Hebrews draws a contrast between the eminence of Christ and that of angels, he represents God as putting the highest honour on him, in consequence of his exalted rectitude and purity; and for this purpose quotes Psalm xlv. 7: "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Heb. i. 9. Christ himself attributes the honour put upon him by the Father to his having assumed our nature: "As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." John v. 26, 27. In the same chapter he also states the specific purpose for which this authority was thus committed to him: "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father;" and so fully is the glory of God concerned in this arrangement, that the Father is represented as identified in all the devotion paid to the Son: "He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent him," verses 22, 23; a senti

ment which, I need hardly add, is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament.

:

Again in Psalm lxxii. the universal dominion of Christ is attributed to the eminence and tenderness of his benevolence: "All kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him: for he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy," verse 11, et seq. By the Prophet Isaiah, the successful consummation of his expiatory work is represented as the cause of his exaltation: "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be, exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; [on account of the extremity of thy suffering;] his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: so shall he sprinkle*

Or, perhaps, causing the ministry of the word to fall upon many nations, as some Rabbinical critics explain it. Others, in compliance with the version of the Seventy, read it,

"So, many nations shall look on him with admiration : Kings shall stop their mouths," &c.

DR. JEBB. See LowTH, in loc.

In which case the sense appears to be, that astonishment at the sufferings of Christ shall be followed by universal admiration and admission of his claims.

many nations; [extending the purifying influence of his blood to the ends of the earth;] the kings shall shut their mouths at him: [none offering the slightest opposition to claims of him whose sufferings filled them with astonishment:] for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider." [The strange history of the suffering of Christ shall be brought before the contemplation of gentile sovereigns, and the result shall be, the admission of his right.] Isa. lii. 13-15. And again, after the Prophet has spoken of the pleasure of the Lord prospering in the hand of Christ, it is added,

"Therefore will I distribute to him the many for his portion,

And the mighty people shall he share for his spoil,
BECAUSE he poured out his soul unto death,
And was numbered with the transgressors,
And he bare the sin of many,

And made intercession for the transgressors."

LOWTH'S Isaiah. (liii. 12.)

The honour bestowed upon him, Christ himself represents as the result of the glory which the consummation of his work reflected on the Father. Upon Judas's retirement from the

last supper to complete his traitorous design, He exclaims, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him." John xiii. 31, 32.

The testimony of the sacred writers as to Christ's assumption of the mediatorial throne, and consequent triumphs, being the reward of his expiatory work, is exceedingly explicit. In some of the following passages you will find it distinctly stated, in others certainly involved: "And you, being dead in your sins, hath he quickened, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, nailing it to his cross; having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." Col. ii. 13-15. In Heb. i. 3, 4, it is said of the Son, that being "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, having by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being as much better than angels, as he hath obtained, by right of inheritance, a more excellent title

or rank than they." That is, as I understand it, the mediatorial glory of Christ, which he has assumed upon the ground of having purged our sins, is as far above that glory which angels possess through their agency in God's government, as his original rank was superior to theirs. He is the Son, verse 5, but they are only servants, verse 7. He has an everlasting and unchangeable government over his people, to whom angels are but ministering spirits. This argument the writer pursues thus: The Gospel dispensation is not subject to angels, Heb. ii. 5. But to human nature in the person of Christ all things were to be subjected, although for a little while he was in that nature inferior to angels. The reason why he was thus humbled, was that he might taste death for every man; a work so full of virtue and merit, that, as the Syriac version gives it," we see Jesus for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour." The writer then proceeds to argue, that this reward of the endurance of Christ was in the highest degree fitting. "It became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, to bestow, on account of sufferings, the highest