IN HIS EXALTATION. 84<7
sliall never behold him in glory hereafter unto their satisfaction ; nor do they desire so to do, only they suppose it a part of that relief which they would have when they are gone out of this world. For what should beget such a desire in them? Nothing can do it but some view of it here by faith ; which they despise, or totally neglect. Every pretence of a desire of heaven, and of the presence of Christ therein, that doth not arise from, that is not resolved into, that prospect which we have of the glory of Christ in this world by faith, is mere fancy and imagination.
Our constant exercise in meditation on this glory of Christ will fill us with joy on his account; which is an effectual motive unto the duty itself. We are for the most part selfish, and look no farther than our own concernments. So we may be pardoned and saved by him, we care not much how it is with himself, but only presume it is well enough. We find not any concernment of our own therein. But this frame is directly opposite unto the genius of divine faith and love. For their principal actings consist in preferring Christ above ourselves, and our concerns in him above all our own. Let this, then, stir us up unto the contemplation of this glory. Who is it that is thus ex- alted over all? Who is thus encompassed with glory, majesty, and power? Who is it that sits down at the right hand of the Majesty on hi<yh, — all his enemies being made his footstool? Is it not he who in this world was poor, despised, persecuted, and slain, — all for our sakes? Is it not the same Jesus who loved us, and gave himself for us, and washed us in his own blood? So the apostle told the Jews, that the same " Jesus whom they slew and hanged on a tree, God had exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance unto Israel, and the forgiveness of sins," Acts v. 80, 31. If we have any valuation of his love, if we have any concernment in what he hath done and suffered for the church, we cannot but rejoice in his present state and glory.
Let the world rage whilst it pleaseth ; let it set itself with all its power and craft against every thing of Christ that is in it, — which, whatever is by some otherwise pretended, proceeds from a hatred unto his person ; let men make themselves drunk with the blood of his saints ; we have this to oppose unto all their attempts, unto our supportment, — namely, what he says of himself: "Fear not ; I am the first and the last : I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death," Rev i. 17, 18.
Blessed Jesus ! we can add nothing to thee, nothing to thy glory ; but it is a joy of heart unto us that thou art what thou art, — that thou art so gloriously exalted at the right hand of God ; and we do long more fully and clearly to behold that glory, according to thy prayer and promise.
348 THE GLOEY OF CHRIST
CHAPTER VIII.
Representations of the Glory of Christ under the Old Testament.
It is said of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, " beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he declared unto his disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself," Luke xxiv. 27. It is therefore mani- fest that Moses, and the Prophets, and all the Scriptures, do give tes- timony unto him and his glory. This is the line of life and light which nnis through the whole Old Testament ; without the conduct whereof we can understand nothing aright therein : and the neglect hereof is that which makes many as blind in reading the books of it as are the Jews, — the veil being upon their minds. It is faith alone, discovering the glory of Christ, that can remove that veil of darkness which covers the minds of men in reading the Old Testament, as the apostle declares, 2 Cor. iii. 14-16. I shall, therefore, consider briefly some of those ways and means whereby the glory of Christ was re- presented unto believers under the Old Testament.
1. It was so in the institution of the heautiful worship of the law, with all the means of it. Herein have they the advantage above all the splendid ceremonies that men can invent in the outward worship of God ; they were designed and framed in divine wisdom to represent the glory of Christ, in his person and his office. This nothing of human invention can do, or once pretend unto. Men cannot create mysteries, nor can give unto anything natural in itself a mystical signification. But so it was in the old divine institutions. What were the tabernacle and temple ? What was the holy place with the utensils of it? What was the oracle, the ark, the cherubim, the mercy-seat, placed therein ? What was the high priest in all his vest- ments and administrations ? What were the sacrifices and annual sprinkling of blood in the most holy place ? What was the whole system of their religious worship ? Were they anything but repre- sentations of Christ in the glory of his person and his office ? They were a shadow, and the body represented by that shadow was Christ. If any would see how the Lord Christ was in particular foresignified and represented in them, he may peruse our exposition on the 9th chapter of the Epistle unto the Hebrews, where it is handled so at large as that I shall not here again insist upon it. The sum is, " Moses w^as faithful in all the house of God, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken afterward," Heb. iii. 5. All that Moses did in the erection of the tabernacle, and the institution of all its services, was but to give an antecedent testimony by way of repre- sentation, unto the things of Christ that were afterward to be revealed.