SERMON II.

EFFECTS OF CHRIST'S ASCENSION.
ASCENSION DAY.

Ps. lxviii. 18.

"Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."

As God Almighty graciously taught us how to pray to Him, in the Lord's prayer, so He had long before set us a pattern how to praise Him, by the divine songs of the Old Testament, which He has instructed us, in the New Testament, to apply to His mercies shewn us in Christ Jesus. Otherwise, so infinite and unspeakable are those mercies, we never surely should have known how to praise Him for them worthily. We never should have known or thought of a hymn worthy the Ascension of our Saviour, had not the Holy Spirit Himself, by the Prophet David, condescended to provide us with one in that glorious Psalm which is appointed by the Church to be used on Whitsunday: in which, under the figure of the Ark of God, carried up to Mount Sion, the praises of our blessed Lord are sung, going up to heaven as the Head of His Church, and sending down the Holy Comforter, the fountain of all spiritual blessings, to abide among His chosen in His room.

The Psalm, indeed, goes over the whole reach of God's mercies in redeeming His Church, from the beginning to the end; but the most illustrious verse, perhaps, in it, is this, which relates to our Lord's Ascension: "Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."

Here you may observe the several parts of the great triumph of our suffering Redeemer, when His glory was made perfect and He was finally exalted as on this day.

First, there is the simple fact of His Ascension: "Thou hast ascended on high."

Next, the effect on His enemies, and on all the powers of darkness: "Thou hast led captivity captive."

Thirdly, the effect on men, even on the worst of men, "the rebellious." He received for them the most precious gifts, insomuch that the Lord God, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, was sent down by Him to dwell among them.

First of all, consider the simple fact of our Saviour's Ascension, by itself: you will find that there is no end to the wonderful and glorious prospect which it opens to the children of men. Here is One Who is not ashamed to call us brethren; a true Man, as we are; One Who was born like us in all but sin; Who underwent the pains and infirmities of childhood, the trials and troubles of mature age, the agony of fear, the pain of desertion, the bitterness of extreme anguish both of mind and body, and the pangs of a cruel death: One Who loved us so dearly as to suffer all this for our sakes; here we see Him, with the eye of faith, exalted to the Right Hand of God, having all power given Him both in heaven and in earth. He is gone into heaven, the first of all Adam's children, opening the gates of immortality to all believers. He is gone into heaven, the first-fruits of a whole harvest of His redeemed; and by that glorious Ascension we know something of what is prepared for those who try to ascend thither in heart and mind. We know that nothing possibly can be too high or glorious for faithful Christians to hope for, seeing that He, Who is their pattern and example, is raised to the Right Hand of the Almighty Father.

When we have thought most highly and gloriously of all that can make man happy, spiritually happy; perfect peace, purity unstained, a will to do all that God would have done, and power to act and perform that blessed will, an overflowing charity to all the good creatures of the Almighty, and the certainty that we are ourselves beloved by all; above all, the sight of the Most High God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, loving us, and drawing us continually nearer to Him: and all this sure to persevere and improve for ever, so that when thousands of millions of years are past, those who for Christ's sake are graciously accepted, will be no nearer an end of their happiness than when it first began: imagine, as you may, all this and whatever else of joy may be suitable to a pure, holy, divine soul; and you will be infinitely far from comprehending the length and breadth, depth and height, of the promises which are sealed to us by the Ascension of our Saviour, and His having all power given Him in heaven and in earth. We know thereby, that the Father of all will not think anything too good for those who are truly conformed to the image of the Only-begotten Son. And yet we are content to let our minds and hearts creep on here on earth, full of such low cares and fancies, as if we knew nothing of heaven, or had no hope of coming to it. God give us better minds, for His merits and intercession's sake, Who is now on high pleading for us!

We see, then, that the mere fact of our Saviour's exaltation ought in all reason to lift us, heart and soul, on high after Him: and when the effect of His Ascension comes to be considered, our duty, and the way to accomplish it, is so much the plainer. For He has overcome our spiritual enemies, and bound the old serpent in chains. "Thou hast led captivity captive," says the Psalmist: that is, "Thou art now like a great warrior, returning in triumph from the field, with a band of captive enemies." And who are the captives subdued by our Saviour? who, but the devil and his angels, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh, one and all chained as it were to His chariot wheels, and making up His glory and victory.

This gives a fearful notion of what we are in fact doing, when we permit ourselves to forget that we are-Christians, serving any lust or unworthy desire, instead of practising those tempers, which only can make us fit for everlasting life. We are then taking the wrong part in the great never-ending warfare, between Christ and the power of darkness. We are serving and honouring those whom Christ is leading captive, the host of enemies dragged at His chariot wheels, instead of serving Him Who, with one act of His will could reduce all such enemies to nothing. What can come of such madness, but utter confusion and ruin ere long?

If, indeed, we could not help ourselves, if we had no power given us to make a better choice, such behaviour were more excusable. But observe what follows next: "Thou hast received gifts for men." What gifts? S. Paul replies in the Epistle to the Ephesians: they are the manifold gifts of the Holy Ghost: "grace given to every man according to the proportion of the gift of Christ." It is in vain then for any man longer to say, "I meant well, but my enemies were too powerful." How should they be more powerful than your Friend and never-failing Helper, the Holy and Almighty Spirit of the Father and the Son?

For of Him, i.e. of the Holy Spirit sent down by the Mediator, the Psalmist is undoubtedly speaking, in the last words of that astonishing verse: "That the Lord God might dwell among them." The Lord God, the Holy Ghost, is personally present in the hearts and bodies of all believers. He dwells in each one of us, as in a temple. The word must be spoken in all reverence, but it may be spoken: What more could Omnipotence itself do for us, than to send an Almighty Helper to dwell in our hearts? We may speak thus, for God Himself has taught us to do so, when He asks concerning His vineyard, the Church: "What could have been done more for My vineyard, that I have not done in it?" Were the most perverse and froward of men left to choose what he would have to help him in goodness, what could he ask for more, than the blessed and sanctifying Spirit, for ever present, ready to make clean his very heart, and to purify his inmost thoughts and desires?

When people are outwardly left to themselves, when they lose their parents, elders, and instructors, by death, departure, or otherwise, and then yield to temptation, and go wrong; they are ready enough to plead for themselves, that they had no friend near to warn or advise them. But he who will believe and attend to the Scriptures, as interpreted by the Church in the Prayer Book, that man knows that he cannot plead so; for he has always not only at hand, but dwelling within him, the Parent and Elder, the Friend and Instructor of all reasonable and understanding creatures. He cannot say that he goes wrong unwarned, who has the wisdom of God ever ready to warn him.

And, that no Christian man might imagine himself shut out of this great blessing, and entitled to justify his sins through his want of spiritual aid; observe what is hinted of those, among whom the Lord God, the Holy Ghost, sent down by the Son, vouchsafes to dwell. They are not all good and obedient. Very far from it: they are too many of them rebellious. Christ "received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."

The Psalmist might mean the word "rebellious," at first, of the stubborn Jews, who kept tempting God, both in the wilderness and in the promised land. "They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit," Which He had put within them, and sent to dwell among them: they became discontented, lustful, unbelieving, even in sight of the cloud of Glory, by which He shewed Himself from time to time over the door of the tabernacle, checking them for their sins, and telling them the way they should go. Yet He still abode among them: He took not away the Glory from them: although, as long as they refused to be guided by it, it turned not to their blessing, but to their greater punishment.

In like manner, the New Testament teaches, that God's Holy Spirit, the true Cloud of Glory, is given to all Christians in Baptism; but it is at their peril to rebel and vex Him afterwards. If they do, still they cannot drive Him away: He continues among them for judgement and condemnation, if they will not let His gracious Presence conduct them, to the mercy which He meant for them. Not indeed visibly, but yet truly, He dwells in every one of us as in a temple, as truly as He dwelt in the whole congregation of the Jews by that bright cloud of His, which declared His presence over the Ark.

As baptized Christians, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, does truly abide within us. This is too great and fearful a thing to be thought on, if the Scripture of God, the Voice of the same Spirit, had not expressly made it known. S. Paul, speaking to all the Corinthians, who had, of course, various degrees of grace, and of whom some were far gone in things very contrary to God's Spirit; yet, speaking to them all, he says, "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?" By this we know for certain, that even from rebellious Christians the Holy Spirit does not so depart, but that they still continue under the special curse of defiling God's Temple, every time that by sinful indulgence they abuse their own or others' bodies, or by sinful desires pollute their souls. Over and above the judgement due to those, who break God's general commandment of purity, they bring on themselves a special judgement, as profaners of God's Ark and Temple. And so of all other sins. Whatever is contrary to God's Holy Spirit, being practised by a Christian man, is a sin against the Temple, is as if it were committed in a Church, and will draw down a sentence accordingly.

Now then, add to all this the most serious thought of all, namely, that we are not speaking of things at a distance: you, and I, and each particular Christian, is the person, of whom these wonderful sayings are written down in the book of God. You are the person to whom God is revealed in His only Son Incarnate; for you Christ died; for you He sits on high, ordering all things both in this world and in that unseen world, so as shall turn undoubtedly to your good, if you truly try to love God. You are the man, in whom the Holy Ghost has condescended, ever since your Baptism, to abide, as in a Temple and Ark of His own. What a thought is this for you to carry about in the daily concerns of your life! What a fountain of humiliation and self-abasing sorrow, when you think over the past! What a spring of holy desires and good resolutions, if you have the courage to make them, for the future!

If the Holy Ghost be dwelling in us, since He is a pure Spirit, and thoughts, in His sight, are as distinct and as real as actions; then every time yon indulge wrong desires, proud, or covetous, or unkind, or lustful imaginations, you are as if you made God's Church a place for actions of the same kind. Who then can remember his own past thoughts, and not be overwhelmed with the mighty sum of his offences committed in this way?

On the other hand, if the Holy Ghost be dwelling in you, since He is an Almighty Friend, there is hope even for the vilest: there is encouragement for those who have been most rebellious, to resolve anew and more earnestly, that they will be such no longer. Therefore, although it is fearful to think of Him so very near us, considering what sort of persons conscience tells us we must be in His sight, yet we dare not pray as S. Peter once did, in hasty alarm, not knowing what he said, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord:" rather we pray every day, as the Church has taught us, in the words of the penitent David, "Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." Cast us not away, though we have deserved the worst; and take Him not away, though we have so often grieved and vexed Him by our sins; but for the sake of Him Who is gone into heaven, to plead for rebels and sinners at His Father's Right Hand, grant, O Lord, that the Holy Comforter may still continue with us on earth, and we with Him in Thy Church: that what little good remains in us, and seems often ready to die, may be strengthened; and that our evils, great and manifold as they are, may be purged out by Thy grace and help: that when our King returns from Heaven, we may not be found among "the rebellious."

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