2. Upon the account of righteousness and goodness.
whole design of the psalm manifests it, as well as the citation of it by the apostle, Eph. 4:8. Joseph was not taken from prison to live his former life of slavery, but a princely life upon a throne, and rule the whole kingdom next to the sovereign prince; so Christ was not to live the same life after his resurrection that he had done before in his sweats and combats, and to endure the contradictions of sinners against himself; but was to be advanced to a place suitable to his greatness, upon the right hand and throne of his Father.
2. Upon the account of righteousness and goodness.
(1.) In regard of his innocence, he was a real innocent, though a reputed criminal; innocent in himself, guilty only as standing in our stead; holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, Heb. 7:26, as if there were not words enough to express his purity, he being most holy and undefiled. It doth not seem to consist with the justice of God for him so to give his life for us as never to reassume it. He was a person more excellent than the whole world of men and angels. He being a divine person, his life was incomparably more excellent than the lives of all mankind. Surely God, that loved him so dearly, would not have given so glorious a life for the salvation of men, to be swallowed up in the grave without a happy restoration of it. It doth not seem to consist with the wisdom, love, or justice of God to give so excellent a life for the saving ours, if it were not again to spring up to a glorious state out of the ashes of mortality. Was not his death the fruit of his innocence? Was it equal that he should be held in the bands of that, or walk in the world under the load and burden of a mortal body, any longer than the expiation of our sins required?* If this had been, had not a fundamental law of God, which orders immortality and happiness to perfect holiness, been violated, which is impossible?
(2.) In regard of the near alliance to himself. Did it consist with equity to let that person who was equal with himself in regard of the divine nature; that person who was in the form of God, as well as in the form of a servant, Philip. 2:6, 7; that nature which was so
gloriously united to a nature infinitely above the angelical, to corrupt in the grave and crumble to dirt and filth? to be a banquet for worms that had been a fragrant sacrifice to God? Or could it be counted equity to have raised him to no better a life than that miserable one he led before, his agonies in the garden, and his gaspings on the cross? Had it not been an unrighteousness to himself, as well as to his Son? Surely that a flesh which had the honour to be the temple of God, a branch of the Lord, the powerful conception of the Holy
Ghost, that had the glory to be personally united to the Son of God, to live and subsist in him, should not be glorified after it was raised again, seems to be against all the laws and rules of goodness and righteousness.
(3.) In regard of the work he had performed. How could justice forbear to deliver the surety, after he had paid so much that it was impossible, upon an exact scrutiny, to find a farthing wanting? How could it be agreeable to goodness to continue a person under the chains of death, or the lighter fetters of an infirm and earthly life, who was not liable to more punishment, nor capable of performing a greater service in this world than what he had already done? It was the interest of satisfied justice to raise him from death; and was it not as well the interest of remunerative righteousness to exalt him to be the head of that church he had so dearly purchased? Could goodness continue him a little lower than the angels, who had performed a task that would have broke the back and cracked the heart of the whole angelical nature to accomplish? If God rewards as a righteous judge, 2 Tim. 4, a reward below an exaltation above all the angels had been disproportioned to so deep a humiliation, to so punctual, and in all respects a voluntary and unconstrained, obedience. Was it congruous to the goodness of God to let so signal an obedience, more excellent than the obedience of millions of worlds of angels, pass away without as signal a reward? That so sharp a cross, endured by an innocent with so much affliction and freeness, should not be succeeded by a crown as glorious as the cross was ignominious? In equity he was to be placed far above principalities and powers, the revolted rabble of devils, and their companions bad men, since he
had so gloriously conquered and routed those armies of hell, Col.
2:15, and above the corporations of the standing angels, since he had so graciously confirmed them, Eph. 1:10, by whom those blessed spirits commenced masters of a greater knowledge of the perfections of God than they had by the whole creation for four thousand years.
There was all the reason that so incomparable a victory should be attended with as glorious a triumph.
(4.) In regard of the glory which redounded to God from this work.
All that was done tended to the restoring of God's honour in the casting out the prince of the world from his usurpation, demolishing idolatry, and restoring the worship of God upon pure and spiritual principles. God received more glory by his mediation than by all the works of his hands, the glory of his grace in his mission, the glory of his justice in his sufferings, and the glory of his wisdom in the whole dispensation, which was a new glory that never accrued to him before, nor could ever be brought into his exchequer by any other way than this. By this the bar to God's resting and rejoicing in his work was removed, the bands of sin were broken off, a carnal Adam changed into a spiritual, the defaced image of God restored, the world formed into a second and more noble creation, and the kingdom of God established in the world by the conquest and spoiling of the revolted spirits. If God were glorious by creating a world, he was more glorious in the redemption of the world. It was reasonable Christ should be advanced to the highest pitch of glory, suitable to that degree of emptiness to which he had abased himself for this end,* that he should triumphantly be settled in the most glorious and majestic place of the empire of God, and have not only the highest place of residence, but the greatest height of authority over men and angels, having made peace between God and the creation, and between one part of the creation and another; that as he died once with a pure zeal for the glory of God, he might live in a new state to a further exaltation of him; for so he doth: Rom. 6:10,
'In that he lives, he lives unto God,' to gather his people, to glorify them, and be glorified by them. As there was a glory brought to God by Christ in his low estate, so there was a further glory to be brought