Chapter II
Some further observations touching the coming of the Holy Ghost. That he
had a signal coming designed to him for his glory at the feast of Pentecost,
as Christ had a visible coming in the flesh. The great change made in tlie
world thereby.
Add to these observations out of those chapters, these also that follow,
concerning this his coming promised in those chapters, but observed out of
other scriptures.
THE WOKE OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I.
- I. That a signal coming should be appointed to him, to the performance of his^work, as well as unto Christ to perform his. This coming of his you have inculcated again and again in these chapters, in these words, When he is come, and the like. Which imported that, although he was given to work regeneration in men afore, even under the Old Testament (as Neh. ix. 20, He gave them his good Spirit, and many other places, shew), that yet to let all the world of believers take notice his coming, and his work, he must have a coming in state, in a solemn and visible manner, accom panied with visible effects, as well as Christ had, and whereof all the Jews should be, and were witnesses (thus Acts, chaps, ii. iv.), and it was also apparent throughout the primitive times, in outward signs and miracles, extraordinary gifts and conversions. And as Christ, though he was under the Old Testament present with that church and with the fathers Acts vii. 37, 38, This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel which spake to Moses in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers yet had a visible coming in flesh to manifest his person ; that it was he who had done all those works then, and came now to work more, and far greater works : so there was a visible coming of the Holy Ghost, both in the appear ance of him as a dove, descending on Christ at first, and afterwards in the resemblance of cloven tongues. And there was not a personal union of the Holy Ghost with that dove and those tongues, as in Christ s manifestation in the flesh there was between the eternal Son of God and human nature. Yet these appearances of the Holy Ghost are to be understood by us as visible outward representa tions and discoveries of him to be the third person ; and that it had been he who was the author of all the whole work of application in the saints then under the Old Testament ; as well as now of regeneration and sancti-
fication,^ and of comforting ; and that he had been indwelling in all saints afore this his coming, as well as after.
And this his coming was as clearly prophesied of, and solemn promise made thereof, under the Old Testament, as there was of Christ s coming in the flesh. Which did so much heighten and raise up the expectations of all believers then about him ; as that upon which, and whereby, so great a change should be made in the church and world in the last days. This the apostle Peter commemorates and applies upon the Spirit s visible coming upon himself and the rest of his fellows : Acts ii. 16-18, This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel ; It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh : and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams : and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit ; and they shall prophesy ; and so on. Yea, this coming of the Spirit I may farther call the great promise of the New Testament. For as Christ s coming was the great promise of the Old Testament, so the sending of the Spirit is entitled the promise of the Father in the New : Luke xxiv. 49, And behold I send the promise of my Father upon you. And he is so styled, not only in that he had been promised in the Old Testament by the prophets (as in that of Joel ii. 28, 29, now cited), and in multitude of other prophecies of old ; but because that Christ himself did now de novo (as it were) promulge it as his promise, and the Father s; and that upon this authority, that this Spirit proceeded from him, as well as from the Father, and that he was first to receive him from* us, and then shed him forth on us, Acts * Qu. for ? ED.
CHAP. II.J IN OUR SALVATION. 9
ii. 33, that so it might be made good, that all the promises are yea and amen in him ; seeing this promise of the Spirit is given upon Christ s account, as he is the Son (according to that, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, Gal. iii. 13, 14 compared), and also because now under the New Testament this promise was to be fulfilled in such a manner and measure as was never under the Old ; and so it becomes a pro mise proper to the New, that next great promise, which was to succeed that of Christ himself, the promise of promises ; the sole great promise now left to be given. God the Father had but two grand gifts to bestow ; and when once they should be given out of him, he had left them nothing that was great (comparatively) to give, for they contained all good in them ; and these two gifts were his Son, who was his promise in the Old Testa ment, and his Spirit, the promise of the New. And the Father doth honour himself to us by this title, that he is the promiser and giver of the
Spirit ; and Christ himself, now when he is come, takes the honour too of
that, to make the sending of the Spirit his promise also, in saying, Behold I send him : Luke xxiv. 49, and John xiv. 26, Whom my Father will send in my name. And it is evident that our Saviour, in calling him the
promise of the Father, which was spoken by him after his resurrection, Luke xxiv. 49, doth refer to his own words and sermons uttered afore his
resurrection, in 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John, rather than to the
prophets primarily in his intention : Acts i. 4, Wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me.
Again, Christ had John the Baptist, who began the gospel, to foretell his manifestation in the flesh, and to prepare the way for this Lord. And besides him, his angels did it. But the Holy Ghost hath Christ himself to
foretell his coming upon flesh : and that to prepare the hearts of men for him whenever he should come.
And, lastly, on purpose to honour his visible coming, he had answerably an
extraordinary work left to him, upon that his visible coming
: the conversion
of the whole Gentile world ; and the raising and building of the churches of the New Testament was reserved of his glory. To believe in the Holy Ghost, and the holy catholic church, you know how near they stand together in the Creed. His visible coming at Pentecost was the visible consecration and dedication of that great temple, the mystical body of Christ, to be
reared under the gospel (the several members of which body are called
temples of the Holy Ghost/* 1 Cor. iii. 16), as that appearance at Christ s
baptism was the consecration of the head. Of this work of the Spirit, that
of the psalmist, though spoken literally of the first creation, may yet be used in allusion, and is mystically applied by some of the fathers there unto : Ps. civ. 30, Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created ; thou
renewest the face of the earth. The whole earth was decked and adorned
with a new array, when the Spirit of God moved upon that chaos ; and the whole face of the world was in that age of the gospel s promulgation no
other than a chaos, void, and without all form ; all nations had walked
in their own ways
: but the Spirit was sent forth, and lo this barren wil
derness became a fruitful field all the world over.
The feast of Pentecost was under the old law the feast of the first fruits, Lev. xxiii. 10. Thus it was in the type, and the apostles on that day re
ceived for the church of the New Testament the first fruits of the Spirit, Rom. viii. 23. And the sickle was then first put in, in the conversion of
the three thousand out of all nations (whether Jews or Gentiles, or mixed
* Ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost.
10 THE WOEK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK I.
with both) ; so to begin that great harvest, whereof these were the first fruits or seeds which consecrated the rest (as the first fruits did under the
law) in after ages to come, as Christ told them that their fruit should re main, John xv. 16. And this coming of the Holy Ghost then, and converting such as were inhabitants out of all nations, was by Christ designed to be for the handsel of the conversion of all nations : Actsi. 8, Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you ; and ye shall be wit nesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth ; charging them to stay at Jerusalem, and not to stir one foot out from thence, but wait first for the promise of the Father, ver. 4. For it would have been a vain attempt to have endea voured to convert the world until the Holy Ghost had come upon them ; and hence it was that this his visible coming was reckoned by the chief
apostle the first era, the beginning of the gospel, as the beginning of the creation described by Moses is of the world : Acts xi. 15, The Holy Ghost
fell upon them Gentiles, as upon us at the beginning, which refers to that at Pentecost. And this yet further answers the type, for the first giving of the law by Moses was on that day, the day of Pentecost ; and so this coming of the Spirit that day was justly reckoned the beginning of the
gospel, although the account of the Christian world begins with the nativity of Christ. But the full revelation of the gospel and the mysteries thereof, and the conversion of the world of the Gentiles, this was ordained for the
Spirit s glory, and reserved for his coming, John xvi. ; which conversion of the world is magnified as an after-sacrifice, as the saints sufferings after Christ are styled the aftersufferings of Christ, Col. i., presented unto God by the Holy Ghost ; Christ offered up himself as that alone meritorious
sacrifice, but this of the Gentiles did come after, a sacrifice sanctified by the Holy Ghost. The grace vouchsafed to the apostle for his poor instrumentalness therein, he owns, whilst he yet gives the glory of it to the Holy Ghost; which you may find in Rom. xv. 15, 16,
< To me this grace was
given, that I should be the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost. The Gentiles, you know, before had ever been esteemed unclean, and upon that account unmeet to be an offering unto God, as the law shews ; which that vision of
all sorts of unclean beasts made to Peter in the sheet (Acts x.), and the comment thereupon which he makes that the Gentiles were meant, doth shew. But these were all purified by the Holy Ghost s converting of them, that thereby all difference was taken away ; and so much as those that were not to be conversed with by a Jew, were now offered up as a sacrifice to God. Thus Acts xv. 8, 9, God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them
witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did us ; and put no differ ence between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Thus much for some general observations premised.