evidence your souls have for heaven. It were endless to enume- rate the mercies you have by him. And now, reader, dost thou not blush to think how unworthy thou hast treated such a friend ? For which of all these his offices or benefits dost thou grieve and quench him ? O grieve not the Holy Spirit whom Christ sent as soon as ever he went to heaven, in his Father's name, and in his own name, to perform all these offices for you.
Inf. 5. Is Christ ascended to the Father as our fore-runner ? Then the door of salvation stands open to all believers, and by virtue of Christ" s ascension, they also shall ascend after him, far above all visible heavens*. O my friends, what place hath Christ prepared and taken up for you ! what a splendid habitation hath he provided for you ! " God is not ashamed to be called your God ; for he hath " prepared for you a city," Heb. xi. 16. In that city Christ hath provided mansions, and resting-places for your everlasting abode, John xiv. 2. and keeps them for you till your coming. O how august and glorious a dwelling is that, where sun, and moon, and stars, shall shine as much below your feet, as they are now above your heads ? Yea, such is the love Christ hath to the believer, that, as one saith, if thou only hadst been the chosen of God, Christ would have built that house for himself and thee. Now it is for himself, for thee, and for many more, who shall inherit with thee» God send us a joyful meeting within the vail with our Fore-runner, and sweeten our passage into it, with many a foresight and foretaste thereof. And, in the meantime, let the love of a Saviour inflame our hearts, so that whenever we cast a look towards that place, where our Fore-runner is for us entered, our souls may say, witli melting affections, Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ ; and again, Blessed be God for his unspeakable gift.
* The hope of future inheritance is most fully secured to us in our Head, and we are set down together with him in heaven, Eph. ii. 6. Synopis purioris Theol. Disp. 28. ;>. 342.
-514 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XL.
The Session of Christ at God's right-hand explained and applied, being the third Step of his glorious Exaltation.
When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right- hand of the Majesty on high.
VyHRIST being returned again to his Father, having finished his whole work on earth, is there bid by the Father to sit clown in the seat of honour and rest. A seat prepared for him at God's right hand, that makes it honourable ; and all his enemies as a footstool under his feet that makes it easy. How much is the state and condition of Jesus Christ changed in a few days ! Here he groaned, wept, laboured, suffered, sweat, yea, sweat blood, and found no rest in this world, but when he comes to heaven, there he enters into rest. Sits down for ever in the highest and easiest throne, prepared by the Father for him when he had done his work. " When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat " down,11 &c.
The scope of this epistle is to demonstrate Christ to be the ful- ness of all legal types and ceremonies, and that whatever light glimmered to the world through them, yet it was but as the light of the day-star, to the light of the sun.
In this chapter, Christ the subject of the epistle, is described ; and particularly, in this third verse, he is described three ways.
First, By his essential and primeval glory and dignity, he is axavyaGfia, the brightness of his Father's glory, the very splendor of glory, the very refulgency of that son of glory. " * The primary " reason of that appellation is with respect to his eternal and inef- w fable generation, light of light, as the Nicene creed expresses " it. As a beam of light proceeding from the sun. And the se- " condary reason of it, is with respect to men,11 for look as the sun communicates its light and influence to us by its beams, which it projects ; so doth God communicate his goodness, and manifest himself to us, by Christ. " Yea, he is the express image, or cha- " racter of his person. Not as the impressed image of the seal " upon the wax, but as the engraving in the seal itself -f-.11 Thus he is described by his essential glory.
* Ratio apjyellationis primaria est respectu Patris ctrlestis a quo ab ceterno, per inej[ fern generationem instar luminis, de famine resplenduit, secundaria respectu hominum, &c. Glass, lthet. p. 174.
T Xaoarlnv inscjtfpere dicilur, non tam imaginem ex sigillo cera inpressam, quam ini- ipsum si gill um dcnotare. Glass. Rhet. sac. p. 159.
SElttt. XLT. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 515
Secondly, He is described by the work he wrought here on earth, in his humbled state, and it was a glorious work, and that wrought out by his own single hand, " \yhen he had by himself " purged our sins.'1 A work that all the angels in heaven could not do, but Christ did it.
Thirdly, and lastly, He is described by his glory, the which as a reward of that work) he now enjoys in heaven. " When he had " by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the " Majesty on high," i. e. the Lord clothed him with the greatest power, and highest honour, that heaven itself could afford ; for so much this phrase of " sitting down on the right-hand of the Ma- " jesty" imports, as will appear in the explication of this point, which is the result of this clause, viz.
Doct. That when our Lord Jesus Christ had finished his work on earth, he was placed in the seat of the highest honour, and authority ; at the right-hand of God in heaven.
This truth is transformingly glorious. Stephen had but a glimpse of Christ at his Father's right hand, and it caused " his M face to shine, as it had been the face of an angel," Acts vii. 56. This, his high advancement, was foretold and promised before the work of redemption was taken in hand, Psal. ex. 1. " The Lord " said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right-hand, until I make thine " enemies thy footstool." And this promise was punctually per- formed to Christ, after his resurrection and ascension, in his su- preme exaltation, far above all created beings, in heaven and earth, Eph. i. 20, 21, 22. We shall here open two things in the doctrinal part, viz. What is meant by God's right-hand ; and what is implied in Christ's sitting there, with his enemies for a footstool.
First, What are we to understand here by God's right hand * ? It is obvious enough, that the expression is not proper, but figura- tive and borrowed. God hath no hand, right or left ; but it is a condescending expression, wherein God stoops to the creature's un- derstanding, and by it he would have us understand honour, power, and nearness.
First, The right hand is the hand of honour, the upper hand, where we place those whom we highly esteem and honour. So So- lomon placed his mother in a seat at his right hand, 1 Kings ii. 19.