Cbap.r. Seets Loiking unt~ 1tfus. Book. IV. Part.4. 73 r this our joy, becaufe a woman was the firfr Minifrer of that our forrow. But what meanes he to fpeak of the afcenfton, when as yet we are bu.tupon the refurretl:ion? I fuppofe this was to prevent their miilake, who might have~thought, ifChrift be riferi, why then we {ball have his compmy againe as heretofore; no faith Chrifr I am not rifen to make any abode with you, or to converfe ~ith you on earth as formerly; my riGng.is in reference to my afcending ; look how tf.te frars no fooner rde, but they are immediately in their afcendent; fo Chrifr no fooner rifen, but he is prefently upon his afcending up. But whither will he afcend ? to his Fat h:r, and our Father; to hiJ God, andGurGod. Every word is a ftep, or round of {a cobs ladder, by which we may afcend up into heaven : As, r. Father is a name of much good will ; there is in it bowels of com. paffion , Oh what renderneffe is in a Father ? and yet many a Father want~ good means to expreffe his good will unto his diild; now therefore Gvd is added that he may not be thought to be defective in that way ; Oh bletfed meffage! this is the voyce of a Father to his Son; all th.1t I have is thine; now if this Father Luk.r H r, he alfo God, and if all that is Gods be alfo ours, what can we defire more than all that God hath; or all that ever God was worth ? 0~ but here's the queilion, whether his Father and God be alfo ours? that he is Chriils Father, and Chriils God, is without all quefrion; but that his Father fhould be our Father, a.nd that his God fuould f.Je our God, this were a Gofpel indeed; 0 then what aGofpel is this! Go to my brethren, and fay unto them, that our relations ana intercfts are all lwt one;. the fame Father_ that is mine is theirs, and the fame god that is mi~ae u thirs; his relations are made ours, and our relations are made his interchangably. No wonder if Luther tell us that the befl: divinity lay in pronounes; for as thqe is no comfort in heaven without God, and no comfort in God without a .Father, fo neither is there comfort in Father, heaven, or God, without ottrs, to give us a property in them all. 0 the bleffed news that Chrifr tells Mary, and that Mar7 tells us, 1 afcend to my Father, aml y our F.1ther, to my Got!, and yci:r Gd. Oh what dull hearts have we that are not more affected wich this b!e!f<·d news? no fooner was Chrifl: rifen from the dead, but he takes care in all halle to appeare to A a a a a z hfary ;
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