3. Upon the account of love to Christ. His paternal affection to his
to him in his exalted estate, according to the voice of the Father to him: John 12:28, 'I have both glorified my name, and will glorify it again.' As he had glorified it in the doctrine and miracles of Christ, so he would glorify it again by his passion and resurrection, sending the Spirit, propagating the gospel, and setting him upon the throne as the judge of the world. This glorifying God was the argument Christ pleaded for his assistance and exaltation in the prophet (Ps. 69:7,
'Because for thy sake I have borne reproach, shame hath covered my face'), that the faith of the saints in the divine promises might not be enfeebled by any carelessness of God towards him, ver. 6. And near the time of his death he pleads it in his own person, that he might be in a state to carry on that glory he had begun to bring to God, to the highest degree: John 1:17, 'Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.' Christ was to do more service for God in heaven than he did on earth, and glorify his Father after his Father had glorified him, i.e. by a particular application of his death to men, by the virtue of his intercession, though indeed the foundation of all that glory was laid upon the cross by his satisfaction. Had God been good to the Redeemer, if he had given him less than a crown for a cross, a reward for the work effected by his suffering? And had he been righteous and good to himself, if he had put Christ into a state below that which should capacitate him to perfect the remains of that honour of his name, which were further to be extant in the world? What capacity could we imagine him to have if he had lain under the feet of death, or sat languishing on the footstool of the earth in a feeble immortality? A throne was due for the glory he had gained, and a throne was fit for the glory he was yet to effect.
3. Upon the account of love to Christ. His paternal affection to his Son required not only a deliverance of him from the jaws of death, but the putting such a crown upon his head, by which he might be known by all to be his Son, whom he embraced with an ardent affection.* God would not love his Son according to his own greatness, if he did not manifest it to the world with the most signal marks and ensigns of authority. And surely after he had vanquished his Father's wrath, and triumphed over the enemies of his honour, he
could expect no other than the strong effluxes of his Father's love in the highest expressions of it. What could hinder him from resting in his bosom, when all the wrath excited by the transgressions of the law was calmed, and the Redeemer came out victorious from that furnace of wrath wherein he had been enclosed. Wrath thus being quenched by his sufferings, there was no room for the exercise of any other affection to him than that of love; and no testimony could be given proportionably to such an affection, but the highest degree of honour conferred upon him. The Father loved him because he laid down his life, John 10:17; and the same affections would be more strongly manifested after he had laid it down, and prompt him to shew him greater works than those which had been wrought in the world, that the world might marvel, John 5:20. He would manifest him to be the partaker of all his counsels, that nothing of authority should be denied him, nothing of knowledge concealed from him.
These were the signal demonstrations of the Father's love, expected by our Saviour.
Secondly, It was necessary on the account of Christ himself.
(1.) In regard of his nature.
[1.] As it was of an heavenly original: He came down from heaven, Job 3:13. He was that holy thing born of the virgin, but as overshadowed by the power of the highest, Luke 1:35. He was not born by the force of flesh and blood, according to the law of creation settled in old Adam; he was an heavenly man, or the Lord from heaven, 1 Cor. 15:47, and therefore was immortal in the true and original constitution of his nature.† And though he lived in a veiled condition to fulfil the charge which he undertook, and which could not otherwise be accomplished, yet, after the completing of it, he could not be retained in the bands of death, but must necessarily return by the law of his own nature to his true and original condition, and lead an heavenly and glorious life, suitable to the principle whereby he was formed. ‡ All things are ordered by God in places suitable to their nature; heavy things are placed lowest, lighter things
highest; and if for the good of the universe they remove out of their proper place contrary to their natures, as soon as ever the occasion which obliged them to such a motion is over, they return to the place of their former settlement proportionable to their nature. As air, whose place is above the earth, when it is enclosed in the bowels of the earth, and there increased by vapours, will find its way out by an earthquake, to that place which God hath settled for it; stones descend, and water flows down to its proper place, as soon as the let is removed; so, though Christ, for the good of mankind, stepped into the world, yet when he had effected that business, he must necessarily take his flight to heaven, his proper place. When that which obliged him to come upon the earth was ceased, and he had no more to do here, upon that occasion of the expiation of our sin, heaven, that was the principle of his original, was to be that of his rest and abode. As earth was assigned to the first man, who was earthly, for an habitation, so heaven was the proper element of repose for the second man, who was heavenly. It was most convenient that an earthly man should be lodged in the earth, and the Son of God have his seat where the throne of his Father was.§ It was not fit that any creature should be above the person of the Son of God, what nature soever he had assumed, and therefore his exaltation above the angels was due also upon that account.
[2.] As his body was changed by the resurrection. Since after his resurrection his body was made immortal, and had new qualities conferred upon it, whereby it had acquired an incorruptible life;* as our bodies shall at the resurrection be incorruptible and spiritual, 1
Cor. 15:42, 44; it was not fit it should make any long stay in a place of corruption and misery; and that so excellent a person should have an habitation in a world of men and beasts. A corrupted place was not convenient for an immortal body; nor an earth, cursed by God, suitable to an unstained nature, that had nothing further to do here by himself. But seeing it was the most perfect body, it was convenient it should be taken up into the most perfect place, and ascend above all bodies.† Indeed, while he had a body of such a mould as ours, and furnished with the same earthly qualities and infirmities with ours,
his abode in the world was somewhat suited to his body as well as to his work; but when he had put off his grave-clothes, and was stripped of that old furniture, and enriched with new and heavenly qualities, heaven was the most proper place for his residence. Again, had the earth been a proper place for him, it was not fit the Divinity should stoop to reside in the proper place of the humanity, but the humanity be fetched up to the proper place of the Deity, where the Deity doth manifest itself in the glory of its nature. The lesser should wait upon the greater, and the younger serve the elder.
[3.] As the greatest part of his exaltation consisted in the manifestation of his Deity. It was not fit so great a conqueror and Redeemer, who was God as well as man, should have his deity still under the veil of our flesh, after he had accomplished so great a work. Indeed, he hath our flesh united in heaven to his divine nature, but his divine nature is not veiled by it, as it was here. Now, had his deity been manifested here below in that vast brightness and splendour which was proper for it, the sons of men had been undone, and met with their ruin instead of their recovery; for who can see
God and live? Exod. 33:20, 'No man can see my face and live.'
Heaven was therefore the only place where this could be manifested in that illustrious manner which it ought to be, though earth was the place for the powerful effects of it. I say, then, it was not fit the glory of his deity should have been longer overshadowed by the veil of his humanity; and it could not have broken out in its clearness without not only dazzling our eyes, but consuming our beings, in that state we are. The brightness of an angel is too great an object for weak man, without the shadow of some assumed body, much more the brightness of the Son of God; and what need was there of his being veiled for us still, when he had done all that was necessary to be effected in that veil of infirmity he had wrapped himself in?
(2.) It was necessary upon the account of Christ, in regard of his offices. Had not Christ been glorified, the offices conferred upon him by his Father could not have been executed; his prophetical, priestly, and royal functions could not have been exercised, to which he was
chosen by God, and without which he could not have been a Saviour to us. He had been a sacrifice, without being a priest; a king, without possessing a throne; a prophet, without a chair to teach in; at least none of these offices could have been managed in a way worthy of himself, unless he had been in a glorious condition, and his humanity in a glorious place.
[1.] It was necessary for his prophetical office. As he did but begin to exercise his priestly office in his death, and began to execute his royal function in his miracles, so he did but begin to manage his prophetical office in his life: Heb. 2:3, 'Salvation began to be spoken by the Lord.' His death was a consecration to a further exercise of his priestly office, his signs and wonders the first essays of his kingly, and his own teachings the first rudiments of prophecy. After his ascension he did, as the Sun of righteousness, spread the wings of his grace, and flew about the world in the illuminations of hearts, Mal.
4:2. As it is with the sun, so was it with Christ, the nearer the earth in the winter of his humiliation, the less force he had for the production of fruits, but the higher he mounted in heaven the more vigorous.
The beams of the sun shot from heaven make us distinguish those things which we mistook in the dark, and the rays of Christ, after his ascension, manifested the difference between truth and error. Then the living waters of the sanctuary grew high, Ezek. 47:3–5, and what was before but a drop of knowledge in Christ's beginning to teach, became an unfathomable sea of knowledge in Christ's effusion of the Spirit at his ascension.
[1.] Without this ascension, his doctrine had not had a perfect confirmation. As his divine Sonship was declared in part in his resurrection, Rom. 1:4, so his doctrine met with a confirmation in that manifestation of him to be the Son of God; but as that was but the first step to a manifestation of his person, so it was but the first degree of the manifestation of his doctrine. The more complete justification of his doctrine was cleared by his elevation to heaven; it then appeared that he did (as he said himself) declare the words of God; that as his humiliation discovered him to be a man, his
exaltation and the fruits of it discovered him to be a divine prophet of a greater dignity and richer influence than all that went before him.
He had been unjustly charged, in the delivery of his doctrine, with the crime of blasphemy, and very few were persuaded either of the divinity of his person or the heavenliness of his doctrine. By his ascension God declared him to be a prophet sent by him, and that prophet whereof Moses spake, Acts 21:22; he acknowledged him to be really what he reported himself to be, one with the Father, having a perfect knowledge of the Father, one speaking the words of God, and acting according to the order of God. Had what he asserted of himself been false, he had been so far from being advanced to heaven, that he had been hurled down to the bottomless pit for his imposture. God would not by any act, much less by the conferring so great a glory, have contributed credit to a lie. But God hath decided the controversy between him and the Jews, his accusers, and cast them by, owning him in the quality of his Son, and the great prophet, whereby he had entitled himself among them. What greater testimony can there be than God's putting all power into his hands, giving him the keys of death and hell, the power of opening the seals, and slaying by the words of his mouth? Thus God recommended his doctrine, and by lifting him up to heaven, set him there as a Sun to free the world from the blackness of error, wherewith the night had filled it.
[2.] Without this the apostles could not have been furnished with gifts for the propagation of his doctrine. Those weak men could not have gone about so great a work without a mighty furniture and magazine of divine eloquence and vigorous courage; to give this was not his immediate work as Mediator, and in the economy of the divine persons pertained to the Holy Ghost. It was necessary, therefore, that he should, as high priest, enter into the holy place, and appear before God with the blood of his eternal sacrifice, that the treasures of the Spirit might be opened, and that that divine flame might issue out from thence to inspire them with abilities for so great an undertaking. This he had not had power to do, unless he had been glorified, John 7:34, 'The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified.' He could not before invest his officers with a transcendent power, because he was not mounted to a full execution of his own office. It was after this he erected the Christian church among the Gentiles as well as Jews, completed the rule of faith in the writings of the apostles, which was to endure to the end of the world. Without this glorification, he had not been the universal teacher of the mysteries of salvation, nor qualified the apostles for the propagation of his doctrine. But by this means he exercised his office, not only among the Jews, as the minister of the circumcision, but among all nations of the Gentiles, as the chief doctor and prophet of the world, by the publication of the gospel and the grace of the Spirit.
[3.] Nor could the apostles without this have had any success. They had nothing of a worldly stamp and beauty that could persuade people to an entertainment of their doctrine. They had not the wealth and grandeurs of the world to offer them, nor could allure them by earthly empires and conquests, as Mahomet did his followers. To preach a crucified God would be justly thought an extravagance and the fruits of a frenzy; but when they should hear not only of his resurrection, but the possession of a glory, from so many witnesses upon whom they could fasten nothing of distemper, an end would be put to their astonishment.* His crucifixion could not appear so irrational to them, as the news of an exaltation, whereby the ignominy of the cross was changed into the glory of a crown, would appear amazing. Since the Spirit could not come unless Christ were glorified, it was impossible that without this glorification of the Redeemer, and consequently the effusion of the Spirit, that those delegates of Christ could publish the gospel with such power, resist such violences, triumph over such oppositions; and impossible for men to have believed or regarded what they said, since their doctrines were so contrary to the common maxims of the world, which had been so long strengthened by education and custom, the strongest chains next to corrupt nature. As the ascension of Christ gave the apostles (the spectators of it) courage to publish the greatness of our Saviour with boldness, as before they had denied
him with cowardice in his humiliation, so it made way for the entrance of his doctrine into the belief of the hearers, which otherwise they would have been ashamed to entertain, had it not been backed with so great an argument, and testified by such witnesses, and seconded by such miracles, against which they could have no exception. Without this, those main truths of the gospel upon which the Christian religion depended, and which are the life and soul of it, as the redemption of man, the justification of believers by the blood of his sacrifice, had wanted a ground for the manifestation of them, and all the comforts of the gospel been frustrate. Men could have had no apprehension of such things without an accomplishment of his glory. Hence it was that so often
Christ assured his disciples while he was instructing them, in the time of his life, of the great works they should perform, and the success they should meet with after his departure. His doctrine had been more obscure, and lost much of its clearness, had he stayed below.
[4.] Heaven alone was a fit seat for him wherein to exercise this office. It was no more convenient for him to be placed on earth, who was to disperse his light into the understandings of men, and scatter ignorance in all parts of the world, than for the sun to have been placed on the earth for the spreading its beams into all climates of the world. An earthly seat was fit for an earthly prophet; but was it fit for him who was constituted by God, not only a prophet to the Jews, but to all the nations and tribes of mankind; whose doctrine was not to be confined to the narrow limits of Jerusalem or Judea, but extend to all parts of the world?* What though the dusty earth bore his body in the days of his humiliation, while he was laying the foundation of those truths which were to sound in every quarter! Yet when he came to be installed the sole doctor and teacher of the whole world, it was not fit he should be placed in any sphere lower than that of heaven, whence he might make his voice known both to heaven and earth, to men and angels, and convey his instructions to those blessed spirits who were yet to learn more of the mysteries of divine wisdom, Eph.
3:10, and also to the multitudes of the Gentiles, as well as to the small number of the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
(2.) Necessary it was for his priestly office. Though he was a priest by authority in the days of his humiliation, yet he was not fully installed in the perpetual exercise of this office, till his 'sitting at the right hand of God,' Ps. 110:1, 4; and when he was declared harmless, and undefiled, and separate from sinners, though sacrificed for them, and thereupon made higher than the heavens, and by that declared to be the Son of God, then he was as his Son consecrated a 'priest for evermore,' Heb. 7:26, 28.
[1.] He had not done the whole work of a priest had he remained upon the earth. As the legal high priest had not been a complete high priest, and fulfilled every part of his office, had he not entered into the holy of holies, so neither had Christ performed the whole work of a priest had he remained upon earth and not entered into the heavenly sanctuary, to appear or be manifested in the presence of God for us, Heb. 9:24. It was not enough for the legal high priest to cut the throat and pour out the blood of the sacrifice in the outward tabernacle, and offer it upon the altar on the day of the annual expiation,† but he was to pass within the veil, to present the blood of the victim to the Lord, and sprinkle it towards the propitiatory, Lev.
16, and upon his return to publish the atonement and reconciliation to the people; so that there had been no analogy between the type and antitype, if our Saviour after his oblation on earth had not in the quality of a priest passed into the heavens, as through the veil which separated the heavenly sanctuary from the outward court. It was necessary therefore that the true high priest should advance into the true sanctuary, into heaven itself (figured by that legal place), where
God hath his residence among the true cherubims and angels of glory; that he should sprinkle this mercy-seat, and present before the throne that blood which he had shed upon the cross, till the time that, the number of his elect being completed, he is to return out of the sanctuary, i.e. descend from heaven to earth to pronounce the sentence of their general absolution, and gather them to himself in
the glory of his kingdom. By his own blood he entered into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us, Heb. 9:12. This entering into the holy place with the blood of the sacrifice was the main end of the sacrifice, and a necessary act of the high priest, and appropriate to him alone. The end why it was offered in the temple was, that it might be presented in the sanctuary; so while Christ disposed himself to those sufferings which he was to undergo for the expiation of our sins, it was necessary he should be upon the earth; but after he had offered himself a sacrifice upon the cross, it was no less necessary for him to ascend in person, and carry the treasures of his blood with him, to be laid up in that repository, to be sprinkled in the heavenly places, and remain for ever as a mark in the true sanctuary, as a treasure of perpetual merit. The legal priest was also to burn incense in the holy place. By incense in Scripture is frequently meant prayer. If Christ be not then an intercessor in heaven, there is no analogy between the type and the antitype. This intercession, a great part of his priestly office, could no more have been managed but in heaven than the oblation, the first part of his office, could have been performed anywhere but on earth. Had he therefore remained upon the earth after the shedding of his blood, he had not fully executed his office, but had performed it by halves, and that which he had performed on earth had been without strength, without performing the other in heaven; for then it was that he was made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec, Heb.
6:20 and a minister of the sanctuary, Heb. 8:1, 2. He is hence called the high priest of our profession, Heb. 3:1, as performing all the duties, and enjoying all the privileges really, which the legal high priest did perform and enjoy figuratively. Without this glorious translation, he could not really in his own person have carried his blood into the sanctuary, nor appeared in the presence of God for us, nor have opened heaven for those that are his followers.
[2.] Heaven only was fit to be the residence of so great a priest. As he was a priest, it was fit he should have a sanctuary; as he was the great priest, it was fit he should have the highest sanctuary; as he was the everlasting priest, it was fit he should have an everlasting sanctuary;
as he was an undefiled priest, it was fit he should have an undefiled sanctuary; as he was a priest constituted and consecrated in a special manner by God, and not by man, as Aaron and his posterity were, it was fit he should have a special sanctuary, which Aaron and his posterity had not; as he was to appear in the presence of God for us, it was fit it should be in a place where God doth manifest himself in the glory of his deity. Now, no place but heaven can challenge all those qualities. It was very convenient and necessary that he who was the high priest according to the order of Melchisedec, a blessing as well as a sacrificing priest, distributing spiritual and heavenly blessings to his people, should not be seated in an orb inferior to that place whence those blessings were to receive their original, and flow down upon the world. And since he was a priest not designed for one particular nation, nor consecrated only for such a spot of land as Judea, but for the whole world, it was necessary that he should be in such a place where all may address themselves to him that stand in need of the exercise of his office, and from whence he may behold all with those compassions which are annexed to his priesthood. It was necessary also that he that made the reconciliation for men should reside with God (who had been offended, and now was reconciled) to preserve it firm and stedfast, since while the world doth last there are daily so many breaches made to forfeit it.
[3.] It was necessary for his kingly office. It was fit that he that had done so great a work, and had merited so great a crown, that was exalted to be a prince and a saviour, and had received an heavenly authority and power to give repentance and forgiveness of sins, Acts
8:31, should also be received into heaven till the time of the restitution of all things, Acts 3:21, till all things be restored to their due order.
[1.] It was necessary for his triumph. Indeed, for the beginning of the exercise of his prophetical charge, there was a necessity of his residence among men for the divulging some truths and counsels of his Father; and while he was to conflict with his enemies with sweat and blood, it could not well be but in the field of battle wherein the
enemies were; but when he came off with victory, he could not conveniently triumph in the place of battle, or reign as a king suitably to his grandeur upon the dunghill of the earth.* It was fit be should sit in triumph at the right hand of his Father, to end and complete the fruits of his victory: Ps. 110:1, 'Sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.' As he had not been in a capacity to reign had he continued as a subject under the dominion of death, so he could not exercise the office of a king so commendably as upon the throne of his Father. Heaven only was a palace fit for the residence of the King of kings.
[2.] It was necessary for his government. As heaven is the fountain of providence, so it was fit that the king, into whose hands God committed all judgment, the power and government of the world, should sit upon a throne in heaven; and it was not congruous that he that was made the head of principalities and powers, the governor of the angelical spirits, should have a meaner dwelling than the greatest of his subjects, and as low as the vilest of his vassals. The wisdom of God hath disposed all causes in an order superior to those effects which depend upon them;* the heavens are above the earth, because the earth is influenced by them; and the sun above the earth, because the earth is enlightened by it. It was no less necessary, according to the order of God's wisdom, that he who was made by God his viceroy both in heaven and earth, and had the management of all things conferred upon him, should be lodged in a place superior to those things he was to govern, from whence he might send forth his directions to all his subjects. And though he had by his death given his enemies a mortal wound, and stripped the devil of the right he had acquired by the sin of man, yet, in the order of divine wisdom, the possession he had of the world was not to be taken away, and men reduced to the sceptre of this great king, but in a way convenient to the nature of man. Those gifts, therefore, which were necessary for the reduction of him, could only be dispensed from heaven; it was therefore necessary for Christ in person to ascend thither, to give out his commission, and enable his servants with gifts, whereby to 'wound the head of his enemy,' Ps. 68:18, 21. It was