ascertain if we have truly risen with Christ; for as a relish for food indicates a healthy state of the body: so, with regard to the soul, if we relish " whatever is true, whatever is modest, whatever is just, whatever is holy," [1] and experience within us a sense of the sweetness of heavenly things; this we may consider a very strong proof, that with Christ we have risen to a new and spiritual life.
ARTICLE VI.
"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY."
"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN"] Filled with the Spirit of God, and contemplating the blessed and glorious ascension of our Lord into heaven, the prophet David exhorts all to celebrate that splendid triumph, with the greatest joy and gladness: "Clap your hands," said he, " all ye nations, shout unto God with the voice of joy. God is ascended with jubilee, and the Lord with the sound of trumpet." [2] The pastor will hence learn the obligation imposed on him, of explaining this mystery with unremitting assiduity, and of taking especial care that the faithful not only see it with the light of faith, and of the understanding; but still more, that, as far as it is in his power to accomplish, they make it their study, with the divine assistance, to reflect its image in their lives and actions.
With regard, then, to the exposition of this sixth Article, which has reference, principally, to the divine mystery of the ascension; we shall begin with its first part, and point out its force and meaning. That Jesus Christ, having fully accomplished the work of redemption, ascended, as man, body and soul, into heaven, the faithful are unhesitatingly to believe; for as God, he never forsook heaven, filling as he does all places with his divinity.
The pastor is, also, to teach that he ascended by his own power, not by the power of another as did Elias, who was taken up into heaven in a fiery chariot; [3] or, as the prophet Habacuc; [4] or Philip, the deacon, who were borne through the air by the divine power, and traversed the distant regions of the earth. [5] Neither did he ascend into heaven, solely by the exercise of his supreme power as God, but also, by virtue of the power which he possessed as man; although human power alone was insufficient to raise him from the dead, yet the virtue, with which the blessed soul of Christ was endowed, was capable of moving the body as it pleased, and his body, now glorified, readily obeyed its impulsive dominion. Hence, we believe that Christ ascended
