sion immediately. And accordingly you may observe, that after Christ's departure from this world, the Holy Ghost acted immediately under Christ, as the supreme vicegerent of his kingdom. For next and immediately under Christ he authorized the bishops and governors of the church, and constituted them overseers of the flock of Christ, Acts xx. 28. It was he that chose their persons, and appointed them their work, Acts xiii. 2. and gave them their several orders and directions, Acts xv. 28. xvi. 6. in all which it is evident he acted under Christ, and still continues to act as his supreme substitute and vicegerent; and accordingly he is styled by Tertullian, the vicarious virtue or power, as he was the supreme vicar and substitute of Christ in mediating for God with men: so that now the Holy Ghost is subordinate to the Son, not only by virtue of his procession from him together with the Father, but also by virtue of his being purchased and obtained by him of the Father by his meritorious death and intercession. I proceed,

III. To shew what it is that this Holy Spirit hath done, and still continues doing, in order to the effectuating this his mediation. For there are some things which he hath done, and now ceases to do, and some things which he hath always done, and will still continue doing to the end of the world; of both which I shall give some brief account, in order to the fuller explication of the ministry of the Holy Ghost under Jesus the great mediator. First therefore, there are some things which he hath done, and now ceases to do: and of this sort were those extraordinary operations he performed in order to the planting and propagating Christ's gospel in the world, upon and after that his miraculous descent, of which we

read in Acts ii. For when Christ was departing from his disciples into heaven, he ordered them to stay at Jerusalem, and not to undertake that mighty work of planting his gospel through the world, till they were endued with power from on high, Luke xxiv. 49. which power from on high was no other than that miraculous assistance which upon his descent the Holy Ghost did afterwards vouchsafe them; upon which order they return to Jerusalem, and there continue till the day of Pentecost, fasting and praying together in an upper room; when all on a sudden the Holy Ghost descended upon them in a vi- . sible body of bright shining fire, and endowed them with all those heavenly powers which were requisite to qualify them for the propagation of Christ's gospel through the world. For as they were to be the first planters of the gospel, it was requisite, first, that they should be able to speak the several languages of those nations to whom they were to preach; secondly, that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the doctrines which they were to preach; thirdly, that they should be able to give the most convincing evidence of the truth and divinity of their doctrines; fourthly, that they should be conducted by infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their ministry; against all which necessities the Holy Ghost abundantly supplied them: for,

First, He inspired them with the gift of languages, without which they must have spent a great part of their lives, before they could have been capable of preaching the gospel to the world, in learning the several languages of the several nations they were to preach to; which must have very much retarded the progress of the gospel. And therefore the Holy

Ghost, upon this his miraculous descent, did in an instant infuse into them the habit of speaking several languages; insomuch that all on a sudden, and without any rules of grammar or previous instructions, they were heard to speak, to the great astonishment of their auditors, in the fifteen several tongues of fifteen several nations, Acts ii. 4. &c. And though they were immediately dispersed abroad in the world, and some of them into remote countries, whose names perhaps they had never heard of, yet still, wherever they came, they were inspired with the language of the country, which they spake as freely as their own mother-tongue. And this was a vast advantage to them in their ministry, because they were not only enabled by it to preach the gospel to all nations, but were enabled in such a manner, as gave a mighty confirmation to their doctrine. For their very gift of speaking, being a miraculous effect of divine power, was an undeniable demonstration that what they spake was divine.

Secondly, The Holy Ghost fully and clearly instructed them in the doctrines which they were to preach: and this was no more than what was necessary. For what they preached, who were the first planters of the gospel, was to be the standard of truth and falsehood to all succeeding generations; and therefore it was highly necessary that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the doctrine of the gospel, that so their successors in all ages might safely rely on their authority. But whilst they were under the personal discipline of our Saviour, who instructed them by human methods, i. e. by proposing his doctrine to their ears, and through their mediation to their understandings, it is plain they made but very slow and

slender improvements. For after all his pains with them, they continued very ignorant of some of the most material articles of faith, and at best they had but gross apprehensions of the nature of Christ's kingdom, and of the ends and reasons of his death, and were very diffident even of his resurrection; and the reason was, that Christ taught them as a man doth a man, i. e. by words, which are only the audible images and representations of things, which being liable to misapprehension and oblivion, some of them they utterly forgot, and some of them they grossly misunderstood. But when the Spirit came upon them, a wondrous light broke all of a sudden into their understanding, by which they discovered farther into the gospel-mysteries in an instant, than they had done under all our Saviour's teaching. For though the Spirit taught them no new doctrines, but did only repeat and explain to them what our Saviour had taught them before, (for he shall receive of mine, saith Christ, i. e. of my doctrine, and shall shew, or explain it unto you,) yet it is evident he taught them much more effectually than our Saviour. For he spake not to their ears, but to their minds, and represented things more nakedly and immediately to their understandings; he conversed with their spirits, even as spirits do with spirits, without involving his sense in articulate sounds, or material representations, but objected it to them in its own naked light, and characterized it immediately on their understandings. And as he immediately proposed the divine light to their minds, so he also illuminated their minds to discern and comprehend it; he raised and exalted their intellectual faculties, and, as a vital form to the light of their reason, did actuate, and

thereby enable it to comprehend his revelations. And hence, Acts xix. 6. we are told, that the disciples, who upon St. Paul's laying his hands on them received the Holy Ghost, spake with tongues, and prophesied, i. e. explained the deep mysteries of the gospel; for so prophesying in the New Testament doth most commonly signify: hence 1 Cor. xiii. 2. the apostle makes prophecy to consist in understanding divine mysteries and knowledge; and in ver. 9. We know in part, saith he, and we prophesy in part; so that the effect of their receiving the Holy Ghost, you see, was prophecy, that is, a clear understanding of, and ability to explain the mysteries of religion. A plain evidence how effectually he taught them, in that they no sooner became his scholars, but they were fit to be the teachers of the world. For though it seems probable that he as well as our Saviour instructed them gradually in the knowledge of the gospel, since it was some time after this first descent that the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles `was revealed to them, yet it is apparent that he instructed them much faster than our Saviour had done, and much fuller; and that those impressions of divine truth which he made upon their understandings were much more vigorous and clear, and therefore could not be so easily either forgotten or mistaken by them. And accordingly our Saviour himself tells them, that he had many things to say unto them, but they could not bear them; such was the narrowness of their capacity, and the way of his teaching: Howbeit, saith he,when the Spirit of truth is come, he shall lead you into all truth, John xvi. 12, 13. and teach you all things, John xiv. 26. Thus the Holy Ghost fully instructed them what doctrine they