Christ's Ascension and Second Coming from Heaven

Christopher Love (1618-1651) was a fiery and practical Puritan preacher. His works consist of some of the best written and preached biblical expositions in print.

Christopher Love harvests sweet biblical honey from the word of God concerning the ascension of Jesus Christ, and the coming of Christ again to judgment. Though Love carefully refutes theological ideas such as the 1000 year earthly millennial reign of Christ, and the idea of soul sleep, he is more focused on demonstrating the sweetness and benefits of Christ’s ascension and second coming.

His main text is John 14:3, “And if I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” Love focuses on Christ’s ascension, or his going up to heaven. He says, this is a ground of great comfort and great advantage to all his people while they dwell here on earth. If the ascension is true, and it is, you ought to have an interest in Jesus Christ in this doctrine. Practically, no Christian should be afraid to die, because your Christ is in heaven, and when you die, as Love says, “death is but a trapdoor to let you into endless joy where Christ is.”

Equally, he mines out the benefits of Christ’s coming to judgment, as much of an unpopular idea as judgment may be. Love says that the benefit of Christ’s coming, (to raise your bodies from the dead and receive you to himself), is the particular point Christ means when he says, and receive you to myself. So if the Spirit that raised up Christ from the dead dwells in you, and you have the graces of the Spirit, that same Spirit shall quicken your mortal bodies. Therefore, the bodies of the elect shall be raised from the dead and received into glory with the soul when Christ returns. This is an exceedingly comforting thought for believers to discern. Christ, at his second coming, receives his elect to himself in body and soul, that they might be forever present where Jesus Christ is in heaven, which is Christ’s exhortation to believers, that where I am there you may be also. That is, they are with Christ in heaven for eternity.

This work is not a scan or facsimile, has been carefully transcribed by hand being made easy to read in modern English, and has an active table of contents for electronic versions.