( 51 ). SERMON IV. THE EXALTATIONOF. CHRISTTO HIS KINGDOM, AND HIS SENDING DOWN THE HOLY SPIRIT. Aces ü. 33. Therefore being by the right-hand of God exalted,, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. IT was a strange amazement that seized the 'hearts of the multitude who came up to Jerusalem at the days of Pentecost, when they heard the apostle speak só many new languages : The Jews and the gentiless of various nations were struck with one general surprize, when they found fishermen, and persons of no learning,. declare in every tongue the wonderful works of God and his grace And while they were busy in their enquiries into the cause of this great event, Peter standing up with the eleven, lift up his voice, as their speaker, and beginning with the prophecy of Joel concerning the pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh, preaches to them the life and death, and resurrection of Christ, and assures them, that these miraculous gifts descended upon the apostles from that Jesus whom the Jews had crucified and slain : " But we are witnesses, says he, that God has raised him from the dead ; and being exalted by the right-hand, or power of God, he has shed forth these wondrou's gifts of the Holy Ghost, which the Father had promised him, and of which your own eyes and ears are present wit- nesses." The two great subjects of my appointed discourse, are evidently contained. in this text, viz. The exaltation of Christ to his kingdom, and his pouring down of the Holy Spirit. In pursuit of the first of these, I shall shew you wherein consists the exaltation of Christ, and what are the several parts of it; and here I might take notice, I. That at his ascension to heaven there was a glorious change passed upon his body to make it fit for the hea- venly state : For though Christ was raised from the dead,
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