These are the two springs of the salvation of the church, — the two anointed ones that stand before the Lord of the whole earth, from which all the golden oil, whereby the church is dedicated unto God and sanctified, doth flow. This glory of Christ in his exaltation, which followed on his sufferings, is that which we now inquire into. And we shall state our apprehensions of it in the ensuing observations : —
1. This is peculiarly that glory which the Lord Christ prays that his disciples may be where he is to behold it. It is not solely so, as it is considered absolutely ; but it is that wherein all the other parts of his glory are made manifest. It is the evidence, the pledge, the means of the manifestation of them all. As unto all the instances of his glory before insisted on, there was a veil draAvn over them whilst he was in this world. Hence the most saw nothing of it, and the best saw it but obscurely. But in this glory that veil is taken off, whereby the whole glory of his person in itself and in the work of medi- ation is most illustriously manifested. When we shall immediately behold this glory, we shall see him as he is. This is that glory whereof the Father made grant unto him before the foundation of the world, and wherewith he was actually invested upon his ascension.
2. By this glory of Christ I do not understand the essential glory of his divine nature, or his being absolutely in his own person " over all, God blessed for ever;" but the manifestation of this glory in par- ticular, after it had been veiled in this world under the " form of a servant," belongs hereunto. The divine glory of Christ in his person belongs not unto his exaltation; but the manifestation of it doth so. It was not given him by free donation ; but the declaration of it unto the church of angels and men after his humiliation was so. He left it not whilst be was in this world; but the dfrect evidence and decla-
344 THE GLORY OF CHRIST
ration of it he laid aside, until he was " declared to be the Son of God with power/' by the resurrection from the dead.
When the sun is under a total eclipse, he loseth nothing of his native beauty, light, and glory. He is still the same that he was from the beginning, — a " great light to rule the day." To us he appears as a dark, useless meteor; but when he comes by his course to free himself from the lunar interposition, unto his proper aspect towards us, he manifests again his native light and glory. So was it with the divine nature of Christ, as we have before declared. He veiled the glory of it by the interposition of the flesh, or the assumption of our nature to be his own ; with this addition, that therein he took on him the " form of a servant," — of a person of mean and low degree. But this temporary eclipse being past and over, it now shines forth in its infinite lustre and beauty, which belongs unto the present exaltation of his person. And when those who beheld him here as a poor, sor- rowful, persecuted man, dying on the cross, came to see him in all the infinite, uncreated glories of the divine nature, manifesting them- selves in his person, it could not l)ut fill their souls with transcendent joy and admiration. And this is one reason of his prayer for them whilst he was on the earth, that they might be where he is to behold his glory ; for he knew what meffable satisfaction it would be unto them for evermore.
3. I do not understand absolutely the gloi'ification of the human nature of Christ, — that very soul and body wherein he lived and died, suffered and rose again, — though that also be included herein. This also were a subject meet for our contemplation, especially as it is the exemplar of that glory which he will bring all those unto who believe in him. But because at present we look somewhat farther, I shall observe only one or two things concerning it.
(1.) That very nature itself which he took on him in this world, is exalted into glory. Some, under a pretence of great subtility and accuracy, do deny that he hath either flesh or blood in heaven; that is, as to the substance of them, however you may suppose that they are clianged, purified, glorified. The great foundation of the church and all Gospel faith, is, that he was made flesh, that he did partake of flesh and blood, even as did the children. That he hath forsaken that flesh and blood which he was made in the womb of the blessed Virgin, — wherein he lived and died, which he offered unto God in sacrifice, and wherein he rose from the dead, — is a Socinian fiction. What is the true nature of the glorification of the humanity of Christ, neither those who thus surmise, nor we, can perfectly com- prehend. It doth not yet appear what we ourselves shall be ; much less is it evident unto us what he is, whom we shall be like. But that he is still in the same human nature wherein he was on the earth,