as his head, and is mystically one life with his, and therefore, as himself expresseth it, Because I live, ye shall live also. John xiv. 19. Therefore is he called the first begotten from the dead, and the beginning, 'Ev nãow пpwrɛúw. Col. i. 18. He is first in all, and from him spring all those streams that make glad the city of God. Therefore the Apostle, in his thanksgiving for our new life and lively hopes, 1 Pet. i. 3, leaves not out that, Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; that is the conduit of all. And he expresses it in the same place, that we are begotten again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. But, alas! we prejudge ourselves of all that rich comfort that is wrapt up in this, by living to ourselves and our lusts, and to the world, having not our consciences purified from dead works. How few of us are there who set that ambition of Paul before us, desiring above all things to know him, and the power of his resurrection, to be made conformable unto his death! Phil. iii. 10. That is the knowledge, as he there expresses it, a lively experienced knowledge of that power.

This, rightly considered, will answer all our doubts and fears in the Church's hardest times. When in its deliverance there appears nothing but impossibilities, when so low that its enemies are persuaded to conclude that it shall never rise again, and its friends are oppressed with fearing so much, yet, He who brought up his own Son Jesus from the dead, can and will restore His Church, for which He gave His only begotten Son to the death. Son of man, says He, can these dry bones live? Ezek. xxxii. 3. Thus often looks the Church's deliverance, which is there the proper sense. The prophet answered most wisely, Lord, thou knowest, q. d. It is a work only for Thee to know and to do; and by His Spirit they were revived. And so here, it looked hopeless as the disciples thought; they were at the point of giving it over, and blaming almost their former credulity: We thought this should have been he that should have delivered Israel; and besides all this, to-day is the third day. True, the third day was come,

but it was not yet ended; yea, he rose in the beginning of it, though they as yet know it not, nor him to be present to whom they spake; but toward the end of it, they likewise knew that he was risen, when he was pleased to discover himself to them. Thus, though the enemies of the Church prevail so far against it, that it seems buried, and a stone laid to the grave's mouth, yet, it shall rise again, and at the very fittest, the appointed time, as Christ the third day. Thus the Church expresses her confidence, Hos. vi. 2. In the third day He will raise us up. Whatsoever it suffers, it shall gain by it, and be more beauti ful and glorious in its restorement. Mergas profundo, pulchrior exilit.

He ascended into Heaven.] He rose again, not t remain on earth as before, but to return to his throne of majesty, from whence his love drew him, according to his prayer, John xvii, which was a certain prediction of it. He had now accomplished the great work he came for, and was therefore, by the covenant and transaction betwixt his Father and him, to be exalted to his former glory; the same person as before, but with the accession of another nature, which he had not before, and of a new relative dignity, being to sit as King of his Church, which he had purchased with his blood. And to express this, it is added,

And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father.] See Psal. cx. 1. Ephes. i. 20, 21. By which, according to its allu sive sense, is expressed, not only his matchless glory, but his dominion and rule as Prince of Peace, the alone King of his Church, her supreme lawgiver and mighty protector, and conqueror of all his enemies; ruling his holy hill of Zion, with the golden sceptre of his word, and breaking his enemies, the strongest of them, in pieces, with the iron rod of his justice as we have it in the second Psalm. They attempt in vain to unsettle His throne; it is very far out of their reach, as high as the right hand of God. For ever, O God, thy throne is established in Heaven. What way is there for the worms of this earth to do any thing against it?

As in these is the glory of Christ, so, they contain much comfort to a Christian. In that very elevation of our nature to such dignity, is, indeed, as the ancients speak, mira dignatio; that our flesh is exalted above all the glorious spirits, the angels. And they adore the nature of man, in the person of man's glorified Saviour, the Son of God. This exaltation of Jesus Christ doth so reflect a dignity on the nature of mankind. But the right and possession of it, is not universal, but is contracted and appropriate to them that believe on him. He took not on him the nature of angels, says the Apostle, but the nature of the seed of Abraham. Heb. ii. 16. He says not, the nature of man, though it is so, but, of the seed of Abraham; not so much because of his descent from that particular stock after the flesh, as in the spiritual sense of Abraham's seed, as it is at large cleared, Rom. ix. The rest of mankind forfeit all that dignity and benefit that arise to their nature in Christ, by their distance and disunion from him through unbelief. But the believer hath not only naturally one kind of being with the humanity of Christ, but is mystically one with the person of Christ, with whole Christ, GodAnd by virtue of that mysterious union, they who partake of it, partake of the very present happiness and glory of Christ: they have have a real interest in whatsoever he is and hath, in all his dignities and power; and in that sense, they who are justified, are glorified. Rom. viii. 30. In that Christ is exalted, they are so too in him. Where a part, and the chief part of themselves, is, and is in honour, there they may account themselves to be. Ubi portio mea regnat, ibi me regnare credo. A man is said to be crowned, when the crown is set upon his head; now, our Head, Christ, is already crowned.

man.

In sum, believers have in this ascending and enthroning of Christ, unspeakable comfort through their interest in Christ, both in consideration of his present affection to them, and his effectual intercession for them, and in the assured hope which this gives them of their own after happiness and glory with him.

First, In all his glory he forgets them not. He puts not off his bowels with his low condition here, but hath carried it along to his throne. Bene conveniunt, et in una sede morantur, majestas et amor. His majesty and love suit very well, and both in their highest degree. As all the waters of his sufferings did not quench his love, nor left he it behind him buried in the grave, but it arose with him, being stronger than death; so, he let it not fall to the earth when he ascended on high, but it ascended with him, and he still retains it in his glory. And that our flesh which he assumed on earth, he took up into Heaven, as a token of indissoluble love betwixt him and those whom he redeemed, and sends down from thence as the rich token of his love, his Spirit into their hearts; so that these are mutual remembrances. Can he forget his own on earth, having their flesh so closely united to him? You see he does not; he feels what they suffer. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou ME? And can they forget him whose Spirit dwells in them, and records lively to their hearts the passages of his love, and brings all those things to their remembrance, (as himself tells us, that Spirit would do,) and so proves indeed THE COMFORTER, by representing unto us that his love, the spring of our comforts? And when we send up our requests, we know of a friend before us there, a most true and a most faithful friend, who fails not to speak for us what we say, and much more. He liveth, says the Apostle, to make intercession for us. Heb. vii. 25. This is the ground of a Christian's boldness at the throne of grace: yea, therefore is the Father's throne the throne of grace to us, because the throne of our Mediator, Jesus Christ, is beside it: he sits at His right hand, otherwise it could be nothing to us but a throne of justice, and so, in regard of our guiltiness, a throne of terror and affrightment, which we would rather flee from, than draw near

unto.

Lastly, as we have the comfort of such a friend, to prepare access to our prayers there, which are the messengers of our souls, so, of this, that our souls themselves, when they remove

from these houses of clay, shall find admission there through him. And this he tells his disciples again and again, and in them all his own, that their interest was so much in his as cend ing to his glory: I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also. John xiv. 3.

It will not be hard to persuade them who believe these things, and are portioners in them, to set their hearts on them, and, for that end, to take them off from all other things as unworthy of them: yea, it will be impossible for them to live without the frequent and sweet thoughts of that place where the Lord Jesus is. Yet, it is often needful to remind them that this cannot be enough done, and, by representing these things to them, to draw them more upwards. And it is best done in the Apostle's words: If ye be risen with Christ, mind those things that are above, where he sits, &c. Col. iii. 1. If ye be risen with him, follow him on, let your hearts be where He is. They that are one with him, the blessed Seed of the woman, do find that unity drawing them Heaven-wards. But, alas! the most of us are like the accursed seed of the serpent, basely grovelling on this earth, and licking the dust. The conversation of the believer is in Heaven, where he hath a Saviour, and from whence he looks for him. Truly, there is little of a true Christian here; (and that argues that there is little of the truth of Christianity among us, who are altogether here;) his head in Heaven, and his heart there, and these are the two principles of Life. Let us then suit the Apostle's. advice, and so enjoy the comfort he subjoins, that by our affections being above, we may know, that our life is hid with Christ in God, and therefore, that when He, who is our life, shall appear, we likewise shall appear with Him in glory.

From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.] We have in this to consider, 1. That there is a universal judgment. 2. That Christ is the Judge. 3. Something to be added of the quality of the judgment. All the three we have together, Acts xvii. 31. Because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righ