You are to turn the

the way to life and salvation. world upside-down; to change the manners and customs of the people; to bring them off from the idolatry of their forefathers, to worship the true God in spirit and in truth. You are to reduce the earth into conformity with heaven, and set up God's kingdom here in this present world. And all this you shall not do in ease and quietness, in prosperity and pleasure; but whilst you are thus employed and busied, you shall have the whole world rise up against you, and the devil persecuting you with his utmost power, through wicked men ; and you shall not only be hated of all men for my name's sake; but you shall be even overwhelmed with reproaches, obloquies, slanders, oppositions, persecutions, prisons, torments, deaths. And therefore, that you may be able, both to do and to suffer all these things, You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you." Now from these words we shall note something generally, and something more particularly.

In general three things. The first is this:

I. That as Christ will not suffer his disciples to be tempted above their power, so neither to be employed above their power; but he furnishes them with power sufficient, both for their temptations, and for their employments; for their sufferings, and for their doings. And as soldiers, that are under a wise and careful commander, when they are near an engagement, are not suffered to run rashly upon the enemy; nor permitted to go forth to battle till they are armed and mounted: so Christ would not suffer his disciples to go forth in his warfare, to encounter so many evils, and oppositions, and persecutions, and the whole power of the world, and of the devil, till first he had armed them with the power of the Holy Spirit; Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you, &c.

Christ always gives unto all those whom he sends forth and employs, of his own power, for his own works; hea

venly power for heavenly works, spiritual power for spiritual works; the power of God, to do the works of God. Indeed, Christ gives unto some a greater measure of power, and to some a less; according as he intends to use some in greater works and difficulties, and some in less: but still they have of Christ's power, whether more or less, who are employed by Christ. And a little of that power that is communicated by Christ, will enable a man to do great things; far greater than the world suspects or imagines.

So that we may judge of our calling to any business, and of our employment in it, by the power we have received from Christ for it. If we have none of the power of Christ, we were never set on work by Christ; for Christ never sets any on his work, without communicating unto them of his power. And hereby we may certainly know and conclude, that those in the ministry that are loose and vicious, idle and negligent, and insufficient for that work, were never called to it, nor employed in it by Christ; but they ran of their own heads, when they were not sent, and minister in the church for the gain of money, and preach only that they might live. Whereas, if Christ had employed them in that calling, he would have furnished them with abilities for it: and they being destitute of such abilities, it is most evident they were not sent by Christ.

Judge then what a kind of reformation this church were like to have, if some men were to have their minds; who would have ignorant and insufficient men, yea loose and profane men, tolerated in the ministry, under pretence of keeping up ordinances; when yet such men were never employed by Christ, nor supplied with any power from him. Yea, and what ordinances, I pray, are they like to be, which are kept up by men that are carnal, not having the Spirit? But you see here, that Christ's way and wisdom was different from this; for he first gave the apostles

the power of the Spirit, and then sent them to preach, when he had first enabled them to preach (ƒ).

II. You see here, that Christ, being to leave his disciples, in regard of his bodily presence, yet leaves behind him the promise of the Spirit of power; and this was some establishment to them: yea, this gave great joy and comfort to them, who before had their hearts filled with sorrow.

Christ, though sometimes he leaves his people, in regard of sense, yet he never leaves them without a promise. The soul sometimes, in the hours of temptation and desertion, may want the sense and feeling of Christ, but it never wants a promise from Christ; and the promise makes Christ present in his absence: for Christ himself is spiritually present in the promise; and not Christ only, but the Holy Spirit also; for Christ and the Spirit are never asunder: but as the Father and the Son are one, so is Christ and the Spirit one, and all are in the promise. And so the promise is able to uphold the soul in any condition; not because of its own nature, but because God, and Christ, and the Spirit, are present in the promise; and they are infinitely able to support the soul, through the promise, under the greatest evils, either of earth or hell. Now this enjoyment of God in the promise, is the enjoyment of faith, and not of sense; and this enjoyment of faith, is the most excellent and intimate enjoyment of Christ. And thus may the soul enjoy Christ's presence in his absence; his presence according to faith, in his absence according to sense. And therefore, Christ, departing from his disciples, in regard of his bodily presence, leaves with them the promise of the Holy Spirit; and in that promise, his spiritual presence. And this is the worst condition that Christ ever leaves his true church in; he leaves them his

(f) Melius est, nullum habere, quam sacrilegum, impium and sceleratum ministrum, qui non venit nisi ut mactet and perdat, sicut fur and latro. Luth, de Instit. Ministr. Eccl.

presence in a promise, when in regard of sense, he forsakes them.

III. Note, that Luke, being to speak in this book, of the Acts of the apostles, of the propagating, enlarging, and governing the Christian church, doth first make mention of the pouring forth of the Spirit, and that both upon the apostles, and afterwards upon the disciples. Signifying hereby, that there is nothing so necessary for the increase and well ordering of the true church of Christ, as the pouring forth of the Spirit. And therefore they are altogether deceived, and walk in the light of nature, and not of God, who think the increase, and propagation, and preservation, and establishment, and order, and ordering of the church of God, depend especially upon the councils and decrees, and constitutions of men: and that without these, the church of God would soon come to woful disorder, yea, to utter ruin and confusion. As if Christ and his Spirit sat idle in heaven, and had left the whole business of his church to men; and the sacred power confirmed with the secular, were abundantly sufficient for the increase and well-ordering of the church. In the mean time, not regarding the promise of the Father, nor the pouring out of the Spirit by the Son. And this is the very mystery of the mystery of iniquity among us, and the very head of antichrist, which is yet to be broken. And therefore let us know, that, as the Psalmist saith, Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; and except the Lord keep the city, the watchman watcheth but in vain: so also, except the Lord, through his word, pour forth the promise of the Spirit, and by that Spirit of his, in and through the word, enlarge and govern the church, they labour in vain that undertake these things of themselves. For it is the Spirit alone, that, through the faithful ministry of the word, makes the increase of the church, and lays hold on all the elect, and brings them, through faith, into the unity

D

of the Son, and of th Father; and teaches them, and orders them, and governs them, and preserves them. And therefore you see here, that the promise of the Spirit is first performed, before the church of God hath any enlargement or government.

And now, from these general things we proceed to the words more particularly: Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And here we may note two things.

I. What he promises them, and that is power; you shall receive power.

II. How they should be made partakers of that power, and that was, by the Holy Spirit's coming upon them.

The point we will insist on from both, is this:

"That the receiving of the Spirit, is the receiving of power." Till we receive the Spirit, we are altogether without power; and when we receive the Spirit, then, first of all, do we receive power; power from on high.

By nature we are all without strength, weak, impotent creatures, utterly unable to do any thing that is truly and spiritually righteous and good. For by nature we are nothing but flesh; for that which is born of flesh is flesh; and all flesh is grass; a fading, withering and decaying thing, together with all the flowers of it; that is, the perfections and excellencies of it. So that by nature we are all without power, because we are nothing but flesh; of which, weakness is an inseparable adjunct.

But when we receive the Spirit, we receive power; for power is an inseparable adjunct of the Spirit, as weakness is of flesh yea, the Spirit itself, which is given us, is powand that both essentially and operatively, in itself and

in us.

1. The Spirit is power essentially in itself; for it is one God with the Father and the Son, co-essential, co-equal, coeternal; and so, as Christ is the power of God, so also is