These things premised, the words will be easily opened.
' Father, glorify thou me with thine own self ;' that is, sufi'er me to return to the glory which I had in common with thee in the divine nature, by the resurrection of my body, ascension, and sitting down at thy right hand. Uapa aeavrw, is opposed to eho^aaa ae cttI rrj<i jrj'i, it is with thy self : John xiii. 31, 32, ' Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.' God was glorified by Christ as a servant, with an extrinsic glory in the view of the world. And now Christ prays to be glorified in or with the Father himself, with his own proper essential glory, the God- head being restored to its full use and exercise, and the humanity being raised to the full fruition of the comfort of it.
' Which I had with thee before the world was.' — Grotius and others say, Non reali j)OSsessio7ie, sed divina prcedestinatione, that is, by thy decree, in thy purpose and predestination. But that is not all, because he speaketh here of that infinite and essential glory, which is one and the same in all the persons, and so Christ had it as God blessed for ever ; and Christ having abstained from the use and exercise of it in a way proper to itself, now craveth a restitution.
The points are : —
Doct. 1. That Christ is God, true God, and hath an eternal co-equal glory with the Father before the world was. Before the world there was nothing but the eternal infinite essence, that was common to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Socinians seem to grant that he is of God, but not eternal God by nature ; but here is a clear proof, ' Which I had with thee before the world was.'
Doct. 2. We may plead to God his own promises in deep and weighty
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cases : ' Put me in remembrance,' saitli God, Isa. xliii. 26 ; as when death approacheth, or difficulties come upon us. Christ himself takes this course.
Doct. 3. The ground of all sound hope is what was done before all worlds. Christ had glory actually, and we have a grant of it : 2 Tim. i. 9, * According to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began.' There was a grant of heaven and grace, and Christ received it for us. So Titus i. 2, ' In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, hath promised before the world began.' There was a solemn promise, which Christ received on our behalf. The frame of grace was ancient ; God sealed up a large charter, and indented with Christ before ever there were any men in the world. Let us not look for our happiness in this world ; our com- forts do not depend upon the standing of it ; when the world is no more, you may ho, happy.
Doct. 4. The chief point which I shall handle is, that Christ, in the economy or dispensation of grace, was reduced to such an exigence that he needeth to pray to be glorified : ' Father, glorify thou me with thyself, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.' It is a matter of weighty consideration that Christ should pray his Father to bestow on him the glory which he wanted.
But how could Christ want glory, who was God-man in one person ? To clear this, I shall a little state both his humiliation and his exaltation.
First, How far he humbled himself and wanted glory ; what was, indeed, the utmost of his humiliation. Here I shall show — (1.) What glory he retained in the midst of it ; (2.) What he wanted. Certainly though in his outward appearance he had no form and comeliness in him, yet inwardly he was the fairest of men ; Isa. liii, 2, compared with Ps. xlv. 2.
1. What glory he was possessed of at the present. Christ had a double glory — the glory of his person, and the glory of his office.
[1.] The glory of his person. There was the union of the two natures ; he did not lose his godhead though he took flesh ; he was still the eternal Son of the Father, ' the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,' Heb. i. 3 ; John i. 14, ' The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,' ia-Kijvooaev, he pitched his tent, ' and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.' He was still co-equal with his Father ; the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him ; his flesh was taken into the fellowship of the divine nature as soon as it began to have a being in the womb of the virgin, the highest dignity a creature is capable of. The person of the Son was truly communicated to the nature of man, and the nature of man truly communicated to the person of the Son. He that was the Son of man was truly the Son of God, and he that was the Son of God was truly the Son of man ; and by virtue of this union there was a communion higher than all other communions ; the fulness of grace was subjectively and inherently in his human nature : ' He was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows,' Ps. xlv. 7. And he is said, John iii. 34, ' to receive the Spirit without measure,' both for the essence and virtue of it, to all efiects and purposes, for himself and others ; so that there needed nothing to be added to his full happi-