to speak, than that when we are called we are saved: 2 Tim. 1:9, 'Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling.' The whole of salvation is stated upon us then.
And when you consider this, you will readily acknowledge it eligible to follow after his styling God the God of all grace, to say, 'who hath called us into glory,' rather than into grace, as that which was most becoming the great God of all grace; for he that is the God of all grace should give the whole, and all of that grace he ever intended to bestow, in the first moment wherein he began to make a discovery of his grace unto us. This is to act like the God of all grace indeed, and therefore it is most properly said, 'The God of all grace hath called us to glory.'
And here let us stand and wonder at this his dispensation, that after he should have done this so great and so strange an act, once for all, that thereafter his design and ordination should be to set out at once, temptations, oppositions, difficulties to encounter, and conflict withal; and for him to overcome for us and by us, and this for the space of many years to come after, between this his estating us into glory, in respect of right, and that other of our possession of it. Such temptations, as in no appearance might, and were likely, yet would* put the possession of it, so long yet to come, into all hazards, discouragements, and misadventures; and yet he designs it thus to illustrate his grace the more.
I shall give but one parallel instance of the like dealing, which doth illustrate this by way of similitude, and indeed was intended as the type of this very thing. God sent Samuel to David whilst he was yet young, keeping of sheep, and anointed him king, 1 Sam. 16:13, in the open view of all his brethren; and by that one solemn act invested him into a visible and yet irrecoverable right of the kingdom of Judah and Israel; and it was the outward part of David's sure mercies, which was the pawn of all the rest, and of his right to the kingdom of heaven. And thus God did, as then, so long after, although he suspected the possession of it many years, yet gave it him in the right; and when God had done this, and therewith engaged himself to make it good, and sware not to repent of it, then said God, Let Saul, and all the power of his kingdom, and that whole people that were his subjects (who were generally wicked, and took part with Saul), let
them do their worst; and thereupon God exposes this flea, this partridge upon the mountains, that skipped from place to place upon Saul's hunting of him with all the power of that nation, and with all the interest he had in it. Yet still he keeps him and preserves him, in open defiance of him and his Benjamites, and the men of Keilah, and the rest of that rabble, and they might all go cast their caps after him, but take him and destroy him they could not. 'The heathen raged, and the people imagined a vain thing, and yet I have set my King upon my holy hill,' as the psalmist hath it. And just thus it is that God serves the devil and all our enemies within us, and worldly enemies without us. He first anoints us by his Spirit in that great solemn act of calling us into glory, and then it is that he pours his Spirit richly on us, and creates us heirs of eternal glory, as it follows there, Titus 3:7.
He gives his Spirit commission to dwell in us, to look to us, but reserves our possession of it unto a further time; and the attaining thereof shall be a work of time; and in that interim or space he lets loose all those enemies upon us, leaves us to the hardest wrestlings and fightings with them, and those accompanied with innumerable hazards of our being overcome. And yet so waking and omnipotent is the eye and hand of God over us and upon us, that still he either strengthens us at the instant, or restores us if we be led captive.
Now let us see what arguments and powerful inferences of security this one topic will afford us.
First, All grant that if we were in glory and the possession of it, that then sin and devils could not dispossess us nor endanger us. Now in truth it comes all to one as to point of certainty and security; although right to and possession of that glory are infinitely distant as to the matter of joy and enjoyment; for by giving us the right, God hath engaged all that is in him to bring us to the possession, and not to suffer an act which was done by him as a God of all grace ever to be frustrate.
Second argument. If at first he gives the greatest and utmost (the greatest that can be given, as right to glory is), then certainly he gives
all that serves to the attainment, unto the uttermost he can give; and the reason thereof further is, because all that which conduceth to bring us thither is less than the right to that glory. Now as in 2 Thes.
2:13, 14, 'Beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth; whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Faith and holiness they are the means, glory and salvation the end of those means. God chooses to carry us through those means unto this, as the end of all.
Now if God, besides his choice of us from the beginning unto the end, will be pleased to instate us into the right of that glory by calling us, this being infinitely a greater matter, and a privilege far beyond the giving us those means themselves, then certainly he will bestow those means effectually upon us, and carry us through those means unto that glory. He will not stick, after he hath given the greatest, to give that which is a little more, and which is to follow in order to the obtaining of it. I argue this from the greater to the lesser, for so the apostle argues concerning God's giving Christ to die for us: Rom.
8:32, 'He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?' A right to glory given at calling is more than calling itself, and faith and holiness that is to follow, to bring us to the obtaining of that glory:
Ps. 84:11, 'The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withhold;' that is, that doth serve effectually to work grace, and that will bring us to glory. Add, Thirdly, How little a space or while there is between thy calling
(especially thee at the present) and the possession of that glory, and how the Scriptures, speaking of this space, how small a matter in God's account they make it for him to keep thee in that mean while, though to us it is a greater while; and therefore it is said we have need of patience: Heb. 10:36, 37, 'For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promises: for yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.'
It is but a little space wherein thou art in danger, and which thou shalt be tempted in. Now our great and all-wise God relieves himself
thereby against thy present sinfulness, that doth fall out in this mean time, and against thy falls and thy backslidings. For, thinks he with himself, yet a little while, and I shall have thee perfectly holy with me in glory, a spirit made perfect shortly, and it is but my own dispensation to have thee thus imperfectly holy in the mean time, and thus sinful; but, if there had been an absolute danger in it, I would instantly rather have taken thee up to myself, as I have done many children of mine soon after their conversion. And if God calls upon us for patience for that little while we are to live, as in Heb.
10:36, 37, himself will have it much more. And for the glory of his justice, God can and doth bear with the vessels of wrath whilst they are fitting for destruction; much more can he and will he have patience on a vessel of mercy whom himself is fitting and preparing by all those temptations all that while for glory. As Rom. 9:22, 23,
'What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory?'
Pure grace is of a much more long-suffering temper and disposition than mercy mixed with eternal justice in the end. And he hath to relieve him that idea or picture of what thou shalt be shortly to him; and besides, hath the foresight of thy returnings back again to him from all thy backslidings with a heart broken, and made more holy ere thou diest.
Let us please ourselves a little with so delightful a view as the prospect of that one place, Eph. 5, as to these purposes: ver. 25–27,
'Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved his church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, without blemish.' I shall take up the series of these words, so far as they serve to this purpose; thus, (1.) The church in this world is supposed to be full of loathsomeness and filthiness to Christ, and therefore Christ is fain continually to be cleansing it, as with water, by his word, virtuous, Spiritful water, which searches
into and fetches out all sorts of corruptions, though never so inward, of which also the prophet Ezekiel‚ 36:25, speaks: 'I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness,' &c.; and analogously to this, in the 26th verse, 'A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.'
And it is spoken of cleansing us by sanctification, as is there expressed, and as by water with the word. It imports it also as distinct from justification, as elsewhere when it is said, 'he came by water and blood.' Water is specified as the cause of sanctifying, and as made distinct from his blood, as the meritorious cause of justifying us. (2.) He in the mean time hath in his eye and thoughts how glorious a church he means to make her one day, not having one spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; which is spoken, (3.) to insinuate how much he relieves himself with what will be the end of his work of cleansing her, as all artists use to do. And, (4.) he hath in his eye the time, and the few years until that day, namely, at death, for then it is he means to present us to himself, and to his Father, with great joy, as you have it in Jude's epistle, and Col. 1:25: 'Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God.' (5.) The apostle puts in that clause, not having any such thing, in reference unto our relief also, and unto what discouragements the spirits of believers are apt to have by reason of some such or such special corruption. In saying so, he doth, as it were, point at such or such a thing, the eminent unto the soul, with Christ's declared intention to cleanse that especially; and he puts that in, because the soul is apt to lay its finger, as we say, on such or such a sore, such or such a lust, that is so prevailing, of which the soul, sighing, says, Oh will this ever be cured! as my pride, my uncleanness, my enmity, &c. Well, says the apostle, appositely to those sayings in our hearts, the day is a-coming that thou shalt have no such nor such, no, nor such a thing in thee; no, not the least wrinkle in thee, which is less than a spot; not so much as the appearance that ever there was such a thing in thee; for Christ will scour, and cleanse, and fetch out all unevennesses perfectly.
I shall further insist and enlarge out of these words as to the purpose in hand, these things.
(1.) First, That Jesus Christ foresees this glorious issue to come, and hath it in his eye and thoughts, in the midst of all thy horrid and amazing corruptions that are suffered to break forth, concerning which thou art like one that hath a sore (unto which the apostle also alludes) that still and anon, unto thy thinking, grows worse and worse, and according to the course yet held, what hopes is there it will ever be cured? But Christ, thy healer, he knows what he is adoing, foresees all means to make a perfect cure of it, whatever discouragements thou mayest have now in the mean time, and hath that in his mind and intention all the while. And as it is said of a wicked man, that God sees his day a-coming, and relieves himself in his present forbearance, that there is a day coming in which he shall recover his glory on him by a just destruction, so, on the contrary, he sees thy day a-coming, the day of the restitution of all things. He knows punctually when thou shalt die, as well as he knew Peter's death, and as well as he knows where thou livest; and thou mayest know and be assured of this, that Christ doth know and foresee that at death thou shalt be made perfect; for he takes up into glory, every day, some souls belonging to him, that were in his eyes as full of corruption, whilst they were in this life, as thine is now. I say, this very day (for that gate is always open too for some passengers or other), there were some that came to heaven, whose hearts were full of corruption the day before, yea, this very morning before they died, even as well nigh thy heart is now: as how full of corruption was the heart of that thief, of whom yet Christ saith, 'This day shalt thou be with me in paradise'! Which souls, ere they came up to him, were made glorious souls, having no spot or wrinkle in them.
(2.) It appears from that scripture also, that this is Christ's dearest interest, and the most pleasing thing to him, to bring souls at last faultless and spotless into his own presence, though now they are full of corruptions. He longs for that day, as much as a bridegroom doth, or can do, for his enjoyment of a spotless bride; and the reason is, for
he greatly delights in the beauty that is, or shall be, in the saints, Ps.
45:11. And look what beauty in a spouse is to a husband, that is full of love and fancy, the same is perfect holiness to him; and there is one word, yea, two inserted, which vehemently argues as much, first, to himself, that speaks this to be the highest endearment to himself, that the church shall be made perfectly holy; it shews that she was given him by God so to be made, and that for Christ's own pleasure and delight; as a man's wife is for himself, so is the church and her perfect holiness, which is Christ's, for his own self; and the apostle alludes to that similitude, for he speaks before of his church being that to him, which a wife is to a husband, before and also after. Then that other word, to present to himself 'a church without spot, or wrinkle,' this argues it to be his greatest interest; also thy perfect holiness will be the richest present to him that can be presented, yea, and to shew it so much, himself will be the presenter of himself to thee,* so much doth he delight therein.
(3.) Knowing and foreseeing this, and delighting in the view of this, of what thou shalt be to him, he must needs certainly relieve himself in the mean time against thy present corruption, and yourselves would do it, if you did believe it as he doth. You commonly use to do it in matters which for a while go contrary, whereof you know not what will be the certain issue. All wise men bear up themselves against any present evil, as a false report or scandal, when they know a few days will clear them; we do it as to our servants, when they are to go away, we say it is but for a while, and are therefore content to bear many things in them. Thus also Christ in case of his enemies, and his expecting them to be made his footstool, supports himself in that expectation, that 'he sees their day a-coming,' as the thirtyseventh psalm hath it; and in the mean time 'laughs them to scorn' upon that account, as the second psalm hath it; and if he doth thus relieve himself towards his enemies, then how much more against the present corruptions of his spouse, whilst he sits expecting her coming to him blameless, to sit down as his queen by himself, having prepared a place for her?
And then the smallness of time much conduces to lighten and alleviate the trouble of that forbearance in his heart; nay, the forethought and fore-delight of what will shortly be, swallows up his trouble for thy infirmities in the mean time. He thinks many years as nothing; if 'a thousand years be but as one day,' what are a few years of thy life yet to come before this happy presentment of thee to himself? How long did God bear with those godly patriarchs after the flood, who were for certain subject to the same passions, and prevailed often upon with the same lusts that thou art prevailed upon with? How did he bear with Methuselah, almost a thousand years?
Yet he held in with them, for he saw the day a-coming in which they should be taken up to himself, and be perfectly holy. Why shouldst not thou think that he can and will bear with thee for twenty, thirty, or forty years of thy life (if it be so long), and with this mixed condition of sin and grace conflicting? Jacob accounted his seven years' service but a few days, because he loved Rachel, Gen. 29. Jesus
Christ can pardon thee all along in the mean time, and ever and anon reduce thee, and now and then come, and not only strengthen thee against temptations, but visit thee, and comfort thee, as one that art a candidate of glory, and hast a right to it, and sittest with him in heavenly places in that respect, and art to be a companion with him in that glory for evermore.
(4.) This place therewith insinuates, that he hath an idea of what thou art to be continually before his eyes, which wonderfully takes up his heart, and pleases him. 'Thy walls are ever before him' (as the prophet speaks), as one day they shall be built according to the pattern he hath in his heart. Great men's wives use to wear their husband's picture on their breasts, in that form or freshness they were in, when they were married to them, from which in time they alter to the worse, and grow out of that shape to what at first they were, and were pictured in. But it is otherwise in this of Christ; he married thee at thy worst, when thou wert altogether deformed, yet he had taken a picture of thee, as thou wert at first presented to him by the Father from everlasting; but what thou shouldst be, and the beauty thereof, had such an impression on his heart, and sticked so
with him, as he carries that in mind as the perfect idea of that holiness and glory thou art to be restored unto, and that by means of himself, which is his glory, as the author and recoverer of thee unto that beauty, which he bearing accordingly in his eye, as it is yet to come, or as it is yet to be his own work upon thee, so at last therein to present thee to himself; and he having these two pictures of thee, both of what his Father first presented thee to him, when thou wert given to him from everlasting‚ which made him first in love with thee; and then having the hue of what according to that original himself is a-drawing on thee and means to perfect, this we see takes his heart, especially the latter, because it is to be his own workmanship; as it lessens, if not altogether swallows up the present thoughts of thy deformity, especially when that is to continue for so small a time.
If, as some romances have feigned a lover, a king suppose, had a beautiful wife betrothed to him, whose picture, as the manner is, were sent over aforehand to him, before himself did see her; but when she is shipped to come, or otherwise in her journey, she falls sick of some loathsome disease, as the small-pox, suppose, or leprosy, and yet suppose you imagine that he knew before she should come to him she should be restored to her first primitive beauty; though he would be troubled for her present disaster, and distemper or disease, yet he would easily quiet himself for that little space of time in which her infirmity, though greatly disfiguring her, is to continue; or, if we further suppose him present with her, to be her alone physician that cureth her, and restoreth her unto that first perfect beauty, which he knew certainly he could and should do, he would shew all love and peace towards her, though her disease were loathsome, in hope of her recovery; and this is perfectly the case here between Christ and the church: ver. 25, 'Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself; for no man yet hateth his own flesh, but nourisheth it, and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.' If a man's own flesh be diseased with the worst and foulest of diseases, though he hates the disease, yet he loves his own flesh, and seeks out for the cure of it, he
nourishes it, and cherishes it; now so doth Christ, much more upon that ground, that we are his own flesh, that 'we are members of his body,' ver. 30; 'of his flesh, and of his bone,' much more than man and wife are, to whom this exhortation is directed, ver. 31–33. In this case, therefore, Jesus Christ is so far from hating us, who are his own flesh, that he applies all sorts of remedies, with a strong patience for the cure of our infirmities, and is moved to do it with the greater patience, because he knows we shall be restored to perfect health and soundness indeed, and himself shall be the healer, and then with an infinite love and joy, and glory to himself, he presents us to himself most glorious, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
To conclude, I may say of this argument, what the apostle doth: 1
John 3:2, 'Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him.' Doth he not speak this to quiet them under their unlikeness to God and Christ in this world? And do not God and Christ satisfy themselves, and satisfy their hearts towards you in the midst of all your complaints of and about yourselves? I may say of this, even as they, 'Beloved, now hath God called you into glory;' and though it doth not appear to us what we shall be, nor what we are in respect of our title to this glory, but we are full of contrary hateful iniquities, yet it appears to Christ what you are, and what you shall be; and there is that time coming, wherein he shall present you glorious, without fault; and in the mean time bear with him; and if, as John says to them, 'we know,' then to be sure God and Christ knows this much more.
2. Called into eternal glory.
Hereby is implied not simply that the glory is eternal, as an adjunct of it, but that our calling and estatement thereby is into the eternity of that glory, as well as into the glory itself. We are called into eternal glory as such.
That imports two things, as other gospel scriptures explain it to us.
1. First, That he that is called hath a spiritual life begun in him, which is eternal, or if you will, a glory begun in his soul, which is eternal.
For so the image of Christ, wrought in us in this life, is styled glory: 2
Cor. 3:18, 'But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' And you find it everywhere, by Christ and his apostles, to be said, 'He that believes hath eternal life.'
I need name no more scriptures but that one: John 11, 'Whosoever believes in me shall never die;' that spiritual life begun, is one degree substantial of the life eternal, and being begun in us, shall never die,
Rom. 6. As Christ's life is said to be eternal, which he hath now, being raised from the dead, so is ours: ver. 9, 'Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dies no more; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Adam's grace was not a degree of glory, but according to the best account that hath been given of it by those that hold he should have been taken up into glory in the end; as to that present grace, that he had before he fell, they reckon him but as one standing for his degree, that is not yet a graduate, or as a messonary* in order to his reward.
2. The second thing imported hereby is, that when a man is called, he is put into an eternal right of glory, not into a present right to glory only, but a perpetual right, at present, or a right that reaches to eternity; and this the Scriptures strongly and plainly declare, whilst they express it to be our having a title to it as to any inheritance, and that upon calling, or whilst they make a conveyance, not a covenant only, but a testament by will upon the death of the testator, which shall nor never will be forfeited: 'if it be but a man's testament, no man disannulleth it,' &c.
Now upon our calling, which is all one with our new birth, this glory is conveyed and settled upon us as an inheritance, and it being eternal, as an eternal inheritance. You know that the tenure of inheritances is for ever, as we say to you and your heirs for ever, and this establishment is at our new birth or calling: Tit. 3:5–7, 'Not by
works of righteousness which we have wrought, but according to his mercy hath he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs, according to the hope of eternal life.' At, and by our new birth, we are made heirs according to his mercy which saved us.
There is this difference between an inheritance conveyed, and a reward for works done, which is bestowed as a reward, that an inheritance goes by birth, and not by works, and yet is for ever, because an inheritance. A king's eldest son is the heir the first instant he is born; at the first moment he hath right to that estate and kingdom, whereof he is the heir, and this for ever. Who are born again of God, it is said we have ἐξουσίαν, a dignity by patent, 'to be the sons of God' by adoption: John 1:12, 'As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, which were born not of blood, &c., but of God,' ver. 13. If we were made sons by patent, then heirs at the same time: Rom. 8:17, 'If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ;' and therefore we also find our being born again, and this inheritance eternal joined together, in 1
Pet. 1:3, 5, 'Blessed be God, who hath begotten us again to an inheritance incorruptible,' &c. It was not so with Adam and his grace, which he had by creation, not in his most perfect estate. Even those that hold, that if he had continued in grace, he should at last have gone to heaven, which I confess I do not, yet they do set out his pretensions unto glory but in this manner; that after some set time, by God's appointment, a thousand years suppose, as many of them say, he should have been taken up into glory, if he had continued in that holiness he was made in; yet this withal they do professedly declare, that he should not have been during that time an heir of that glory, no, not till the last moment of that set time. But the state he should have been in, was but of an hireling, to whom the reward was due by debt for working, during which time he should have been an expectant for heaven, but upon his good behaviour, but not an heir until that time was out, and that he had been admitted into the full possession of it. But those that are called, they have a right instantly
as heirs thereupon, which right dependeth not upon works foregoing, as that third of Titus shews us, but upon birth, and upon their being called; only good works are ordained as the way thereunto, as that we should walk in to come to that end. And during that whole time of their being in this world, they are as the son of the prince under age, as Gal. 4:1, 2, who hath a right, though not the possession; and we are here as children under age, as the apostle in his similitude, while he speaks of heaven, shews: 'When I was a child, I spake as a child, and understood as a child; when I came to be a man, I put away childish things,' 1 Cor. 13:11. It is spoken in reference to our estate in this world from that in heaven, as the words before and after shew.
So then, put these three things together: first, that that glory we are called unto, is in itself eternal; secondly, that that person that is called, hath a degree of that glory begun that shall never die or perish; thirdly, that withal, he hath a right unto the eternity of it, and from that time of calling unto eternity; and so, as that that eternal right doth not begin, when first the full possession of it begins, but then when we are first estated into the right of it, as the manner of inheritances is; and this put together will make the argument complete. Now if we would be satisfied in the bottom reason, how it should come to pass, that at, and upon calling, we should thus be estated into eternal glory, we shall not need to go far off to seek it, for it is in the text. It is plainly thus:— That it is the God of all grace that calls us, which speaks it not only to be an act of grace, and not of works; and grace is grace, and will be grace, and shew itself to be such. In all its gifts it gives like itself; and, therefore, when it gives, it gives the whole, and for ever, without repentance; and it knows in it what it doth when it does so, for it hath wherewith to maintain and make good its own act; but besides that, it is an act of the God of all grace, he calls us as he is such to us.
All grace, in so great a God, borne towards us, what will it not effect, maugre all and everything that should be supposed to hinder? All grace extends to all times; it hath no bounds of time set it, wherein it should be gracious, and no longer; it were not at all grace if so. It
imports, that when a man is called out of God's grace, God had such a love he bears to him he calls, as is made up of all love and grace, for intention and extension. And if so, then the endowment into all benefits of grace and privileges which he hath or had to bestow, must needs be then conferred. It imports, that he had a heart replenished with all eternal grace, and the intentions of it towards him; he had a stock or riches of grace to maintain all he should bestow to eternity, and to keep thee together therewith; the conjunction of these two, the God of all grace hath called, can produce no other than a perfect and complete donation to be a full effect thereof, as of a perfect and complete cause; this cause could bestow no less, and such an effect could not have followed but upon such a cause. We do and must suppose his heart then to have been, at the time of calling, fraught with, and to contain within itself, such and so great riches of grace, if it were all grace, as would be sufficient to hold out and to extend to eternity, and so as to maintain an eternal right and state of glory all the while.
Now, if it were at calling, can we imagine that his heart should not retain as much love and grace after thy calling, as to keep and preserve thee for that little space unto the possession of that glory?
Nay, my brethren, God had not thus grace for every one of us for an eternity that should but then begin when our calling began; but there was another eternity, à parte ante, before, out of which he did call us, an eternity of a higher date than what was the present grace he bore thee at thy calling: Jer. 31:3, 'Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee,' or 'therefore have I extended loving-kindness unto thee,' as in the margin; and therefore no wonder that he calls us for an eternity to come. And here let us stand aghast, to think that our calling is the centre of two eternities, and how there are two everlasting arms as mountains, Deut. 33:27, which meet to grasp us then, when God's grace by calling first takes hold on us. There was, nor never will be, such an instance in all eternity.
We must needs suppose withal, that such a grace must have grace enough in it to continue to all eternity; as, suppose we a river had ran underground with continued streams of water from eternity, which began to break forth, and to empty its streams into a new channel, though through but a small sluice at first, which when once it is broke forth, must needs, and will run to eternity in that new channel, for it hath water enough to do it to last unto another eternity to come, one stream following another stream, in omne volubilis ævum.
Now calling is that sluice, the state of grace and of glory that new channel; and if indeed anything could fall out so strong, as to mud up, as to endanger the cutting off that course of water, then indeed it might cease; but it being a stream of grace from eternity, and that of all grace, continued all along, this must needs be so strong, and so full, as to carry all afore it that should resist it, or obstruct it; yea, it will work out all that doth oppose it in its current, and swell over. It is 'a spring,' as John 4:14, 'that shall spring up unto eternal life;' and such is grace in God's heart, and such the Spirit in calling hath given us.
I have said it with myself, and to others, and shall never recall it, that if we could suppose such a fulness of glory to come had not been
God's ordination, but that his called ones were to have lived upon earth in a state of grace only, such as now we are in, mixed with sinnings, corruptions, and grace working, one against the other conflicting: that God had love enough in his heart to save us thereby in this mixed condition of sinning and repenting, and to hold us on so to eternity. How much more, then, when he hath provided a glory to possess us of, and a presenting us so glorious to himself, within so little a while, that he shall not have cause to put himself to that trouble of a patience for so long a time: how much more, I say, according to all that hath been argued taken together, in this may we support our hearts with confidence, that he will continue to hold in with us, and reduce us to himself again, out of sinnings, and give that glory at the last?
I conclude with that in Ephes. 2:5–7. Having spoken first of calling, 'who hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved); and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us, through Jesus Christ.' By the ages to come there is meant eternity, which chap. 3:21 shews, where he useth the same phrase, 'Glory to Christ throughout all ages, world without end:' this place shews us this issue or conclusion, that God having given us a right to sit in heaven after calling and quickening, such and so true a right unto glory, as that we are said already to sit together with Christ in heaven, the result is this, that God having infinite riches of grace, out of which he called, he hath ordained an eternity of time, to spend them riches in upon us, and to make declaration of the exceeding great (and as the text tells us) all grace, which he hath in his heart for us; and ages to come, and eternities, are not enough for him to do all this in, the grace is so rich and so abundant.
Now, then, from hence to argue and make an inference from the point in hand: will he not preserve us in this life, and carry us through temptation, having so much grace in his heart laid up for us?
Suppose a father that hath a great estate to leave his child, if his child lives (and truly those that have riches desire children to leave them unto, as well as Abraham did) and this his child is weakly and consumptive, and yet but so, as some bitter cost extraordinary, would preserve, restore, and recover him to perfect health in some short time, would not that father spend some of that estate which lies by him thus to recover him, that he might possess all? I think he would. And dost thou think that this great God of all grace, and thus rich in grace, would pinch it for a little while, when he professes that he sets apart this inheritance from eternity to them that are called.
Let me tell you, that as we say in nature, rather than there should be a vacuum or emptiness in any parts here below, a piece of heaven would come down to supply it, and make it up. So may I say, in this case, which is but a supposition, though thou shouldst have less grace than what is necessary to keep thee (if you could suppose he
should have stinted himself of bestowing but a measure of grace in this world, in an ordinary way, which yet he hath not), he would rather spend upon the stock of glory to supply thee with grace to keep thee, than that thou shouldst miss of all the whole substance of glory.
Uses. Do the Scriptures speak at this rate, that we are received into glory, when we are called into a perfect right unto glory? Oh that we could live at any proportionable rate; 1. In the comfort of it and actual expectations thereof. This the holy apostle and primitive Christians did, after the Holy Ghost came on them as a comforter, breathed and had their life in this air. Let us but go to the first verse of this very chapter wherein my text is; you may there overhear our apostle Peter thus speaking of, or rather entitling, himself, 'I, who am partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.'
When persons of birth or quality write superscriptions of themselves, they use to add their special titles; and our apostle writes himself a partaker of the glory that is to come. And John doth the like, Rev.
1:9. And in my text, in the ninth verse, Peter calls all his brethren to the faith and comfort of that, which was as really true of them all as of himself, 'The God of all grace hath called us into glory,' both me and you alike: are ye called? ye are all partakers of eternal glory, even as I. He hath it up again in chap 2. ver. 1, 3. In the first verse he speaks this of all saints, that they 'have received like precious faith with us' apostles; and at the the third verse, that 'God hath called us to glory.'
Oh how infinitely is this beyond the first thoughts of our aims, that we in our first conversion had; our primitive aims, as I may so call them; the aims of us poor souls that live in this last age of the world; as if we were, as Paul speaks of himself, 'born out of due time,' in comparison unto those first Christians. Alas! what do we groan and sigh after all our days, and cannot so much as obtain the sense thereof, even after no higher matter in our addresses to God than we did in our first conversion? Oh! thinks the soul, if I could have but
my sins forgiven once (which therefore John comforts babes with); 1 John 2:12, 'I write unto you, children, because your sins are forgiven you;' he speaks thus unto them, because this is the chiefest thing they are usually intent upon; but whilst we have these low thoughts and pursuits, and at our calling we have not usually much higher, lo, our
God, the God of all grace, hath at the same time had in his thoughts an estating us into eternal glory, and will in time shew thee greater things than these, of forgiveness, and being made more holy, and the like; he hath called thee into glory.
2. If at present we be called into the right of the glory of God, how should we walk, and be 'holy in all manner of holy conversation and godliness,' looking for and hastening to the possession of this glory, as our Peter also urgeth, 2 Epist. 3:11, 12. And Paul also upon this very intendment, 1 Thes. 2:12, 'That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you to his kingdom of glory.' It is not to walk worthy of the gospel only he is exhorting them unto, but which is higher, that they should 'walk worthy of God, who hath called us into his glory.' They have under-translated the word, into the glory of God.
When our Saviour Christ was entered into a state of glory upon his resurrection (although not ascended or possessed of it), you read with what a difference he conversed from what himself had done before; and should not we, in some conformity, appear to [be] those whom our Peter speaks of in his first epistle, chap. 1 ver. 14, 15, 'As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.' And still let us think with ourselves when we sin, or are tempted thereunto, Should one called into glory do this, or this?
3. Into his glory.
For explanation: 1. Whose glory this is. God's, and God the Father's in distinction from Christ's, as is evident in that Jesus Christ follows.
2. His glory, although we are the persons who are to be glorified by it, as those words, called us, &c. import.
The particulars to be treated on from hence are:
1. That there is a glory of God the Father's, which we are called into, and what that is and will be to us.
2. The glory which will arise therefrom to us, will be a glory revealed in us, and so ours. Yet that it is his glory, rather than ours, and why it is so termed his, rather than our glory.
3. That the bestowing this glory upon the creature is a pure act of grace in him, and proceeds from him (as in respect of the donation of it) as he is a God of grace, and of all grace, and could proceed from no other motive or consideration else.
4. Our being called into such a glory of his by grace, is an assured engagement on God's part, and a security to us, that God will carry us through to the possession of it, maugre all temptations. And this is a corollary from all the three foregoing, and the general scope of Peter.
1. That it is the glory of the Father, and eminently his glory, there is this abundant evidence for it, that even the glory Jesus Christ hath, though it also be in a most proper sense his own glory—Luke 24:26,
'Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?'—yet it is his Father's glory. Thus Mat. 16:27, 'He shall come in his Father's glory;' whilst yet all the angels are said to be his angels as his proper right, and therefore his glory also; yet even he comes in his Father's glory, which yet again, chap. 25:31, is said to be his own also, 'And when the son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.'
But so it is never spoken of us. The meaning whereof is, that Christ's personal glory is such a glory, as it shall be manifest at first sight, that he is the only Son of God, the natural Son of so glorious a Father, and that it is his Father's glory that shines in him, communicated to him, that he is the second person by eternal generation. Also as man, God the Father gave a glory to him, as in
John 17:24,—'Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world,'—Christ acknowledged; who, as he 'gives him to have life in himself,' John 5:26, 'For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;' and so hath he given him to have glory in himself and it is therefore that it is said to be his also, whilst it is but the Father's; for after union it then becomes his own and natural to himself, being the natural Son of God. The full effect of all which you have in that speech of John, chap. 1:14, 'We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God;' that is, as of the Son of such a Father, who is orginally 'the God of glory,' Acts 7:2,
'the Father of glory,' Eph. 1:17, 'his Father, who is the Lord of glory,'
James 2:1, at which very time, when they beheld that his glory in his transfiguration, Peter says of it, 2 Epist. 1:16, 'We were eye-witnesses of his majesty;' for, ver. 17, 'he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice from the excellent glory,'
&c.
I added as a branch, this first particular, what this glory of the Father's as it is to be communicated to us, is, and how to be understood, as distinct from that of Christ's to us, and in us; for the opening of which, let us run over these scriptures that follow, from one to the other. In 1 Thes. 2:12, it is styled both the 'kingdom and glory of God,' as in relation to us, 'Walk worthy of God, who hath called us into his kingdom and glory.' From thence go we to Eph. 5:5, where you have the kingdom of Christ and of God mentioned apart and distinct: 'No idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.' And to shew that the Father hath a glory and kingdom, as in relation unto us, and eminently and distinctly his, you find them both set out as such, even two distinct kingdoms or glories successively one to the other, that all men might first acknowledge the Son, as eminently shining in his glory, and then the Father in his, and we, the called ones, partakers of each of them, in 1 Cor. 15:24,
28, where, as for the glory that Christ shall come in at the day of judgment (of which you have heard that he then comes in his
Father's glory), it is said of it, that after Christ shall have exercised, or appeared in that his kingdom and glory, that then he shall 'deliver it up unto God, even the Father, that God may be all in all,' both in Christ and his saints for ever shining in and to the saints in a far more excelling glory than that he had shined to them through the person of Christ or his dispensations; I do not say than he doth in the person of Christ himself, but than to us, either afore the day of judgment, or in and by [him], during the day of judgment. And this is the ultimate glory and manifestation of God himself unto the saints, and therefore the highest, surpassing all the foregoing, as God's last works use to do; and though the saints shall enjoy it by Christ (as the text here hath it) yet it is as to the dispensation itself, immediate from the Father, when God shall be all in all, both in Christ and us; and is by Peter, in his 2 Epist. 1:17, styled (as I take it) the 'excellent glory:' 'For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,' &c. For if you observe it, that glory out of which, and from which (he dwelling in it) the voice came, is attributed to the Father, for he it was that uttered, 'This my well beloved Son,' &c. All glory imports the goodness of a thing, as rising to an excellency, as the sun we say is glorious, but this is a glory excelling, that surpasseth all glory; and yet while he uttered it of him, the man Jesus appeared as he shall do in his glory. But that which the Father will manifest himself in, is a glory far excelling that which appeared in Christ, then glorified below, to be discovered one day in the highest heavens to us, beyond what that of Christ's will be to us; I do not say than is in and to Christ himself communicated, but than it is by him unto us.
And unto this kingdom of the Father it is, that Christ in his last words, when his kingdom is given up, at the shutting up of the day of judgment, invites us to the possession of: Mat. 25:34, 'Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;' where, in the very place he mentions, he means to erect and exercise that last kingdom of his unto eternity, and wherein he will manifest and display that his glory ultimately, in that he says of
it, that it was 'prepared from the foundation of the world.' That very place (which Isaiah styles the high and holy place, Isa. 57:15, which he hath dwelt in since the creation) was the first work he did create,
Gen. 1:1, and so at the very first foundation of the world; so his bringing the saints into it, and therein possessing them of his immediate glory, is the last or τὸ μέγα in execution, and therefore his heart was, and is from first to last, so intent upon this ultimate act and scene. But though the place be of his creating, and but a created glory, yet the glory he meaneth to display therein, is his own immediate glory, 'God shall be all in all.' And whereas it had been before communicated to us by other things, as in the man Jesus, &c. he will besides that of Christ's (whose glory shall still shine) now unveil his own glory immediately, which shall therefore be all in all, and instead of all: Rev. 21:23, 'And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.' In comparison unto which glory of the Father's, that glory shining in the man Jesus, shall be but λύχνος, the lamp, as the word is; but God the Father is 'the light of it:' Rev.
22:5, 'And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.' Yet Christ himself, the man Jesus, says of himself, when he proclaims his own coming, Rev. 22:16, 'I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.' But the morning star, although the brightest, yet God the Father himself is the sun; and so as the morning star is the prodromus, or fore-runner of the sun, thus is Christ's kingdom of God's, though he shall still shine with the Father in that personal glory, which he ever did. But the Father's glory is the glory that excelleth, even whilst Christ himself appeared in glory, as Peter styles it, 2 Epist. 1:17, 'For he received from God the Father honour and glory,' &c, And in this kingdom of the Father's it is, that the bodies of the saints shall shine with such an extraordinary brightness, that had yet shined wonderfully afore, during the day of judgment, and were
spiritual bodies raised in power and glory at their resurrection; yet this glory of God shining through their souls, breaks forth from their bodies, and causeth them to shine as the sun in the kingdom of their
Father: Mat. 13:43, 'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father,' &c.; then points to a special time.
Observe, it is the kingdom of the Father that is spoken of, and that as it takes place after the judgment, as the verse afore shews, for it is after the saints see the wicked cast into hell, ver. 42. My purpose is not to set forth the greatness of ultimate glory, which the angels themselves know not, nor could their tongues utter; Christ only is as yet possessed of it, 'the Lord of glory,' and it is 'hid with Christ in God,' nor can this glory otherwise be set out than by a comparative made with the glory that precedes it, afore and at the day of judgment. This I must forbear, for this is extravasal to the direct scope of the text.
II. I come, therefore, unto the second particular I proposed, which is more proper to the text, which hath two branches.
1. That it is his glory, not ours, though we are the persons glorified thereby.
2. Why, or in what farther respects, the glory to come is styled his glory, rather than expressed by our being glorified by it.
1. For the first, it is not barely to denote that God, the Father of all glory, is the original of that glory to us, or as the apostle says, that 'shall be revealed in us,' but that indeed we are but received and admitted into it, and glorified by our being so called into his glory, as here; and also in 1 Thes. 2:12, 'received into the glory of God,' Rom.
15:7, we are but as strangers admitted into the enjoyment and use of another's propriety. The like tenor of speech is used when they come to possess it, Mat. 25:32, 'Enter thou into thy Master's joy,' not ours; we did but enter upon his ground and propriety, as I may so speak.
2. Secondly, Why, or in what respect it is his glory, not ours.
We are wholly poor empty creatures, as vessels east into his ocean of glory, which he fills with the riches of his own glory, as the apostle speaks, Rom. 9:22, at the day of judgment, dum Christi regna manebunt, in the height of Christ's kingdom; it is rather said that he is wonderfully glorified, than the saints in him: 2 Thes. 1:9, 10, 'Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power: when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe,' &c.
It is rather Christ's glory in them, than theirs. So the new Jerusalem is said to have 'the glory of God,' Rev. 21:11, rather than a glory of its own; as the stars' glory is that of the sun rather than that of stars, that have no such light in them. God's glory appears by this, viz. how glorious he can make creatures.
III. The third general head was, that the bestowing of this ultimate glory, wherein God is all in all, the donation of it is from God, as the God of grace, and not at all by works; and when I say works, I mean not only to exclude the works of regenerate men since the fall, but even Adam's works in the state of holiness. And the reason is undeniable, because the ultimate glory we have been speaking of lieth in an immediate communication, participation, and enjoyment of God himself, 'co-heirs with Christ, and heirs of God,' he being the inheritance itself. And certainly God hath absolute power over the gift of his own self, where he will to bestow himself thus immediately, when he gives his whole self up unto the creature. If he may (as himself saith) 'do what he will with his own,' speaking of other things and gifts, that are not himself, then surely it is his absolute sovereignty and grace to give and bestow himself.
IV. That our being called into this transcendent glory of his is a certain and not failing engagement on God's part, and security unto
[us] of his carrying us through unto the possession of it. This I have still made the burden of every particular, and so of this.
First of all, 'you see your calling,' as the apostle saith: 'He hath called you into his eternal glory.' That is, there is a right accrues by calling
unto this ultimate glory, which is therefore termed 'the hope of our calling.' Not the hops that is in our hearts only, wherewith we hope, but the thing hoped for; so often in the Scriptures. And the reason of this is, that if God lays at the stake all his own glory, to do the matter of ours, will he not carry you through? Let that washy, vanishing glory promised Adam for his works be laid at the stake unto free-will, to play its prize for it, to win and run for it, and let that glory be so far undervalued as to be exposed to the uncertainty of free will in its own guiding itself with the mutable principles in itself; but let not this glory, this ultimate glory that God hath to bestow, be pawned and engaged unto an uncertainty. If all in God immediately, and his glory, be the thing promised, then all in God shall be the pawn to bring us to it: Philip. 4:19, 'According to his riches in glory, he shall supply all your needs.' He pawns the whole riches of his own glory to do it. It is a round and a full argument of the apostle, 'If he have delivered his Son up unto death, how shall he not with him give us all things' in like manner with him? And if God makes God himself over by the covenant of grace to us, then take all with him. And he gives all that is necessary to the obtaining of it. It is a great inheritance, as well as a free, and, as Christ saith, 'a goodly inheritance,' and surely it will maintain the suit. You know how, upon another occasion, God is called 'their God,' speaking of Abraham, and interpreting the tenor of the covenant of grace, which in that place is spoken as to this sense.
The sense of it is, that his being their God in that manner, as under the covenant of grace he is, was so big a word, as he should have been ashamed if the glory he promised them had not been answerable. But I now allege it for this, that God would be ashamed to have it said that he is a God of all grace to any, and that he out of that grace should have called us into that glory, and yet to fail by the way in bringing us to it. This is not a making a glory over from God, but a making over of God himself, the glorious God; and therefore all in God, if need should be, would bestir itself to make the gift of himself good, and as sure to thee as to himself.
A second consideration, it is a 'life hid in God with Christ,' Col. 3:3; hid, for the security of it, as treasures use to be. And it is not said to
be hid in heaven, as a place; that is no such security as to be hid in God himself. For the angels were in that place, and had an enjoyment of God by virtue of the covenant of works; but our life is hid in God with Christ. Thou thinkest Christ sure enough, in that he is hid in God; your life is as sure as Christ's, with whom it is hid in God.
A third consideration of security to us is, that it is that ultimate glory after the day of judgment, when God shall be all in all, which yet the saints are now called into, as to the full right of it; yet so still as if they be called into the right of that state now, which takes place after the day of judgment is past and over, then certainly nothing can fall out between which shall hinder: for if anything in this world should fall out to hinder, it must be told, and so come in against thee at the day of judgment. But if thou be called into the full right of that glory, which supposeth that judgment first past, and such is this glory here
I before shewed, then nothing can be supposed that shall prevent it; for thou art as called and estated now into the full right of it, as then any one shall be into the full possession of it.
It is true a judgment must pass, and come upon thee; yea, and a judgment of all and every work, good or evil, as Solomon, Eccles.
12:14, assures us; yet that God of all grace that called thee into this ultimate and after-judgment glory (for till then it doth not take place), he will order thy steps so as possession itself shall not be frustrated. 'Fear not, little flock,' saith Christ to them while they were in this life, 'for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom,' Luke 12:32. 'The kingdom,' by way of eminency; that which is properly the Father's to give, his glory (as we have opened), when he shall be all in all. And it is not his pleasure only, but his
'good pleasure,' which nothing shall be able to resist. And he gives you it now, and estates you into it, as if you had it; and therefore fear not that you shall be ever dispossessed of it. That God that keeps it will keep you for it, as the apostle Peter saith. And as for the interim time between now and that day, we may expect that Jesus Christ, during his reign, and whilst his kingdom is in force, as till then it is, he will see to it to keep thee, and raise thee up at the latter day; so as