more taste of pure mental happiness than a dead man could of food. He may perform the ordinary functions of life, but he cannot be sensible of any religious obligation. How then can he expect, either in this world or the next, a restoration to life and glory? 2. But a restoration through Divine grace, becomes the cure of this great evil. Here is indeed a spiritual resurrection, a resurrection of the whole man, a new creation, as the apostle justly observes. A man

awakened to a sense of sin by the Spirit of God, and supported in his new life by a touch of the Saviour's love, is not only rescued from the horrors of his situation, but stands erect in his true position, so to use the expression, before the Almighty's throne; not indeed trusting in any respect to his own righteousness, but "being justified by faith he has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ 1."

This in fact is the state of the spiritual resurrection, without which the resurrection of the body would be both uncomfortable and awful. But, thus renewed, death ought not to be very terrible to a Christian, to a faithful follower of the great conqueror of sin, who hath so gloriously triumphed, and hath given him the victory. For who would not wish for, who would not strenuously desire, who would not implore of a forgiving Saviour, so much religion as would console his feelings, confirm his faith, and give a joyful expectation to his departing hour?

1 Rom. v. 1.

But will this be the case with him who is not renewed in the spirit of his mind? Will that day close upon him with comfort when his doubts and fears are greater than his hopes? Presumption should indeed be far from the dying Christian-and the Christian on his death-bed is the most unassuming of all mortals--but when his faith is strong, his hope will be stedfast and his passage safe: he will die in peace, rest in hope, and rise in glory.

V.-The ascension of our Lord.

If the day of our Lord's resurrection demonstrated the great day of his victory over sin and death, the day of his ascension into heaven may be peculiarly distinguished as that of his final triumph. But as the blessed Jesus was in himself far above all principalities and powers, and thrones and dominions, terms like these can apply only to the mission which he had accomplished: when perhaps the melancholy day of his humiliation might more truly be considered as the day of his mortal conquest. By the blessing of God we have travelled with him thus far in his painful life-one effort more remains, that having died unto sin, we may be ready to rise with him unto righteousness; and, for this purpose, prepare our hearts by a more confirmed faith, a purer piety, a more longing desire and stronger spirituality of mind,

to dwell continually with him; first, in this world of probation here, and afterwards, through him, to be accepted in realms of never-dying glory.

It cannot be surprising that a life of wonders should be concluded by an end of miracle. The consistency of our Lord's history throughout, is very striking; and particularly in connection with that heavy burthen, he was called upon to sustain. As all that had passed was in the course of Divine Providence, not excluding miraculous interposition on due occasion, every circumstance of his life had its peculiar reference. Even the ascension of our Lord in the presence of his disciples was a necessary termination of his earthly communication with them. While they were grieving at his departure from them, he replied, "It is expedient for you, [it is better for you] that I go away." Not only a general benefit to the world by his sending the Holy Spirit, was intended; but, on this occasion, a particular instruction to his disciples. The disciples, to the last, were looking for a temporal deliverer; they were expecting Jerusalem to become the seat of a new empire, and that they were to become great under the authority of a victorious prince. Had the ordinary termination of life occurred, they would have been left in great uncertainty, as well as overwhelmed in deep despair: but by the miraculous ascension of their Master in their own sight, the loss of their imaginary dignity and earthly riches was recompensed by an unexpected and an heavenly

treasure. The promise of another Comforter inspired them with hope, the wonderful and yet decisive prospect of their Lord's corporeal ascent into the heavens, confirmed that promise, and left them in a state of mind, undepressed with sorrow and glowing with expectation.

Then only they began to be satisfied with the fulness of their Lord's character. An expansion of mind took place among them, which opened to their view scenes very different from their preceding experience. At the very moment of the ascension they appear to have been petrified with wonder; they remained in an indescribable state of feeling till they were aroused by a vision of angels 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 1." The slow minds of the disciples were put in motion by the extraordinary sight which presented itself before them. To behold a living body lifted up from the earth, and a cloud shading it from human sight, was of such an unusual and awakening nature as to strike the observer with fear and awe; and, at the same time, if that body ascended by its own power, would it not be thought a certain evidence of the divinity of its own nature? Their knowledge of their Master, through all the varying scenes of his

1

miraculous life, would recur to their minds with an overwhelming force; and the language which he had used in his discourse with Nicodemus would be no longer difficult: "No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven '." Mere mortality could have no share in such an event; and our Lord had said prophetically of himself, "What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before'!" At the same time he adds, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." Can we then have any doubt, after this evidence, that the energy of his own divinity, in opposition to every law of nature, raised him from the earth, and transported him to heaven?

An instruction and a consolation of a peculiar kind arise from a consideration of our Lord Jesus Christ's ascension into heaven. The apostle says of his resurrection from the dead, "now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept "." First fruits, indeed, both in point of time and nature; for he carried with him into heaven that nature which he possessed on earth, and thus gave an assurance to all mankind, that their flesh did rest in hope. "This day," says Bishop Sparrow, "gives us hopes of heaven, in that our flesh, in the first fruits, is thither ascended. For, if God had not intended some great good to our

1 John iii. 13.

2 John vi. 62.

31 Cor. xv. 20.