' Bu*- these are in the world.' — I am almost on shore, but these are still to remain at sea, floating upon the waves ; out of the duty of their calling, they are to stay behind, and must expect tempests, labours, dangers, and persecutions, infirmities within, and temptations without. The world is a step-mother to the saints ; Christ pitieth their case that they are to stay in the world, as those that are in the haven pity their fellows that are left behind at sea in the midst of the storm.
' And I come unto thee.' — An explication of what he said before, ' I am no more in the world ; ' only it addeth something more. * I am no more in the world,' implieth only his death ; but ' I come to thee,' his ascension. It is expressed before : John xvi. 5, ' I go my way to him that sent me : I go to the Father,' ver. 10. I am about to enter into the glory of the Father. It doth not signify, as Lyranus would have it, I come to thee in prayer, by way of address and supplication ; but, I come to be with thee in glory. Mark, there was a great deal of time yet to pass, forty days after the resurrection. Faith presents things future as present; in this sense we enter heaven before our time.
In this clause, the occasion, I observe three things : —
1. Christ's ascension, Father, I come to thee.
2. The necessary ceasing of his corporal presence by virtue of that ascension, / am no more in tlie loorlcl.
3. Christ's care to make up that defect to his people ; it is the occa- sion of the present address to God.
Of these in their order.
First, Of Christ's ascension, ' I come to thee.' Here is — (1.) The history ; (2.) The reasons ; (3.) The benefits ; (4.) The use that we may make of it.
1. The history of Christ's ascension. There are many circumstances ; I shall touch upon them briefly.
[1.] The time when he had finished his work, not only of doing and suffering, but giving sufficient instructions to the apostles about his kingdom : Acts i. 3, ' He was seen of them forty days, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.' As Hezekiah was to ' set his house in order before he died,' Isa. xxxviii. 1, so Christ would not ascend into heaven till he had set all at rights upon earth. Christ would have his house well governed after his death, and therefore stayeth forty days to give instructions.
[2.] The place from whence he ascended ; from the Mount of Olives, Acts i. 12. A mount, a high and eminent place, to ascertain them of the truth of his ascension ; he did not withdraw himself secretly, as at other times, but in open view. The place is yet again notable : the
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Mount of Olives was the place from whence he went to be crucified ; the same mountain yielded him a passage to his cross and his crown ; there his pains and torments began, in the garden of that mount, and thence he ascended. How often doth the Lord make that place that hath been the scene of our sorrows to be the first steps to our rising and advancement ! Wherever the saints die, they have their Olivet, in the prison, on the scaffold, their sick beds, where they have been racked with tormenting pains. As sometimes witli wicked men, the place of sin is the place of vengeance. So Ahab's dogs licked up his blood in the same place where he shed the blood of Naboth.
[3.] The place to which, the third heaven. The tabernacle figured the church, the temple heaven. In the temple were three partitions ; the court, where was the altar of burnt-offerings ; the holy place, where was the table, candlestick, shew-bread, and the altar of burnt- incense ; then the holy of holies, where the high priest came once a year. So in that vast space which the scriptures call heaven, there are, as it were, three storeys — the etherial heaven, the starry heaven, and the heaven of heavens ; into this Christ, as our high priest, is entered. There was not only a change of his presence, but a transla- tion of his body into the high and holy place.
[4.] The witnesses, the eleven apostles ; these were his choice wit- nesses, not the whole company of believers.
[5.] Another circumstance was his last action a little before his ascension : Luke xxiv. 50, ' He blessed his disciples ; ' nay, it is added again, to put the greater emphasis upon it, ver. 51, 'And while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.' It is the fashion of good men to die blessing ; Jacob and Moses, when they were to take their leaves of the world, they blessed the tribes. Christ, before he would go, would first leave his blessing ; nay, the last act with which he would close up his life was an act of blessing, to show that now the curse was removed, and he was going to heaven to convey the blessing to all the heirs of salvation : Acts iii. 26, ' Unto you first, God having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities ; ' as God blessed Adam and Eve, when his work was done.