How must this be done ?
[1.] By reverent thoughts of his excellency, especially in worship ; then we honour him when we behave ourselves before him as before a great God ; this is to make him glorious in our own hearts, when we conceive of him as more excellent than all things. Usually we have mean base thoughts, by which we straiten or pollute the divine excellency.
[2.] By serious acknowledgments give him glory : Eev. iv. 11, * Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.'
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Now this is not in naked ascriptions of praise to him, prattling over words ; but when we confess all the glory we have above other men, in gifts or dignity, is given us of God, this is to make him the Father of glory : Eph. i. 17, ' That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him.'
[3.] When we make the advantage of his kingdom the end of all our actions : 1 Cor. x. 31, ' Whether ye eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God ; ' Phil. i. 20, ' Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.' Christ had glorified him, yet he seeks now to do it more. Self will be mixing with our ends, but it must be beaten back. We differ little from beasts if we mind only our own conveniences.
[4.] By making this the aim of our prayers. We should desire glory and happiness upon no other terms : Eph. i. 6, ' To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.' It is a mighty encouragement in prayer when we are sure to be heard : John xii. 28, ' Father, glorify thy name : then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.' He begs that God would glorify his name in giving him the victory in this last combat. We ask of God for God : * Those that honour me, I will honour them,' 1 Sam. ii. 30.
[5.] When we are content to be put to shame so God be honoured, to hazard all so we may glorify his name, though it be with the loss of life itself : Josh. vii. 19, ' My son, give, I pray thee, glpry to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him ;' Mai. ii. 2, ' If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name ' (that is, by an ingenuous confession), ' I will even send a curse upon you.'
[6.] When you make others to glorify God : 2 Cor. ix. 13, ' They glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ.' Christians are to be holy, for Christ's honour lieth at stake. .
[7.] When we can rejoice in God's glory, though advanced by others, be the instruments who they will ; as Paul did, Phil. i._18, ' Notwith- standing every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached, and I herein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.'
[8.] When we are affected for God's dishonour, though done by others.
SERMON II.
As ihou Itast given himpoioer over all flesh, that lie sliould give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. — John XVII. 2.
Here is the next reason of Christ's request ; the former was the glory of God, and here is another, the salvation of men. Unless the Father glorified him he could not accomplish the ends of his office, which was to glorify the Father in the salvation of man ; which could not be unless he were sustained in death, delivered out of death, and received
126 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. II.
into glory: ' If Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sins,' 1 Cor. xv. 17. How should we know our discharge from sin, if our surely had not been let out of prison ? Where should we have gotten an advocate to ap])ear for us in the heavens, or a king to pour out the royal largess of gifts and graces to accompany the gospel, that it might be successful for our souls ? From the context I shall observe two points : —
1. Observe, that, next to God's glory, Christ's aim was at our salva- tion. Christ doth not mention his own profit, but that ' thy Son may glorify thee,' and that he may give eternal life. These two were the scope of his sufferings and rising again to glory.
[1.] Of his sufferings: Dan. ix. 26, 'The Messias shall be cut off, but not for himself ;' not for his own desert, nor his own profit ; for no fault, no benefit of his own. So Rom. xv. 3, ' Christ pleased not himself ; as it is written. The reproaches of them that reproached thee have fallen upon me.' The meaning is, he suffered the outrages of the wicked to promote the salvation of the elect ; or the burden of our sins, by which God was dishonoured, fell on him. Christ sought not sweet things for himself ; he had no respect to his own ease, but our happiness.