him," in order to counterbalance the offence which his humi- liation had occasioned1?]
III. He was " seen of angels " —
[The angels had beheld his face, and had worshipped before his throne from the first moment of their existence : but when he became incarnate, they had views of him, which, before that period, they could not have conceived. How did they exult when they saw him a helpless babe lying in a manger s! But what different feelings must have been ex- cited in their breasts, when they beheld him conflicting with Satan in the wilderness, and sinking under the load of his Father's wrath in the garden of Gethsemane, and in both seasons needing their friendly aid4! Nothing is spoken of their viewing him on the cross ; but doubless they, who had been so deeply interested about him from his very birth to the hour of his crucifixion, could not but gaze upon him with astonishment and sympathy in his expiring moments. And how gladly did they obey the mandate to confound his adver- saries, and to rescue him from the tombu! With what joy did they attest his resurrection x, and wait upon him in his ascension to the highest heavens y, and announce his intention to return again, in like manner as he had ascended, to judge the world2!
It is perhaps to these testimonies which the angels bore to Jesus, rather than to the mere circumstance of their seeing him, that the Apostle alludes in the words of our text. And surely, if it be mysterious, that the Spirit of God should bear testimony to him, it is no less a mystery, that his own crea- tures should be employed in such an office.]
IV. He was " preached unto the Gentiles, and be- lieved on " by them —
[The Jews, who had for two thousand years been the peculiar people of God, could not conceive that any but their own nation should be admitted to the Divine favour: and indeed, to such a degree were the Gentiles immersed in ignorance and sin, that they seemed as if they were utterly excluded from the hope of mercy. But " God's thoughts were not as man's thoughts, or his ways as man's ways :" for, by his express appointment, the Gospel was preached to all nations, and salvation through Christ was proclaimed to every creature. The Apostle himself had been the honoured
* John xvi. 7—11, 14. s Luke ii. 12—14.
t Matt. iv. 11. Lukexxii. 43. u Matt, xxviii. 2 — 4.
x Matt, xxviii. 5,6. y Ps. lxviii. 17, 18. z Acts i. 10, 11.