324 angels' acclamations.
be glorified in the church. He shall alway have some to glorify him for Christ, and especially for his incarnation.
* Glory to God on high.'
Glory is excellency, greatness, and goodness, with the eminency of it, so as it may be discovered. There is a fundamental glory in things, that are not discovered at all times. God is always glorious, but, alas ! few have eyes to see it. But here I take it for the excellency and eminency of the goodness and gi-eatness of God discovered and taken notice of. In the former part of the chapter ' hght' is called the ' glory of the Lord,' ver. 9. Light is a glorious creature. Nothing expresseth glory so much as light. It is a sweet creature, but it is a glorious creature. It carries its evidence in itself, it discovers all other things and itself too. So excellency and eminency will discover itself to those that have eyes to see it ; and being manifested, and withal taken notice of, is glory.
In that the angels begin with the glory of God, I might speak of this doctrine, that
The fflory of God, the setting forth of the excellencies and eminencies of the Lord, should be the end of our lives, the chief thing ive should aim at.
The angels here begin with it, and we begin with it in the Lord's prayer, ' hallowed be thy name.' It should be our main employment. ' Of him and by him are all things, therefore to him be glory,' Rom. xi. 36. There- fore we should give God that which is his own ; ' Thine is the glory,' as it is in the conclusion of the Lord's prayer. But this being a general point, I will pass it by and come to the particular, in which it will more comfort- ably appear, as this glory shines in Christ, in the incarnation of Christ, there is matter of glorifying God, both the* angels and men.
And here I do not take the incarnation of Christ abstractively from other things in Christ, but I take the incarnation of Christ as a foundation and prerequisite to all the other good we have by Christ ; ' Glory to God on high, now Christ is born.' Why ? Only that he is born ? No. But by reason of this incarnation there is a union of the two natures, God and man. So that by the incarnation, now Christ is man, and holy man. The human nature in Christ is pure and holy, being sanctified by the Spirit and united to God. Now Christ being not only man, but pure man and God- man, God taking our natm-e to the unity of his person, hence it is that he comes to be quahfied for all that he did, and sufiered after. It was from hence that they had their worth. What was the reason that his being made a curse, and to die for us, should be of such worth ? It came from a person that was God-man ; nay, so near is the manhood to God, that what the manhood did God did, because the person was God ; the second person taking the nature of man, and what he sufiered in his human nature, God suffered according to man's nature. Hence comes that phrase of the com- munication of properties. Whatever was done or suff"ered in man's nature, God did as a mediator, God did it in that nature. Thereupon comes the price of it. Thus the incarnation is a prerequisite and foundation to all other benefits by Christ. Therefore take it conjoined, his incarnation, and his death, and resurrection, and ascension, and all.
Well then, tlie incarnation of Christ, together with the benefits to us by it, that is, redemption, adoption, dc, it is that u-herein God icill shew his glory most of all. That is the doctrinal truth. The glory and excellency of God doth most shine in his love and mercy in Christ. Every excellency of God hath its proper place or theatre where it is seen, as his power in the crea-
* Qu. ' by ' ?— Ed,
angels' acclamations. 325
tion, liis wisdom in his providence and ruling of the world, his justice in hell, his majesty in heaven ; but his mercy and kindness, his bowels of tender mercy, do most of all appear in his church among his people. God shews the excellency of his goodness and mercy in the incarnation of Christ, and the benefits we have by it. Many attributes and excellencies of God shine in Christ, as,
His truth : ' All the promises of God are yea and amen in' Christ,' 2 Cor. i, 20. There is an accomplishment of all the promises.
And then his uisdom, that he could reconcile justice and mercy, by join- ing two natures together. This plot was in heaven by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Trinity, that God and man should be joined together. To join and knit two attributes seeming contrary, justice and mercy ; to reconcile man by reconciling justice and mercy, and by such an excellent way that God should become man, Emmanuel, this was a great wisdom — to reconcile justice and mercy by such a person as should satisfy justice and give way to mercy, that is, by Christ. God will lose none of his attributes. His justice must be satisfied, that his mercy might be manifested. The wisdom of God found out that way. It is a plot the angels study in.