Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SEEMON II. EFFECTS OF CHRIST’S ASCENSION. ASCENSION DAY. Ps. Ixviii. 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 Nestament, 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 HolyComforter, 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 Eedeemer, when His glory was made perfect and He was finally exalted as on this day. First, there is the simple fact of His Ascension:
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