2. Actively, by their faith, by their ministry, by their life and conversation.
[1.] By their faith. To glorify any one, is to have a good esteem of him. Those that did not believe did as it were obscure the dignity
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of his person, rejecting him as a contemptible man. Now the apostles do everywhere express their faith in his godhead, and their sense of the dignity of his person and office, as I cleared in opening the 7th and 8th verses,
[2.] By their ministry. Christ was by them made known, and was yet to be further manifested. After the resurrection they were his heralds, to proclaim his triumphs for him over death and hell ; and liis ambassadors, to go out into the world and gather subjects for his kingdom.
[3.] By their life, and so by the constancy of their profession, when others shrink in the wetting : John vi. 66-68, ' From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away ? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life.' By their self-denial : Mat. six. 27, ' Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee ;' fathers, mothers, nets, trades, &c. So by their holiness and fruitfulness of conversation, they were such a company of which Christ was not ashamed.
This is a new argument that Christ urgeth for their respect with the Father ; whence I observe : —
Doct. That the more we desire to glorify Christ, the more confidence we may have of his intercession for us.
1. It is the evidence of our interest in the Father, and the Son, and Spirit. Interest is the ground of audience ; none can hope to speed with the Father but his own, those that are God's and Christ's.
[1.] It is an evidence that we have an interest in the Father ; he acknowledges them for his that glorify his Son, them and no other : John xvi. 27, ' The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.' God's love can have no cause but itself ; our love to Christ is a certain sign of God's love to us. It is not the principal reason why he loved them, but the argument whereby Christ would prove that his Father loved them. So that this is the evidence, if we would have any confidence of our interest in God, and speeding at the throne of grace. Do you glorify Christ by love and faith ? Christ is his beloved, and he loves all them that love Christ. So again, John v. 23, * That all men should honour the Son, as they honour the Father : he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.' Every man naturally is touched with a reverence towards the Godhead. Now God the Father commandeth we should yield a like reverence to the Son, who is his iving and perfect image. He that doth not worship Christ and honour Christ doth but worship and serve an idol ; for he doth not honour God in that way wherein he will be honoured, and hath revealed him- self, because they are in the unity of the Godhead, neither of them can be worshipped without the other.
There is a noted story of Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium ; when the Arians, who denied the godhead of Christ, had freedom of their meetings and lectures and disputes, under Theodosius the Great, to the great disturbance of the church, and the emperor could by no means be drawn to suppress them, Amphilochius, after he had tried all other means without effect, found out a way worthy of record, saith
260 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XIII.
Tlieodoret, whereby to make the emperor sensible of the evil of his toleration. One day as he came into the palace, and the emperor and his son Arcadius were standing together, whom he had lately made joint-emperor with himself, Amphilochius saluteth the father with ac- customed reverence and humility ; but when he cometh to the son, he speaketli to him as to a private child, and stroking his head, saith, How dost thou, my child ? without otlier expression of civil honour and re- verence. The emperor was exceeding angry at the contempt, and that he had not given his son equal honour with himself, and therefore, after many rebukes, causeth him to be dragged out of the palace with disgrace; and as they were pulling and haling him, he, turning to the emperor, said, 0 emperor ! after this manner, and infinitely more, is God the Father angry with those that do not honour his Son equal with the Father, but make him less in nature and dignity. By this sensible conviction the emperor was touched in conscience, and with tears embraceth the good old man, and presently maketh a law against the Arians, in which, under a great penalty, he forbiddeth their public meetings and lectures against the godhead of Christ, and by the bles- sing of God was confirmed in the true religion, in Avhich before he staggered and wavered.
All this is brought to show that God will not own us unless we honour Christ, and glorify him as Ave glorify the Father.