Chapter 48. The 4th Degree of the Declaration of God's love: Glorification.
A GOLDEN CHAIN
Chapter 48. The 4th Degree of the Declaration of God's love: Glorification.
The fourth degree of the declaration of God's love, is Glorification. Rom 8.30.
Glorification is the perfect transforming of the Saints into the image of the Son of God. Phi 3.21, Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. 1Cor
15.44-45, It is sown a natural body, and is raised a spiritual body: there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And it is also written, The first man
Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Verse 49, And as we have born the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly. Psa 17.15, I will behold your face in righteousness, and when I awake, I shall be satisfied with Your image.
The beginning of Glorification is in death, but it is not accomplished and made perfect before the last day of judgment.
The death of the Elect is but a sleep in Christ, by which the body and soul are severed; the body, so that after corruption, it may rise to greater glory.
The soul, so that being fully sanctified, it may immediately after departure from the body, be transported into the Kingdom of Heaven.
1Cor 15.18, If Christ is not raised, those who are asleep in Christ have perished. Act 7.60, When he had thus spoken, he slept. 1Cor 15.36, O fool, what you sow is not quickened, unless it dies. Rev 21.27, There shall enter into it no unclean thing, nor whatever works abomination or lies; but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rom 7.25, I myself, in my
WILLIAM PERKINS
mind, serve the law of God, but in my flesh, the law of sin. Luk 23.42-43, He said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Then Jesus said to him, This day you shall be with me in Paradise. Rev
14.13, Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Write, 'Blessed are the dead who hereafter die in the Lord.' Even so, says the Spirit. For they rest from their labours, and their works follow them.
Against the fear of death, note these preservatives:
I. Death frees the godly from the tyranny of Satan, sin, the world, the flesh, and eternal damnation — indeed, from both infinite perils and losses — and places us both safe and happy, under the shadow, as it were, of Christ's wings.
II. Christ, by his death, has sanctified both death and the grave for us.
III. Christ in both life and death, is gain to the godly, Phi 11.12.
IV. Those consolations which the Spirit of Christ suggests to the souls of the faithful, surmounts by many degrees, the dolours [grief] of death.
V. The desire for that brightest and most glorious beholding of God, and the presence of those saints who have departed before us.
VI. Instead of our bodies, we shall be clothed with glory. 2Cor 5.1.
VII. The sting of death, namely for sin, is then so taken away, that the serpent cannot hurt us anymore.
1Cor 15.55, O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? Heb 2.15, That He might deliver all those who, for fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
VIII. We should not think so much of our death, as to take an exact account of our life. For that man cannot die badly, who has lived well; and he seldom dies well, who has lived badly.
IX. The Angels stand at our elbows, so that as soon as a Saint departs, they may with all speed immediately transport his soul into heaven.
A GOLDEN CHAIN
Once in heaven, souls remain there till the last Day of Judgment, where they partly magnify the Name of God, and partly wait and pray for the consummation of the Kingdom of Glory, and full felicity [joyousness] in body and soul. Rev 5.8-9, And when He had taken the Book, the four beasts and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, every one having harps and golden vials full of aromas, which are the prayers of the Saints. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the Book, and open its seals, because you were killed, and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Rev 14.2-3, I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sang, as it were, a new song before the throne. Rev 6.10, And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord, holy and true? Do you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?