2 Corinthians 4

6. The sixth thing in Glory is a blessed rest (Hebrews 4:9). There remains a rest, Foelix transitus a labore ad requiem, here we can have no rest, tossed and turned as a ball on racket (2 Corinthians 4:8). We are [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] troubled on every side.

As the wicked have a worm that never dies, so the elect have a crown that never fades. Ever is a short word, but has no ending; in fine erit gaudium sine fine, Bern. (2 Corinthians 4:18). The things which are not seen are eternal.

3. The third lesson is the excellency of things unseen. Christ gives the soul a sight of glory, a prospect of eternity (2 Corinthians 4:18): We look not at things which are seen, but [illegible], things which are not seen. Moses saw him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27).

Godliness has the promise of this life (1 Timothy 4:8). These are as it were the saints' wages; but besides, the great reward is to come, an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). Christ makes all his subjects kings (Revelation 2:10): I'll give you a crown of life.

Whom God calls, he crowns. It is a weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). The Hebrew word for glory (Kauod) signifies pondus, a weight: the weight of glory adds to the worth.

So the more the diamond is cut the more it sparkles: And the more God afflicts us, the more our graces cast a sparkling luster. 4. For preparation: To fit and prepare the saints for glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). Those stones which are cut out for a building are first hewn and squa…

2. The bringing Israel out of the house of bondage, was a type of their deliverance from Satan. Thus men naturally are in the house of bondage, they are enslaved to Satan: Satan is called the Prince of this World (John 14:30), and the God of this World (2 Corinthians 4:4), becau…

What angel can span eternity? An eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). The saints shall bathe themselves in the rivers of divine pleasure; and these rivers can never be dried up (Psalm 16:11).

Christ did not rise from the dead as a private person, but as the public head of the church; and the head being raised, the rest of the body shall not always lie in the grave. Christ's rising is a pledge of our resurrection (2 Corinthians 4:14). Knowing that he which raised up t…

When a poor soul has been ready to faint, he has had nothing to comfort him but a Scripture cordial. When he has been sick, the Word has revived him; (2 Corinthians 4:17) Our light affliction which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glor…

Should God convert by the ministry of angels, then we should have been ready to have gloried in angels, and have given that honor to them which is due to God. But when God works by weak tools, makes use of men who are of like passions with ourselves, and by them converts, now th…

Men are willingly slaves to Satan; they will fight and die for him. Therefore Satan is not only called the prince of this world (John 14:30), but the God of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), to show what power Satan has over men's souls. O let us pray that God will break the scept…

The hope of the kingdom of heaven, says Basil, should sweeten all our troubles; (2 Timothy 2:12) If we suffer we shall reign with him. It is but a short fight, but an eternal triumph; this light suffering produces an eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). 1. A weight of g…

And it is no less evident that it is the design of the Apostle to declare both who, and what he was of whom he treateth. Here then, if any where, we may learn what we are to believe concerning the person of Christ; which also we may certainly do, if our minds are not perverted t…

Not that they have a supreme or autocratical power committed to them, to enable them to do what seems right and good in their own eyes, seeing they are expressly bound up to the terms of their Commission (Matthew 28:19, 20), to teach men to do and observe all, and only what Chri…

(1) 1 Philippians 10, chapter 2:15; 1 Corinthians 10:32; 1 Thessalonians 2:11, 12; Titus 2:10. (2) John 6:15; Acts 26:18; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4, 6. (3) 1 Timothy 1:19, 20; 2 Timothy 4:3, 4; Titus 1:13; Jude 3.

God will let us see that our hearts are nothing but darkness, and that to cause any spiritual comfort is as much as to create light at first. Therefore he says, 'I create the fruit of the lips, peace' (Isaiah 57:19), and that it is he who commands light to shine into our hearts,…

2. Also an innate darkness in our spirits as we are sinful creatures: since the fall, our hearts of themselves are nothing but darkness, and therefore no wonder if, when God draws but the curtains and shuts up the light from us, our hearts should engender and conceive such horri…

Neither yet does he immediately concur to produce such an act of assent in us as God does when he works faith in us, for then God's power and assistance in working good should be no more than Satan's in working evil. And yet the Scripture phrases go far in ascribing to Satan her…

Many interpreters understand these words, of the resurrection at the day of judgment simply; as though the Holy Ghost had said, These Martyrs therefore refused to be delivered from death; because, they looked to receive, at the day of judgment, a greater measure of glory: even f…

2. By suffering affliction for Christ's sake, we are made conformable unto him in his humility; that so we may be made like unto him after this life in glory. So Paul says, Our light affliction causes unto us, an eternal weight of glory, 2 Corinthians 4:17. And again, it is a tr…

And those who should be most ready to die, are generally, most ignorant, most covetous, and their hearts most of all wedded to the earth, and earthly things. Secondly old persons must here learn Saint Paul's lesson: 2 Corinthians 4. That as the outward man perishes, so the inwar…

The image of the man is not something distinct from him, something to represent him; but the man himself. See Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; chapter 3:10. This therefore is that which the Apostle denies concerning the Law.

The constitution of his person, was the greatest mystery that ever infinite wisdom effected (1 Timothy 3:16). And thereby did God gloriously represent himself and all his infinite perfections to us (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:14, 15; 2 Corinthians 4:6). Had he not the divine natu…

This in the New Testament is expressed by the renovation of the mind (Romans 12:1; Colossians 3:5), and the opening of the eyes of our understandings (Ephesians 1:17-18). God shining into our hearts, to give us the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthian…

Hereby in patience we possess our souls (Luke 21:19), which if disorderly affections do as it were once carry out of our power, and possess the conduct of them, we shall quickly be at a loss in our profession. (2) By enabling us to take a sedate prospect of eternal things, of th…

But in the dispensation of God by Christ, in the work of our redemption by him, there is such an evidence of the wisdom and righteousness of God in the things themselves, as gives the highest security to faith. It is unbelief alone, made obstinate by prejudices insinuated by the…

1 Timothy 1:14, ⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩, the grace of our Lord did more than abound; it exceeded all comprehension. So that glory which is the effect of this grace, is said to be given, ⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩ (2 Corinthians 4:17), that is, in an excellency and exceeding greatne…

He is the true Light which lighteneth every man coming into the world, namely, that is savingly enlightened. Upon the entrance of sin, all things fell into darkness; spiritual darkness covered mankind, not unlike that which was on the face of the deep, before God said let there…

And the meaning of it (John 1:9), where we render it lighteth, is to teach. And [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉] is knowledge upon instruction (2 Corinthians 4:4); [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], that the light of the Gospel should not shine into them; that is, the knowledge of it, so v…

The Prophets of old, the most eminent administrators under the Old Testament they were all mortal dying men, and while they lived in this world they were subject, to like passions with other men (James 5:17). And the same account the Apostle gives us of the principal administrat…

Is it that which you did not once see, and could not have seen, had not a work of the Spirit shewn it to you, no, would not have seen, but a powerful work of the Spirit prevailed against all opposition against it; either from the corruption of the heart within, which makes no li…

To some it is hid. See (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4, 6). But God shines into the hearts of some to give light.

See Proverbs 30:2, 3. That light which discovers Christ to the soul, shows a person both his former, and yet abiding ignorance of him (2 Corinthians 4:6). This light comes out of darkness.

They believed that these things which the Lord promised, were shadows of better things: and hereon stayed themselves, being well content with that estate to which God had called them. So Paul was contented to bear the afflictions which God had laid upon him, and his reason was,…

Do but look upon the World in a right notion; Satan that was not fit for Heaven, is cast out into the Earth, as a meet place for misery and torment. He is called the Ruler of the darkness of this world (Ephesians 6:12), and the God of this World (2 Corinthians 4:4). 'Tis punishm…

Shall we say our sanctification, whereby we are renewed to the image of God in righteousness and true holiness? that also is imperfect and cannot satisfy God's justice required in the law: as Isaiah has said of himself and the people, all our righteousness is as a menstruous clo…

In Ephesians 3:17, we read of being rooted in grace. Grace in the heart is the root of every gracious word in the mouth, and of every holy work in the hand (Psalm 116:10; 2 Corinthians 4:13). It is true, Christ is the root of a Christian; but Christ is the originating root, and…

2. There is a defect in the mean. The Devil casts a mist and fog before their eyes; the God of this world has blinded their minds (2 Corinthians 4:4). For any man to be moved by the opinions of such persons, is to appeal to blind men concerning colors.

The history of the great truths of the gospel relating to the object of saving faith may be attained by reading, instruction, and by acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures opened and applied in the ordinary dispensations of the ministry, but the mysteries of those gospel truths c…

Christ is but a general name, an empty sound in their ears. These are in their unbelief — the god of this world having blinded the minds of them that believe not (2 Corinthians 4:4). 2. They whose hearts were never yet broken and humbled.

Providence sends even light afflictions as so many artificers, to make the crown more massive and more bright. (2 Corinthians 4:17) [Works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.] They are at work about a good man's crown, while they make him smart.

Such a heart is its throne, its proper seat next to Hell. There is a judiciary hardness, which Satan, through God's permission, brings on men (2 Corinthians 4:4). And there are many ways whereby he does effect it, not here to be insisted on.

One word I desire to have cleared before we proceed. One of his grounds in his discourse about elections, is that the Church officers, as they are the servants of Christ Jesus, so also her servants for Jesus' sake (2 Corinthians 4:5). The professors of Leyden say well, that they…

Thirdly, they care not what they lose to get advantage to God; they are content to be despised, contemned to suffer torments, imprisonments and death; they are content to do that which is the ruin of their lives, which they would not do, had they not a more special life within t…

Nor can any other reward or any other punishment be assigned; although perhaps it can be said that both have been increased by the addition of certain degrees by the force of the new covenant. Hence the reward is now called, "An eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (κα…

3. Then, third: "No one is regenerate except by the power of the Holy Spirit, by whose efficacious operation all who are born of God are translated from spiritual death to life" (John 3:5, 6, 1:13; Titus 3:5). 4. And therefore, fourth: "That Holy Spirit alone is able to bring an…

It is also "life," (John 6:33; Philippians 1:16); and it gives life to those who understand it (John 17:3, 25). This doctrine is moreover communicated through the "opening of eyes," (Isaiah 42:7; Acts 26:18); the "renewing of the mind," (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:23); "translatio…

In the meanwhile, as these things are being transacted between God and the sinful soul through the word, God Himself, in His infinite mercy in Jesus Christ, when and how He wills, by a manner altogether ineffable yet powerful and effective, through His most holy Spirit, bestows…

This light no mortal can acquire by his own powers, or by the benefit of any common assistance whatever. God, who at the first creation of all things commanded light to go forth out of darkness, irradiates our minds with this most holy light by no lesser exercise and efficacious…