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for Jews, who had always entertained gross and sensual notions of the Messiah's kingdom, upon seeing their Lord so powerfully triumphant over death itself, to ask Him whether He would now restore Jerusalem to her freedom and ancient splendour. As Jesus had proved Himself to be the Messiah, by His resurrection, they expected that His kingdom would immediately appear in all its grandeur, the consequence of which, they thought, must be the restoring the Jews to their former prosperous and independent state'. He tells them in reply, that there are indeed great things spoken by the prophets concerning the restoration and flourishing state of the Jewish Church, under the Messiah; but the particular time and manner in which God will please to accomplish these things, is one of those secrets" which the Father has put in His own power." In the mean time the Holy Ghost, which I have so often promised, shall endow you with such power that you shall give miraculous evidences of the truth of My religion, the surest signs of the greatness of the Messiah's kingdom, not only to this city and the Jewish land, but even to very far and distant parts of the Gentile world'.

"And when He had spoken these things," "He lifted up His hands and blessed them; 1 Pyle.

8 Bankes.

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Bishop Mann.

and it came to pass while He blessed, He was parted from them and carried up into heaven,” "and a cloud received Him out of their sight." The appearance of Angels is usually described by a cloud in many places of Scripture; so that here possibly our Lord was received by a host of attendant spirits; two of which descended and made themselves visible to the astonished disciples, solely occupied, doubtless, with the splendour of this event. From such a state of mind the Angels call off their attention to a point which deserved it better, and concerned them more nearly. They say, Suspend your admiration of this glorious spectacle, suppress all fond and useless speculations about the causes of this event, and learn from us the proper uses of it. Ye have seen your Master visibly carried up to heaven, by what means it imports you not to know; but this intelligence receive from us: "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." It deserves your best attention how ye may prepare yourselves for that day. Instead of "gazing up into heaven" ye ought to be considering how to follow your great Redeemer thither. How could man in his mortal weakness have ever hoped to ascend into heaven, if we had not received this confident assurance

Bankes.

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Bishop Hurd.

that our blessed Saviour was gone before, and opened likewise a way for us! for us! It is for us and for our salvation that He, the Forerunner, hath entered in. May He teach us to follow Him in the roughest ways of obedience, that we may at last overtake Him in those high steps of immortality!

It has sometimes been considered as an important objection to Christianity that our Lord should have shown Himself after His resurrection, not to the public at large, but only to "witnesses chosen before of God." It is certain that our Lord's appearance, between the time of his Resurrection and Ascension, was not public, compared with what it had been during His ministry; and that He did not in that interval maintain a familiar conversation with the world. But whether we consider the number, the means of information, or the veracity of the witnesses, who did behold and converse with Christ, no testimony can surpass in its degree of credibility that which was borne by the Apostles, to the fact both of His Resurrection and Ascension. It would be absurd to suppose that a dozen men could all be deceived in the person of a friend with whom they had all lived in intimacy for three years. It is contrary to the first principles of the human mind, that men should willingly propagate a falsehood

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to their own detriment, and to no purpose; and therefore we may be assured that the Apostles were serious and sincere in their assertion of our Lord's rising from the dead and ascending into glory. It is an absurdity to suppose that they should have persevered for years, to the great detriment of each one of them, to support a fiction in this case with unparalleled fortitude, and with equal folly. So long, therefore, as the Evangelical history shall be preserved entire; that is, so long as the historical books of the New Testament shall be extant in the world, so long the credibility of the Apostles' testimony will remain whole and unimpaired. This preservation of the form and integrity of the Apostolical evidence argues, in the original propagation of the Gospel, that contrivance and forecast in the plan, that power in the execution, which are far beyond the natural abilities of the human mind, and declare that the whole work and counsel was of God".

SECT. CLXXVIII.-The Apostles tarry at Jerusalem.— Luke xxiv. 52, 53; Acts i. 12. 14.

THE Ascension took place "from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey," or about half a mile; and immediately afterwards it is recorded of the eleven by name, that "they went up into an upper room where they all abode." Some annotators are of opinion Bishop Horsley. • Mant and D'Oyly.

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that this upper room was one of the chambers of the Temple, which not only served for the use of the priests, but stood constantly open likewise for religious assemblies; but it is not easy to conceive how a company of poor fishermen and Galileans, who were odious to the priesthood for their Master's sake, should be permitted to assemble, even for their prayers, within the verge of the Temple. Besides which, it is expressly said of " the upper room," that the eleven "abode" abode" there. It is true "these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren;" and if conjectures may be allowed in a matter of such uncertainty, it is not improbable, that the customary place of meeting for prayer was a room belonging to some pious persons of competence, who were converts to the Christian faith, and men of substance like Nicodemus, where consequently the Apostles and others might meet together to consult about the affairs of the Church, and pay their adorations to their heavenly Master without fear of molestation'. In this place is the last mention of the mother of our Lord in Scripture. It is probable that she continued under the care of the beloved disciple, to whom our Lord had commended her. The "brethren" of Jesus here named are thought • Dr. Lightfoot.

7 Notes to Stackhouse.

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