the Lord in the air, and so shall be ever with the Lord." And then adds, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

And well may he add that, for this certainly is the greatest comfort that a true Christian can ever have, insomuch that it hath prevented me in that which I promised to shew in the last place, even that the consideration of these things should keep our hearts from being troubled at any thing we meet with here below; for if we firmly believe and duly consider these words of our Blessed Saviour, and what we have now heard upon them, how can we suffer either our heads or our hearts to be troubled about any thing upon earth, but only how to get to heaven? What if we should be deprived of all our temporal enjoyments, what need we be troubled, when we have mansions above ready furnished to our hands with all the good things we can desire? What if it be difficult to get a place there? We have an Almighty Harbinger gone before to prepare one for us. What if we have never so many enemies, yea, what if all the men upon earth, and all the Devils in Hell, should conspire to ruin us? What need we be troubled at that, when we have a sure friend in Heaven who can abate their pride, assuage their malice, confound their devices, and make them against their wills do us good by all they design against us? What if we have no body here below that minds or matters what becomes of us? What need we be troubled at that, when we have an infinitely wise, and powerful, and good, and merciful Saviour above, continually taking care of us, and providing all things necessary for us, and One who can aid and assist us in all conditions, upon all occasions whatsoever: if we be in want, He can supply us; if in danger, He can deliver us; if in pain, He can ease us; if in disgrace, He can bring us to honour; if we be accused, He can acquit us; if sorrowful, He can comfort us; if weak, He can strengthen us; if sick, He can heal us; if dying, He can receive us to Himself? Can, did I say? yea, and will too, if we do but obey and trust Him as we ought.

Let us not, therefore, trouble our heads any more about any thing, but how to serve our great Lord and Master Christ, by doing all such good works as He hath set us,

LXXVI.

SERM and putting our whole trust and confidence only on Him, both for God's assistance of us in the doing them, and for His acceptance of them when they are done. Let us but constantly do this, and then we may be sure that He will guide, assist, and bless us through the whole course of our lives, and at length bring us to that blessed place which He hath prepared for us in His Father's House, that we may always live with Him who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end.

SERMON LXXVII.

A WHITSUN SERMON.

ACTS ii. 1, 2.

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, &c.

As in the Creation of the world from nothing, so also in the Redemption of Mankind from sin, all the three Persons in the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, did jointly concur, every one contributing towards it according to their several ways of working; for man by his fall into sin being both guilty of it, and defiled with it, God the Father sent His Son to expiate his guilt, and both Father and Son send the Spirit to cleanse him from the filth of sin, and to restore him to purity and holiness again; for which ends the Son came down to die for him, and the Spirit to live within him; and though there was no visible appearance of either of them till many years after the beginning of the world, yet the power and efficacy of either's undertaking commenced from the first promise which was Gen. 3. 15. made to man immediately after his fall. For from that time Christ was looked upon as slain for the sins of men, and the Holy Ghost thereupon moved upon their hearts "to turn them from darkness unto light, and from the [Acts 26. 18.] power of Satan unto God;" by which means the Patriarchs of old, and many that lived long before Christ came into the world, had their sins pardoned, their persons accepted, and their hearts purified, and by consequence are now in Heaven.

SERM. LXXVII.

[Gal. 4. 4.]

"But when the fulness of time" prescribed by the Father was come," the second Person came down from Heaven, and having clothed Himself with flesh, conversed several years in our own nature with men on earth; but all the while that He was here, the Spirit came not any more than John 7. 39. it had done before, neither could come until Himself was gone. From whence we may observe, that the Spirit's coming from Heaven to earth depended upon the Son's return from earth to Heaven, being, as it were, part of the purchase that He made by His death for us, so that had not the First died, to free us from our guilt, and justify our persons, neither would the Spirit have come to cleanse us from our lusts, and sanctify our natures; but when by His death He had purchased both pardon and grace, both justification and sanctification for us, then He had power afterwards to send the Spirit, Who by His grace might reconcile us to God, as Himself by His death had reconciled John 16. 7. God to us; and therefore He said, that "when He was gone He would send the Comforter, that is the Spirit." Where also it is observable the Spirit is called Παράκλητος, 1 John 2. 1. properly the Advocate, as it is rightly rendered of our Saviour; for, indeed, as Christ is our Advocate in Heaven, so is the Spirit God's Advocate upon earth; Christ there pleads with God for us, the Spirit here pleads with us for John 16. 8. God; yea, so that our Saviour tells us, He shall "convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Thus, therefore, our Saviour to comfort His Disciples, promised them several times before He died, that when He was gone He would send them another Comforter, or Advocate, in His room, "even the Spirit of God Himself;" neither did He promise it only before His Passion, but after His Luke 24.49. Resurrection too; and therefore bids them wait at Hierusalem for it. But why at Hierusalem? That so the Spirit might find them where He left them, and that, being endowed with power from above, they might there begin to proclaim the Gospel, where Christ had sealed it with His Own blood; and that the ancient Prophecy also might be fulfilled, "Out of Sion shall go forth the Law, and the Word of God from Hierusalem." Neither doth He only appoint them the place where they should expect the coming of the Spirit,

John 14.1626.

ch. 15. 26.

Acts 1. 4.

Isa. 2. 3.

but assures them too, that it should not be many days before He came. He would not send Him too soon, that they Acts. 1. 5.

might be more desirous of Him, and better prepared to receive Him; but He would not stay too long, lest they should suspect either His power or faithfulness, in not performing what He had so often promised; and therefore He tells them before, that it should be some days, but not many, before He came: some, that their desires might be stronger after the fulfilling of the promise; not many, lest their faith should grow weaker in Him that made it, Who made it also, and fulfilled it, on purpose that their faith might be confirmed in Him.

Our Saviour, therefore, having thus made this promise immediately before His Ascension, His Disciples could not but wait at Hierusalem for the fulfilling of it. And verily it was not many days before it was fulfilled, exactly according to our Saviour's promise and prediction, for He was crucified at the Passover, and rose again the third day, the day from whence the Jews began to reckon their fifty days to the Feast of Pentecost. After He was risen, He continued forty days upon earth, before He ascended up to Heaven: Acts 1. 3. so that, as the Israelites, after they had eaten the first Paschal lamb, were forty years in the wilderness before they got to the land of Canaan; so our Saviour, the true Passover, after He was slain and raised again, continued forty days in the wilderness of this world, before He went up to Heaven, the true land of Canaan. And it was but immediately before His Ascension that He made this promise, and therefore there were but ten days betwixt the making and the accomplishing of it, for there were but fifty days in all from the Resurrection to the Pentecost; forty were expired at His Ascension, and therefore there were but ten remaining to the Pentecost, when the Spirit came down, according to the relation which St. Luke hath made of it in my text," And when the Day of Pentecost was fully come," &c.

In which words is briefly contained whatsoever is necessary to be known, concerning the great mystery of the Holy Ghost's coming down to reside with men; and therefore, that