1 PET. 5. 10.
THe Apostle Peter concludes his Epistle with a Petition in this verse, and a doxology in the next. In the Petition we have these parts:
First, The Object to whom this Petition is addressed, viz. God, described by a glorious property sutable to the matter of the prayer, The God of all grace; he was to pray for grace, and therefore mentioneth the fountain of grace. This is of great consolation, the people of God want more and more grace, and God is cloathed with allsufficiency: if you want it, you know where to be supplied.
Secondly, God is described by a gracious effect of this grace, Who hath called us: This fountain was not sealed up, but diffuseth it self.
The term to which, of this grace, described in its nature to be Glory. Believers should lift up their heads at the very hearing of this: and there is the adjunct of it, eternal glory.
Fourthly, There is the meritorious cause of this grace, By Christ Jesus.
Fifthly, The matter prayed for, which is in the accumulation of many words together, Make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. Some do curiously enquire after a difference between every one of these: but I take them to be nothing but the vehement and holy Oratory of Paul affectionately expressing himself in his prayer for them, and they are most of them metaphorical words from the Artificer, who is careful to settle and establish his building. Now by the matter prayed for, viz. further perfection and establishment in grace, we may see even the best godly men, do need further addition and strengthning in grace. As he cried out, O me nunquam sapientem, so mayest thou, O me nunquam pium, still there is a further degree in every grace to be obtained. There is imperfection, and there must be continual correcting; but this is not the matter I intend, I come therefore to my purposed subject in this Text; and that is the term to which, of Gods gracious effect mentioned in the Text, Who hath called us to eternal glory; That which the eye hath not seen, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive; that we are now to treat of, or rather to stammer about, viz. that infinite and everlasting glory which God cals wretched sinners, but repenting and believing unto. He hath called us into it: This sheweth how close and intimate that fruition is we have of this glory. It may never trouble a man to part with his beloved lusts and sins, which are but for a moment, for this eternal glory; it is to part with dirt and dung to have gold and precious stones.
For the further opening of this you must know there is a two-fold end of Gods calling us, the near and proxim one, and that is, Repentance and Faith: So the first thing God cals wicked and sinful men unto, is truly to repent of their sinne, and stedfastly to believe in him; But secondly, There is the remote and further end, which is Salvation and Eternal Glory. Of this we are to speak at this time.
Observ. God cals sinners repenting and believing, to no lesse then infinite and eternal Glory.
This point certainly may much affect you; for did the Devil think by showing the glory of the world to tempt Christ to worship him? and shall not we by the discovery of this heavenly glory, make you fall down and worship, and obey God who hath promised to give this unto all those that do so to him? There is a parallel place, 1 Thess. 2. 12. Who hath called us unto his kingdom and glory. What unspeakable condescention is this, that God should take us, and put us into a communion with him of kingdom and glory, to set us upon thrones next to Christ and him, yet the Scripture doth frequently insist on this glory that God intends to put on those that obey his calling. To open this, if they were so many dayes to purify and prepare themselves for hearing the Law, which was a ministration of death, and there was such glory on Moses his face in the delivering of it, that the people could not stedfastly behold him: Certainly there ought to be more cleansing and preparing of the soul to receive the Doctrine of this Gospel-glory. We can onely shew you the back-parts of it, for we cannot comprehend it in all its fulnesse, no more then a little shell can hold the Ocean.
We shall first speak of the Nature of this Glory, and then the Properties. And
First, The Nature of it is seen in discovering the object to be enjoyed by us to all1 eternity, and that is God himself, the perfect, universal and sufficient good. Our glory is in this, that we enjoy God to all eternity, who is the inexhausted sea of all heavenly happinesse. See how David doth triumph in that enjoyment he hath of God in this life, which yet is but the cluster of grapes to that heavenly Canaan. Whom have I in heaven but thee, and whom in earth but thee? Psal. 73. 25. And in other places, The Lord is my portion and my inheritance. So then, if God enjoyed by faith do give so great a blessedness to the soul in this life, how much more when he is enjoyed by immediate vision? This the Scripture cals, Seeing of God face to face, 1 Cor. 13. 12. So then, herein lieth this unspeakable glory, that whatsoever goodnesse, excellency, fulnesse and blessednesse is in God, the same is communicated unto the glorified Saint according to its capacity. Deus meus & omnia, said he: but this will be much more in Heaven, where not only our sinful, but our animal lives will be ended; Then shall we be with the Lord for ever, said Paul, that is spoken, as the compleat perfection of all happinesse.