36 MEDITATIONS AND DISCOURSES. CHAPTER. VII. , THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN IIIS EXALTATION, AFTER THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE w0 IN 'rula WORLD. WE may in the next place behold the glory of Christ with respect unto his office, in the actings of God to- wards him, which ensued on his discharge of it in this world, in his own exaltation. These are the two heads, whereunto all the prophe- cies and predictions concerning Jesus Christ under the Old Testament are referred, namely, his sufferings, and the glory that ensued thereon. 1 Pet. i. 11. " All the " prophets testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, " and the glory that should follow. So when he him- self opened the scriptures unto his disciples, he gave them this as a sum of the doctrine contained in them. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to en- ter into hisglory? Luke xxiv. 26. The same is frequent- ly expressed elsewhere, Rom. xiv. 9. Phil. ii. 5 -8. So much as we know of Christ, his sufferings, and glory; no much do we understand of the scripture, and no more. These are the two heads of the mediation of Christ and his kingdom; and this is their order which they communicate unto the church; first sufferings, and then glory: Ifwe s?ffer, weshall also reign with him, 2 Tim. ii. 12. They do but deceive themselves, who design any other method of these things. Some would reign here in this world; and we may say with the apostle, Wouldyou did reign, that we might reign withyou. But the members of the mystical body must be conformed unto the head. In him sufferings went before glory, and so they mast in them. The order in the kingdom of Satan and the world, is contrary hereunto. First, the good things ofthis life, and then eternal misery, is the method of that kingdom. Luke xvi. 25. These are the two springs of, the salvation of the church; the two anointed ones that stand before the Lordof the whole earth, from which all the golden oil whereby the church is dedicated unto God and sancti- fied doth flow. This glory of Christ in his exaltation which followed on his sufferings, is that which we now OF MEDIATION inquire into. And we shall state our apprehensions of it in the ensuing observations: 1. This is peculiarly that glorywhich the Lord Christ prays that his disciples may be where he is, to behold it. It is not solely so, as it is considered absolutely: but it is that wherein all the parts of his glory are made mani- fest. it is the evidence, the pledge, the means of the manifestation ofthem all. As unto all the instances of his glory before insisted on, there was a veil drawn over them whilst he was in this world. Hence the most saw nothing of it, and the best saw it but obscurely. But in this glory that veil is taken off, whereby the whole glory of his person in itself, and in the work of media- don is most illustriously manifested. When we shall immediately behold this glory, we shall see him as he is. This is that glory whereofthe Father made grant unto him before the foundation of the world, and wherewith he was actually invested upon his ascension. 2. By this glory of Christ, I do not understand the es- sential glory of his divine nature; or his being absolute- ly in his own person over all, God blessedfor ever: but the manifestation of this glory in particular, after it had been veiled in this world under this form of a servant, belongs hereunto. The divine glory of Christ in his personbelongs not unto his exaltation; but the mani festation of it loth so. It was not given him by free donation; but the declaration of it unto the church of angels and men after his humiliation was so. He left it not whilst he was in this world; but the direct evidence and declaration of it he laid aside, until he was declar- ed to be the Son ofGod withpower, by the resurrection from the dead. When the sun is under a total eclipse, he loseth noth- ing of his native beauty, light, and glory. He is still the same that he was from the beginning: a great' light to rule the day. To us he appears as a dark, useless meteor: but when be comes by his course to freehimself from the lunar interposition unto his proper aspect tom
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