grievous and accumulated, wrongs did he sustain ! Con- sider his conflicts also with the powers of darkness, and the
terrors of his Father's wrath O what reason had he to
rejoice in the termination of such sufferings, and to magnify his Father who had brought him in safety through them ! For tliis he had prayed; and God had given him the fullest answer to his prayers'^. Now also he tuas restored to glory. He had *' a glory with the Father before the worlds were made^:" and of that glory he had divested himself when he assumed our nature^. But now he was restored to it : and what a contrast did it form with that state, from which he had been delivered ! A few days ago he had not where to lay his head : now he is received into his Father's house, his Father's bosom. Lately he was derided, mocked, insulted, spit upon, buffeted, and scourged by the vilest of the human race ; and now he is seated on his throne of glory, and worshipped and adored by all the hosts of heaven
Great indeed was the glory that now accrued to him,
and great " the majesty that was now laid upon him^"
and, as it had proceeded from his Father ^, so he justly acknow- ledges it as his Father's gift.
But it was not to himself only that Jesus had respect : he blesses his Father also for the blessedness which he was em- jiowered to bestow on others. The words, " Thou hast made him most blessed for ever," are translated in the margin of our Bibles, " Thou hast set him to be blessings for ever." This version opens a new and important view of the subject, a view which particularly accords with all the prophecies respecting Christ. It is said again and again concerning him, that "in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;" and we are well assured, that to communicate blessings to a ruined world is a source of inconceivable happiness to himself. We appre- hend that to have been a very principal idea in the mind of the Apostle, when, speaking of Christ, he said, " Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God'."
With what joy must he behold the myriads ivho had been exalted to glory through the virtue of his sacrifice, whilst yet it remained to be offered ! It was through "his obedience unto death" that all the antediluvian and patriarchal saints were saved. Our First Parents looked to him as " the Seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head." To him right- eous Abel had respect, in the offering which was honoured with visible tokens of God's acceptance. To him Noah looked, when he offered the burnt-offerings, from wliich " Godsmelled
^ Heb. V. 7. with ver. 2, 4. ^ John i. 1, 18. and xvii. 5.
f PhU. ii. C — 8. g ver. 5.
h Phil. ii. 9—11. i Heb. xii. 2.