But this belongeth to those that be broken-hearted, that can prize and value Christ. They that go on in presumptuous courses shall find Christ in another manner of majesty. They shall find him as a judge whom they despised as a brother; and they that will not come in and subject them- selves to his mercy, they shall find his justice. If they will not come under this sceptre, they shall find his rod of iron to crush them to pieces. And therefore let no corrupt, careless person, that will go on, fortify their presumption from hence. It belongeth only to them to be humbled and abased with the sight of sin, and consideration of their unkindness and unworthy dealing with Christ. I know such as are most subject to dis- couragement, and Satan is most ready to close with them in strong temp- tations above all. Oh, but never let them despair, but consider what the apostle saith : ' While sin aboundeth, grace aboundeth much more,' Rom. V. 20. If there be height, depth, and breadth of sin in us, there is now more height, and depth, and breadth of mercy in Christ ; yea, more than we can receive.
I have fallen from God, saith the soul. What if thou hast ? but God is not fallen from thee. Peter denied Christ, but did Christ deny Peter ? No. Christ hath not denied thee. What saith the Lord in Jeremiah ? ' Will the husband take the wife when she hath been naught ? no ; yet return to me, 0 Israel,' Jer. iii. 1. But say, thou hast been false, and committed such and such sius ; w'hatsoever they be, though adultery, yet return to me.
Quest. Oh, but is it possible God should do it ?
Fi£sol. Yea, it is possible with him : * His thoughts are not as thy thoughts ; his thoughts are as far above thine as heaven is above earth,' Isa. Iv. 8.
Obj. Why, no man will do it.
Ans. Ay, but here is the mercy of a God, ' I am God, and not man ;' therefore his comforts fail not. If he were so, he would not regard one that hath been so unkind ; but he is God, and not man.
' Go to my brethren.' I come now to the matter of the commission. TeU them, ' I ascend to my Father, and your Father ; to my God, and your God,' which is all included in * brethren ;' for if we be God's iu Christ, then God is our Father. But we must not deal in few words with disconsolate souls, but come again and again with the same words. As how many times have you the comfort of the Messiah in Isaiah and the rest of the prophets, again and again ? Our hearts are so prone to doubt of God's mercy, of Christ's love, especially after guilt, that all is little
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enough ; and therefore our Saviour studieth to speak sweetly to the heart, 'Go, tell my brethren.' That which a carnal heart and curious* head would count tautology and superfluity of words, a gracious heart thinks to be scantiness. Oh, more of that still ; I have not enough ! This is the pride of men, that will have all things to satisfy the curious ear ; but a gracious heart hath never enough. And therefore Christ addeth comfort to comfort : 'Go, tell my brethren, I ascend to my Father, and their Father ; to my God, and their God.' The message itself is Christ's ascension. The place whither is to the Father, a common Father to him and them. Every word hath comfort.
* I ascend.'
I ascend to the Father, and to my Father and your Father too. Now I have quitted myself of death, and sin imputed to me as a surety, and I am going to heaven to make an end of all there : ' I ascend to God, to my God and to your God.' We have all one common Father, and one com- mon God.
First, For his ascension. He did not yet ascend. Why then doth he speak for the present ? * I ascend ;' that is, I am shortly so to do. And it was in his mind, it was certainly so to be ; and therefore he speaks of it in present. It is the phrase of faith, to speak of things to come as if they were present. Faith makes them so to the soul, for it looketh on the word and all things as they are in that Word, who will make good whatsoever he saith. And therefore it is the evidence of things that are not yet, yet they be evident to a faithful soul. If we could learn this aright, to make things to come present, what kind of -people should we be ! Could we think of our resurrection and ascension and glory to come as present, they would be present to our faith ; the things present, or sense, could not withdraw us. If we could set hell before us, could the pleasures of hell bewitch us ? If the time to come were present, could anything in the world withdraw us ? It could not be. And therefore it is an excellent skill of faith to set things to come before us as present.