[1] For as the ministry of Enoch was sealed by his reception into heaven, and as the ministry of Elijah was also abundantly proved by his translation, so also the righteousness and innocence of Christ. But it was necessary that the ascension of Christ should be more fully attested, because upon his righteousness, so fully proved by his ascension, we must depend for all our righteousness. For if God had not approved him after his resurrection, and he had not taken his seat at his right hand, we could by no means be accepted of God.--_Cartwright_. {203} X THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT {204} "The Apostle Paul evidently saw the redemption of the bodies of the saints and their manifestation as the sons of God and with them the redemption of the whole creation from its present bondage to be the complete harvest of the Spirit, whereof the church doth now possess only the first-fruits, that is, the first ripe grains which could be formed into a sheaf and presented in the temple as a wave-offering unto the Lord. 'That Holy Spirit of Promise which is the earnest of our inheritance,' saith the same apostle--the earnest, like the first-fruit, being only a part of that which is to be earned . . . yet a sufficient surety that the whole shall in the fullness of the times, be likewise ours."--_Edward Irving_. {205} X THE ASCENT OF THE SPIRIT "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens." So writes the apostle concerning the Paraclete who is now with the Father, "Jesus Christ the righteous" (Eph. 4: 9). And what is true of the one is true of that "other Paraclete," the Holy Ghost, who was sent down to abide with us during this age. When he has accomplished his temporal mission in the world he will return to heaven in the body which he has fashioned for himself--that "one new man," the regenerate church, gathered out from both Jews and Gentiles during this dispensation. For what is the rapture of the saints predicted by the apostle when, at the sound of the trumpet and the resurrection of the righteous dead, "we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air?" (1 Thess. 4: 17). It is the earthly Christ rising to meet the heavenly Christ; the elect church, gathered in the Spirit and named _o christos_, (1 Cor. 12: 12,) taken up to be united in glory with "Christ, the Head of the church, himself the Saviour of the body" {206} (Eph. 5: 23, R. V.). In the council at Jerusalem this is announced as the distinctive work of the Spirit in this dispensation "to gather out _a people for his name_." It was not by accident and as a term of derision that the first believers received their name; but "the disciples were divinely called _Christians_ first in Antioch" (Acts 11: 26). This was the name pre-ordained for them, that "honorable name" by which they are called (James 2: 7). When, therefore, this