Father." In his person, as Son of man, Jesus displayed all those perfections of holiness, which exist in the Father himself. Thus Jesus revealed the Father to us, clearly and visibly. Moreover, by miracles innumerable he showed forth the power and mercy of his Father: while by his discourses, he unfolded the wisdom, truth and love of God.

Above all, he glorified his Father, by magnifying the law, suffering its penalty, fulfilling all righteousness, and establishing the new covenant between God and man, sealing it with his blood. His very title, "The Lamb of God," shows him to have been the Victim, of God's appointment: and his dying in that character proved that he concurred in God's design, and came as a self-devoted sacrifice. In the hour of his agony, he sacrificed all his natural feelings, and honoured the decree of his Father, by saying, "Not my will, but thine be done!”—Thus in all things he glorified his Father on the earth.

Although the period of his actual suffering had not yet commenced, yet with so much constancy did he adhere to his determination, and so confident was he of the Divine support under that heavy load soon to be laid upon his shoulders, that Jesus declares the work of salvation to be even now accomplished: "I have finished the work, which thou gavest me to do."

2. "Now therefore (and he claims it of right), glorify thou me."-He, as it were, reminds his Father of that majesty, power and dominion, which

he had when pre-existing in heaven, in the bosom of the Father. "Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." While he dwelt on earth, emptied of all dignity, appearing as "a worm and no man,” who could have thought that he was in truth the King eternal, the Creator of the ends of the earth, God over all, blessed for ever? But this garb of humiliation was now to be thrown off, and exchanged for his own royal robes of deity: his raiment white as snow, his eyes as a flame of fire, his countenance as the sun shineth in its strength, his voice as the sound of many waters!

In one respect our Lord's return into heaven differed from his descent thence. During the eternity preceding his incarnation, he had existed as the Son of God: but after his incarnation, he re-ascended to heaven in the additional character of Son of Man.-" Glorify me;" even Me, the great Emmanuel! Let my human nature be exalted to the heaven of heavens, gloriously united to the divine. Let the "mystery of godliness" be thus completed: let "God manifest in the flesh,” be" received up into glory!" (1 Tim. iii. 16.)

Answerably to this prayer, Jesus, as our Sacrifice for sin, shares the throne with his Father. The heavenly hosts present one common strain of adoration to them both; "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever!"

One practical reflection naturally flows from this

subject. Let it lead us to inquire, whether we can profess before the Lord, humbly yet conscientiously, "My chief aim hath been to glorify thee on earth!" We too, as members of Christ, have a work to do, and a work to finish! Are we intent upon it? Do we renounce Self, and seek to glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are God's? Have we, like Christ, a self-denying, meek, and lowly temper, desiring not to be ministered unto, but to minister? Like him, do we go about doing good?-Oh, when death draws near, what an unspeakable comfort will it be to possess a clear evidence that we are Christ's, not in name only, but in deed and in truth!

"For so

an entrance shall be ministered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!"

L

JESUS COMMENDS HIS DISCIPLES.

JOHN xvii. 6—8.

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

At this part of his prayer, Jesus commences interceding for his disciples. They were his first chosen followers: they had been his faithful companions till that hour: they were then present with him : they were constituted the depositaries of his doctrine, and were hereafter to become the Messengers of his Church throughout the world. It was natural therefore that he should primarily name them; although he probably designed to include others also, (as the seventy,) whom he had employed, at other times, in any sacred ministry. And we see from a subsequent part of his prayer, (ver. 20), that he extended the virtue of his intercession to all, who should hereafter believe in his name.

Every part of these verses shows the perfect subjection with which Christ, as Son of man, addressed the Father. He speaks as Mediator. Though he was faithful "as a Son over his own house," yet that faithfulness was peculiarly mani

fested by his dutiful obedience "to him that appointed him:" that is, to the Father: (Hebrews iii. 2. 6.) Mysterious, and to us incomprehensible, as this relation is, yet since our Saviour constantly refers to it, making it the ground-work of his intercession for his people, it becomes us duly to notice, and humbly to believe in his Divine Mediation.

Concerning these Eleven disciples he declares, that to them he had revealed the "Name" of the Father; that is, His being, perfections, purposes, and truth. Further he states, that it was the Father who had given to him these very disciples, having selected them from the midst of all others in the world, as being the men whom Jesus was to call, ordain, and instruct. In truth, these disciples had been the Father's, both by creation and by the election of grace, long before they were Christ's: -they were a gift to Christ, as Mediator:-and our Lord further notices in their commendation, that they had kept the words of the Father, delivered to them through Christ for their guidance.

More than this, the eleven had attained to the understanding of Christ's Mediatorial office. Words cannot more clearly express the nature of that mediatorial office, or more certainly declare the high spiritual attainments of the disciples: "Now they have known, that all things whatsoever thou hast given me, are of thee." And, "they have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me."