into it Loue was swiftest but zeale boldest When they are entred they find Christ's victory acknowledged by the linnen clothes his spoiles of death and these spoiles too had beene diuided the napkin of his head being laid by it selfe It seemes the angell at our Sauiour's resurrection attended to bee a witnesse of it to the women and leaue a witnesse of it to the Disciples Thus that he was not stolne away appeares by the inconuenience and leisure of his vndressing and by the method of the linnen which the frightened policie of the souldiers did no more touch then obserue and they no more obserued it then did the women who after the sight of the angell had their eyes as much amazed as their minds The souldiers too did more tremble then watch but the Disciples had lesse feare and more time besides they learned somewhat which they were not taught and could now teach the women this newes of the graue But did hee rise but from the graue This is the newes but of his bodie yes hee did rise also from the damned who are dead too as much in judgement as to nature Though some are as vnwilling to haue Christ descend into Hell as to goe thither themselues and in a dangerous Brachygraphie write the Creed so short that without the commission of an Index Expurgatorius they quite leaue out the article of the descent But what an vnmannerly ingratitude is this to accept of Christ's benefits and denie his wonders They will enjoy his conquest of Hell and yet they will not let him goe to conquer it Ought wee not to make greater the glory of Christo and can wee make lesse the power of Christ Let then our pietie behold and wonder to see Heauen descend into Hell to see againe Gosâ—â—â—â— in Aegypt The Deuill had beene before in Heauen and now God is pleased to goe into Hell The arch-angell conquered the Deuill in Heauen and now God conquers him in his owne Empire and makes his Empire his Dungeon Wee ouercome the Deuill by flight but God by inuasion Yet who would not stand amazed to see God with the Deuill Had the Manichie beene now hee might heere at once haue behold both his Princes Mee thinkes our Sauiour now turned Sampson's Riddle into a Prophesie which hee expounded and fulfilled Did not out of the eater come forth meate and out of the strong came there not sweetnesse when from the jawes of Hell by Christ came forth saluation Now whiles the soule of our Sauiour was triumphant in Hell his bodie was obedient in the sepulchre his diuinitie being as his soule till it recalled his soule and made the whole Christ change an age of three and thirtie yeeres into eternitie Loe heere is the Lion of the Tribe of Iudah whose almightie strength vouchsafed to couch vnder the power of the graue and Loe the glorious indignation of his loue has rouzed him vp againe from the sloth of death Will you behold how hee was raised behold how the potter workes vpon the wheele he takes clay he makes it a vessell and this vessell being marred in the hand of the potter he makes it againe as hee best pleases Christ was immortall clay and earth purer then Heauen When by the wonder of omnipotency the Creator and the creature were made into one and of one matter did consist both the potter and his pot From this broken clay there did arise the same and a renewed Christ That hee rose in the earnest of a body his owne mouth did testifie when hee said nothing proouing it by the authoritie of food which he did eate with his Disciples Could any man in this point be yet an infidell If any could see how he conuerts them Hee lets Thomas disgrace himselfe to a beliefe and by his distrust mercifully and miraculously increase his faith Can any doubt that hee was renewed in a bodie of glory when he was full of God Know you not that his body was indeed the Temple of the Holy Ghost Was hee not renewed in a body of glory whom the doores that were shut when hee entred to his Disciples did obediently acknowledge to be the King of glory And though hee were patient vnder death three dayes yet since the first part of the first was spent before he died and the last part of the last after hee reuiued there was the number but not the length of three dayes and thus hee made so short a change seeme rather a sleepe then a death And O but to consider heere as well the wonder as the change Doe but imagine that in the dawning birth of the morning you saw the reuelation of a graue emulating the morning a coarse rising with more comfort and glory then the Sunne a winding-sheet falling away as an empty cloud the feet and hands striuing which shall first recouer motion the hands helping to raise the body the feet helping to beare both the body and the hands the tongue so eloquent that it can tell you it can speake againe the eares so pure that they can perceiue the silence of the graue the eyes looking forth of their Tombes as if they were glad to see their owne resurrection Would you not bee as much affrighted as instructed with this power of a God Would you not be turned into very coarses to see this liuing coarse Would you not be strucke as pale as the winding-sheet you looked-vpon But when all this shall bee done as well in mercy as in majestie as well to raise you to a hope of eternall life as to strike you with a remeÌ„brance of a temporall death as well to make you like vnto God as to make you know you are yet not like vn-him O how will you then at such compassion dissolue with compassion as if you would hasten to the like resurrection How will you then kisse those hands which before you feared How will you then with stedfast eyes examine and adore the resurrection of that body which is the hope and cause of the resurrection of our bodies For therefore did hee raise himselfe that hee might raise vs and so become the first-fruites of them that sleepe But shall wee rise too and shall dust againe bee taken-vp and breathed on Shall euery man by this second Adam be made as wonderfully as the first Adam And yet shall we want faith when God wants not power Or shall we thinke it harder to vnite the bodie and soule then to make them It were an impious discourtesie to deny that to God which God denied not vnto his seruant Did not the widow of Zarephah thus receiue a sonne by Elias who yet was neither the father of it nor the God Nay did not his seruant doe more for the Shunamite to whom hee promised a sonne before hee was conceiued and restored him after hee was dead Nay did not the bones of this Elisha giue life to one that was as dead as themselues teaching him to confesse the mercie of a graue It
Shall not these first-fruits be likewise payed at our great Resurrection shall they not bee brought to the heauenly Ierusalem shall they not haue Angels goe before them shall there not bee crownes likewise prouided and shall they not be vshered with the voice of a trumpet It was the sound which the Iewes vsed at their brauer Funerals and may it not then fitly bee vsed when they shall awake againe from their tombes Till Christ was risen those that were buried were dead but if wee once but name him the first-fruits of them that rise let vs no more say they were dead but that they slept Yet all before the Resurrection shall not sleepe but some shal insteed of rising be only new-dressed by being clothed with incorruption and so haue rather a change of rayment then of life They shall not put-off their bodies but their mortalitie and bee made like Christ both in the truth of the Resurrection and in the glory The Eutychian shall then confesse that the two natures in Christ are not mixt though joyned and that his humanitie though exalted is not changed The Vbiquitary shall then see that Christ's body may be seene and it shall certainly prooue that it is not euery-where by being not in the graue whence it is risen The Pythagorean shall then recouer the possession and acquaintance of his vagabond soule and the Saducy shall then arise in that body in which he denied the resurrection of the body and with his bodily eyes see the errour of his soule Since then our Redeemer is as eternall in his flesh as in his God-head since the souldiers feare acknowledged his resurrection which their malice denied since we must rise both by his authority and example let our rising not only follow his but also imitate it As then the day of death and the peace of a Sabbath went before the Resurrection of our Lord so let the crucifying of our vices and the quiet contemplation of eternall joyes goe before the glory of the Resurrection So shall it be vnto vs as it was vnto our Sauiour a true Passeouer who passed thereby from this world vnto the Father So shall our hope bee as certaine as our rising so shall our soules rise as well as our bodies in that day of wonder When the last earthquake shall shake-vp death when the oecumenicall voice of one trumpet shall bee lowd enough to whisper-vp drowsie mankind when loose dust shal with the warmth and moysture of bloud bee kneaded into man when the tribute of dispersed and deuoured limbes shall bee paid-in from all countries and creatures when there shall be a Resurrection of disease of sleepe of death of the winding-sheet of the graue of rottennesse all which shall be purified into health into watchfulnesse into life into a robe of glory into a throne of glory into immortalitie when there shall bee a Resurrection of earth and heauen which shall be both renewed when there shall bee a Resurrection of God himselfe whose glory which seemed buried in this world shall illustriously arise in the face of heauen earth when there shall bee a new Resurrection of our Lord Iesus who shall no more arise from the graue but from heauen when the Iew and hell shall tremble those wounds of glory appeare which are the bloudie seales of our saluation So raise vs then O thou Lord of life vnto holinesse of life that when these things shall come to passe wee may not only rise in judgement but also stand in it and in these bodies both behold and follow thee into thy Heauen that glorious body prepared for the glorified bodies of thy Saints where thy crucified body sits at the right hand of thy Father where thy glorious company of Apostles praise thee where thy goodly fellowship of Prophets prayse thee where thy noble armie of martyrs praise thee And with their bodies O let our bodies find a labour to be learned in Heauen and let our soules euen there feele a new affliction that whiles we cannot grieue enough that we cannot prayse thee enough our increasing gratitude for our bodies resurrection may be our soule 's eternall resurrection The end A Sermon preached at Christ-church in Oxford on Ascension-day 16â—â— 1. PETER 3.22 Who is gone into Heauen and is on the right hand of God Angels and authorities and powers being made subiect vnto him FOr man to goe into Heauen is almost impossible for God to goe into Heauen is impossible To vnderstand then the wonder of Christ's ascension we might wish that our soules could but ascend like his bodie which whiles it was on the earth receiued motion from his soule but when it left the earth receiued motion from his Diuinitie without which that motion can now bee no more vnderstood then it could then be performed The greatest wonder of mans bodie has beene the structure but the greatest wonder of this bodie is now the motion The force of mans hand can make earth ascend towards Heauen but only the power of God can make earth ascend vnto Heauen Man can raise earth aboue its Spheare but only God can fixe it aboue its Spheare This day you may see both these wonders whiles the bodie is made as wonderfull as the soule whiles the bodie is made the wonder of the soule and goes to Heauen with as much ease and with more weight And indeed Philosophie may seeme to haue come short at least of perfection if not of truth whiles it has discouered the effects of its owne ignorance insteed of the causes of ascension and descension Which now seeme not to bee the workes of weight and lightnesse but of sinne and innocence seeing that a bodie free from sinne has learned to ascend and spirits loaden with sinne haue sunke themselues from Heauen to the punishment and center of sinne And yet innocence is rather a preparatiue then a cause of this wonder a bodie cannot ascend without it a bodie cannot ascend by it It has more power vpon the soule then vpon the bodie yet it has not this power vpon the soule And as the soule cannot ascend by the power of innocence so neither can the bodie ascend by the power of the soule The soule can affoord vnto the bodie the motion of progression but not of ascension progression being made by the power of the soule but by the parts of the bodie and it is a kind of friendly attraction when one foot inuites the other to a succession of motion by a succession of precedencie But the ascension of the bodie cannot bee performed but by somewhat that is aboue the bodie aboue it not so much in place as in power The bodie can bestow vpon it selfe an equiuocall ascension when a part of the foote shall be raised into the stature of the bodie but this is rather an ascension in the bodie then of the bodie Nay we cannot at all call it an ascension but by leaue when the bodie has by chance an erect situation
all other posture making it descend as much to the name as to the simplicitie of extension The foules of the aire also haue their ascension but it is as well by the aire as in it and their cunning wing which diuides the aire into away compacts it into a helpe Thus do they ascend with an easie wonder it being performed by the power of nature and apprehended by the power of the vnderstanding But for mans bodie to ascend without the actiuitie of a wing aboue the actiuitie of a wing is so strange that it was strange euen in Christ's bodie nay it might haue beene strange to his owne bodie which had it not beene instructed by his diuinitie might haue maruail'd at its owne motion And it did no lesse amaze Heauen then possesse it making a great part of the Angels thus behold earth without descending to it And this bodie ascended rather to Heauen then to God The Diuinitie was with it yet did not ascend with it since it does not change place but fill all place His soule did ascend with it yet did rather effectually change place then properly whiles it did only not change that bodie which did change place The whole person did ascend not that the Diuinitie left any place where the humanitie had beene but that it was in euery place where the humanitie was to be And this ascension of Christ's bodie was not only farre from the nature but also against the nature of his bodie which acknowledg'd the burden and tyrannie of our Elements till by resurrection it was refined into the libertie of a glorified nature and taught to obey its owne preferment which the Diuinitie so bestowed both vpon bodie soule that they were almost not more neere vnto it then like vnto it And that they might be more like vnto it the Diuinitie became voluntarily as humble as the humanitie was naturally and voluntarily made the humanitie as high as the Diuinitie was naturally Which great worke of the ascension did not only need a Diuinitie to performe it but also to perswade men that it could bee performed the beliefe of the ascension being the next wonder to the ascension As then God did effect it so he did teach it he humbled himselfe to man hee humbled himselfe in man making the degrees of his instruction descend by the degrees of mans apprehension And first he did discouer the possibilitie of ascension to the Vnderstanding by which wee doe as truly as Moses though not as cleerely see Enoch's ascension which was not for ought we know seene by any eye but the eye of the vnderstanding the ascension of his bodie being no more discerned then the ascension of his soule God tooke him bodie and soule his bodie being by a holy obedience to his soule made so like his soule that it did ascend as easily nay as soone as his soule Holinesse which to other men is a resurrection of the soule was to him a resurrection also of the bodie which was refined without the deliberate corruption of a graue It was refined sooner then it could be corrupted It knew no graue but sinne from which it did ascend as it did ascend from its owne mortalitie but his soule did first by righteousnesse ascend in his bodie before it did ascend with his bodie God tooke him to himselfe leauing his storie to posteritie and faith as if he would teach the world by this inferiour proportion that ascension should be an object of faith The next apprehensiue facultie in man to which God descended to teach it the possibilitie of ascension was the Phantasie Thus Iacob saw the angels goe vp to Heauen though this was an ascension but by the helpe of a ladder and that helpe like that ascension but in a dreame and the bodies which ascended were but like a dreame hauing no more substance then a dreame But Saint Paul did by the phantasie not see the ascension of another but enjoy one himselfe and to that degree of truth that hee doubted whether his bodie did not as much possesse Heauen as the Vision possessed his bodie At last the diuine instruction taught the ascension to the Sense it taught the ascension of the bodie to the bodie Thus did Elisha see Eliah ascend he saw him ascend like the fire in which he did ascend in which he did ascend till he ascended aboue it Hee saw the state of his ascension in a Chariot he saw the speed of his ascension in his horses he saw and he heard the whirle-wind in which Eliah suffered a triumph and rapture of his bodie as other Prophets had suffered a rapture only of their soules Nay Elisha's touch too did apprehend the ascension whiles it tooke vp the mantle that did ascend for the mantle too had an ascension though not to Heauen yet toward Heauen and to the working of miracles But all Elisha was but a witnesse of this ascension whiles God tooke-vp Eliah and left the Prophet with Elisha whom he clothed not so much with the mantle as with Eliah But if you would heare of one that had gone toward Heauen and come downe againe as if he would be a witnesse of his owne ascension you may remēber Abacuc with whose story wee may bee satisfied as much as Daniel was with his prouision Whom yet if carefully we will obserue we shall perceiue him cast into the Lions denne so late in the euening and deliuered thence so early in the morning that there will bee no more need then there was time for the ascension of Abacuc and the miracle of the dinner Nay had it come it would haue beene as great a miracle to haue kept the Lions from the food as to haue kept them from Daniel And had Abacuc liued till Daniel's imprisonment he would indeed haue had need to bee carried though his journie had beene farre shorter then from Iury to Babylon Thus did death make this Prophet preuent this ascension of his bodie by an ascension of his soule But Simon Magus did ascend in earnest nay and hee prooued it too by descending in earnest Only it was an vntoward ascension he did ascend by the power of the Deuill but hee descended by the power of God he descended to that power by which he ascended Now as this Sorcerer was made to descend by the prayers of Saint Peter so Saint Thomas of Aquine as some haue told vs ascended by his owne prayers hee ascended without presumption a foot or two Which petty ascension may serue for a mannerly miracle if the Saint-maker's eyes were not as dimme as his deuotion and by an apocope of that Saint's bodie mistooke not his knees for his feete vpon which peraduenture hee stood praying and the mistake was as easie as the miracle But wee haue heard of some Dead bodies that haue ascended thus some haue buried Moses in Heauen striuing to make his tombe as famous as his holinesse and belike lest the Deuill should haue made his body an Idoll they
innocencie making him confident to aske them whom they seeke when their businesse and authoritie strait-wayes answer Iesus of Nazareth They had vntowardly learned to make no difference of persons Hee with a mild courage replies I am hee and immediately as if hee had come to apprehend Them they fall downe backward they fall from Christ The blowing-downe of the wals of Iericho with Rams-hornes though it was no lesse wonderfull yet it was lesse speedy And where is now the conspiracie of their ambition Where is now the strength of their inuasion Where is now the prouision of their armour Is it not all made the triumph of his meeknesse Heere is no heauenly army to ouerthrow this legion of Deuils but with a victorious mildnesse they are strucke downe their bodies acknowledging his power which their soules denied their vnderstanding bodies beeing vnwilling to act what their senslesse soules prompted them vnto Yet does his pardon giue them strength to rise againe and againe he askes them whom they seeke and they dare answere Iesus of Nazareth Before they spake to his humanitie and his diuinitie answer'd them but now hee answers them with the patience of his humanitie which suffers the sacriledge of their hands and malice When Peter's zeale at the captiuity of his master vnsheathes his sword and cutting-off the High Priest's seruant 's eare makes him learne a new Circumcision which was no Sacrament but a punishment But againe appeares the diuinitie and mercy of our Sauiour who corrects Peter and his fact replanting the seruant 's eare which straight acknowledges and enjoyes his power Yet they persist in their impietie and when hee by his power has prooued himselfe a God they by his patience will prooue him to be a man And being in the hands of very Iewes his Disciples forgetting their master and their protestations runne all away euen bold Saint Peter runnes away with his courage and his sword euen his beloued Iohn runnes away breaking the bonds of loue with the strength of feare O heere I cannot but stay and grieue that his beloued Iohn also doth forsake him Sure there is some friend for whom some friend will lay downe a life and sure there neuer were such friends as Christ and his Apostles and sure of his Apostles there was none so neere him as his beloued John The rest were in his company but hee in his bosome and does his beloued Iohn also forsake him Me thinkes the protestation and perswasion of Saint Paul would haue admirably become the mouth and practice of Saint Iohn Neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor heigth nor depth nor any other creature no not a very Iew shall euer be able to force mee from the loue and bosome of my Iesus Yet euen beloued Iohn also does forsake his Iesus Whose miraculous hands they bind the greatest miracle of which was at this time not their power but their patience They bind his hands foolishly forgetting that if any of them should lose another eare as much as in them lay they hindred him from healing of it Indeed happy had it beene if Adam and Eue's hands had beene bound thus in Paradise But see the bonds of our sinnes that are able to captiue the hands of Christ Who is led by the blind malice of his Iewes vnto iudgement And is there no good man's eye who will with an easie teare follow his trauelling affliction Is there none that will goe after him though not to be a partaker yet but a witnesse of his injurie Yes there is one of more loue then age couered rather then clothed with meere linnen who being hastily come and as hastily apprehended chooses rather to leaue his linnen then his life and slipping from their hands runnes as hastily backe againe and indeed hee runnes away so fast that I cannot tell you who he is Yet if the curious please to runne after him they may peraduenture find him to be the sonne of that man of the village Gethsemane at the foot of mount Oliuet who owned the Garden where our Sauiour prayed The tumult of the night might easily awake him to this vndressed speed which whiles hee vses in running backe the Iewes goe forward in their way and malice leading our Sauiour first to Annas They were to passe by his reuerend doore at which by way of honour they present their shew and he sends him to be presented to the High-priest Caiaphas his sonne in law this was the kindred of these honourable murderers But whiles this troupe is with our Sauiour you may looke back and behold Peter following afarre off full of loue and shame and sorrow Yet alas hee returnes but to forsweare himselfe and his master In a curious desire he enters the High-priest's hall a place of temptation and blasphemie where with as much danger as dissimulation he mixes with Christ's persecutors whom as already he accompanies so anon by an vnhappy proficiencie he must imitate Conuersation is the last concoction of loue and does by a secret friendship of nature intimately assimilate Now the High-priest with an assisting tumult of Scribes and Pharisies does not examine our Sauiour but tempt him and when at their importunitie he has acknowledged himselfe the Christ he is made guiltie of being God and straight they practice vpon him the wantonnesse of scorne They prophane his sacred face with the blasphemy of spittle they blindfold him in execrable sport and then striking him in jesting inhumanitie they aske who strikes him Whiles Christ is thus condemned Peter is examined and straight commits an easie deniall of his master and straight the Cocke crowes but yet not lowd enough to awake his guilt Hee is persecuted againe and too wretchedly sweares an ignorance A third tempter vexes him being both an accuser and a witnesse and this is Malchus his cousin whose eare Peter had cut off which makes Peter feare more then the proportion of the Iewish Law an eare for an eare He suspects that this eare will bring in danger his whole head And hauing but one euasion though worse then his entrance he wishes himselfe accursed if he knowes our Sauiour when alas he knowes that he were accursed if hee did not know him And now the Cocke as if instructed to our Sauiour's prophesie in his just time crowes the second time with the repeated diligence of his wing and voice not more awaking himselfe then the heauy memory of Peter's conscience which thus raised before day makes him vnderstand and bewaile his night of sinne nor does hee more hasten out of doores then doe the teares out of his eyes Where marke the apt degrees as of his fault so of his sorrow The hast of his repentance begg'd pardon for his deniall the teares of his repentance begg'd pardon for his oath the bitternesse of his repentance beg'd pardon for his curse But now the Iewes are not auoiding but prouoking a greater curse and as soone as
sent it to his soule to make-vp a Saint And some haue sent the bodie of the blessed Virgin thither with much reuerence and opinion though as farre from vse as from certaintie And some haue giuen two or three little ascensions to her Temple which is pleased as yet to be honoured at Loretto which is pleased as yet to honour Loretto make that place ascend aboue other places by not ascending from that place Nay the Turkes too boast of an ascension not of a temple but of their Mahomet though had this beene it had beene an ascension without a resurrection an ascension not so much of his carcasse as of his coffin which being of iron has beene reported to ascend to the roofe of his temple or rather to the secret vertue of many Load-stones fixt with as much secrecie in the roofe of his temple Yet euen this ascension also will proue to be the worke rather of Poets then of Load-stones Which can indeed make iron ascend nay make other Load-stones ascend from the cōmon center though they themselues if not violently sustained doe naturally descend and acknowledge the common center Yet since without respect one to another each does attract with an absolute intention and since the application in such attraction is most aptly made from some point in the stone to some point in the iron the defect of such forme in the iron and the number of the stones which was inuented to helpe the inuention does with the honestie of Philosophie quite betray it since the iron by a confused command of its dutie could not apply it selfe to any one and therefore not to any And thus you see that Mahomets presumptuous sinnes did ascend higher then his bodie or then the inuention of his idolaters But if we would see a low ascension and yet a wondrous one we may behold our Sauiour's walking vpon the water which was an ascension in respect of nature though not of our Sauiours person it was an ascension of his power though not of his person nay it was an ascension of his person because it should naturally haue beene a descension of his person And least wee might thinke that this ascension could only bee effected in Christ's person as it could be effected only by his power he did effect it in Peters person And though he needed Christ's hand as much as his inuitation yet was it his vnbeliefe that was heauier then his bodie But Christ's bodie was at last to ascend aboue all the elements except so much of them as composed his bodie which ascended to immortalitie fortie dayes sooner then it ascended to Heauen and now as much required to be placed aboue the place of our bodies as it was aboue the condition of them When therefore he was to ascend he led his Disciples out of Ierusalem it was the first degree of his ascension to separate himselfe from the trouble of the Citie to separate himselfe from the impiety of that Citie whose malice whiles it was increased in procuring his death was admirably deluded in procuring his ascension Hee led his Disciples vnto Mount Oliuet a place from whence his prayers had often ascended as now his person It was not farre from Bethanie a Village not great it seemes either in people or sinnes and so peraduenture as neere to the benefit of the ascension as to the ascension And being now to goe vp to to the Kingdome of God he discourseth to his Disciples of the Kingdome of God as if their eare should prepare their eye whiles he himselfe will make himselfe the illustration and proofe of his owne doctrine Yet to shew the truth of his loue as much as the truth of his words first be lifts-vp his hands at which they lift-vp their eyes and hearts and then hee lift-vp his voice and blesses them See with what kind preuention hee supplyes his future absence by his present blessing hee makes his blessing the Deputie of his person which whiles they behold with eyes as earnestly fixt by loue as they could be by death behold hee ascends and they lose the sight of him sooner by a cloud then by distance Which shortnesse of the the pleasure of their sight was happily supplied before by the intention of their sight His bodie was but a cloud to his Diuinitie and now his body ascends in a cloud which did as eminently shew his power as it concealed his person A cloud full of God is the Chariot of his triumph and the curtaines of his Chariot are the wings of Cherubins Lift vp your heads O yee gates and bee yee lift vp yee euerlasting doores and the King of glory shall come in But whiles the Apostles stedfastly gaze after him as if they would turne their eyes into Perspectiues or attend him as farre with their sight as with their desire behold their passion is not satisfied but changed and heard by them to saue them the labour of gazing they behold insteed of one Christ two Angels and their white apparell insteed of a cloud though their number was not so much for a supply of Christ who was gone into Heauen as for a more ful securitie of his returne from Heauen The expectation whereof if any shall thinke tedious they may ascend after him peraduenture before his returne not by seeking the impression of his footsteps on Mount Oliuet but by finding the ready way in his precepts by which wee may ascend to the vnderstanding of his ascension by which wee may ascend to the height of his ascension Which was aboue all the Heauens that eyther Philosophers or the Starres had beene acquainted with nay into that Heauen of which Copernicus might without errour haue said that it stands still the Heauen in which the Saints rest like the Heauen the Heauen in which Christ rest's like the Saints And yet you shall not only see his ascension into this Heauen but you shall see also his ascension in this Heauen that was the ascension of his person but this of his glory Enoch and Eliah ascended to this Heauen but you shall see Christ Iesus in this Heauen ascend to the right hand of God! Behold this day the humanitie made the favourite of the Diuinitie Behold Christ on the right hand of God! O what a spectacle would this haue beene for Herod and Pilate they would haue cryed out that their worst Hell had beene from Heauen and to haue scaped the horrour of this sight they would haue chosen vtter darknesse But behold Christ on the right hand of God! In whose right hand are pleasures for euermore And yet can wee behold those pleasures which no eye hath seene Nay can we behold the hand in which those pleasures are Nay can the hand be found that wee might behold it Shall vvee dresse the Almightie with shape and by an idolatrous gratitude bestow the figure vpon God which hee has bestowed vpon vs Shall we giue hands to him that were not able to giue them to our selues No