THE THURSDAY PENNY PULPIT.

CHRIST DESIRING TO BE IN GLORY.

A SERMON,

BY THE REV. J. H. EVANS, M.A. PREACHED AT JOHN STREET CHAPEL, KING'S ROAD, BEDFORD ROW, ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 8, 1846.

"And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.' John xvii. 5.

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THESE words come in strict connection with the preceding verse"I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." Upon that we discoursed last Lord's day. Our blessed Lord was under a covenant of works; He was under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons;" and He "having finished the work," was entitled to the reward. It was not to Him "of grace," but "of debt:" for while salvation is to His people all of grace from first to last, all this was to Him as the just payment of a debt, a glorious reward that belonged to Him.

We must beware of confounding this expression, "glorify Thou Me," with that which occurs in the first verse-" glorify Thy Son;" they are two distinct things, and for want of duly considering it, much confusion sometimes springs up in the mind upon this point. In the first verse it was, 66 'glorify Thy Son" here; in the fifth verse it is, "glorify Thou Me" in heaven. In the first verse it was, "glo

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rify Thy Son," in order that He may suffer; in the fifth verse it is, glorify Thy Son," because He hath suffered, and is now a sufferer no more. In the first verse, it was a petition to this effect-" Glorify Thy Son," sustaining Him under His weakness, the weakness of His humanity; give Him a glorious victory over His enemies, enable Him to triumph over the world, sin, and the devil, raise His body from the dead, then take Him up to glory, and pouring forth the blessed and promised Comforter, thereby spread His Gospel over the earth. But here it is-" Glorify Thy Son with Thine own self, with the glory which He had with Thee before the world was." If these things are not kept distinct, much confusion will arise.

Here are two or three points, to which I would desire to lead your attention; may the Holy Ghost lead our consciences to them, and sanctify our spirits by them. First of all, I would consider, that the Word declares that our blessed Lord had a pre-existent glory with the Father" before the world was;" then observe, secondly, that that glory He was then in a sense without,-not really so, but it was hidden, it was not manifested; and then let us regard, thirdly, the substance of the prayer that He offered-" O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was."

I. With regard to the first point, that our Lord, before His existence as man, had a glory "before the world was," a glory "with the Father,"—if these words do not prove it, then what words can prove it? We must entirely despair of language being able to prove such a truth; for it never could be expressed more simply, and more powerfully. They, therefore, who deny the pre-existent glory of our Lord, and who assert that He is a man like ourselves, a creature of yesterday, whose "breath is in his nostrils," do indeed " err, not knowing the Scripture." They attempt to explain it away, by saying that all this was in purpose; that there was a glory which was purposed by the Father to be given to the Son :-we call it not explaining Scripture, but mystifying; not unfolding, but contradicting; not bringing in light, but bringing in darkness; for Scripture then would really mean nothing at all. If these words do not prove that our Lord had a pre-existent glory with the Father before the world was, then we say that words are not able to express it.

But what was this glory that He had? Was it mere external glory?— the glory of homage, the glory of adoration, the glory of worship, the glory of praise? If even these were ever given to any one who was not God, it were blasphemous worship; and of such blasphemous worship the 66 man of sin" is guilty every day, and every moment; for there is not a moment in any one day but the man of sin is in some way or another falling down before a fallen woman, and ascribing to her that which requires omnipresence, and omniscience, and which she having not, it may be truly said of it, that it is most wicked service. But the expression, "the glory which I had with Thee," must be far wider and more extended than this. It must mean nothing less than the essential glory of Deity, the perfections of God, the attributes of Jehovah, which the Son of God had with the Father, and that "before the world was." We are told this truth in various Scriptures. It is not possible for me to lay stress upon it, as I would wish, this morning, but this single verse always brings conviction to my own mind: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God:" that is, when God was, the Word was, and He was as truly God as the Father with whom He was. And so does another apostle assert in the second chapter of Philippians, and the sixth verse-" who being in the form of God:" what form has God? He has confessedly no form; He is confessedly without form; it is the first of all definitions, that He has no form it must mean therefore, who being in the same Divine essence with the Father,'-" thought it not robbery to be equal with Him." But who can be " 'equal with God?" This very passage seems to imply a distinction of persons; and it is part of that indirect proof upon which I desire to lay stress, and would desire you to lay stress; without coming to the direct proof, it proves that there are Three Persons in the Godhead, for who can be " equal" with God the Father, but He who is of the same nature as God the Father? Look at all creation; what is it, compared with God? What are all the nations of the earth? "A drop of the bucket." And what are all the inhabitants? Grasshoppers." What are the isles? A "very little thing!" We have never yet thought ours "a very little thing;" yet all the isles are as a very little thing." Yea, as the "small dust of the balance;" of which we say that it signifies not whether it be there

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All nations compared with Him are as nothing," and "less than nothing and vanity." Oh! then, who can be equal with God?" Do we look at the millions of millions of angels?-what are they! Look at them in their wisdom, look at them in their knowledge, look at them in their happiness, look at them in their holiness-yet what are they compared with God? They are all as nothing. All their wisdom is as folly, compared with God's wisdom; they know nothing, compared with what He knows. All their power is as weakness, compared with His; for His is omnipotence. All their holiness, compared with His holiness, is as unholiness; and all their being, put together, is as nothing, as no being, compared with His. Who, then, can be "equal with God?" No one can be equal with God the Father, but He who is of the same nature with God the Father. And therefore when it is said, "the glory which I had with Thee before the world was," it is not merely external worship, it is not merely external homage, (though that could never be given but to one who was true God,) but it is the possession of essential glory, even the glory of God the Father.

I have only just touched upon a great truth, and I cannot delay longer on it. It is a blessed truth. I have sometimes thought, that when I come to die, that truth may be so graciously brought before me, as that no other truth can take its place. Look well to your views of it. Are you well established in it? have you firm hold of it? bas it firm hold of you? Do not think the question answered by saying, 'I have no specific objection to it.' A man may have no specific objection to it, and yet he may hold the truth exceedingly loosely. He may not be able to frame even the shadow of an argument against it; and yet he may hold the truth with a loose hand. Are your souls built up in that truth, that the Jesus before whom we bow the knee, is Jehovah? When the Holy Spirit first shows a man to himself, and leads him to Christ, it seems that most have but feeble and very indistinct views of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; and I think it a very unfair question to put to a young convert, to ask him some deep point concerning the essential Deity of the Son of God, when he has but just been brought to rest on that Jesus that God has declared to be the only hope of sinners, though because God has declared Him to be their only hope, he takes Him at His

word for his only hope. But as the Holy Spirit opens a man to himself, and shows him his sins, He shows him this truth, that if Jesus be not Jehovah, He can be no Saviour for him; and thus I cannot rejoice, unless I "rejoice in God my Saviour."

II. Observe now, secondly, that this glory our Lord at that time was without, as to its manifestation: "the glory which I had with Thee." Not that He was really without His deity; had it been so, He would have annihilated Himself, because His deity is Himself; and that would have been to have destroyed us, for if there had not been an infinite glory in His atoning blood, not one soul could ever be saved. But He was without all its manifestation; He had divested Himself of it.

It was His own act. That expression, "made Himself of no reputation," is very beautiful; but it might have been, He "divested Himself" of it. It was by His own act that He was at that time without any of that manifestation. And how perfect was this divesting of Himself of it! So perfect, that those who deny the Deity of our Lord, bring forth this divesting as the proof of His not being God. So completely did He divest Himself of it, that they think as if He had it not. He appeared always as the servant. In the fifth chapter of John's Gospel, so completely is He spoken of as a servant, that it is as if He had no thought, no will, and no power: "the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do:" "I can of Mine own self do nothing: as I hear I judge; and My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me." I have sometimes heard, and read, that the miracles of our Lord prove Him to be God; it appears to me to be very inconclusive reasoning. That there was something majestic and peculiar in our Lord's miracles and in His mode of working them, that we see in no one else, I am ready to acknowledge; but I find our blessed Lord always attributes His miracles to the Father. In the fourteenth chapter of this same Gospel, we find," Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." (We can hardly pass over the passage without saying,Lord, may that be our living and dying experience! "Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us"- -we want no more!) "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not