a cloud (as Luke says they did) not to mention so very wonderful and interesting an affair in their gospels; — and men who did not see the thing, to relate it as part of the history they had received from the apostles; — this is what astonishes me. If it was a truth, surely so important a one ought not to be omitted by those who saw it: since Matthew and John did write histories of Christ, why should they be silent on this grand article, and take no notice of it in their records? What do you say to this?
I will tell you, (I replied): in the first place, nostrum non est providentiae divinae rationes reddere. Placuit spiritui sancto ita dirigere calamos Matthaei et Joannis, ut narratione resurrectionis dominicae evangelia sua concluderent. (Sic refert Philippus a Limborch). — It does not become us to call Providence to account, or assign the ways it ought to act in: infinite wisdom thought fit to appoint, that Matthew and John should

end their gospels with the relation of our Lord's resurrection: the resurrection demonstrated the divine mission of Jesus Christ. To it, as a proof the most valid, and unexceptionable, our Lord referred the Jews, and therefore, to it, as the great fundamental, Matthew and John appealed: they proved it by declaring that they had conversed with Jesus Christ after he arose from the sepulchre; and when that was proved, there could be no dispute about any thing else. The divinity of the christian religion, and the ascension and glory of their Lord, rest on this base. All the blessings likewise of the gospel, regeneration, our resurrection, and life eternal, are ascribed by the apostles, Peter and Paul, to the resurrection of Christ: and for these reasons, to be sure, when John had described his Lord's resurrection, he added, — and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book — But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through his name. We must allow then, that the account of the ascension by Luke and Mark, may be authentic, tho' not mentioned by Matthew and John.
In the next place, St. John is not totally silent as to the ascension of our Lord. In his sixth chapter, ver. 62. it is written — What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend

up where he was before?