alone will bring us into any certainty and truth. If men would keep themselves to the word of God, they would have assurance and evidence of truth in their conceptions, without which, pretended high and raised notions are but the shadow of a dream, and worse than professed ignorance.

§6. Obs. 2. We may hence observe that the glory, or true honor of angels, lies in their subserviency to the providence of God; it lies not so much in their nature, as in their work and service. God hath endowed the angels with a very excellent nature, furnished them with many eminent properties of wisdom, power, and agility; but their glory consists, not merely in their nature itself, and its essential properties, all which abide in the most horrid and detested part of the whole creation, the devils! but, in their conformity to the mind and will of God, their active moral endowments: these make them amiable, glorious, excellent. Hence remark, that the greatest glory that any creature can be made partaker of, is to serve the pleasure, and set forth the praises, of its Creator. It is glorious, even in the angels, to serve the God of glory; and what is there. above this for a creature to aspire to, that its nature is capable of? Those among the angels who, as it seems, attempted somewhat farther, somewhat higher, attained nothing but endless ruin, shame, and misery. Men are ready to fancy strange things about the glory of angels; and little consider that all the difference in glory, in any part of God's creation, lies merely in willingness, ability, and readiness to serve God their Creator. And, doubtless, the works wherein God employs them in subserviency to his providence, as the messengers of judgment or of mercy, are in an especial manner, glorious works. And they discharge their service in a very glorious manner; with great power, wisdom, and

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uncontrolable efficacy. Thus one of them slew "a hundred and fourscore and five thousand" of the enemies of God in one night. And of like power and expedition are they in all their services; in all things to the utmost capacity of creatures answering the will of God. Now if this be the great glory of angels, and we poor worms of the earth are invited, as indeed we are, into a participation with them therein, what unspeakable folly will it be in us, if we be found negligent! Our future glory consists in this, that we shall be made like unto the angels; and our way towards it is to do the will of our Father on earth, as it is done by them in heaven. Oh! in how many vanities doth vain man place his glory! nothing so shameful that one or other hath not gloried in; whilst the true and only glory of "doing the will of God," is neglected by almost all.

VERSES 8, 9.

But unto the Son, he saith: Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

$1. Connexion of the words. $2. The Messiah intended by the psalmist. $3. What the apostle's design. §4. (1.) The words explained. Christ called God, because so by nature. $5. His throne. §6. Its perpetuity. $7. His sceptre 8 His disposition. (9 His unction. §10. His superior prerogative therein. §11-13. (II.) Observations,

$1. HAVING

AVING given an account of what the scripture teaches and testifieth concerning angels, in the following verses he sheweth how much more glorious things are spoken of the Son, by whom God revealed his will in the gospel. This testimony is produced by the apostle in answer to that foregoing concerning angels. Those words, saith he, were spoken by the Holy Ghost of the angels, wherein their office and employ

ment under the providence of God is described; these are spoken by the same Spirit of or to the Son, denot ing his prior existence to the prophecies themselves. §2. There is little or no difficulty to prove that this testimony, Psal. xlv, 6, 7, belongs properly to the Messiah. The ancient Jews granted it, and the present doctors cannot deny it. The Targum wholly applies it to the Messiah; nor is there scarce any thing in the psalm that can with propriety of speech be applied to Solomon. Two things are especially insisted on in the former part of the psalm; the righteousness of the person spoken of, in all his ways and administrations; and the perpetuity of his kingdom. How the former of these can be attributed to him, whose transgressions and sins were so public and notorious; or the latter to him who reigned but forty years, and then left his kingdom, broken and divided, to a wicked foolish son, is hard to conceive. As all, then, grant that the Messiah is principally, so there is no cogent reason to prove that he is not solely, intended in the psalm. I will not contend, but that sundry things treated of in it might be obscurely typified in the kingdom and magnificence of Solomon; yet it is certain, that most of the things mentioned, do so immediately and directly belong to the Lord Messiah, as that they can in no sense be applied to the person of Solomon; and such are the words here produced by our apostle.

§3. We must then, in the next place, consider what it is that the apostle pretends to prove by this testimony, whereby we shall discover its suitableness to his design. Now this is not, as some have supposed, the Deity of Christ, although the testimonies produced do eminently mention his Divine nature, but that whom they saw for a time made lower than the angels, chap. ii, 10, was yet in his whole person so far above them,

as that he had power to alter and change those institu tions which were given out by the ministry of angels. And this he doth, undeniably, by the testimonies alleged. For whereas the scripture testifies concerning angels, that they are all servants, and that their chief glory consists in the discharge of their duty in that relation, to him are ascribed a throne, rule, and everlasting dominion, administered with glory, power, and righteousness: whence it is evident that he is exceedingly exalted above them, as a king on his throne is above the servants that attend him to perform his pleasure. Let us,

I. Explain the several parts of the words, and then way will be made for,

II. The observations.

§4. (I.) The first thing to be attended to is the explanation of the words,

"Thy throne, O God." Some would have Elohim, (o Oɛos) to be a name common to God with angels, and judges; and in that large acceptation to be here ascribed to Christ; so that though he be expressly called Elohim, and (0) God, yet that proves him not to be God by nature, but only to be so termed in respect of his office, dignity, and authority. But this gloss is contrary to the perpetual use of sacred scripture; for no one place can be instanced in, where the name Elohim is used absolutely, and restrained to any one person, wherein it doth not undeniably denote the true and only God. Magistrates, indeed, are said to be Elohim, in respect of their office, but no one magistrate was ever so called: nor can a man say without blasphemy to any of them, "Thou art Elohim," or God. It is Christ the Son, therefore, that is spoken to, and denoted by that name, as being the true God by nature; though what is here affirmed of him be not as God, but as the king of his

church and people; as in another place, God is said to redeem his church with his own blood.

§5. Among the insignia regalia, the royal ensigns of the Messiah's kingdom, is his "throne." A throne strictly is the seat of a king in his kingdom, and is frequently used metonymically for the kingdom itself. Nor does it here simply denote the kingdom of Christ, or his supreme rule and dominion, but the glory also of his kingdom; being on his throne, is to be in the height of his glory, and because God manifests his glory in heaven, he calls that his throne, as the earth is his footstool, Isaiah lxvi, 1. So that the throne of Christ is his glorious kingdom, elsewhere expressed by his sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

§6. To this throne eternity is attributed; it is "for ever and ever." The throne of Christ is said to be "for ever," in opposition to the frail and mutable kingdoms of the earth. "Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth and for ever," Isaiah ix, 7. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. It shall neither decay of itself, nor fail through the opposition of its enemies: for "he must reign until all his enemies are made his footstool," 1 Cor. xv, 24-27. It is also intimated that the Divine nature of Christ is what gives eternity, stability, and unchangeableness to his throne and kingdom. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever."

§7. The "sceptre of righteousness," denotes both the laws of the kingdom and the efficacy of the government. So that what we call a righteous government, is here called "a sceptre of righteousness." The