Glory of God greatest in the gospel
the grace of God, that palliate and cover their plot cunningly and closely, but they set nature against grace. Let us vindicate that upon all occasions; for we live by grace, and we must die by grace, and stand at the day of judgment by grace; not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ, being found in him. But because it is a sweet point, and may serve us all in stead, to consider that God will honour himself gloriously in this sweet attribute, let us see a little how the glory of God shines in Christ more than otherwise; parallel it with other things a little.
Glory of God greatest in the gospel (1.) The glory of God was in Adam; for Adam had the image of God upon him, and had communion and fellowship with God; but there is greater glory now shining in the gospel, in Jesus Christ, to poor sinners. For when man stood in innocency, God did good to a good man, and God was amiable and friendly to a friend. Adam was the friend of God then. Now to do good to him that is good, and to maintain sweet communion with a friend, this is good indeed, and it was a great glory of God's mercy that he would raise such a creature as man hereto. But now in Jesus Christ there is a further glory of mercy; for here God doth good to ill men, and the goodness of God is victorious and triumphant over the greatest misery and the greatest ill of man. Now in the gospel God doth good to his greatest enemies herein, as it is Rom. 5:10. God set forth and commended gloriously his love, that 'when we were enemies, he gave his Son for us.
Therefore here is greater glory of mercy and love shining forth to fallen man in Christ than to Adam in innocency.
(2.) The glory of God shines in the heavens. 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handiwork,' Ps. 19:1.
Every creature hath a beam of God's glory in it. The whole world is a theatre of the glory of God. But what is the glory of creation, of preservation, and governing of the world, to the glory of his mercy and compassion that shines in Christ? The glory of the creature is
nothing to this; for all the creatures were made of nothing; but here the glory of mercy is such in Christ that God became a creature himself.
(3.) Nay, to go higher, to the angels themselves. It is not philangelia, but philanthropia that outshines all.* God is not called the lover of angels. He took not upon him the nature of angels, but the nature of man; and man is the spouse of Christ, the member of Christ. Angels are not so. They are but ministering spirits for the good of them that shall be saved. Christ, as it is Eph. 1:21, when he rose again, he was
'advanced above all principalities and powers,' therefore above the angelical nature. Now Christ and the church are all one. They make but one mystical body. The church is the queen, and Christ is the king. Therefore Christ mystical, the church, is above all angelical nature whatsoever. The angels are not the queen and spouse of Christ. So the glory of God's goodness is more to man, to sinful man, after he believes and is made one with Christ, than to any creature whatsoever. Thus God hath dignified and advanced our nature in Jesus Christ. Comparisons give lustre. Therefore this shews plainly unto us Christians that the glory of the mercy and love and kindness of God to man in Christ shines more than his glory and mercy and kindness to all the creatures in the world besides. Therefore here is a glory with an excellency.
On the other side, nothing more terrible than to consider of God. Out of Christ, what is he but a 'consuming fire'? Heb. 12:29. But to consider of his mercy, his glorious mercy in Jesus Christ, nothing is more sweet. For in Jesus Christ God hath taken upon him that sweet relation of a Father; 'The Father of mercy, and God of all comfort,' 2
Cor. 1:3. So that the nature of God is lovely in Christ, and our nature in Christ is lovely to him. And this made the angels, who, though they have not increase of grace by Christ, yet having increase of comfort and glory, when Christ was born, to sing from heaven 'Glory to God on high,' &c., Luke 2:14. What glory? Why, the glory of his mercy, of his love, of his grace to sinful men. Indeed, there is a glory of wisdom to reconcile justice and mercy together, and a glory of truth to fulfil
the promise. But that that sets all attributes for our salvation on work was mercy and grace. Therefore that is the glory of God especially here meant. For as we say in morality, that is the greatest virtue that other virtues serve, so in divinity, that attribute which others serve is the greatest of all. In our salvation, wisdom, yea, and justice itself, serves mercy. For God by his wisdom devised a way to content justice, by sending his Son to take our nature, and in that nature to give satisfaction to justice, that there might be a harmony among the attributes. To make some use of this.
Uses Use 1. Doth God manifest his glory? I will not speak at large of glory, being an endless argument, but confine it to the glory of grace and mercy in the gospel, which therefore is called the glory of the gospel.
I say, doth God shew such glorious mercy in Christ? Then, I beseech you, let us justify God, and justify this course that God hath taken to glorify his mercy in Jesus Christ, by embracing Christ. It is said of the proud Pharisees, 'they despised the counsel of God,' Luke 7:30.
God hath poured out mercy, bowels of mercy, in Christ crucified.
Therefore, in embracing Christ, we justify the counsel of God concerning our salvation.
Do but consider what a loving God we have, who would not be so far in love with his only Son as to keep him to himself, when we had need of him: a God that accounts himself most glorious in those attributes that are most for our comfort. He accounts not himself so glorious for his wisdom, for his power, or for his justice, as for his mercy and grace, for his philanthropia, his love of man. Shall not we therefore even be inflamed with a desire of gratifying him, who hath joined his glory with our salvation? that accounts himself glorious in his mercy above all other attributes? Shall the angels, that have not that benefit by Christ as we have, shall they in our behalf, out of love to us and zeal to God's glory, sing from heaven, 'Glory to God on high'? and shall we be so dead and frozen-hearted that reap the crop,
as not to acknowledge this glory of God, breaking out in the gospel, the glory of his mercy and rich grace? The apostle is so full when he falls upon this theme, that he cannot speak without words of amplification and enlargement; one while he calls it 'rich grace,' Eph.
1:7, another while he stands in admiration, 'Oh the depth of the love of God,' Rom. 11:33. What deserves admiration but glorious things?
The best testimony that can be given of glorious things is when we admire them. Now if we would admire, is there anything so admirable that we can say, Oh the height, and depth, as we may of the love of God in Christ? There are all the dimensions of unparalleled glory, height, and breadth, and depth. Therefore, I beseech you, let us often even stand in admiration of the love of God to us in Christ. 'So God loved the world,' John 3:16. The Scripture leads to this admiration by phrases that cannot have a podesis,* a redition* back again. 'So.' How? We cannot tell how. 'So' as is beyond all expression. The Scripture itself is at a stand for words. Oh base nature, that we are dazzled with anything but that we should most admire. How few of us spend our thoughts this way, to consider
God's wonderful and admirable mercy and grace in Christ, when yet there is no object in the world so sweet and comfortable as this is, that the very angels pry into! They desire to pry into the mystery of our salvation by Christ. They are students therein. The cherubins, they were set upon the mercy seat, having a counterview, one upon another, implying a kind of admiration. They pry into the secrets of God's love in governing his people, and bringing them to heaven.
Shall they do it, and shall not we study and admire these things, that God may have the glory? God made all for his glory, beloved; and 'the wicked for the day of wrath,' as Solomon saith, Prov. 16:4. And hath he not new made all for his glory? Is not the new creature more for his glory than the old creature? Therefore if we will make it good that we are new creatures, let us seek to glorify God every way, not in word alone, but in heart admiring him, and in life conversing with him.
And that we may glorify God in deed, let us glory in God's love; for we must glory in this glory. Nature, beloved, is glorious of itself, and
vain-glorious. But would you glory without vanity? Go out of yourselves and see what you are in Christ, in the grace and mercy and free love of God, culling us out from the rest of mankind; and there you may glory safely over sin, and death, and hell. For being justified freely from our sins, you can think of death, of the damnation of others, of hell, without fear. 'God forbid,' saith St Paul,
'that I should glory in anything, but in the cross of Christ,' Gal. 6:14; that is, in the mercy of God appointing such a means for satisfaction.
'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man glory in his strength,' &c., Jer. 9:23. There is a danger in such glorying. It is subject to a curse. But if a man will glory, let him 'glory in the Lord.'
Use 2. Again, if God account his mercy and love in Christ, especially his glory, shall we think that God will admit of any partner with Christ in the matter of salvation? If, as the psalmist saith, 'he made us, and not we ourselves,' Ps. 100:3, shall we think that we have a hand in making ourselves again? Will God suffer his glory to be touched upon by intercessions of saints' merits, and satisfaction, and free will? Grace is not glorious if we add the least thing of our own to it. Cannot we make a hair of our head, or the grass that we trample upon, but there must be a glory and power of God in it? And can we bring ourselves to heaven? Therefore away with that 'Hail, Mary, full of grace!' 'Hail, Mary, freely beloved!' is the right interpretation; and they that attribute matter of power and grace and favour to her, as in that 'Oh beseech thy Son,' &c., they take away that wherein God and Christ will be glorified, and attribute it to his mother and other creatures (e). I do but touch this, to bring us into loathing and abomination of that religion that sets somewhat of the creature against that wherein God will be glorified above all.
Use 3. Again, let us stay ourselves, when we walk in darkness, with the consideration of the gloriousness of God's mercy in Jesus Christ, here called 'the glory of the Lord.' It is no less mercy than glorious mercy that will satisfy us, when we are in distress of conscience; and if this will not, what will? Let Satan aggravate our sins as much as
may be, and join with conscience in this business; yet set this glorious mercy against all our sins, make the most of them, they are sins of a finite creature. But here is infinite mercy, triumphing and rejoicing over justice, having gotten the victory over it. Oh beloved, when the time of temptation comes, and the hour of death, and conflict with conscience, and a confluence and concurrence of all that may discourage, Satan will bestir himself; and he is a cunning rhetorician to set all the colours upon sin, especially in the time of despair; be as cunning to set all colours upon mercy, glorious mercy.
If God were glorious in all other attributes, and not in mercy, what would become of us? The glory of other attributes without mercy tends to despair; glorious in wisdom to find us out; glorious in justice to deal with us in rigour. These affright, but that that sweeteneth all other attributes is his mercy.
What a comfort is this to sinful man, that in casting himself upon Christ, and upon God's mercy in Christ, he yields glory to God; that God hath joined his glory with our special good; that here is a sweet concurrence between the summum finis* and the summum bonum of man! The last end of man of all is the glory of God; for that is as it were the point of the circle from which all came (for he made all for his glory), and in which all ends; so is the chief good. Therefore by the way it is a vain conceit for some to think, 'Oh we must not look to our own salvation so much; this is self-love.'
It is true, to sever the consideration of the glory of God's mercy and goodness in it, but see both these wrapped and knit together indissolvable, our salvation and God's glory. We hinder God's glory if we believe not his mercy in Christ to us. So at once we wrong ourselves and him, and we wrong him not in a mean attribute, but in his mercy and goodness, wherein he hath appointed to glorify himself most of all; and therefore, I beseech you, let us yield to him the glory of his mercy, and let us think that when we sin we cannot glorify him more than to have recourse to his mercy. When Satan tempts us to run from God, and discourageth us, as he will do at such times, then have but this in your thoughts, God hath set himself to be
glorious in mercy, above all other attributes. And this is the first moving attribute that stirs up all the rest, and therefore God will account himself honoured if I have recourse to him. Let this thought therefore be as a city of refuge. When the avenger of blood follows thee, flee presently to this sanctuary. Think thus, Let not me deny myself comfort and God glory at once: 'Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more,' Rom. 5:20. Though sins after conversion stain our profession more than sins before conversion, yet notwithstanding go to the glorious mercy of God still, to seventy times seventy times,* there is yet mercy for these.† We beseech you be reconciled, saith St Paul to the Corinthians, when they were in the state of grace, and had their pardon before. Let us never be discouraged from going to Christ.
Oh, but I have offended often and grievously. What saith the prophet? 'My thoughts are not as your thoughts; but as high as the heavens are above the earth,' &c., Isa. 55:8. Therefore howsoever amongst men, oft offences breed an eternal alienation, yet notwithstanding with God it is not so. But so oft as we can have spirit to go to God for mercy, and spread our sins before him, with broken and humble hearts, so often we may take out our pardon. Compare
Exod. 33 with Exod. 34. Moses, in chap. 33:18, seq., had desired to see the face of God. There was some little curiosity perhaps in it. God told him that none could see him and live. To see the face of God in himself must be reserved for heaven, we are not proportioned for that sight. But in the next chapter there he shews himself to Moses; and how doth he shew himself and his glory to Moses? 'The Lord, the Lord, gracious, merciful, long-suffering,' clothed all in sweet attributes. He will be known by those names. Now, then, if we would know the name of God, and see God as he is pleased and delighted to discover himself to us, let us know him by those names that he proclaims there, shewing that the glory of the Lord in the gospel especially shines in mercy; and as I said before, it must be glorious mercy that can satisfy a distressed conscience, howsoever in the time of ease and peace we think a little mercy will serve the turn. But