understood as including both the ideas just mentioned, The Father hath appointed his Son to be the author and procurer of our salvation, and hath also appointed him, in his princely office and character, to be our captain, our leader to salvation. It denotes, I conceive, both his acquisition of salvation for us, and his guidance of us to it. The latter of these ideas, however, must be supposed to have been chiefly designed in the text, since it is probable that it contains some allusion to the celebrated journey of the Israelites through the wilderness into Canaan, under the direction of Moses and Joshua. Through the waste and howling desert of this world, we, at the divine command, are urging our way, not to an earthly, but a heavenly Canaan; not to worldly power and greatness, but to celestial glory. In prosecuting this expedition we need a captain and a guide. For we have many difficulties and perplexities to contend with, and our passage is opposed by various skillful and potent enemies. God has graciously raised up Jesus to be our prince and our Saviour, our spiritual Moses, our heavenly Joshua, our leader and our commander, the captain of our salvation. Of him Moses and Joshua, indeed, were but types. Nay, it is probable that they were only his visible agents, and that it was the Son of God himself, in his unincarnate state, who took the special charge of ancient Is rael, and by means of these his servants led them through the wilderness, and conducted them to Canaan. This view is confirmed when we compare Psalm lxxviii, 40, 41, with 1 Corinthians x, 9, from which it appears that the murmuring Israelites were guilty of tempting and rebelling against Christ, which certainly implies his exercise of authority over them. Now, what he was to Israel of old, temporally and literally, that, and much more, he is to his spiritual Israel even now. All who are truly the children of God on their way to glory, abandoning their old leader the devil, and the service of sin in which they were engaged by him, have voluntarily submitted themselves to the command of Christ, and enlisted under the banner of his cross. As the captain of his militant Church, he guides them in the way wherein they should go, not only by his word, which points out their path, but by his

Spirit, who enables them to discern it when pointed out to them. Nay, he guides them by his example, as well as by his counsel; for he has gone before them both in obedience and in suffering, leaving them a pattern, that they should tread in his steps. He, moreover, supplies the wants of his followers, makes suitable provision for their necessities, and engages to impart grace and strength according to their day. He gives them the victory over their spiritual enemies, over the world, and sin, and death, and hell. All these he has himself personally encountered and vanquished for them, proving by his own triumphs that they are not invincible, but, having been overcome by the captain, may also be vanquished by his soldiers. For our blessed Emanuel has not only gotten the victory for us, but promises by his grace to triumph in us and through us. He teacheth our hands to war, and our fingers to fight. He gives ceaseless encouragement and succor to persevering souls, and he will confer their future reward. Even now his voice from heaven cries, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."

2. For this work and office he was made perfect through sufferings. By the way of the cross he obtained the crown of glory.

(1.) This cannot allude to a holy perfection of nature; for of this he was already possessed, both as God and as man. It refers, therefore, to a perfection of office. By his atoning passion and death he was solemnly consecrated to, and completely qualified for, his work as Mediator, his office as the captain of salvation. As the priests under the law were consecrated to their holy functions by the blood of sacrifices, so Jesus "by his own blood entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." And having, both actively by obedience, and passively by suffering, fulfilled all things which were predicted concerning him, he finished his course of duty and of affliction, and is said to be perfected, just as a racer (for to this the word used in the original alludes) is made perfect when he has finished his appointed race, reached the goal to which he ran, and obtained the prize. VOL. I.-5

Even so Jesus now receives the meet acknowledgement and reward of his voluntary humiliation and death at the hands of his Father. "God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians ii, 9-11.)

(2.) He was made a perfect example for human imitation; an example, not only of active, but of passive virtues; an example of meekness, and patience, and submission to divine appointments; graces which he could not possibly have displayed or exercised but by suffering.

(3.) He was perfectly qualified for the sympathetic exercise of his office as the appointed intercessor for his people, and the dispenser of those blessings which his death has procured. “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." "For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews ii, 17, 18; iv, 15, 16.) These passages seem clearly to assert that there is a tenderness of sympathy, the fruit of an actual experience of fellowship in suffering, which cannot, in the nature of things, result from the abstract and inexperienced benignity even of God himself; and that this peculiar feeling, if it do not secure for us a more real and efficient succor from God manifest in the flesh, God in our nature, than could have flowed from the benevolence of unincarnate Deity, is, at least, a means of causing us to rely on the needful and promised succor with greater affiance, and tends to counteract more effectually our infirmities and unbelief. The promise is thus made more appreciable to our faith, more level to our ordinary

way of thinking and feeling. Had not the Son of God assumed humanity, and suffered in it, he might have pitied our sorrows, but he could not, properly, have sympathized in them. But now, 66 we are assured that he looks down from his heavenly abode with an eye of pity upon those who are agitated with the same storms with which he was himself assailed. He has not effaced from his memory the severe trials he experienced during the course of his earthly pilgrimage: he beholds us traveling through the rugged paths which he once traversed; and our sorrows, our complaints, find admission to his kindred bosom."* What a comfortable thought is this to the true believer! "My Redeemer descended from heaven to form an intimate acquaintance with human misery: he entered the cave of affliction, and became a sojourner with the wretched, an associate with the sorrowful, in order to lodge more deeply in his bosom the stings of sympathy."+

III. Lastly, the text asserts that this method of recovering fallen man to glory by a suffering Saviour was suitable to the character of the great and blessed God. It became him: it was worthy of his infinite majesty, and calculated to advance the honor of his various attributes.

1. It glorifies his truth and faithfulness. The great work of human salvation is not the result of anything analogous to what in man would be called a casual or sudden impulse. It is the result of deliberate purpose and of a plan, wisely and carefully arranged. This plan was sketched in the prophecies of the Old Testament; which are, if we may borrow the expression, "the pattern shown in the mount," to which, as the representation of the original idea formed in the mind of God, everything in the actual execution of the redeeming process must be exactly conformed. Now, what is the character of the prophecies respecting the Messiah on the point now under consideration? Do they not uniformly describe him as a sufferer, and as saving us by the merit of his sufferings in our stead? Thus the first promise has reference to the bruising

of the Messiah's heel: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Genesis iii, 15.) "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. . . . He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. . . . He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. . . . He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken." (Isaiah liii.) "Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke xxiv, 25-27.) "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." (1 Peter i, 10, 11.) Such being the "pattern" exhibited in the prophecies, the Divine truth and faithfulness required that the fact should be regulated according to it, and that the history should correspond to the prediction, the exe-. cution to the design.

2. But we must carry the matter still farther and higher. There were reasons arising out of the Divine nature for the original adoption of this method of salvation, as well as for adhering to it after it had been once announced and predicted. It was honorable to the Divine holiness and justice; to the holy nature of God, and to his justice as the moral governor of the universe. "It became him," as the first cause and last end of all things, thus to "make the captain of our salvation