ance, to give you an account of these two very important circumstances. This will be taken, not from the Gospel of St. Matthew, but from a part of the Bible, called the Acts of the Apostles.

I hope and trust that these Lectures have been, through the blessing of God and the grace of the Lord Jesus, of use to your souls. And if, by means of them, I have encouraged you to be baptized, and have made you acquainted with the religion into which all Christians are baptized: if I have strengthened your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and have made you desirous of being Christians in deed and not in name only, I shall neither have preached them to you, nor will you have heard them in vain.

And now to God, &c.

ACTS i. 9. and ii. 1-4.

And when he (that is Jesus) had spoken these things, while they beheld he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

I PROMISED you, in my last Lecture, to give you an account of two very grand and important points of our Lord's life and of

our religion. I mean his ascension, and the coming down of the Holy Ghost on the apostles. I have, in the course of these Lectures, informed you, that our Lord Jesus Christ had been from the beginning of time with God, and was God-that somewhat more than eighteen hundred years ago he came on earth, suffering himself to be born as other men of a woman, but born after a wonderful manner of a virgin. I have also acquainted you with a great many things that he said and did, as they are related to us by St. Matthew in his Gospel. I have given you an account of his crucifixion, his death, his burial, and his rising from the dead on the third day after his death. I now proceed to inform you, in the first place, of his ascension or going up into heaven,

We read that he was seen for forty days by his disciples, after he was risen from the dead. During that time, he taught them a great many things, which they

knew not before. He convinced them, by many proofs, in which they could not be deceived, that he was truly alive. He ate and drank with them. At his first meeting with them, one of them, named Thomas, was absent. And when he had heard from the rest, that they had seen Jesus after his resurrection, he refused to give credit to them, declaring that he would not believe, unless he saw the print of the nails on the hands of Jesus, and the mark of the spear, with which the soldiers had pierced his dead body. Soon after, Jesus came to the disciples, when Thomas was with them, and he was so indulgent and good as to give Thomas the proof he wanted. For he said, "Behold the print of the nails, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing." Thomas was now convinced of the truth, and cried out, "My Lord, and my God!" Having thus by various ways convinced his disciples of the truth of his resurrection, and having given them much instruction,

he led them on the fortieth day out to a mountain. He first of all desired them to wait at Jerusalem, till they received the Holy Ghost from heaven, which he calls the promise of the Father. And then, in the act of blessing them, he was separated ⚫ from them, and went up slowly into heaven. They continued gazing on him, till a cloud deprived them of the sight of him. But even this could not draw away their eyes from the wonderful sight. They kept gazing on the place, where they lost sight of him, till two angels thus addressed them: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven. This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." And in the heaven, the highest heaven, the heaven of heavens he now is, possessing all power and authority, ruling over all things, protecting, defending andblessing his true serv an ts, interceding for them with the Father, God Almighty, and hearing their prayers, and presenting those prayers at the throne of mercy. And