190 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. VI.
ness. Christ was compreJiensoj' ; be perfectly knew upon earth what we shall know in heaven, and was perfectly holy and perfectly good.
[2.] The glory of his office was to be mediator between God and man ; an office of so high a nature that it could be performed by none but him who was God and man in the same person ; for he that Avould be mediator was to be prophet, priest, and king. As a prophet, he was to be arbiter, to take knowledge of the cause and quarrel depending between them ; and as an internuncius and legate, to pro- pound and expound the conditions of peace that are to be concluded upon. As he was a priest, he was to be an intercessor, to make inter- pellation for the party offending ; and then to be ?i fidejussor, or surety, making satisfaction to the party offended for him. As he was a king, having all power both in heaven and earth, he was to keep and present the church of God so reconciled in the state of grace, and to tread down all enemies thereof. Here is a great deal of glory far above any creature.
2. What he wanted, that he should pray to be glorified. The glory of his person and office was yet but imperfect.
[1.] Of his person in both natures, it is said, Phil. ii. 7, ' He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man,' eKevwaev eavrbv ; he made himself empty and void, not simply and absolutely, for then he would cease to be himself, and then he would cease to be God ; but economically and dis- pensatively, veiling and covering his godhead under the cloud of his flesh, the beams of his divinity, as it were, wholly laid aside, only now and then it broke out in his works and speeches. Certainly he abstained from the full use and manifestation of it. He did not cease to be what he was, but laid aside the manifestation of it, and hid it in the form of a servant, as if he had none at all. The world could not discern him ; to his own familiar friends he was now and then discovered, as occa- sion did require it. Otherwise in his whole course, his incarnation, nativity, obedience to the law of nature, to the law of Adam, law of sin, of Abraham, were a veil upon him. He suffered hunger, thirst, weari- ness, bitter agonies, shame of the cross, pain of death, ignominy of the grave ; yea, he was not only in the form of a servant to God — ' This commandment have I of my Father,' John vi. 38 — but he was subject to worldly powers, ' a servant of rulers,' Isa. xlix. 7, wholly at their dis- pose. His human nature was subject to natural infirmities, hunger, thirst, fear, sorrow, anguish ; he had not attained incorruption, im- passibility, immortality, nor that glorious purity, strength, agility, clarity of body, which he expected, Phil, iii, 21, together with the ful- ness of inward joys and comforts in his soul. He lost, for a while, all sense and actual fruition of his Father's love: Mat. xxvi. 46, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? ' So that though he had the Spirit without measure in holiness, and righteousness, yet he was still humbled with unpleasing and afilictive evils.
[2.] For his office. It was managed as suited with his humiliation, and all his actions of prophet, priest, and king, could not be performed gloriously, but in a humble manner, as suited with his present state. He was an ordinary prophet, teaching in the world ; as a priest, hang- ing on the cross ; as a king, but he had but few subjects ; therefore it
VeR. 5,] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 191
is said, Acts v. 31, 'Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a saviour,' as if he had not exercised any of his kingly office before, but he was but as a king anointed ; he did not so evidently show forth the kingly office as afterward. Now he doth not overcome his enemies by force or by power. 1 Sam. xvi. 13 : David was a king as soon as anointed, but for a long time he suffered exile and wandered in tlie wilderness before he was taken into the throne ; so it was with Christ.
Secondly, His exaltation. What Christ prayed for might be known by the event. His exaltation begun at his resurrection, and received its accomplishment by his sitting at God's right hand. His exaltation answered his humiliation, his death was answered by his resurrection, his going into the grave by his ascending into heaven, his lying in the grave by his sitting at God's right hand, which is a privilege proper to Christ glorified. In the other we share with him, we rise, we ascend, but we do not sit at God's right hand. By his grave, though his body was freed from corruption, his human nature was discovered, but his body had not those glorious qualities as afterwards at his ascension.