our earthly abode, shall, at the grand consummation, suddenly pass away. The ransomed of the Lord shall ascend with him into the dwelling place of the Almighty; their pardon shall be proclaimed, and their immortality confirmed; and Jesus himself, having finished his office, shall become subject to the Father, "that God may be all in all.”

Thus, I have imperfectly illustrated this important mystery of our holy religion, the ascension of our blessed Lord; a mystery, resting upon the strong and stupendous pillars of prophecy and type; established by the testimony of those who were eye witnesses and martyrs to the reality of the fact; and placed beyond the reach of reasonable doubt, by his bestowing those supernatural gifts, which he had promised to his apostles, as evidences and fruits of his glorification. But why do I speak of the evidences of this part of revelation? You are already persuaded of its truth. Your belief in it, you do every Sabbath declare, before the presence of God, in the solemn repetition of the articles of your faith. Let me rather entreat you, Christians, this day, to make a solemn pause; and implant in your hearts a just consideration of the ascension of Christ, and of its important consequences. Is it indeed true that, having cancelled our sins upon the cross and broken for us the massy sceptre of death, he hath thrown open the gates of heaven, and entered as our harbinger? Who, among the heathen, hath named such a thing? Where, in the gloomy region of skepticism, shall we find such joyous prospects? Let us, then, hold fast the profession of our faith, and love and adore its Author. Is it indeed true that the Son of God is our "Advocate with the Father, and the propitiation for our sins? How ravishing the reflection! What holy confidence should it give us, when we make our prayers! What zeal, and faith, and delight, when we offer unto God the memorial of his death in the eucharist! What comfort ineffable, when our souls are cast down under a sense of our infirmities, and our spirits are disquieted within us! Is it indeed true, that man, "made lower than the angels," is in the person of Immanuel advanced to the right hand of God,

and "crowned with glory and worship?" With what selfrespect should the thought inspire us! Shall habits of vice debase, shall carnal affections dishonour, shall even an impure thought defile a nature which has place in the courts of the Most High, and is so nearly related to the Father, and to his Son Jesus Christ? Is it indeed true that a time is approaching when, in the dread majesty of Justice, the ascended Lord shall return, summon from their graves the slumbering dead, of every place and generation; and, while he takes the righteous to himself, and to all the bliss of the Father's house, will leave the ungodly to themselves, and to all the miseries of condemnation? What heart can lie still at the thought! What mind is not made sober by the reflection! Who sees not that it is his interest, as well as duty, to conform his life to the lovely example of his Saviour, and to set his "affections on things above!"

My brethren, these are views of the ascension of our Lord, which you must admit as just and reasonable, unless you abandon your faith. Strange that they have not a more powerful influence on our lives! It is true, when "the spirit is willing the flesh is often weak." Frailty is our inheritance, and our life is beset with temptations and sorrows. But for our encour

agement, let us remember that the Almighty Father is compassionate and good. Let our sense of his goodness move our ingenuousness, and rouse us to circumspection. "Laying aside every weight, and the sin which doth most easily beset us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us; looking unto Jesus, the Author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

SERMON V.

ON THE ASCENSION.

HEBREWS, ii. 9.

'We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with joy and honour"

HE last grand display of our Saviour's life, and the illus

THE

trious consummation of his ministry, was his ascension into heaven. This mighty event we have, in the week past, been joyfully commemorating, and the Church yet follows with the eye of faith, her ascending Lord, rapt in admiration, and exclaiming, "My Father, my Father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof."

It is to this great event, as the fruit of our Saviour's incarna tion and crucifixion, that the apostle alludes in the text. The words are peculiarly proper for our present contemplation, as they will naturally lead us to consider the great honour and advancement of our nature in the glorification of Christ, and the consequences and obligations which we should infer from this. important doctrine of the gospel. Yes, my friends, in the glorirication of your Redeemer, man was exalted to the highest abode of glory and felicity. In the ascent from the greatly favoured Olivet, there went one who wore our nature, and, sin excepted, had led our life. This, his disciples must have apprehended of the person of whose ascension they were taken to be witnesses. It was their well-known Master, whom they, not long before, had seen and handled, and who was talking with them as a man, when he was parted from them.

That Jesus Christ, after having expired for our sins upon the cross, and been raised from the dead, did, after passing forty days on earth, in arranging the economy of his Church, ascend into heaven, all Christians believe. But when we give our Amen to this article of our faith, have we definite ideas of the truth to which we assent? Who is it that, "for the suffering of death, is crowned with glory and honour?" When he says to his disciples before his departure, "I go to prepare a place for you," who is it that goes? Undoubtedly, the Being in whom existed the wonderful union of the human and the divine natures. It was not solely the divinity of the Son returning to its pristine abode. That was never "made lower than the angels." That being incapable of passion, never tasted "the sufferings of death." That was not limited by his visible presence, but while it dwelt in him upon earth, was, at the same time, "above all, and through all, and in all."

Of the place and state to which the Redeemer is exalted, we can form no adequate conceptions. The divine Spirit has used such figures and descriptions, in the record of the event, as give the loftiest ideas of glory, bliss, and power, which our minds can embrace. To "the right hand of the throne of God," the place of the highest distinction and most honourable pre-eminence; into heaven, the peculiar abode of the divine presence, and seat of purest and immortal joys; to the Father's house, all whose inhabitants have the Father's appropriate affection, and in which are the treasures of wisdom and happiness, open and enjoyed for evermore, is Immanuel gone. But to follow him, and fully estimate his glorification, we are unable. Our mortal faculties could not sustain its splendour. A cloud receives him out of our sight. Of this, however, we are assured, and it is the utmost outline of exaltation which we can conceive, that our nature has been taken by him, who graciously espoused it in the day of its poverty and distress to all "the glory” which the best beloved of the Father had with him, "before the foundation of the world."

Here let us pause and reflect; what glory to the fallen nature

of man, that the Eternal Son should assume it, even to dwell in it on earth, and say of its humble offspring, "My brethren are these !" How immeasurably great, then, its honour and advancement, when he is exalted in it to the right hand of the Father; "angels, authorities and powers, being made subject unto him!" Where are now the pitiful objections to the humiliation of the manger, and severity of the cross? Where is now the despised Nazarene, the scorned teacher of strange doctrines, the unresisting victim of malice and death? The ascension of Christ, vindicates, perfects, crowns the Christian scheme; it is the top stone which gives firmness and grandeur to the fabric, and displays the proportionate beauty of all its parts. The railings at the incarnation, and objections to the crucifixion vanish; all is consistent, grand, and worthy of the Author. God is just, and humanity made happy, while we see Jesus, "who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour."

While we perceive that it was in our nature the Saviour passed into his glory, our advancement hereby will be more impressive, if we consider that in entering upon his joy, he "opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers." As the intercessor of man, to whom the Father hath refused nothing, he went to plead for the justification of his followers to eternal life, that they may be with him, and partake his glory. As the Captain of our salvation," he, in his person, took possession of the country which his triumphant victories had secured, entering, as our forerunner, upon the realms of light. As the head of his Church, it was meet that he should be first exalted to the kingdom, prepared for the children of the Father, from the beginning of the world, and of necessity, as the head and the body are one, so the life of all his members is hid with him in God. "In my Father's house," says he, "are many mansions." "I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." What surer pledge of our inheritance in heaven can we have, than the exaltation of Him, in our