4.58 A PRACTICAL EXrOSITION UPON [IsA. LIII. 12.
he ascended, what is it hut that he also descended first into the lower ])arts of the eartli ? ' It not only necessarily implieth and presnpposetli it, hut was caused hy it, and merited hy it. So Rev. v. 9, ' Thou art worthy to take the hook, and to open the seals thereof ; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God hy thy hlood.' To open the seals ; tliat is, to open dark promises, and to do what was necessary for the iUuminatiiig of the church. Christ's humiliation and exaltation was not only an antecedent and a consequent, as some divines (jxpound these places, and I myself formerly have done among you, hut as a cause and effect, as merit and reward. Calvin indeed judgeth it a curious question whether Christ merited his conquest and trial ; i and his reasons were, because there is no express scripture for it. But what shall we say then to those causal particles ? But this he s.iilh is a great derogation to the love of Christ, to make him eye him- self in his sufferings ; since it is said, ' The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself ; ' he eyed our good in it, and not his own.
I answer, it maketh much for our comfort, tliat Christ had his con- quests, and the privileges of his mediatorship in a way of justice and merit; that though all things are dispensed to us freely, yet to Christ justly. It is true, as it hath been handled by divers schoolmen, and as it is referred merely to the glorification of Christ's humanity, so it is a curious question ; but as it importeth the carriage of all things appertaining to our comfort and salvation between God and Christ in a way of rigour and justice, so it maketh much for our comfort and consolation.
Use 1. Here is a sealing of your comfort, it was merited by Christ : you can do nothing to merit it, but Christ did. What is free grace to you is due debt to Christ. Alas ! what can you do to find so much grace with God as to prevail over Satan or your own spirit, to lift up the head in triumph, so as to be raised to glory ? Though you cannot tell how, yet Christ did. God is bound in justice to Christ to do all these things for you. You have a double claim in God ; you can lay hold of his mercies engaged by his promises to you, and of his justice engaged by the merits of Christ for you. Tilings are not now uncer- tain ; Christ hath merited such a capacity as to bestow grace and glory and every good thing upon you. You cannot hope to prevail over Satan, but God hath indented with Christ ; * Therelbre he shall divide a portion with the great, and divide the spoil with the strong.' You cannot hope for glorious privileges ; alas ! you are poor, vile, worthless creatures : but ' He drank of the brook in the way, therefore he shall lift up the head,' and your head too. You cannot look for the power of the S[)irit to draw you to Chiist ; these are great comforts, but not for you : ' But if I be lifted up, I will draw all men after me.' Christ merited that privilege by his sufferings. You cannot open the book, neither am you find anything in yourselves to encourage you to hope for such a privilege ; no more indeed yini should not find any merit in yourficlves, but seek it in another. Christ was worthy, for he was slain ; and if you are Christ's, and Christ be yours, you are worthy, for you have his merit, though none of your own.
2. If the ground of Christ's triumph were his death and sufferings,
^ Qu. ' triumph ' ? — Ed.
ISA. LIII. 12.] THE FIFTY-THIRD CHAPTER OF ISAIAH. 459
then here is great comfort to you in all your inward and outward abasements. Here is a double comfort, one to allay fear, and the other to encourage hope. To allay fear : be not dismayed, great abase- ments usually go before glory. And then to encourage hope; the greatest abasements will turn to the greatest glory. Christ's death and sufferings were not only the antecedent, but the cause of his con- quest and exaltation. ' Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great.' Consider with yourselves: —
[1.] Great abasements often go before glory. This was the dispen- sation God used to Christ : Luke xxiv. 26, ' Ought not Christ to suffer these things, and then to enter into glory?' and will not you take it well at the hands of God to drink of Christ's cup, to be first crowned with thorns before you be crowned with glory, to be humbled before converted ; to be slurred with the bishop's coal-dust before you be shining })latters u})on God's shelf, as that martyr said ; to be full of wants before you be full of Christ? What is your abasement? If you look inward, you have a vile heart, a destitute, naked soul, no grace, but much corruption ; therefore there are some hopes of crumbs when you find yourself a dog ; as the woman of Canaan maketh it a motive. Mat. xv. 27. Oh, be not discouraged ! Blessed be God, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. There is no sentence repeated so often in the New Testament as that, Prov. xv. 33, ' Before honour is humility.' This is the Lord's course, to make us poor in spirit, and then rich in grace. But is the trouble outward ? Are you low in the world, of base account and esteem ? Oh, remember, Jesus Christ was first accounted a glutton, a wine-bibber, one that had a devil in the eye of the world, and then had a name above all names. Mordecai • was first envied for sitting at the king's gate, and then honoured by his adversary with sitting upon the king's horse. Job was brought from a large estate to the very dust, because God would bless his latter end more than his beginning. Job xlii. 12. As Samuel saith to Saul, 1 Sam. XV, 17, ' When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel?' It may be God hath more eminent providences for you after your great abasement.