CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

That as Christ, so all the people of God when they have finished their work, ¹and not till then, may look for and desire the glory prepared for them, 2 Tim. 4.8. Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Glory; Henceforth he expects, now his fight is over but not before.

1. 1Observ. None may look for glory until they have finished their work. Consider the Point in reference

Let us consider this briefly in Christ and then in our selves.

First, Concerning Christ, God had so ordained and appointed, That he should first be eminent in doing and suffering, and then should have a reward; It behoved him first to suffer and so to enter into glory, Luk. 24.26.¹ Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? There was a debt and duty upon Christ to wear the Crown of thorns before he put on the Crown of glory; To be debased more ⟨p. 126⟩then all before he was exalted above all, so that the stipulation and agreement which the Father made with the Son, contained in it both duty to be done by Christ, and a reward to be vouchsafed to him; He was to drink of the brook, and so to lift up his head, Psa. 110.7. This was the order that God had indispensably commanded, and nothing could hinder it, though all this was supposing Christs willingness to undergo the office of a Mediator; for otherwise though he had become man, yet he might always have kept up the manifestation of his divine glory, and hence it is that the Scripture saith, he ought to have suffered; There was a necessity from the justice of God which will punish sin in the offender or in the Surety, and he ought to do it, because of his own faithfulness and trust, he should not discharge that which had undertaken unless he became thus obedient.