"of him it was exacted," says the prophet, "and he was made answerable"^:" and he " laid down his own life a ransom for you." To his continual intercession too are you indebted for all that peace which is maintained between God and your souls. Will you not then be thankful to him? or rather, shall there be any bounds to your gratitude ? Bless him then, and adore and magnify him, and call upon all that is within you to bless his holy name. And now endeavour to be " profitable to him." Consecrate to him all your faculties, and all your powers. Live for him : die for him, if need be : and begin now the song, in which you shall, ere long, join all the choirs of heaven : " To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and our Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen^"]
I Isai. liii. 7. The marginal translation, s Rev. i. 5, 6.
Christ's ascension to glory.
Heb. i. 3. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the tvord of his jwiver, when he had by himself j)urged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
A REVELATION of God, by whatever means or instrument it may be communicated, demands our solemn attention. But Christianity requires the highest possible degree of reverence, because the Messenger, by whom it was promulgated, as far sur- passed all other instruments in excellence, as the truths delivered by him are of deeper and more mys- terious import. It is in this view that the Apostle introduces this sublime description of Christ ; in which we may notice,
I. The dignity of his person —
We cannot conceive any expressions more grand than these which are here apphed to Christ, and which set forth,
1. His essential dignity —
[The Father is the fountain, and the archetype of all perfection. Of him Jesus is a perfect copy. As tlie impres- sion on the wax corresponds with all the marks and lineaments of the seal, so is Jesus " the express image " of the Father in every particular, insomuch that " he who hath seen him hath
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