ON TH8 GLORY OF CHRIST. 79- in their separate state, are perpetually harassed with the disquieting passions which have been impressed in their minds by their corrupt fleshly lusts. In vain do such persons look for relief by death. If there be any thing remaining of present good and usefulness to them, they shall be deprived of it. And their freedom for a sea- son from bodily pains will no way lie in the balance a- gainst that confluenceof evils which death will let in up- on 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 the graces in them, as faith, love, and delight, are immediately set at liberty, enabled constant- ly to exercise themselves on God in Christ. Theend for which they were created, for which our nature was endued with them, was, that we might adhere unto God by them, and come unto the enjoyment ofhim. 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 carriedwith 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 disbur- dened of their present weight of their flesh. And this is a second step towards the consummation of glory. For, In the resurrection of the body, upon its full redemp- tion, it shall be so purified, sanctified, glorified, as to giveno obstruction unto the soul in its operations but be a blessed organ for its highest and most spiritual actings. The body shell never more be a trouble, abur- den unto the soul, but an assistant in its operations, and participant of its blessedness. Our eyes were made to see our Redeemer, and our other senses to receive im- pressions 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 thejust be restored unto them, to heighten and consummate their blessedness. 3. These things are preparatory unto glory. The complete communication of it, is by the infusion of a new heavenly light into the mind, enabling us to see the Lord Christ as he is. The soul shall not bebrought 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 operations in this life, whilst we are absent from Christ. This light of glory succeeds into its room, fit- ted 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, believ- ers shall so behold the glory of Christ, and the glory of God in him, as that therewith, and thereby they shall be immediately and universally changed into his like- ness. They shall be as he is, when they shall see him as he is. There is no growth in glory, as unto parts, there may be as unto degrees. Additions may b'e out- wardly made unto what is at first received, as by the re- surrection 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 eter- nity. For the infinite fountain of life and light, and good- ness, can never befathomed, much less exhausted. And what God spake on the entrance of sin, by way of con- tempt and reproach, Behold the man is become like one ofus, upbraiding him with what he had foolishly de- signed: on the accomplishment of the work of his grace, he says, in love and infinite goodness, Man is become like one ofus, in the perfect restoration of our image in him. This is the first effect of the light of glory. Faith alsoin beholding the glory of Christ in this life, is accompanied with a transforming efficacy, as the apos- tle expressly declares, 2 Cor. iii. 1 1. It is the principle from whence, and the instrumental 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 because it is partial. 1. As unto the manner of its operation it is gradual, and doth not at once transform us into the 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 anex- perience of them in our souls. The inward man is re- newed day by day, whilst we behold these invisible things, 2 Cor. iv. 16, 17, 18. But how? even as the outward man decays by age, which is by insensible de- grees and alterations. Such is the transformationwhich we have by faith, in its present view of the glory of Christ. And according to our experienceof its efficacy'
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