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cended into the heaven of heavens, the throne of God, and the habitation of the most high; on the truth whereof depends our future ascension: for, if our Saviour be not ascended into heaven, it will be impossible for us ever to ascend thither. This is the foundation of our hope, the anchor of our soul, both sure and stedfast, that thejforerunner, even Jesus, is entered for us within the veil, that he is gone to prepare a place for us, and will come again, and receive us unto himself; that where he is, there we may be also. As for the occasion of its being introduced into the creed, it seems to have been taken from the Apelleians, a spawn. of the Marcionites, so called from one, Apelles a scholar of Marcion's, who, as Ter tullian writes, "did not affirm with Marcion the body of Christ to be fantastical and imaginary, but that when he came down from heaven, he framed unto himself a sidereal and an aereal flesh, which at his ascension he restored to its primitive place; and having thus dispersed every part of his body, his spirit alone was received into heaven:" or, as Epiphanius reports their heresy to be, "that our Lord in his coming down from heaven to earth, gathered unto himself a body from the four elements in which he was truly crucified, and after his resurrection shewed

the same flesh to his disciples; after which, having finished the dispensation of his incarnation, he restored unto every one of the elements that which he had received from them: and so dissolving his fleshly body, he ascended into heaven, from whence he came." Now, I say, it is very probable, that in oppo"sition to this notion, the ascension was inserted in the symbol or rule of faith: Whence, Epiphanius in his confutation thereof, makes great use of this argument of the ascension; and elsewhere he thus explains this article itself," he ascended into heaven, not divesting himself of his holy body, but uniting it unto a spiritual one" not much different 'wherefrom, Irenæus thus repeats this article in one of his creeds, that we must believe

the fleshly reception of Jesus Christ our Lord, into heaven:" which was a most formal and avowed condemnation of the said Apelleians, who owned that his soul, but denied that his flesh ascended into heaven;" being offended," as St. Austin writes, " at the Christian faith, that an earthly body should be assumed into heaven; not knowing what is written, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

Now the place anto which our Saviour as cended, is said to be heaven; by which, we

are not to understand the clouds, sometimes 'called the clouds of heaven, nor the starry heaven, but the third heaven, the heaven of heavens, the throne of God, and the more immediate habitation of the almighty: the nomination of which place, might probably have been designed in contradiction to a foolish conceit of an ancient heretic called Hermogenes, who according to the relation of Theodoret, affirmed "that the body of our Lord was placed in the sun;" wherein he was afterwards followed by the Seleuciani, and others, abusing to that end that text of the Psalmist, Psalm. xix. 4. "in them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun;" reading it according to the mis-translation of the Septuagint, en to helio etheto to skenoma autou" in the sun hath he set his tabernacle;" from thence concluding, that our Saviour's body was after his resurrection, conveyed to the sphere of the sun, where it was to remain till his second com

ing which silly imagination seems to have been confuted by this article, that he ascended into heaven, as also by what follows next to be considered, viz. that he there sitteth at the right hand of God the father almighty, till he shall come to judge both the quick and the dead. Which clause I shall first give the explication of, and then enquire into the time and occasion of its introduction into the creed,

and sitteth on the right hand of God the father almighty.

By his sitting, we are not to imagine him confined to that singular posture of body, in a distinction from all others, seeing Stephen saw him standing on the right hand of God; but by it we are to understand his habitation, mansion, and continuance at the father's right hand, as Augustin upon this article writes, "that by sitting, we are to apprehend dwelling, as we say of any one, that he sate in that country three years, that is, that he dwelt there so long."

By the father's right hand, we are not to fancy, that he hath really any such parts as hands, or the like; for being a spirit he is incorporeal, without any bodily members or or gans; but it is a metaphorical expression denoting a place of power, honor and happiness, signifiying that our Lord is advanced in heaven, to a place of great dignity, bliss and authority; "we believe," saith St. Austin, "that he sits at the right hand of God the father, not as though God had an human shape a right and a left side; but by the right, we are to understand the highest happiness, where is righteousness, peace and joy; as the goats are placed on the left, that is, in misery and tor ment."

But that which I suppose, was chiefly designed in the creed, by this phrase of sitting at the right hand of God the father, was this, viz. a declaration of the complete advancement of Christ our Lord, to his regal office, and of his plenary exercise of his kingly power; God [Ephes. i. 20, 21, 22.] "setting him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities, and powers, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, putting all things under his feet, and giving him to be the head over all things unto the church." In which sense it is interpreted by the author of the creeds, which are commonly ascribed to St. Austin, "that by the right hand is to be understood, that power which Christ as man received;" that is, the power of his mediatorial kingdom, exercised in the preservation of his church, and the subduing of his enemies; which authority and rule shall be so exercised till the general judgment-day, when his whole church shall be completely saved, and all his enemics shall be eternally vanquished and destroyed; after which time, [1. Cor. xv..24.] "he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the faher;" but, until that time, [Psalm cx. 1.] "till all his enemies are made his footstool,