BOOK 8. THE ASCENSION.
CHAPTER 1.
8.1.8. Of the Persons to whom the Holy Ghost was sent.
Of the Persons to whom the Holy Ghost was sent.
For the persons to whom the Holy Ghost was sent, it is said, "To all that were with one accord in one place," Acts ii. 1. Who they were it is not here expressed, yet from the former chapter we may conjecture, they were "the twelve apostles, together with Joseph called Barsabbas, and the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren," Acts i. 13, 14. These all continued with one accord in one place, for so was Christ's command, "That they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, Ye have heard of me," Acts i. 4. This promise we read of in the evangelists, "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he will testify of me," John xv. 26. "And behold I send the promise the Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high," Luke xxiv. 49. It was the great promise of the Old Testament, that Christ should partake of our human nature, and it was the great promise of the New Testament, that we should partake of his divine nature; he was clothed with our flesh according to the former, and we are invested with his Spirit according to the latter promise. For this promise the apostles and others, had long waited, and for the accomplishment they were now fitted and disposed.
1. They had waited for it from the ascension day till the feast of Pentecost: he told them at the very instant of his ascension, that he would send the Holy Ghost; and therefore bade them stay together till that hour; upon which command they waited, and continued waiting "until the day of Pentecost was fully come. -- He that believeth shall not make haste," saith Isaiah xxviii. 16. Surely waiting is a Christian duty, "for the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and shall not lie: though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry," Hab. ii. 3. Well may we wait, and wait for him, if we consider how God and Christ have waited for us and our conversion, and especially if we consider that the Comforter will come, and when he comes, that "He will abide with us forever," John xiv. 16. But,
2. As they waited for the Spirit, so they were rightly disposed to receive the Spirit, for "they were all with one accord in one place." Mark here the qualifications of these persons, "they were all with one accord in that place," etc. To those that accord is the Spirit given; where is nothing but discord, jars, divisions, fractions, there is no Spirit of God; for the Spirit is the author of concord, peace, unity, and amity; he is the very essential unity, love, and love-knot of the two persons, the Father and the Son; even of God with God; and he was sent to be the union, love, and love-knot of the two natures united in Christ, even of God with man; and can we imagine, that essential unity will enter but where there is unity? Can the Spirit of unity come or remain but where there is unity of Spirit? Verily there is not, there cannot be a more proper and peculiar, a more true and certain disposition to make us meet for the Spirit, than that quality in us, that is likest to his nature and essence; and that is unity, love, and concord: do we marvel, that the Spirit doth scarcely pant in us? Alas! We are not all of one accord: the very first point is wanting to make us meet for the coming of the Holy Ghost upon us. We see the persons to whom the Holy Ghost was sent, they were, "they that were together with one accord in one place."