Part 99 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 100 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Lastly, To provoke you to labor after higher degrees of holiness, consider that the more holiness you have here—the more happiness you shall have hereafter. </strong>The more grace you have on earth—the more glory you shall have in heaven. Now before I come to make good this argument—namely, that some saints shall partake of more glory in heaven than others shall—give me permission to premise these few things to prevent mistakes.
First, That the object of their happiness, which is the eternal blessed God—will be one and the same to all saints. All glorified saints shall have but one God among them all. God shall be no more one saint's God than he shall be every saint's God in heaven, etc.
Secondly, That the beatifical vision shall be seen by all the saints, and communicated to all the saints; they shall all have a happy and blessed fruition and possession of God. All the vessels of glory shall be filled to the brim with a clear sight of God, and with a full enjoyment of God; and yet doubtless, for all this, some saints shall apprehend more of God than others, and comprehend more of God than others, and enjoy more of God than others. Though all shall be filled with those everlasting springs of pleasure and delight that are at God's right hand, Psalm 16:11—yet some shall be able to take in more of those pleasures of paradise than others shall. Though all the widow's vessels were filled to the brim with oil—yet, doubtless, some being greater and larger than others, they accordingly contained more oil than others, 2 Kings 4:3-8; and so it will be with the saints when they come to heaven. There shall be no lack of glory to any of the saints in glory. All the saints shall be filled with glory—according to their capacity. If you bring a thousand vessels of different sizes to the sea, the sea fills them all. Though their sizes differ, and some are bigger, and others lesser—yet all are filled, every little vessel has its fill as well as the greater—just so, every saint shall have his fill of glory when he comes to glory; the felicity of every saint shall be perfect God will be all in all to all saints, Psalm 17:15.
Thirdly, All saints shall be freed from all evils alike; they shall all be freed from the aching head, and from the unbelieving heart; they shall all alike be free from the evil of sin, and from the evil of sufferings; there shall not be a saint in glory that shall ever feel a pricking brier or a grieving thorn, Ezek. 28:24; there all sorrow shall be removed from all their hearts, and all tears shall be wiped from all their eyes, Rev. 7:17.
Fourthly and lastly, The degrees of glory that saints shall have in heaven shall not be given out to them upon the account of their merits, or the dignity of their persons, or the worthiness of their works—but upon the account of God's mere mercy and grace, who in the day of retribution will delight to crown his own gifts, not our merits. And where he shall find the greatest measures of grace and holiness, there he will, of his own free mercy, bestow the greatest measure of glory. [When God crowns us, he does but crown his own gifts in us. Augustine.]
Well, friends, remember this, you must always carefully distinguish between the essence and substance of glory, and between degrees and measures of glory. Now the essence and substance of glory, which consists in the saints' full communion with God, and in their perfect conformity to God, and in their universal subjection to God, and in their everlasting fruition of God—is common to all the saints, so that no one saint shall have more of the essence and substance of glory than another has—yet the degrees and measures of glory shall be distributed to some more, to some less. Now that there shall be different degrees of glory in heaven, answerable to the different degrees of grace and holiness that the saints reach to here on earth, and that God will at last proportion his rewards according to the different degrees of labor, service, and sufferings of his people in this world, may be made evident,
1. By clear scriptures;
2. By arguments.
Now there are several SCRIPTURES that speaks out this truth. Take these for a taste:
[1.] First, 1 Cor. 3:8, "Now he who plants and he who waters are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor." The apostle having compared his own and Apollos' work together, adds, "That both should receive their reward according to their work"—that is, as their work differed—just so, should their reward differ. Though they both preached one and the same doctrine, and had both one and the same design and purpose, namely, to bring in souls to Christ, and to build up souls to Christ—yet according to their different degrees of labor—just so, should be their different degrees of reward. Though no man should work in God's vineyard for nothing—yet he who was most faithful, diligent, and laborious in planting or in watering God's husbandry, should have the greatest reward. Paul and Apollos shall at last receive their different reward according to their different labor; or they shall each of them receive, according to their proper work.
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