"--This short introduction testifies,
that the substance of the history which the evangelist was about to
write was already believed by Christians; that it was believed upon the
declarations of eye-witnesses and ministers of the word; that it formed
the account of their religion in which Christians were instructed; that
the office which the historian proposed to himself was to trace each
particular to its origin, and to fix the certainty of many things which
the reader had before heard of. In Saint John's Gospel the same point
appears hence, that there are some principal facts to which the
historian refers, but which he does not relate. A remarkable instance of
this kind is the ascension, which is not mentioned by St. John in its
place, at the conclusion of his history, but which is plainly referred
to in the following words of the sixth chapter; "What and if ye shall
see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" (Also John iii. 31;
and xvi. 28.) And still more positively in the words which Christ,
according to our evangelist, spoke to Mary after his resurrection,
"Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go unto my
brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father,
unto my God and your God.
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