1. In regard of his truth, the truth of his promise; his promise to him,
In the handling this doctrine I shall shew, I. The necessity of this glory.
II. The nature of it.
III. The ends of it.
IV. The use.
I. The necessity of this glory.
First, Upon the account of God.
1. In regard of his truth, the truth of his promise; his promise to him, his promises of him.
(1.) His promise to him, to Christ. God's truth was engaged for his glory, as the Mediator's truth was engaged for his suffering; and therefore that was as necessarily to be conferred upon him, as the other was to be endured by him. As the ignominy of the cross was an article on his part, so the honour of a crown was an article on God's part. Upon the making his soul an offering for sin, did depend all the promises made to him of his headship over the church, dominion over the world, manifestation of his Deity, propagation of his kingdom, and subjection of his enemies. Without the performance of what he promised, he could not claim one; and upon the performance of what he promised, he could claim all, and his claim could meet with no demur in the court of heaven, so long as God was true to his word. Christ was to surrender himself as a surety for man to the wrath of God, and God was to surrender the government of the world into the hands of Christ. His visage was to be marred, and he was to sprinkle many nations by his blood, Isa. 52:14, 15; and then kings should shut their mouths at him. Kings in power, kings in wisdom, should be astonished at his growth, and submit to his sceptre. As he was to suffer for many nations, so he was to judge among many nations, Micah 4:3. He was not to see corruption, his
soul was not to be left in hell, Ps. 16:10, 11; 'Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption,' &c., Acts 2:27, 28. Christ articled with God to go into the state of the dead, but not to be left there; he was to pass into the grave, but not to be invaded by the rottenness of it; he was to be shewn the paths of life, i.e. to be restored to another life, to be possessed of a fulness of joy, that was to follow his resurrection, after the ignominy of his death and the agonies of his spirit. As he was to have a fulness of spirit in the world, so he was to have a fulness of joy in his glory. As his grace was to be so great as not to be measured, so his glory was to he so great as not to be bounded; and as his death was to be of a short duration, not fully the term of three days, so his pleasures were to be of an endless duration, pleasures for evermore.
And all this glory was to flow from the presence of God, whom his human soul was for ever to behold and converse with, with infinite pleasure: 'In thy presence is fulness of joy.' His whole exaltation, which consisted principally in a manifestion of his Deity and Sonship, was passed by a decree of God, and published to him as Mediator: Ps. 2:7, 'I will declare the decree, the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee;' which is interpreted of his resurrection, Acts 13:33, which was the first powerful declaration God issued out to the world of his being his
Son, Rom. 1:4. Upon which account Peter tells us he was foreordained, both to his sufferings and glory, before the foundation of the world, 1 Peter 1:20, 21; he was to inherit the spoils of his enemies, and take for his own what was before Satan's prey as a reward; and that for the pouring out his soul to death, Isa. 53:12, he was to see his seed upon the making his soul an offering for sin, Isa.
53:10; then also his days were to be prolonged. What! to a miserable and infirm life? No, but to such a one as should endure to eternity, wherein is included, not only his resurrection, but his glorious state.
How could he see his seed, if he remained in the fetters of death? or behold them with comfort, if he should enjoy an immortality in as infirm a body as he had in the time of his humiliation? The sight of his seed was to follow his investiture in glory, and was a part of it; then it was that nations should run unto him, Isa. 55:5. All those
promises were made to him as incarnate, and making himself an oblation; for, as God, he was not the subject of any promise. He was to bear our iniquities on the cross, and then to live triumphantly upon a throne. Christ pleads this, John 17:1, 'The hour is come;
Father, glorify thy Son;' the hour of my passion, the hour of thy promise. I am willing to undergo the one, and just now ready to drink of the brook in the way; be thou ready, O Father, according to thy promise and oath, wherein thou stoodest obliged to perform the other part, my glorification; and particularly the manifestation of my deity, upon which all the other parts of my exaltation depend. Ver. 5,
'And now, O Father, glorify me with thy own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was;' which was not the glory of his humanity (which was not in being before the world was), but the glory of his divinity in the full unveiling of it, that it might shine brighter before the eyes of men. It had indeed before been obscured in the form of a servant in the time of his life, in the repute of a criminal at the time of his death; but now he prays that he might be manifested to be what he really was, a person that had a glorious existence before the world was, and that had no need to come down and take the nature of man for any advantage to himself. Now, as God promised him a glory, and Christ pleads the promise, so God performed it; and therefore his ascension is expressed by God's receiving him up into glory, as well as by his own act of entering into it: 1 Tim. 3:16, 'received up into glory,' Ἀνελήφθη, recovered again unto glory; for it was impossible God should be false to his eternal purpose, and his repeated promise.
(2.) His promises or predictions of him. So that his exaltation was necessary to justify the prophecies of it, which were not the predictions of one or two of the most eminent of the prophets, but that which all of them, one way or other, spake of ever since the world began, Acts 3:21. Isaiah is the plainest of all, and many things to this purpose are inserted in his prophecy: Isa. 4:2, 'In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely.' As he is the fruit of the earth, he shall be excellent in his humanity; and as he is the branch
of the Lord, he shall be acknowledged in his divinity; or, as he is the branch of the Lord in his conception by the Holy Ghost, and the fruit of the earth in his birth of the virgin, he shall be glorious in the world. And this was to be for his service, and as the servant of God:
Isa. 52:13, 'My servant shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high;' which relation of service he had not in the divine nature, but his mediatory function; and so glorious was his life to be, and so long the duration of it, after he should be taken from prison and from judgment, that it should be past the declaration of any creature: Isa.
53:8, 'Who shall declare his generation?' And it is very clear, in Ezek.
17:22, 'I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent,' &c. This is not meant of Zerubbabel, under whom the people had not such a signal rest, nor did his empire extend so far as to shadow the fowl of every wing, the people of every nation. Christ was a plant of his Father's setting, a young twig in his humbled, a tall cedar in his exalted, state; planted in the highest mountains, eminent above all the rest; i.e. even he was to be cut off, but not for himself, Dan. 9:26; not to himself, say some;* his cutting off shall not be without a second springing up in a resurrection. And when he is the Son of man, he was to be brought with the clouds of heaven, with the angels which attended him at his ascension, before the Ancient of days, and that near to him; and so welcome he was to be upon his approach, as to be presented with the dominion of the whole world, Dan. 7:13, 14, which is not to be understood of his coming at the day of judgment, but his coming after his oblation. He comes not here to judge man, but to be judged by his Father; and upon being found to have performed the part of the Son of man, he hath a kingdom both extensive and everlasting bestowed upon him, which should not be destroyed by the subtleties or force of his enemies; a present only worthy of the Son of God. Again, he received not his power at the day of judgment, but upon his resurrection and ascension after his death; but this expresseth the first investiture of this power in him. This glory was prophesied of a thousand years before the accomplishment:†Ps. 68:17, 18, 'Thou hast ascended on high.' The