righteousness which the Surety had introduced: "Him the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things."

In the more full illustration of this subject we shall enquire,

I. Why it was proper or necessary that the heavens should receive the risen Saviour? and,

II. In what capacity he still continues as thus received?

1. It was proper or requisite that the heavens should receive him on account of God the Father. It was the Eternal Father who, vindicating the honors of the divine government, demanded satisfaction for sin; who laid upon, or imputed to the Son interposing for man the iniquities of his chosen; who inflicted upon him the unnumbered sufferings which he endured both in his life, and at his death. "It pleased the Lord to bruise him, and he hath put him to grief: He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." Judas in betraying him ; Pilate in condemning him; the multitude in crucifying him, although they indulged their own rage, were really fulfilling Jehovah's absolute, everlasting purpose. "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel, and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." The Father in the scheme of our redemption acted the part of Creditor, and therefore exacted from his Son our Surety the payment of the debt. By him

the command was uttered in all its terrors and glory, "awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and smite the man that is my fellow." When the sufferings of Jesus became most exquisite and insupportable, it was into the bosom of his Father that he poured his complaint, and from him he solicited. sympathy and support. "O my God, if it is possible let this cup pass from me: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me: Nevertheless not my will, but thine be done." As the Father had thus humbled his Son and put him to grief; had executed upon him the penalty denounced against sin, it was proper that with his own hand he should raise and reward him; that he should glorify the Son who had so eminently glorified him. The exaltation of Jesus to his mediatorial honors is therefore ascribed to the immediate interposition of his Father; it is pronounced the Father's act no less than his humiliation and death. "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and Saviour:" Again, “because he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow-to the glory of God the Father;" in doing homage to the Son they do homage to the Father, by whose authority he was raised from the grave, and exalted to the highest heavens. We hear the Son in the prospect of his sufferings thus appealing

to his righteous Father "thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; thou wilt not doom me forever to languish in the grave, the invisible state, in whose dreary dominions the dead cannot praise thee; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption: but when the debt is paid the prison shall be opened, and I, the Surety, discharged; thou wilt shew me the path of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance."

2. It was proper or requisite that the heavens should receive the Son of God, on his own account. This world was to the Saviour a scene of the deepest degradation, and of grief almost uninterrupted, and unmingled. "He was despised," and not only despised, but " rejected of men," yea, of that very nation whose chief glory it was to give him birth according to the flesh. This life of neglect, and toil, and sorrow was concluded by a mode of dying unparalleled for infamy and pain.-To all this humiliation he submitted, and all these sufferings he endured, with a design the most important and gracious; to repair the injuries of the divine government; to reflect glory on the divine perfections, and save sinners from the wrath to come. It was therefore proper, that the Saviour should be translated from this world of trial and grief, and crowned with honor and glory; that, as he had by his obedience and blood, brought honor to his Father, and redeemed from destruction millions of men, he should

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be raised to the midst of the throne, and dignified with all power in heaven and earth. This reward was solemnly promised to Messiah in the contract from eternity, and we hear him explicitly demanding it, shortly before he concluded his mediatorial work in this world. "I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine ownself; with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.' He possessed an essential glory as God; this was veiled while he tabernacled on earth : he had also a glory as Mediator, but this he was to receive upon his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension to the higher sanctuary. And this honor which Messiah, solemnly demanded, was immediately and fully imparted to him. "The Father loveth the Son;" is pleased with him, as the medium through which his own glory is displayed, and revolting men restored to their primitive obedience and bliss: "he loveth the Son, and hath committed all things into his hands;" he hath exalted him to the highest throne; placed upon his head a crown of pure gold; given into his hand the sceptre of universal dominion, and issued forth the royal command, "that every knee should bow to him," whether of saint, or angel, or archangel. It was therefore highly proper that the heavens should receive the Saviour on his own account; that the cross should be succeeded by the crown; the sorrows of

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earth by those full joys which are at Jeho vah's right hand; and the reproach of men, and the temptations of devils by the acclamation of all the celestial hosts.

3. It was proper and requisite that the heavens should receive him, on account of holy angels. The Son as Mediator had been often seen of angels in the progress of his humiliation upon earth; they had seen him when he lay in Bethlehem an obscure, helpless infant; they had seen him in Egypt, banished from his kindred and country, through the persecution of an unnatural tyrant; they had seen him in the wilderness when he was doomed to solitude and hunger, and tempted of devils; they had seen and attempted to strengthen him in the garden "when his soul was troubled, and the sweat of his body was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground;" they had seen him mocked and mangled on mount Calvary, and at last consigned a lifeless corpse to the dominion of the dead. On all these occasions had angels seen the suffering Jesus, and marvelled and trembled while they beheld. It was therefore proper that joy should fill their hearts, and melody return to their harps by seeing him in all the splendors of the heavenly state. How promptly therefore did angels roll away the stone from the sepulchre, and aid, so far as their aid would be accepted, at his resurrection from the dead! How patiently did they wait and announce to Peter, and Mary, and others, the joyous message, "the Lord