1. Some say his sufferings were not meritorious of his own glory;
God. The satisfaction of his Father by him was to precede his Father's satisfaction of him, Isa. 53:11. His obedience to death gave a wherefore to his exaltation: Philip. 2:9, 'Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.' The right to it may be measured by the order of conferring it; it was not conferred till he 'had purged our sins,' Heb.
1:3, and therefore the right to claim it was not till he had performed what was due to his Father.
(2.) As being the first subject of glory, as being the spring of glory to all that were to be glorified. As Adam, the head of mankind, was the first subject of God's rich gifts to his reasonable creature, so was
Christ the first subject of God's glorious grace, and gifts to and for his redeemed creature. Others have a glory from him as private persons,
Christ hath this glory as a public person, as a second Adam, and so it is his glory peculiar to him, and incommunicable to any else, as being the only and singular head, the one and only public person in the charge of redemption. As his sufferings were peculiarly his, wherein neither men nor angels could be partners with him, so is the glory peculiarly his. As he trod the wine-press alone, so he alone hath right to the crown, and whoever else wears a laurel wears it as his member, not as a head.
Let us consider the connection: 'Ought not Christ to suffer those things, and to enter into his glory?' It is argued whether there was a meritorious connection between the sufferings of Christ, and his glory, i.e. whether this glory was merited by his suffering.
1. Some say his sufferings were not meritorious of his own glory; though his exaltation followed upon his passion, yet it was not merited by it. His cross was the way to his crown, but not the deserving cause of his crown; he merited by his sufferings a glory for us, but not for himself; and the act of God whereby it was conferred, is expressed by a word, ἐχαρίσατο, Philip. 2:9, 'given him,' or freely given him, 'a name which is above every name,' which signifies an act of grace and not of debt. As he did not fulfil the law for himself, but for us, that he might redeem us from under the curse of the law, by