1. In what refpect he afcended. Not in refpect of his divine nature, for that can change no place, and is confined to no place; but in refpect of his human nature, which is fo prefent in one place, that it cannot be in another at the fame time, and it changeth one place for another by local motion, It was his human body that afcended into heaven, and which the heavens must contain till the time of the reftitution of all things.

2. The reality of his afcenfion. He did not merely disappear, but by a local motion went up from the earth unto the higheft heavens, leaving the one, and going to the other. And he afcended in a visible manner, before the eyes of his difciples.

3. The time of it; which was forty days after his refurrection, Acts i. 2. 3. This his long ftay on earth was the bleffed effect of his matchlefs and unparallelled love to his church and people. Though ineffable glory was prepared and waiting for him in heaven, yet he would not go to poffefs it till he had ordered all things aright that concerned the good of his fol lowers here on earth. More particularly, he ftaid fo long on earth,

(1.) That he might the more convincingly teftify unto his difciples the truth of his humanity, and confirm them in the faith of his being truly man.

(2.) To confirm them ftill the more ftrongly in the faith of his refurrection from the dead. This was à truth which the difciples were not eafily induced to believe. Hence when they first heard it from Mary Magdalene and the other women that had been at the fepulchre, it is faid, that their words feemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not, Luke xxiv. 11. But his ftaying fo long on the earth, and frequently converfing with them, gave them full affurance of the reality of his refurrection. He fhewed himfelf alive. to them by many infallible proofs. He walked and talked with them, ate and drank with them. He again and again fhewed them the marks of the wounds

in his hands, and feet, and fide; which was the ut moft proof the thing was capable of or required. Befides, it was not one or two, but many proofs which he gave them of this: for he was feen by them forty days; not indeed conftantly refiding with them, but frequently appearing to them, and bringing them by degrees to be fully fatisfied of the truth of his refurrection,

(3.) To inftruct them more clearly and perfectly in the knowledge of the mysteries of his kingdom, which after his departure they were to preach and propagate through the world. He had given them a general idea of that kingdom, and of the time when it should be fet up, in the parable of the vineyard, Mark xii.; but upon this occafion he let them more clearly into the nature of it, as a kingdom of grace in this world, and of glory in that which is to come, and no doubt opened to them that covenant which is the great charter by which it is incorporated. Thus our Lord did not entertain his difciples with difcourfes about politics in the kingdoms of men, about philofophy in the kingdom of nature, but about pure divinity and his fpiritual kingdom, which were matters of greatest concern both to themselves, and to thofe to whom they were in a little time to preach.

4. The manner of our Lord's afcenfion.

(1.) He afcended not figuratively and metaphorically, but really and corporally, by a local tranflation of his human nature from the earth to the highest hea

He afcended from a mount, an high and eminent place, to ascertain his disciples of the truth of his afcenfion. He did not withdraw himself from them as at other times, but afcended openly in the view of them all, they looking stedfastly toward heaven as he went up. He afcended from the mount of Olives, that he might enter on his glory nigh the place where he began his fufferings, and the laft tragical fcene of his life. It was at this mount that his heart was made fad; for there he began to be forrowful and fore

amazed and it was there alfo that his heart was made glad, and filled with ineffable and triumphant joy. The fame place afforded him a paffage both to his crofs and to his crown; for there his forrows and fufferings began, and from thence he afcended into hea

ven.

(2.) He afcended while he was bleffing his difciples. He bleffed them as one having authority; yea commanded the bleffing upon them. And while he was to employed, he was parted from them, to intimate that his being fo did not put an end to his bleffing of them, but that this privilege was to be continued with them by virtue of his powerful interceffion for them in heaven. The firft tidings of our Redeemer's birth were attended with praises to God and bleffings to men: he began his public miniftry with pronouncing bleffings on certain characters, Matth. v. ; when he died, he breathed out his foul in bleffings to his enemies, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do; and juft when he was leaving the world, he was tranflated with a bleffing in his mouth.

(3.) He afcended powerfully, even by his own almighty power. As by the power of his eternal Godhead he broke through the gloomy fhades of the grave, and rose again to an immortal life; fo by the fame almighty ftrength he went glorioufly up through the yielding air into the bright regions of eternal light. Enoch and Elijah were both tranflated foul and body into heaven; but this was not by their own, but by a divine power which exerted itself upon that occafion by the miniftry of angels. But our Redeemer went up upon the wings of his own almighty power. (4.) He afcended foftly and gradually. Though his conduct in this matter could not but ftrike with a ftrong furprise upon the minds of his difciples, yet his motion was fo plain, easy, and diftinct, that it fell very clearly under their obfervation: for while they bebeld he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their

fight. Thus he departed by little and little, and not in a rapturous hafte.

(5.) He afcended in a glorious and triumphant man

ner.

[1] There was a cloud prepared as his royal chariot to carry him up to his princely palace. A cloud, in the natural notion of it, is a thick and moist vapour, drawn up from the earth or fea, by the heat of the fun, to the middle region of the air, where it is further condensed, congealed, and thickened by the coldness of the place, and fo hangs or moves like a huge mountain in the midst of the air, partly from natural causes, the fun or the wind, but efpecially by fupernatural ones, the mighty power and appointment of God, who is faid to use the clouds as princes do horses of ftate or chariots of triumph to ride on. Thus he defcended in a cloud to Mofes, and proclaimed the name of the Lord, Exod. xxxiv. 5.; and it is faid, If. xix. 1. Behold, the Lord rideth upon a fwift cloud. We find the clouds were ferviceable to our Redeemer: for a bright cloud overfhadowed him at his transfiguration; he was carried up in a cloud to heaven at his afcenfion; and at the laft day, the clouds will be the chariots which will bring him to judgement. Hereby Chrift difcovered himfelf to be Lord of all the creatures. He had already trampled upon the earth, walked upon the fea, vanquished hell and the grave; and now he makes the clouds his chariots, and rides upon the wings of the wind.

[2.] In his afcenfion he was attended with a bright and bleffed retinue of glorious angels. Thefe angelic fpirits graced the folemnity of his birth with anthems of triumphant joy; they miniftered to him at the conclufion of his forty days temptation by the devil; when he was expofed to his amazing agony in the garden the evening before his crucifixion, they waited on him ; and now when he is making his triumphant entrance into glory, their prefence adds to the glorious folemnity of the happy day. To this we may add, that it is

not an improbable fuppofition, that on this grand occafion he was attended with the company of those many faints that rofe from the dead after his refurrection; whom he carried along with him not only to grace the folemnity of his afcenfion, but as the firft fruits of his triumph over death and the grave, and a demonstrative evidence that the reft fhould follow in due time.

[3] He went to heaven as a glorious conqueror, triumphing over all his enemies. When he afcended up on high, fays the apoftle, he led captivity captive, Eph. iv. 8. As conquerors of old in their folemn triumphs used to lead their captives fettered with iron chains; fo Chrift having fpoiled principalities and powers, made a fhew of them openly, triumphing over them, Col. ii. 15. Some think that at Chrift's afcenfion there was fome real vifible triumph, fome open pomp and fhew, in which the devils were led as chained captives through the air; which was visible, not to all, but to God, the angels, and the spirits of juft men made perfect. But whatever be in this, it is certain that Chrift fought and overcame all his enemies; he gave them the laft blow upon the cross, he feized on the fpoil at his refurrection, and led them in triumph at his afcenfion into heaven, and by his peaceable poffeffion of his throne his fubjects enjoy the benefit of all.

[4] He afcended into heaven with fhouts and acclamations of great joy, Pfal. xlvii. 5. God is gone up with a fhout, the Lord with the found of a trumpet. Hence, 1.) His afcenfion was celebrated with the acclamations of angels. If they fang fo chearfully when they came to proclaim his birth, O what shouts and jubilations were heard among them when they accompanied him in his triumphant entrance into heaven! The whole city of God was moved at his coming; the very heavens refounded, and echoed their acclamations of joy. Hence is that paffage, Pfal. xxiv. 7. Lift up your beads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye e