We might here look on him as under the weight of the wrath of God, and the curse of the law; taking on himself, and on his whole soul, the utmost of evil that God had ever threatened to sin or sinners. We might look on him in his agony and bloody sweat, in his strong cries and supplications, when he was sorrowful unto the death, and began to be amazed, in apprehensions of the things that were coming on him,-of that dreadful trial which he was entering into. We might look upon him conflicting with all the powers of darkness, the rage and madness of men,-suffering in his soul, his body, his name, his reputation, his goods, his life; some of these sufferings being immediate from God above, others from devils and wicked men, acting according to the determinate counsel of God. We might look on him praying, weeping, crying out, bleeding, dying,—in all things making his soul an offering for sin; so was he "taken from prison, and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off from the land of the living: for the transgression,” saith God, "of my people was he smitten," Isa. liii. 8. But these things I shall not insist on in particular, but leave them under such a veil as may give us a prospect into them, so far as to fill our souls with holy admiration.

Lord, what is man, that thou art thus mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? Who hath known thy mind, or who hath been thy counsellor? O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! What shall we say unto these things? That God spared not his only Son, but gave him up unto death, and all the evils included therein, for such poor, lost sinners as we were;—that for our sakes the eternal Son of God should submit himself unto all the evils that our natures are obnoxious unto, and that our sins had deserved, that we might be delivered!

How glorious is the Lord Christ on this account, in the eyes of believers! When Adam had sinned, and thereby eternally, according unto the sanction of the law, ruined himself and all his posterity, he stood ashamed, afraid, trembling, as one ready to perish for ever, under the displeasure of God. Death was that which he had deserved, and immediate death was that which he looked for. In this state the Lord Christ in the promise comes unto him, and says, Poor creature ! how woful is thy condition! how deformed is thy appearance! What is become of the beauty, of the glory of that image of God wherein thou wast created? how hast thou taken on thee the monstrous shape and image of Satan? And yet thy present misery, thy entrance into dust and darkness, is no way to be compared with what is to ensue. Eternal distress lies at the door. But yet look up once more, and behold me, that thou mayest have some glimpse of what is in the designs of infinite wisdom, love, and grace. Come forth from

thy vain shelter, thy hiding-place. I will put myself into thy condition. I will undergo and bear that burden of guilt and punishment which would sink thee eternally into the bottom of hell. I will pay that which I never took; and be made temporally a curse for thee, that thou mayest attain unto eternal blessedness. To the same purpose he speaks unto convinced sinners, in the invitation he gives them to come unto him.

Thus is the Lord Christ set forth in the Gospel, "evidently crucified" before our eyes, Gal. iii. 1,—namely, in the representation that is made of his glory,-in the sufferings he underwent for the discharge of the office he had undertaken. Let us, then, behold him as poor, despised, persecuted, reproached, reviled, hanged on a tree,-in all, labouring under a sense of the wrath of God due unto our sins. Unto this end are they recorded in the Gospel,-read, preached, and represented unto us. But what can we see herein ?—what glory is in these things? Are not these the things which all the world of Jews and Gentiles stumbled and took offence at ?—those wherein he was appointed to be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence? Was it not esteemed a foolish thing, to look for help and deliverance by the miseries of another?-to look for life by his death? The apostle declares at large that such it was esteemed, 1 Cor. i. So was it in the wisdom of the world. But even on the account of these things is he honourable, glorious, and precious in the sight of them that do believe, 1 Pet. ii. 6, 7. For even herein he was "the power of God, and the wisdom of God," 1 Cor. i. 24. And the apostle declares at large the grounds and reasons of the different thoughts and apprehensions of men concerning the cross and sufferings of Christ, 2 Cor. iv. 3-6.

CHAPTER VII.

The Glory of Christ in his Exaltation after the Accomplishment of the Work of Mediation in this World.

We may, in the next place, behold the glory of Christ, with respect unto his office, in the actings of God towards him which ensued on his discharge of it in this world, in his OWN EXALTATION.

These are the two heads whereunto all the prophecies and predictions concerning Jesus Christ under the Old Testament are referred, -namely, his sufferings, and the glory that ensued thereon, 1 Peter i. 11. All the prophets testified beforehand " of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." So when he himself opened the Scriptures unto his disciples, he gave them this as the sum of the doctrine contained in them, " Ought not Christ to have suffered

these things, and to enter into his glory?" Luke xxiv. 26. The same is frequently expressed elsewhere, Rom. xiv. 9; Phil. ii. 5-9.

So much as we know of Christ, his sufferings, and his glory, so much do we understand of the Scripture, and no more.

These are the two heads of the mediation of Christ and his kingdom, and this is their order which they communicate unto the church, -first sufferings, and then glory: "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him," 2 Tim. ii. 12. They do but deceive themselves who design any other method of these things. Some would reign here in this world; and we may say, with the apostle, "Would you did reign, that we might reign with you." But the members of the mystical body must be conformed unto the Head. In him sufferings went before glory; and so they must in them. The order in the kingdom of Satan and the world is contrary hereunto. First the good things of this life, and then eternal misery, is the method of that kingdom, Luke xvi. 25.

These are the two springs of the salvation of the church,-the two anointed ones that stand before the Lord of the whole earth, from which all the golden oil, whereby the church is dedicated unto God and sanctified, doth flow. This glory of Christ in his exaltation, which followed on his sufferings, is that which we now inquire into. And we shall state our apprehensions of it in the ensuing observations :

1. This is peculiarly that glory which the Lord Christ prays that his disciples may be where he is to behold it. It is not solely so, as it is considered absolutely; but it is that wherein all the other parts of his glory are made manifest. It is the evidence, the pledge, the means of the manifestation of them all. As unto all the instances of his glory before insisted on, there was a veil drawn over them whilst he was in this world. Hence the most saw nothing of it, and the best saw it but obscurely. But in this glory that veil is taken off, whereby the whole glory of his person in itself and in the work of mediation is most illustriously manifested. When we shall immediately behold this glory, we shall see him as he is. This is that glory whereof the Father made grant unto him before the foundation of the world, and wherewith he was actually invested upon his ascension.

2. By this glory of Christ I do not understand the essential glory of his divine nature, or his being absolutely in his own person "over all, God blessed for ever;" but the manifestation of this glory in particular, after it had been veiled in this world under the "form of a servant," belongs hereunto. The divine glory of Christ in his person belongs not unto his exaltation; but the manifestation of it doth so. It was not given him by free donation; but the declaration of it unto the church of angels and men after his humiliation was so. He left it not whilst he was in this world; but the direct evidence and decla

ration of it he laid aside, until he was "declared to be the Son of God with power," by the resurrection from the dead.

When the sun is under a total eclipse, he loseth nothing of his native beauty, light, and glory. He is still the same that he was from the beginning,-a "great light to rule the day." To us he appears as a dark, useless meteor; but when he comes by his course to free himself from the lunar interposition, unto his proper aspect towards us, he manifests again his native light and glory. So was it with the divine nature of Christ, as we have before declared. He veiled the glory of it by the interposition of the flesh, or the assumption of our nature to be his own; with this addition, that therein he took on him the "form of a servant,"—of a person of mean and low degree. But this temporary eclipse being past and over, it now shines forth in its infinite lustre and beauty, which belongs unto the present exaltation of his person. And when those who beheld him here as a poor, sorrowful, persecuted man, dying on the cross, came to see him in all the infinite, uncreated glories of the divine nature, manifesting themselves in his person, it could not but fill their souls with transcendent joy and admiration. And this is one reason of his prayer for them. whilst he was on the earth, that they might be where he is to behold his glory; for he knew what ineffable satisfaction it would be unto them for evermore.

3. I do not understand absolutely the glorification of the human nature of Christ,-that very soul and body wherein he lived and died, suffered and rose again,--though that also be included herein. This also were a subject meet for our contemplation, especially as it is the exemplar of that glory which he will bring all those unto who believe in him. But because at present we look somewhat farther, I shall observe only one or two things concerning it.

(1.) That very nature itself which he took on him in this world, is exalted into glory. Some, under a pretence of great subtility and accuracy, do deny that he hath either flesh or blood in heaven; that is, as to the substance of them, however you may suppose that they are changed, purified, glorified. The great foundation of the church and all Gospel faith, is, that he was made flesh, that he did partake of flesh and blood, even as did the children. That he hath forsaken that flesh and blood which he was made in the womb of the blessed Virgin,-wherein he lived and died, which he offered unto God in sacrifice, and wherein he rose from the dead,-is a Socinian fiction. What is the true nature of the glorification of the humanity of Christ, neither those who thus surmise, nor we, can perfectly comprehend. It doth not yet appear what we ourselves shall be; much less is it evident unto us what he is, whom we shall be like. But that he is still in the same human nature wherein he was on the earth,

that he hath the same rational soul and the same body, is a fundamental article of the Christian faith.

(2.) This nature of the man Christ Jesus is filled with all the divine graces and perfections whereof a limited, created nature is capable. It is not deified, it is not made a god;—it doth not in heaven coalesce into one nature with the divine by a composition of them;it hath not any essential property of the Deity communicated unto it, so as subjectively to reside in it; it is not made omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent; but it is exalted in a fulness of all divine perfection ineffably above the glory of angels and men. It is incomprehensibly nearer God than they all,-hath communications from God, in glorious light, love, and power, ineffably above them all; but it is still a creature.

For the substance of this glory of the human nature of Christ, believers shall be made partakers of it; for when we see him as he is, we shall be like him; but as unto the degrees and measures of it, his glory is above all that we can be made partakers of. "There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; and one star differeth from another in glory," as the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xv. 41. And if there be a difference in glory among the stars themselves as to some degrees of the same glory, how much more is there between the glory of the sun and that of any star whatever! Such is the difference that is, and will be unto eternity, between the human nature of Christ and what glorified believers do attain unto. But yet this is not that properly wherein the glory of Christ in his exaltation, after his humiliation and death, doth consist. The things that belong unto it may be reduced unto the ensuing heads.

1. It consisteth in the exaltation of the human nature, as subsisting in the divine person, above the whole creation of God in power, dignity, authority, and rule, with all things that the wisdom of God hath appointed to render the glory of it illustrious. I have so largely insisted on the explication and confirmation of this part of the present glory of Christ, in the exposition of Heb. i. 2, 3, that I have nothing more to add thereunto.

2. It doth so in the evidence given of the infinite love of God the Father unto him, and his delight in him, with the eternal approbation of his discharge of the office committed unto him. Hence he is said "to sit at the right hand of God," or at "the right hand of the Majesty on high." That the glory and dignity of Christ in his exaltation is singular, the highest that can be given to a creature, incomprehensible ;--that he is, with respect unto the discharge of his office, under the eternal approbation of God;—that, as so gloriously exalted, he is proclaimed unto the whole creation,-are all contained in this expression.