who does not hasten to this city, and really enter within its walls: Jesus is "the bread of life," but he is nourishment to those only who eat or receive him by faith: His cross yields a sovereign balm for the disease of sin, but it gives health only to such as apply it to their diseases. "Examine yourselves, therefore, whether you be in the faith; prove your ownselves; know ye not your ownselves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates." Thou

Spirit of God, and of glory!" pour light upon every heart, enabling us to know in our day the things that belong to our peace: glorify the Saviour by receiving of his, and shewing them savingly unto us, "that being justified by his grace we may become heirs according to the hopes of ETERNAL LIFE;" and to Thee, with the coequal Son, and Ever-Blessed Father, Jehovah in covenant, be ascribed dominion and thanksgiving, world without end.-AMEN.

Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things.

THERE were various degrees in the humiliation of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. It began in his incarnation, it continued throughout the whole course of his life, and was consummated upon his cross. "That decease which he accomplished at Jerusalem" was the last, and lowest step of his degradation; and in that he "finished," as to its purchase, “the work that was given him to do." "He became obedient unto death," and in dying "made an end of sin, made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness," for the justification of his chosen. By one step of his humiliation, the Mediator, as man, was fitted for another, and lower step of humiliation. "Though he was a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him." As in the humiliation of the Son of God formerly, so in his exaltation afterwards, there was a variety of steps, and by the reception of one degree of mediatorial glory, he was prepared for the reception of another and higher degree.

His exaltation as Mediator properly commenced in his resurrection from the dead, by which he was manifested to be the Son of God," and to have accomplished our redemption: it was promoted by his ascension on high, in the very nature which had suffered, and amidst a retinue of angels, who came down to hail their ascending Lord, and to add to the grandeur of the scene. His exaltation was farther advanced by his promotion to the right hand of the Father, and will be consummated in his coming at last to judge the world. The various grades of the exaltation of our Lord are either expressed or implied, in the verse to which your attention is now invited.

It is a profitable exercise occasionally to contemplate the Saviour in his humbled, sorrowful state; we have thereby affecting views of the evil of sin, which brought upon "the Holy One of God" sufferings thus continued and complicated; of the Father's justice, which would not "spare iniquity even in his own Son" when substituted in our room; and we are taught our infinite obligation to love him, who so amazingly "loved us, and gave himself an offering for us." It is equally pleasing and profitable, to trace the Saviour through all the steps of his exaltation; to see him rising from the tomb as the Conqueror of death, as the Prince of life, as the immediate pattern, and infallible pledge of our own resurrection; to follow him by the eye of faith as he ascends on

high, perfectly and everlastingly relieved from all the reproach, and sorrow, and toil of his humbled state; going to his Father to receive a full reward for his former degradation, and to realize in his ascension a security for our own ascension. We shall not always be imprisoned in this world, which has become dreary and loathsome by transgression,but shall in our own order "be caught up to meet the Lord in the air," and enter that kingdom which he has entered in our name. It is animating to our faith and hopes occasionally to contemplate the coequal Son and Surety introduced to the right hand of the Father, to plead our cause, and prepare mansions for us. In this event we have the highest conceivable evidence that his vicarious sacrifice was received as a full discharge of our debt; that the "hand writing which stood against us" at the upper court is cancelled and destroyed, and that therefore there is no condemnation to any who are in Christ Jesus.

As the resurrection and ascension of our Lord are events deeply interesting to our faith, they are established by evidence various, and satisfactory. The former was attested by Mary, who saw and conversed with him; by the eleven, who met with him on different occasions, and on whom he perceptibly breathed, communicating the Holy Ghost; by Thomas, who saw in his hand the print of the nails which he received upon the cross, and who thrust his finger into

the hole which was made in his side by the soldier's spear; and in addition to all this testimony, our Lord was seen at once by more than five hundred brethren. The fact of his ascension is attested by evidence no less satisfactory; by the apostles, who retired with him to Bethany, and beheld him as he rose, until the cloud received him out of their sight; by a concert of angels, who spoke to them out of the cloud, and assured them that this same Jesus shall hereafter descend, in like manner as they now saw him ascending; by the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost; and by the martyr Stephen, who saw him standing on the right hand of God. The precise manner in which the Redeemer ascended is not for us to know, because it is not revealed. This event is recorded by the Evangelists in three different places, and it is worthy of remark that three different words are used to express the same event. Sometimes he is said to ascend or go up, as if he arose by his own power; sometimes to be carried, or borne up, as if he was raised by the power of another; and again as received up, probably to express that affection with which he was received by his Father, and by angels, and all the inhabitants of heaven. As in the resurrection, so in the ascension of the Son as Mediator, there was a co-operation of each divine Person in Jehovah, to shew their concurrence in the redemption of sinners, and their full satisfaction with that