meanness which marked his condition on earth, the sorrows which harrowed his soul, and the anguish and darkness which embittered his closing hours. But can the heart of man conceive, or human speech express the other half of the contrast, the glory which the Saviour had with the Father from all eternity, and which he has now resumed. We can but faintly conceive of the glories within the veil. But we know that all power is given him in heaven and earth; that to him every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess him Lord, that he has a name given him that is above every name; that angels bow and adore before him; that he is worshipped of the host of heaven; and that the array of majesty, and solemn grandeur with which he shall descend to earth at the judgment day, is but the faint shadow and outline of that glory with which he is now surrounded in heaven.

We need not, we trust, guard you against misinterpreting and misapplying these expressions concerning the exaltation of the Saviour, and the reward conferred on him. From all eternity he was the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person. He possessed an original title to universal dominion; that dominion he had enjoyed and exerted. He had created all things at first, and he governed and guided all things. The exaltation, then, which was connected with his ascension to glory, and which was consequent upon it, could not strictly apply to him as God, possessing in himself an infinite fulness of perfection and felicity, and therefore equally incapable of depression or exaltation. It applies to him as Mediator, uniting in his person Deity and Humanity—a humanity which could be raised from meanness, suffering, and frailty on earth, to glory and immortality in heaven. The Mediator who possesses in himself this humanity, is exalted. His free submission to suffering, his constant and unmurmuring endurance of it, and his exemplary and unfailing obedience to the Father's will, fulfilling all

righteousness, are crowned with an illustrious reward—with the joy that was set before him.

2. In the second place, the ascension of our Saviour may be viewed in reference to his enemies.

The degree of knowledge which evil spirits possess of what is passing in our world, of the nature and tendency of those things which come under their observation, must be nearly inscrutable to us. It must ever pass alike our powers and our opportunities, exactly to ascertain its limits, or define its amount. The Scriptures, however, intimate that they are permitted to look on the scenes of life, that they go about, diligent in their evil vocation of tempting man to sin, and thwarting good. And it is reasonable to suppose, that it may be with wicked spirits as with wicked men; that infatuation will take from them their judgment; that their wickedness will destroy their wisdom; that looking only at the one side of things they will judge amiss, and imagine that their cause is triumphing when God is working out the completion of its overthrow. We may conclude that this would be especially the case during the period of our Saviour's humiliation. When the Son of God, who had hurled the rebel hosts from the battlements of heaven, and bound them in adamantine chains, was seen walking our world, surrounded with the meanness and degradation of frail humanity, humbled, abased, suffering; when his course on earth was seen verging to a dark and bloody close; when at last he was seen by them sinking oppressed by the power of his enemies, expiring on that cross to which he had been affixed by wicked hands, the spirits of darkness might rejoice in the vain idea that their dark plottings had been crowned with signal and unlooked-for success. And it might seem to them the completion of their triumph, when his body was conveyed, insensible and unresisting, to the tomb, and sealed up as Death's lawful prey in its gloomy precincts. And if ever a gleam of satisfaction brightened the darkness of the region of despair, it must

D

have been during those three days when Christ lay in the tomb.

But

"Vain were the shadows that gathered around him,
And short the dominion of death and the grave;

He burst from the darkness and fetters that bound him,
Resplendent in glory, to bless and to save."

And if the Roman soldiers were thrown into consternation when the angels descended to roll away the stone-if the guards fled panic-struck, a like consternation must have spread among the spirits of darkness, when they saw the crucified Saviour, vanquished, as they thought, by their successful stratagems, assert his superiority over Death, come forth from the tomb, and resume the life he had resigned. It was but the completion of this triumph over his enemies when he spurned our earth, in his ascending flight from the leafy bosom of Mount Olivet. His ascension is commonly connected with this triumph over his foes in the allusions of Scripture. "When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly."

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The enemies of Christ are the enemies of his people. They who are hostile to God, are hostile to goodness. The triumph of Christ over his enemies, therefore, is the triumph of the Saviour over ours. The foes over whom he triumphed, have persecuted us. The principalities and powers, of which he made an open show, have waged war upon us. If Christ then has defeated their designs, overthrown their devices, prostrated their power; if he holds them in check, like the fettered prisoner bound to the conqueror's chariot, and says to them, as to the waves of the rude ocean, "Hitherto shall ye come, and no farther;" then why should his people fear those who must obey the Saviour's command, who can do nothing save what he permits? Formidable as are these adversaries of the people of God-subtle, active, and malig

nant, they yet are held in check by him who holds all things in his hands; they are amenable to a power which they can neither resist nor disregard. Unwillingly it may be, and insubmissively, yet still most truly do they wear the chain; and as of old, in the times of the gospel, so still they are constrained to submit to the Saviour, exclaiming, "We know thee who thou art-the Holy One of Israel." They may resist the people of God, as Satan appeared in emblematic vision, resisting Joshua, the high priest, as he stood before the angel of the Lord; but they are compelled to yield to that voice which interposes to check their malignant efforts, which, in the tone of authority, and with irresistible power, says to them, "The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?"

"All

In that state of exaltation and glory to which the Saviour has ascended, he possesses and exerts unlimited power. power is given him in heaven and in earth." That power is exerted for two ends-for protecting and blessing his peoplea point to which we will immediately advert-and for restraining and punishing the enemies of righteousness—wicked men and evil spirits. This last exercise of his power is necessary to the completeness and efficiency of the other. If he protects his people, he must, in order to this, in order to their security, restrain those who would work them harm, who would cast them down and wound them. If he blesses his people, he must frustrate the efforts, and confound the counsels of those who would blight them with a curse. Hence many an accuser of the brethren-many a one who waits for their halting, and would rejoice in their fall, checked by the restraints he imposes, is compelled to exclaim, like Balaam, as he looked on the goodly tents of Jacob, "God hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it! How shall I curse whom the Lord hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied ?"

3. But, in the third place, the ascension of the Saviour may be viewed in its aspect towards his people.

The remark is proverbial, that from their ignorance and short-sightedness, men often shrink from those things which are the most blessed and beneficial in their results, because they wear a forbidding aspect. They often "madly reject the proffered good;" they often deprecate what God designs in mercy. This was exemplified in the pain and aversion of mind which were awakened in the disciples by every allusion which the Saviour made to his approaching separation from them. They could not bear the mention of it-they shrunk from it with as quick and keen a sensation of agony as the feverish patient does from the lancet that probes his wound to the quick. Yet their Master, who consulted more carefully and more wisely for their interests than they themselves did; who knew better than they what should be the issue and consequences of his departure, often said to them "It is expedient for you that I go away;" and though at the time this might be a hard saying to them, yet even they afterwards learned its wisdom and its truth, saw the folly of their fears, and the safety of confiding all things to him who had been raised up as the Lord's Anointed.

There were many high and important ends to be gained, in reference to his people's welfare, by the Saviour's ascension to glory. As the high priest of old carried the blood of the atoning sacrifice within the veil to sprinkle it on the mercy seat, so Christ, as our great High Priest, had to enter heaven for us, bearing the tokens of his completed sacrifice. The blessings which descend to his people, as the fruit of his atonement, were to be procured through his intercession, by which he follows up his sacrifice; and he had to enter heaven as our advocate and intercessor with the Father, by his mediation to reconcile us to God, by his prevalent advocacy of our cause, to procure our restoration to the Divine favour, and the bestowment on us of the blessings of his grace, and