Secondly, From the nature and order of this work of God it is, that after the Son was actually exhibited in the flesh, according to the promise, and had fulfilled what he had taken upon him to do in his own person, the great promise of carrying on and finishing the whole work of the grace of God in our salvation concerns the send- ing of the Holy Spirit to do and perform what he also had under- taken.^ Thus, when our Lord Jesus Christ was ascended into heaven, and began conspicuously and gloriously to carry on the building of his church upon himself, the rock and foundation of it, it is said, that, " being by the right hand of God exalted, he received of the
* \\a.) (/.iXitrra, yi to u'tt oXauiiv rov; dvcc^Xuff^ivrce; rod Lying (jt,ov, xa.) ^iaf/.ivtiv iv rri dva'TrXafii, Trts tou ■^avctyiou 7tvii[ia,Tcis Iitti ^tifioufyicc; <ti xa) ffvvop^^ri;. — Jobius apud
Pbotium. lib. cxxii.
CHAP, v.] IN THE NEW CREATION. 191
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit," Acts ii. 33 ; which must be a little opened: — 1. Before he departed from his disciples, as hath been mentioned on several occasions, he comforted and cheered their drooping spirits with the promise of sending him unto them, which he often repeated and inculcated on their minds, John xiv. 15-17. And, 2. When he was actually leaving them, after his resurrec- tion, he gives them order to sit still, and not to engage in the public work of building the church, whereunto he had designed them, until that promise were actually accomplished towards them: Acts i. 4, " Being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father;" and verse 8, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the utmost part of the earth." He would have them look neither for assistance in their work, nor success unto it, but from the promised Spirit alone ; and lets them know, also, that by his aid they should be en- abled to carry their testimony of him to the uttermost parts of the earth. And herein lay, and herein doth lie, the foundation of the ministry of the church, as also its continuance and efficacy. The kingdom of Christ is spiritual, and, in the animating principles of it, invisible. If we fix our minds only on outward order, we lose the rise and power of the whole. It is not an outward visible ordination by men, — though that be necessary, by rule and precept, — but Christ's communication of that Spirit, the everlasting promise whereof he received of the Father, that gives being, life, usefulness, and success, to the ministry. Wherefore, also, 3. Upon his ascension, in the accomplishment of the great promises given unto the church under the Old Testament, Isa. xliv. 3, Joel ii. 28, 29, as also of his own, newly given unto his disciples, he poured forth his Spirit on them. This the apostle Peter declares in this place: " Being exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he shed forth what they then saw and heard," in the miraculous operations and effects of it. And he is said then to re- ceive tlie promise of the Father, because he then received the thing 'promised. The promise was not then first given unto him, nor did he then receive it for himself; for as the promise was given long before, so in his own person he had received the fulness of the Spirit from his incarnation, as hath been declared; but now he had power given him actually to fulfil and accomplish the promise in the colla- tion of the thing promised, and is thence said to receive the promise. So Heb. xi. 13, 39, it is said of all believers under the Old Testa- ment, that they " died in faith, not having received the promise;" that is, the thing promised was not actually exhibited in their days.
192 THE GENERAL WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT [BOOK IL
though they had the promise of it, as it is expressly said of Abra- ham, chap. vii. 6. The promise, therefore, itself was given unto the Lord Christ, and actually received by him in the covenant of the mediator, when he undertook the great work of the restoration of all things, to the glory of God ; for herein had he the engagement of the Father that the Holy Spirit should be poured out on the sons of men, to make effectual unto their souls the whole work of his medi- ation: wherefore, he is said now to "receive this promise," because on his account, and by him as exalted, it was now solemnly accom- plished in and towards the church. In the same manner the same thing is described, Ps. Ixviii. 18, " Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts for men;" which is rendered, Eph. iv. 8, " Thou hast given gifts unto men : " for he received the promise at this time only to give out the Spirit and his gifts unto men. And if any are so fond as to expect strength and assistance in the work of the ministry without him, or such success in their labours as shall find acceptance with God, they do but de- ceive their own souls and others.