Christ, hast overcome death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life, we humbly beseech thee, that as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect, through Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth, with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen."

SERMON XXIII.

ACTS xvi. 30, 31.

What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

HAVING considered Christ in his resurrection from the dead, we are next to follow him to his ascension into heaven.

By heaven here is to be understood both a place and a state. A place it must needs be; for the body of our Lord was taken away from this earth. "While he blessed his disciples, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven;" from earth to heaven, from the place where he then was to that where he now is; to a place far above the heavens, above the region of the clouds, which is the first heaven, to that which is called the heaven of heavens, wherever it be, the most glorious place of God's manifestation of himself to his creatures. And as a place, so a state. A state of the highest glory and blessedness: for, "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour."

That he ascended into heaven, we have the most assured testimony. For the Holy Ghost witnesses, that "While they beheld he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight." He did not vanish as an apparition; but, while they were looking upon him, he was taken up, a cloud, namely, the Shechinah or glory of the Lord, the visible symbol of divine Presence, covering him about, and carrying him up leisurely into heaven, so that they might see him going up, till he and it were gone beyond the reach of their sight. Nor is there only the testimony of the disciples to this truth; for, "While they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken

up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." If there be still further need of witness, the truth of his ascension is manifest from his sending the Holy Ghost. Upon this ground he himself places the necessity of his going to heaven: "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but, if I depart, I will send him unto you." And soon after his departure the Comforter did come unto them; than which there cannot be a more evident proof that he was indeed ascended to heaven unto the Father.

But however true the fact be, yet this is not all the professor has in view, but he means to declare his belief also of the force, import, and influence of such truth, when he says, He ascended into heaven. For,

He would be meant to understand and declare, that Jesus ascended into heaven in a public character, as the representative and head of his members. He believes they are no less ascended into heaven with him, than risen from the dead in him. His actions, he knows, are all public, for otherwise he sees not why the Son of God should come into the world. And therefore,

First. When he says, He ascended into heaven, it is as if he said, I profess my belief that thereby he opened the gate of everlasting life for his people. He went away into heaven, into the more immediate presence of God. Sin had shut us out from an earthly paradise, Jesus takes possession of an heavenly one for us. "I go to prepare a place for you;" not for myself only, but for you also. "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." True it is that "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you." Ye are not now in that presence where is fulness of joy, nor admitted to be at his right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore. But I have made the atonement; your sins are blotted out; and, behold, I ascend, in the merit of what I have done for you, and in your name and behalf, unto my Father, and therefore now your Father, and unto my God and your God. "And I go to prepare a place for you: and if I go away I will come again, and take you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also." Thus he spake while on earth, and I see him verifying his word when he went away into heaven. The The gates lift up their head, the everlasting doors

were lift up, and the King of glory, the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, came in. He came in, he set the doors of heaven wide open, he gave us boldness and liberty to enter into the holiest by the new and living way which he hath consecrated for us. When I ask myself, where is Jesus? and answer, he is passed into the heavens, I see my nature exalted to the very place and state where I could wish it to be; heaven taken possession of, mortality swallowed up of life, the last hand put to the work of redemption, and that nothing now remains for the exalted Jesus to do but to make his people partakers of all his victories and triumphs: in short, I see in the ascension of the head the full and glorious ascent of the members, according to the prophecy relative to him, and to them in him: “The breaker is come up before them; they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it; and their King shall pass before them, and the Lord at the head of them." But,

Secondly. While I thus profess my belief of Christ's ascent into heaven in a public character to open a way thither for his people, and to prepare a place for them, I do further understand, that in so doing he led captivity captive. By his ascension he evidently triumphed over all our enemies that before had dominion over us, and most plainly led them as vanquished foes behind the chariot in which he went up to his glory. By this glorious act he fully explained his victory. It is no longer in any measure uncertain whether the curse of the law be satisfied, death be destroyed, Satan be vanquished, hell be disappointed; for our Surety, that undertook for us to deliver us from the hands of all these formidable adversaries, into subjection unto whom sin had brought us, has manifestly prevailed. Most unquestionably he satisfied the curse of the law, and thereby wrested their arms out of the hands of Death, Satan, and Hell: for instead of lying under the curse of the law, and therefore in the state of death within the dominions of him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and reserved in that state unto the blackness of darkness for ever, which must have been his case had he not answered the demands which the law had against him as our substitute; I see him, in despite of death, the devil, and hell, going up into heaven. In defiance of death he lives, in

defiance of the powers of the air he passed through, in defiance of hell he went up into heaven. Yea, when he ascended up on high, he proclaimed his victories over them all, and made them all a spectacle to angels and to men. Nor is this all. I understand,

Thirdly.—That by ascending up on high he received gifts for men. He not only went up to prepare a place for us, but also to open an intercourse between heaven and earth, by receiving gifts necessary to prepare us for heaven, and to bring us thither. These he went up to receive. His presence was necessary to his receiving them; " If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you." He went up to receive the Spirit in his own person in all fulness for men, that he might give unto them. To receive gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious, he ascended into heaven, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Sin had stopped the course of divine communications, the Spirit had been grieved and was withdrawn; the issue was, the world lay in wickedness, and darkness covered the earth. The Son of God will restore the fellowship. He becomes man, and takes away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He carries that manhood into heaven. In it he receives the fulness of the Spirit, the condition of receiving which he had fulfilled on the cross. Out of it he gives. And thus the communication is opened, the Lord God dwells among us again. This we owe to his ascension. He went up to receive; and he received to give. Had he not received and given, what had I been this day? My eyes had been still blinded by the god of this world. known God; I had lived without him in the world. prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and furnished them for their work. To these gifts I owe it that I am not still dead in trespasses and sins. He ascended up on high to receive the Spirit in his various gifts and graces for men, and to give thereof unto them. He has received, and he has given; yea, and he will give, for he will not forsake his people. If he ascended to receive gifts for men, he will not unfaithfully keep what he has received, but will send the Comforter to abide with his church for ever.

I had not

He gave

Upon the whole, therefore, when I say, He ascended into heaven, my meaning is, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and