BOOK 8. THE ASCENSION.
CHAPTER 1.
8.1.7. Of the Time when the Holy Ghost was sent.
Of the Time when the Holy Ghost was sent.
For the mission of his Spirit: no sooner was Christ set down at God's right hand, but he sends down the Holy Ghost. It was an use among the ancients in days of great joy and solemnity, to give gifts, and to send presents unto men; thus, after the wall of Jerusalem was built, it is said. That "the people did eat, and drink, and send portions," Neh. viii. 12. "And at the feast of Purim, they made them days of feasting, and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor," Esth. ix. 22. Thus Christ, in the day of his majesty and inauguration, in that great and solemn triumph, "When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and did withal give gifts unto men," Eph. iv. 8.
Concerning this mission of the Spirit, or these gifts of Christ to his church, I shall discover the accomplishment, as it appears in these texts, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting; and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance," Acts ii. 1, 2, 3, 4. Out of these words, I shall observe these particulars: this section; the time when, and in following sections; the persons to whom, the manner how, the measure what, and the reasons why the Holy Ghost was sent.
1. For the time when the Holy Ghost was sent, it is said, "When the day of Pentecost was fully come," this was a feast of the Jews called pentekoste a pentechdeka, from fifty days, because it was ever kept on the fiftieth day, after the second of the passover. We find in scripture sundry memorable things reckoned by the number of fifty: As fifty days from Israel's coming out of Egypt unto the giving of the law. And the fiftieth year was that great feast of the jubilee, which was the time of forgiving of debts, and of restoring men to their first estates: and fifty days were in truth the appointed time of the Jews harvest; their harvest being bounded as it were with two remarkable days, the one being the beginning, the other the end thereof, the beginning was deutera tou pascha; the second of the passover; the end was (pentekoste) the fiftieth day after, called the Pentecost upon the deutera; they offered "a sheaf of the first fruits of their harvest," Lev. xxiii. 10. Upon the Pentecost they offered "two wave-loaves," Lev. xxiii. 17. The sheaf being offered, all the after-fruits throughout the land were sanctified; and the two loaves being offered, it was a sign of the harvest finished and ended; and now we find, that as there were fifty days betwixt (deutera) and the Pentecost, so there were fifty days betwixt Christ's resurrection, and the coming down of the Holy Ghost. What was the meaning of this, but to hold harmony and to keep correspondence with those memorable things? As on the day of Pentecost, (fifty days after the feast of the passover) the Israelites came to Mount Sinai, and there received they the law; a memorable day with them, and therefore called the feast of the law; so the very same day is accomplished that prophecy, "Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem," Isa. ii. 3. Now was the promulgation of the gospel called by James, "the royal law," James ii. 8, as given by Christ our king, and written in the hearts of his servants by the Holy Ghost; it seems to shadow out the great difference betwixt the law and the gospel; the law was given with terror, in lightening and thunder: it discovers sin, declares God's wrath, frights the conscience; but the gospel is given without terror; there was no lightening and thunder now; no, no, the Holy Ghost slides down from heaven with grace and gifts; and with great joy sits on the heads and in the heart of his saints.
2. On the Jubilee, or fiftieth year was a great feast, whence some observe, That the Latins made their word Jubilo, to take up a merry song: though the word be derived from the Hebrew Jobel, which signifies a ram's horn; for when they blew with ram's horns, as when they gathered the people to the congregation, they blew with silver trumpets. There were many uses of this feast; --
(a). For the general release of servants.
(b). For the restoring of lands unto their first owners who had sold them.
(c). For the keeping of a right chronology and reckoning of time; for as the Greeks did reckon by their Olympiads and the Latins by their Lustra, so did the Hebrews by their Jubilees; this falls fit with the proclaiming of the gospel, which is an act or tender of God's most gracious general free pardon of all sins, and of all the sinners in the world; now was the sound of the gospel made known unto all, "out of every nation under heaven," Acts ii. 5. Now was that spiritual Jubilee, which Christians enjoy under Christ; now was the remission published, which exceeded the remission of the jubilee, as far as the jubilee exceeded the remission of the seventh year, (i.e.) Not only seven times, but "seventy times seven times," Matth. xviii. 22.
3. On the day of Pentecost, "they offered the two wave-loaves called the bread of the first-fruits unto the Lord," Lev. xxiii. 17, 20. In like sort, this very day the Lord of the harvest so disposing it, the apostles, by the assistance and effectual working of the Spirit, offered the first-fruits of their harvest unto the Lord; for "the same day, there were added unto them about three thousand souls," Acts ii. 41. We see the circumstance of time hath its due weight, and is very considerable; "When the day of Pentecost was fully come, then came the Holy Ghost."