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I

CHRIST's SPIRIT,

A

Christian's Strength.

Acts 1. 8. But ye shall receive Power, when the
Holy Ghoft is come upon you,

and ye Shall be

witnesses unto me, &c. Or, You shall receive the Power of the Holy Ghoft coming upon you.

T

HESE Words are the more Remarkable, because the very last Words in the Conference between the Son of God, and his Beloved Apoftles, immediately before his Afcenfion into Heaven. Now, you know, when dear and intimate Friends are ready to part, as their Love then runs ftrongest, and their Affections are most intire and vehement, fo then alfo they efpecially difcourfe of thofe things, wherein most of all they defire to be fatisfied and refolved. Thus was it between Chrift and his Apostles; Never was there fuch dear and intimate Friendship, and fuch fincere and burning Love between any, as between them. The Apostles, all of them loved Chrift moft truly, and paffionately; and Peter, who had three times denied him, three times professed his Love to him; and being forry that Chrift fhould question his Love the third time, he thus anfwered, Lord, thou knoweft all things, thou knoweft Joh. 4.19. that I love thee. And Christ alfo loved them dear- Joh. 13.1. ly; yea, he loved them first, and having loved his

Qon, he loved them to the end; and fo he was not

discontented

1

The fumm of Chrift's Difcourfe

discontented with them, for their leaving and forfaking him, through Humane Infirmity, when he was led away to Judgment, and to Death: For though Death quite puts out all Natural Love, yeɛ Spiritual Love is not extinguished, but enlarged by Death. Now when fuch loving Friends as thefe, were even now ready to take their last leave of one another, in regard of Bodily Prefence, who would not moft willingly have been prefent, to have heard what Difcourfe pafs'd between Chrift and his Difciples, at this their last parting.

Now Luke acquaints us with the whole Sum and Subftance of Chrift's Difcourfe with his Apostles, with his all the time he lived together with them, after Difciples, his Refurrection, till the day wherein he Afcended after bis into Heaven: In the third Verse of this Chapter, Refurre, he faith, He did Difcourfe with them, de Regno &ion, till bis Afcen- Dei, touching the Kingdom of God. That is, not fion. only touching his Spiritual Kingdom, which he fets up in each particular Chriftian, and which begins at our Regeneration, and is confummate in Glorification: But alfo touching his Mediatory and Monarchical Kingdom; which, in the time appointed of his Father, he fhould fet up in the World; Pfal. 2. 8. When he fhould have the Heathen for his Inheritance, Dan.7.14. and the utmost ends of the Earth for his Poffeffion, and Pfal.72.8. all People, and Nations, and Languages should ferve

him, and he should Reign from Sea to Sea, and from the River to the World's end. This was the Sum of Chrift's Difcourfe with them, and the Apostles were fully fatisfied touching the thing, only they were unfatisfied touching the time. For befides, that the fetting up of this Kingdom of the Meffias in the Power, Beauty, and Glory of it, was at that time the common difcourfe and expectation of all Ifrael; the Apoftles themfelves remembred many Prophecies and Promifes of the Old Tefta ment, for the Reftoring the Kingdom of David;

and

and this they thought Chrift would have done, in the days of his flesh: But prefently, all their hopes were blafted by his death. But when they faw him rifen again from the dead, then presently their hearts were revived, into their former hopes; but yet again, feeing nothing done, all the time he converfed with them after the Refurrection, when now he was ready to Afcend into Heaven, they defire him, first, to Refolve them this Question, whether or no he would at that time, reftore the Kingdom to Ifrael; Lord (fay they) Wilt thou at this time reftore again the Kingdom to Ifrael? Now Chrift doth not deny the restoring of the Kingdom to Ifrael, but denies to acquaint them with the time when it should be done. He tells them, it was not for them to know the times and feafons, which the Father had put in bis own power, ver. 7.

The like Anfwer to the like Demand, Daniel received in his time. For when the Angel had reprefented to Daniel, the total deftruction of the Image of worldly Monarchy, together with the rife and reign, and ruine of Antichrift, and the fetting up of Chrifts Kingdom in the World, in the ftead of the two former, Daniel faid, Chap. 12. 8. And I keard, but I understood not; then faid 1, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he laid, Go thy way Daniel, for the words are clofed up and fealed till the time of the end. So that the Angel, who difcovered the things themselves to Daniel, refused to discover to him plainly and exprefly the time when they fhould be done; but that was to be closed and fealed up till the time of the end. And fo here in like manner, Chrift who had difcourfed largely and clearly to the Difciples touching the Kingdom of God, yet denies to difcover to them the time when it fhould be fet up in the world. And the reafon why he denied this to them, to whom he had not denied himself, was not for want of Love,

but

but because the Father had kept the time and feafon, wherein all this fhould be done, in his own power. Had this been placed in Chrifts power, he had no doubt made it known to them, as well as he did those other things, which he had heard from his Father; but the Father had not placed this in his Sons power, but had referved it in his own; and the Apostles were not to pry after, that which was hidden with God, but were to content themfelves with what he had revealed.

But though the Son did not reveal to them what the Father had kept in his own power, yet he tells them, what the Father had promifed unto them, and what he had alfo put into his power, and what he would certainly perform e'er long, and that was the gift of the Spirit of power, faying, But ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghoft is come upon you, and you shall be witneffes to me, &c. As if he should have faid, Do not you trouble your felves about fecret things, which fhall not be accomplish'd in the world, till many years after you are fallen afleep; but do you mind your present bufiuefs, wherein you are to ferve God, in your Generation; your prefent task is to be wineffes unto me, in Jerufalem, and all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the utmost parts of the Earth; to declare and make known, what you have heard, and feen with your eyes, and looked upon, and your hands have handled of the word of Life: You are to teftifie to the World my Incarnation, Doctrine, Miracles, Life, Death, Refurrection, and my Kingdom and Glory, that is to come: You are to make known to the World, the high and deep, the great and glorious mystery of Chrift and of the Gofpel; and that you may be fit for this great and weighty work, you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghoft: You Shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you, &c.

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