3. As this glory was necessary on the account of God, and on the
fit that an eternal King should have an everlasting palace; that a King constituted in a special manner by God, should have a palace not made with hands; that he who was put into the possession of all nations, Ps. 2:8, and had a grant of all the kingdoms of the world to be his own, Rev. 11:15, that was not to rule in a corner of the earth, and sway the sceptre in places that could be included in a map, should have his throne fixed in any part of the world but the glorious heaven. An earth defiled by that sin he hated, and an earth yet too much filled with those enemies he had conquered, was not a place convenient for the perpetual residence of so great a monarch. It was most fit also that he who was ordained the Judge of the whole world, and confirmed in that office by his being raised from the dead, Acts
17:31, should be taken up into that sovereign court of heaven, and come in majesty from thence to execute that charge. All the ends of his government and triumph could not have been answered without this glory; he could not have reigned in the midst of his enemies unless he had been placed above them, nor conducted his church to an happy immortality, unless he had had a possession of that heaven he was to conduct them to.
3. As this glory was necessary on the account of God, and on the account of Christ, so it was necessary on our account also,
(1.) That God's choice acceptance of his sacrifice for us might be manifested. The acceptance of it by God was in part manifested by his resurrection; but the infinite pleasure he took in it, and the fragrancy of that savour he smelt from it, had not been testified to the world had he given him only the recompence of an earthly life and glory. Indeed, his resurrection is an attestation of the truth and fulness of his satisfaction, for he rose again for our justification,
Rom. 4:24. He cannot be considered as our propitiation but in the state of his resurrection. No man is freed legally and justly from prison till he hath paid his debts; so then the resurrection of Christ is an argument that his payment was commensurate to the debt; but the glorious exaltation of Christ is an argument of the high acceptableness of it to God. Who can doubt of his satisfaction after
his resurrection? and who can doubt of the infinite content God took in his obedience after he had crowned him with so immense a glory, and established him a prince and a priest for ever at his right hand?
God hath not only declared himself satisfied, but satisfied with an incomparable pleasure. God made a diligent search into him, to see whether he was without spot, and perfect in his person and works:
Dan. 7:13, 'And they brought him near before him,' i.e. the Son of man before the Ancient of days. As persons and things are brought near to be tried and diligently inspected, so was Christ brought near to God in a judicial way, that God may pass a judgment upon him and his work; and upon a strict view he was so ravished with his obedience, that he conferred upon him a dominion, glory, kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him, an everlasting dominion, a dominion that passes not away, &c., ver. 14.
Such a multitude of expressions used in this donation do signify the mighty pleasure of God in him, as if (to speak after the manner of men) God had been grieved that there was not more to confer upon him. As by the resurrection of Christ God declared himself by the title of a God of peace, Heb. 13:20, so in the ascension of Christ he declared himself a God of all grace to us, 1 Pet. 5:10. He declared himself reconciled to us by raising Christ from the dead, and he hath declared himself a God of all grace in calling us to an eternal glory by Christ, because the glory Christ hath is a pledge of that glory believers shall have as a fruit of God's high acceptance of him. This is the cordial Christ gives his disciples, and assures them they had reason to rejoice in the midst of their worldly calamities at his going to his Father, if they well understood it, John 14:28. It is indeed a clear evidence that God hath an inconceivable pleasure in him; he would not otherwise have suffered him to enter heaven, but would have thrust him back again upon the earth. In his death there is a satisfaction, and in his glory the highest testimony of it. Without a glorious entrance into heaven, his resurrection with his continuance upon earth had not been so clear a witness of God's high value of his sufferings; but now by his glorified state it must be concluded that his death was not the common fate of mankind, but highly meritorious, since God hath rewarded him with so great an honour
as the government of men and angels; I say it must be concluded, not only that it was a death proportionable to what the justice of God required, but an infinite purchase of whatsoever happiness the creature wanted.
(2.) That the Spirit might have a ground to comfort us. Since the end of the Spirit's coming is to comfort us, and the principal argument whereby he comforts us is the high value of his death with God, and the acceptance he meets with in heaven, there had been little or no ground for him to build his comfort upon without the ascension of Christ to glory. How doth the Spirit demonstrate the sufficiency of Christ's righteousness? Not because he was raised, but because he goes to his Father, and is seen no more here: John 16:10, 'He shall convince the world of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you see me no more.' His resurrection is the first corner stone of comfort, because it was a necessary antecedent to his glory. But had he been only raised to an earthly life, our joy had been but a twilight mixed with darkness, and the arguings of the Spirit for our cheering been somewhat disputable, and wanted much of that efficacy which now they have. This going to the Father, which includes a glory, was the spring whence the Spirit was to draw those waters of consolations he was to pour into our souls. Had Christ remained upon the earth, the Spirit had not come; but if he had, the breasts of consolation had been very lank, and little could have been drawn out by us. Some jealousies would have remained, we could not have fully answered the accusations of our sins, our own consciences would have had some racks, and we should have felt sometimes some griping doubts. If God had appeared reconciled by the raising him, yet he would not have appeared highly pleased with us without his glorious translation. We might have had some comfort in peace with him, but seen no appearance of favourable and gracious smiles in his countenance. Our Saviour lays a stress upon that of seeing him no more here, viz., in that state wherein he was before, or in a state without a glory. This, in his account, was a sufficient argument of the value of his death with God. Could we behold him here in the flesh, we might discard all our hopes of standing before God in a glorious
eternity as vain imaginations; but when ye shall see me go to my Father, and maintain my interest in his favour, you may conclude that God is not only pacified, but hath lofty thoughts of grace towards you. Without this his going to the Father, the cordials of the Spirit would have wanted their due temper, and had not found any relish in our guilty consciences.
(3.) That there might be an irresistible ground of faith. If the Spirit had wanted a ground of comfort, our faith had wanted a ground of reliance. As faith respects the person of Christ, it had been subject to staggering; it could have had no assurance that he had truly the dignity of the Son of God if he had remained in the condition of a man upon the earth.* As faith respects the death of Christ, though it might have concluded an expiation of the crimes, yet not a fulness of merit to procure a complete felicity, if he had had no other sphere but the rude earth to spend his immortal life in. And less confidence still had belonged to faith as it respects the word and promise of Christ; for how could we imagine he could prepare mansions for us in heaven, if he had never stepped from the earth? or restore us to paradise, a place of bliss, that could not find the way back to that heaven from whence he said he descended to redeem us? We could not have concluded that his death had been a ransom if his word had been false; and his word had had no credit with us if he had not returned to that heaven to which he affirmed he always had a right.
He could never bring us to that place to which he could not restore himself. Had he not risen, we should have thought him no higher than a mere man; nay, an impostor, and his death a punishment of his own crime. Had he not risen, we should have regarded him as no other than a conquered captive of death among the rest of mankind; and had he, after his resurrection, resided in the corrupted earth with our flesh, could we have imagined it to be the flesh of God, any more than we could have conceived it so had it remained under the power of death? His glory hath given assurance and courage to our faith, which had been very languishing, or rather nothing at all, had he stayed on earth; nor could we have had any hopes ever to have attained the happy vision of God in heaven. Had the Redeemer abode
on this side that place of glory, we had been without a pledge of so great a felicity; nor could our souls have been carried out with those noble affections suitable to the extraction of them. Our love to Christ had been directed by a knowledge of him after the flesh, 2 Cor. 5:16, and therefore had mounted no higher than a carnal affection. We should have had no ground for those refined and spiritual affections, and lifting our hearts to heaven, which are the ennoblement of our spiritual natures. Without this entrance into glory, there had been no foundation for the superstructure and exercise of any grace in a lively and delightful manner; and without it, and the acknowledgment of it, all falls to the ground.
But now there is a ground for all, since, [1.] Satisfaction is declared to be full. The validity of the price is not to be scrupled, since we are assured of the weight of his glory. Shall we doubt of the sufficiency of that, after the assurance of so many jewels in his crown? What is all his glory but a return of his blood, and an approbation of the value of it for the ends for which it was shed? His appearance in heaven could not have been glorious, had not his oblation on earth been satisfactory. For our sins being in the nature of debts, Mat. 6:12, and the justice of God in the law in the nature of a creditor, to which we are responsible, Gal. 3:10, his death was the payment, his resurrection the acquittance, but his glory the fullest testimony that God can give that he is satisfied, and remains so. So that there is no room for any doubt of eternal redemption purchased, since his entrance into the holy place, with the blood of his sacrifice, Heb. 9:12. His exaltation assures man that he hath appeased God.
[2.] And therefore all enemies are removed out of the way. His triumph had not been just if his victory had not been full. The law would have resisted his elevation, and stopped his way to the throne, if it had anything to object against him. This glory manifests that all the enemies which stood with drawn weapons between him and his throne are removed out of the way, the obligation against us
cancelled, the devil disarmed by the taking away sin, upon which his power was founded; 'principalities and powers' spoiled of their prey,
Col. 2:14, 15; justice appeased, the law fulfilled, sin expiated, death vanquished; all those are sealed to us by his entrance into glory, and God's hanging 'the keys of death and hell' at his girdle, Rev. 1:18.
[3.] Heaven is assured. As our bond against us is evidenced to be cancelled, so God hath entered into a bond by this act towards Christ, whereby he doth acknowledge that he, as it were, owes heaven to every believer upon the account of the surety, and hath manifested his reality by beginning the payment of it in the glory of his person.
For in setting Christ 'at his right hand in heavenly places,' all believers were virtually set there, Eph. 2:6. As his resurrection assures us of the fulness of the payment of our debt, so his glory assures us of the fulness of the merit of our happiness. Had he lain in the grave, our hopes would have remained wrapped up with him, and mouldered to dust with his body; or, after his resurrection, had he remained on the earth, our hopes had aspired no higher than the place of his residence.* But when we do not only see him rising victoriously from the horrors and corruptions of the grave, but mounted into an incorruptible glory, we have reason to believe we shall, by his power, enjoy that glory we believers breathe after. For as he did not rise to live for himself, and expose his members to a perpetual captivity under death, so he hath not received his glory to reign for himself, and leave his members grovelling in the mire of the earth; but both the intention of God in conferring it, and the design of Christ in receiving it, was, that all united to him in grace might be joined with him in glory, to see and enjoy, according to their measures, the glory God hath given him, John 17:24. Now had Christ stayed in a miserable world, though he had not lain in a corrupting grave, we could not have concluded our debt to have been paid to divine justice, nor expected the benefits he had promised, nor upon any ground elevated our hopes, hearts, or affections to heaven; there had not been those comfortable encouragements to duty, nor those delightful motives to any acts of religion. But now his admission into glory spirits our faith, erects our hopes, expels our fears, stifles our
jealousies and doubts, and fixes wings to a spiritual love, by giving us not only a demonstration of the fulness of his satisfaction, but the overflowing redundancy of his merits for our happiness, and a pledge of an eternal and glorious life.
To sum up all, and in that the whole scheme of the Christian religion and doctrine in short, let us consider, since it was the common condition of the sons of Adam to have rebelled against God, and, after that revolt, were no more able to stand in the presence of God's consuming justice than straw and stubble before the fury of a flame, there was a necessity for some other person to make way for our return by appeasing that justice which was exasperated against us.
Though this person were found out, and kindly and courageously undertook, and as faithfully, and to a full content of justice, performed it in the most perfect manner, yet there could be no assurance of it without some signal testimony of the gratefulness of the person and the accomplishment of the undertaking. His continuance in the world would have nourished rather some jealousies of the imperfection of his person and passion, than assurances of their acceptation with God. His exaltation, therefore, was a necessary sign that he had fulfilled righteousness and disarmed justice, conquered death and hell, and opened the gates of heaven. Since he suffered as our surety, his glory would manifestly be conferred on him because he so suffered, and therefore it would respect our interest; and though by the efficacy of his death, had he only risen again, we had been freed from those torments that remain after death, yet had he not been glorified in heaven, we could not have been restored to the happiness of that paradise we had lost, no more than our bodies could have been delivered from the darkness of the grave, had he himself remained under the chains of death. We should have wandered about the earth without a supreme felicity, though without a smarting punishment. But by his glory we have a certain evidence that we are not only freed from the dominion of death, but made heirs of life, and have a pledge in our hands that we shall enjoy it. If we have a union with him by faith, and a communion with him in the power of his death, there is no doubt but we shall