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approve of the device of Infinite Wisdom through him: "This is a faithful faying, and worthy of all acceptation," &c. A token of joy and pleasure. Chrift is the joy and pleasure of his Father; and he is alfo the joy of all the redeemed, they are jut "gladded with his countenance," as the expreffion is, Pfal. xxi, 6. A token of admiration and wonder. God manifefted in the flesh, is the wonder of angels, and the admiration of all the faints, both in the church militant and triumphant.

Now follows fome confiderations to induce and engage all people to praife and gratitude.

1. Our Redeemer is to be praised, because of the awful majefty of God that is in him: "The Lord most high is terrible." But, fay you, is this matter of praife? Anfw. It is great matter of praife that our Redeemer is none other than the most high God, who ftrikes terror upon the powers of hell; he comes to bruife the head of the ferpent, and through death to destroy him that had the power of death; he is terrible to all the wicked enemies of his church and people; for "he cutteth off the fpirits of princes, and is terrible to the kings of the earth." Is it not matter of praife unto the church, to have this God for our God, for our everlasting friend?

2. He is a fovereign Lord, and his dominion is univerfal; "he is a great King over all the earth." His kingdom is fo extenfive, that it reaches from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth, according to the promise made to him by his Father, "I will give him the Heathen for his inhe ritance," &c.

3. He is to be praised for the honour and victory that he gives unto all his ranfomed: "He will (ver. 3.) fubdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet;" i. e. through him we fhall be conquerors, yea, "more than conquerors;" in him we fhall "rule the nations with a rod of iron," according to what we have, Pfal. cxlix.

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4. He is to be praised for the pleasant portion and goodly heritage that he bestows upon all his true lfrael: ver. 4. fhall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved;" i. e. he will order every thing in our lot in the world, to his glory and our good; and, which is beft of all, he himself will be our portion for ever, when flesh and heart fails; and this is "an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away."

5. He is to be praised upon the account of his triumphant afcenfion to heaven in our nature, the views of which just fill the church here with transport of wonder and praife: ver. 5. 6. 7. God is gone up with a fhout, &c.

It is the first part of ver 5. that I defign to infift upon, God is gone up with a fhout. Where notice,

1. The glorious and awful name and character of our Redeemer; he is God; i. e. God, not abfolutely or effentially confidered, for in this refpect he cannot properly be faid to go up, or come down: but it is God in our nature, in the perfon of the Son, God manifested in the flesh; that God who is the object of all praise and adoration, ver. 6.; that God who is "King over all the earth," ver. 7; that God who " reigneth over the heathen," and who " fitteth upon the throne of his holiness," ver. 8.; "the God of Abraham, to whom all the fhields of the earth do belong;" it is that fame God that is gone up with a fhout. Who dares to wear that great name, but only he who is in the form of God, and thinks it no robbery to be equal with God? Among other winds that are blowing at this day in the valley of vifion, the wind of blafphemy against a glorious Trinity, and particularly blafphemy against our glorious Emmanuel, blows very hard. I fear there are more in this land, that are carried of with the wind of that deteftable Arian heresy, than we are aware of; and therefore it concerns all that love the Lord Jefus, to think and speak honourably of him, and to be established in the faith of his fupreme and felf-exiftent Deity; you see here how honourably the church fpeaks of him, with a view to his afcending in our nature, God is gone up with a fhout, the Lord (or JEHOVAH) with the found of a trumpet.

2. Notice his afcenfion and exaltation; he is gone up. This plainly alludes unto the carrying up of the ark to the hill of Zion, which was done with great folemnity; the ark being the inftituted token of God's fpecial prefence among them; its being carried from the houfe of Obed-edom, where it had remained in obfcurity, to the high hill of Zion, did typify the afcenfion of Chrift unto mount Zion, the heavenly Jerufalem above, from this lower world, where his divine glory had been eclipfed for about three and thirty years.

3. In the words we have the folemnity of Chrift's afcenfion; he is gone up with a fhout, and with the found of a trumpet. When the ark was carried up unto mount Zion, David danced before it, and the priests blew with their trumpets, and the people huzzaed and thouted for joy. Indeed, when Chrift afcended into heaven, we do not read of any fuch fhouting or founding among the inhabitants of this lower world; but there was a great and glorious folemnity among angels, and the fpirits of juft men made perfect. The pfalmift fpeaks of the folemnity of Chrift's afcenfion among the inhabitants of the invifible world, Pfal. lxviii. "The chariots of God are twenty

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thoufand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is in the midft of them as in Sinai. Thou haft afcended up on high," &c. And it is thought by the judicious Owen, that in the 5th chapter of the Revelation, it is the folemnity of Chrift's afcenfion to the throne of glory that is fpoken of, ver. 11.-14. "I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne: and the number," &c. Oh! Sirs, we generally think little of Chrift's afcenfion; and indeed it made little noife here below but it made a great noife in the other world, and will make heaven to ring with fhouts of praife through an endless eternity. But I do not infift further upon the explication of the words.

OBSERVE, "That the afcenfion of Chrift unto heaven, or his afcenfion unto the throne of glory, is great matter of joy and triumph both in the church militant and triumphant," (viz.) Here it is told us as matter of praise and triumph, even to us who are yet in a militant ftate, that God, in our nature, is gone up with a bout, and the Lord with the found of a trumpet; and therefore the exhortation follows, "Sing praifes to God, fing praifes: fing praises unto our King, fing praises." We are called to join in the folemnity. O rejoice in an exalted Chrift, "ye righteous: and fhout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart."

Here, through grace, I would,

I. confirm the truth of the doctrine, that God in our nature is afcended.

II. I would inquire what is fuppofed or implied in that expreffion of his afcenfion, he is gone up.

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III. I would speak a little of the folemnity of his up-going, implied in his going up with a fhout, and with the found of a trumpet.

IV. I would make it evident, that his going up is indeed a matter of joy and triumph unto all that believe it, whether in the visible or invifible world, in the church militant or triumphant.

V. Make fome application of the whole.

I. The first thing is, to prove the truth of this doctrine. And there are two things to be proved. 1. That Chrift is gone up or afcended. 2. That this is matter of triumph and joy to the church militant and triumphant.

As to the first of these, that Christ is actually ascended, or that God is gone up in our nature.

1. This was typified under the Old Testament by the ark, which continued in a wandering uncertain condition, as to the

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place of its abode, till at length, as you heard, it was taken up to mount Zion, and fixed in that fecret place of the temple, called "the holy of holies," which typified the highest heavens into which Chrift is now entered in our nature. This was allo typified by Jofeph, who, after he had been fold by his brethren, carried into Egypt like a flave, unjustly caft into prifon, and laid under fetters of iron, was taken from prison, exalted in the court of Pharaoh, having the whole government of the kingdom devolved upon him, vefted with fuch abfolute authority, that he bound their nobles with fetters of iron at his pleasure, every one bowing the knee before him. See how this anfwers. the antitype, Phil. ii. 6.—11.

2. Chrift's triumphant ascension was not only typified, but foretold by the prophet. Pfal. cx. we are told, that he should fit on his Father's right-hand, and after he had "drunk of the brook in the way, he fhould lift up the head," and be vested with fuch power and authority, as to "ftrike through kings in the day of his wrath, and wound the heads of his enemies over many nations." In a word, all the prophets prophesied of his refurrection and exaltation, how he was first "to fuffer, and then to enter into his glory."

3. This is further evident from the teftimony of famous witneffes. Acts i. we are told, that when Chrift had led the difciples out of Jerufalem to mount Olivet, while he was talking with them about the affairs of his kingdom, after he had inftructed them as to their management in these matters, he was taken up into heaven, and a cloud received him out of their fight; and thereupon two of his glorious retinue, clothed in white, whom he had on purpose left behind to comfort his difciples, fay to them, ver. 11. "Ye men of Galilee, why ftand ye gazing up into heaven? this fame Jefus which is taken up from you into heaven, fhall fo come, in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." We have this fame truth attefted by the proto-martyr Stephen, Acts vii. 55. 56. 55.56. while ftanding before the Jewish council, he being filled with the Holy Ghoft, his face fhining like the face of an angel, cries out, "Behold, I fee the heavens opened, and the Son of man ftanding on the right hand of God;" and Paul tells us, that "he was feen of him alío, as of one born out of due feafon."

4. This is further confirmed from many pleasant texts of fcripture, Heb. i. 3.-iv. 14.-viii. .-xii. 2. and many other places, where we read of his being "at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

5. This appears from the glorious fruits and confequences of his actual acceffion to the throne of glory, which have ap

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peared in the open view of all mankind. If he be not gone up, and actually vested with all power in heaven and in earth, whence was it that the spirit was poured down from on high in fuch a miraculous way and manner at Pentecoft, Acts ii. like the rushing of a mighty wind, refting on each of the apoftles like cloven tongues of fire? Whence came the gift of tongues, whereby the illiterate fishermen, who knew no language but their mother tongue, were enabled to fpeak with the greatest volubility all manner of languages? Surely this power from on high came down from him who had gone up with a shout, that they might be in a capacity, according to the commiffion they had received from him, to "go and teach all nations" the knowledge of the mysteries of falvation through him, and particularly that he who "was dead, was now alive, and liveth for evermore ;" and that he "had the keys of hell and of death."

Whence came the gift of miracles, the opening the eyes of the blind, the unftopping the ears of the deaf, their healing the fick, and raifing the dead, and the like excellent figns and wonders which were wrought by the hands of the apostles and difciples, of which we read in the Acts of the apoftles? Thefe things were not done in fecret, but in the open view of the whole world; and whatever miracles they wrought, they were always done in the name of a rifen and exalted Jefus.

How came it about, that by the fimple preaching of the doctrine of Chrift's refurrection and exaltation, the Mofaic economy, which had the authority of the divine inftitution, was unhinged; the idolatries of the Heathen, in which they had been habituate for many ages and generations, made to fall down and give way to the kingdom and government of Chrift, and the purity and fimplicity of gofpel-worthip? How came it about, that, in the compafs of a very few years, almost all nations were brought to bow to the royal fceptre of this exalted King; for Paul tells us, that even in his day, the found of the apoftles" went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world?" How came it about, that the followers of Christ, and his doctrine and kingdom, were not entirely buried in oblivion, when the' strength of the Roman empire, which had fubdued all nations under it, was employed to ftifle and fupprefs it, in ten feveral bloody perfecutions? Whence was it, that the difciples of a crucified Chrift, with fuch invincible courage, were enabled to bear the greatest barbarity that their enemies could exercise upon them? How came their numbers rather to increase than diminish when fo many millions of them were flaughtered for their adherence

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