in the Father hath always used the ministry of the Son, and the Son the ministry of the Holy Ghost. But in the matter of the Mediator it is evident that this subordination of these sacred Persons was founded not only in their personal inequalities, but also in a mutual agreement between them, in which the Son agreed with the Father, that in case he would be so far reconciled to rebellious mankind as to grant them a covenant of mercy, and therein, among other blessings, to promise them his holy Spirit, he himself would assume our natures, and therein not only treat with us personally, in order to the reducing us to our bounden allegiance, but also die a sacrifice for our sins; upon which agreement, the Father, long before the Son had actually performed his part of it, even from our first apostasy, granted his Spirit to mankind, which Spirit was granted to this end, that under the Son he should mediate with men, in order to the reducing them to their due subjection to the Father. For all that heavenly influence which the Holy Ghost sheds forth upon the minds of men is wholly mediatorial in God's behalf, and in order to the reconciling men's minds to him; and therefore in this his mediation he must be supposed to act in subordination to the Son, who is supreme Mediator; and accordingly, as the Son hath been and will be always mediating with men by this blessed Spirit, even from his ascension to the end of the world, so I make no doubt but he always mediated with them by the same Spirit, even from the fall of man to his incarnation. For so in the time of the old world we read of the Spirit's striving with men, i. e. in order to the subduing their stubborn wills to a due subjection to the will of the Father, Gen. vi. 3. In doing

of which, he even then mediated for God with men, under the great Mediator, and so he has continued to do through all successive ages of the world. For there is nothing more apparent from scripture, than that it is under Christ that the Spirit acts in the kingdom of God, upon which account he is called the Spirit of Christ, 1 Pet. i. 11. even as by the ancient Jews he is called the Spirit of the Messias, as was observed before; and this Spirit, whom St. Peter calls the Spirit of Christ, was, as he himself there tells us, the Spirit which was in the ancient prophets; by which it is evident, that long before Christ came, this Spirit was his, and that he acted by him. And even when he came down into the world to transact personally with men, he generally acted by this holy Spirit. For so at his baptism we are told, that the Holy Ghost descended on him in a bodily shape, Luke iii. 22. upon which it is said, that he went away full of the Holy Ghost, Luke iv. 1. after which it is plain, that it was by this Holy Ghost in him that he prophesied and wrought his miracles; for so Isa. lxi. 1. the prophet attributes the whole prophecy of Christ to the Spirit of the Lord which was upon him; and in Matt. xii. 28. our Saviour himself affirms, that he cast out devils by the Spirit of God, and therefore he calls the Jews' attributing his miraculous works to the Devil, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, Matt. xii. 31. because it was by the power of the Holy Ghost that he wrought them. Now as the Father's acting by the Son implies the Son's subordination to him; so the Son's acting by the Spirit implies the Spirit's subordination to him; which subordination of the Spirit, in his mediatorial office, is immediately founded in that compact of the

Son with the Father, upon which he undertook the mediation. For the Spirit was a part of the purchase of the Son's blood, and whatsoever he purchased, he purchased of the Father by compact and agreement with him; so that now he hath a right to the Spirit's ministry, not only by virtue of his proceeding from him, together with the Father, but also by the purchase of his own blood, whereby he obtained the promise of him from the Father. For so the Holy Ghost is said to be shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, i. e. through the intercession he makes in virtue of his meritorious sacrifice, Tit. iii. 5, 6. For whatsoever comes to us from God through Christ is part of that he hath purchased for us; and in Rom. v. 5, 6. he makes Christ's dying for the ungodly the reason of the giving the Holy Ghost to us. The promise of the Holy Ghost therefore, being part of the purchase of Christ's blood, he, by his advocation in heaven, obtained the performance of it of the Father, even as he doth the performance of all his other promises. For the Father being the supreme Person in the holy Trinity, is the prime and original fountain of all our blessings, and every good thing we receive is derived from him to us through the Son, and by the Holy Ghost; and even the Holy Ghost himself is derived to us from the Father through the advocation of the Son. For so he himself tells us, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, namely, the Holy Ghost, John xiv. 16. So that though Christ hath purchased the Holy Ghost of the Father, as he hath also all the other blessings of the new covenant, yet it is plain this purchase vests him not with a right

to bestow and send him without the Father, but only to obtain him of the Father, upon his prayer or advocation; and so of all those other blessings. So that still the Father is the supreme source from whence the Spirit and all those blessings are derived to us; and it is from his hands that the Son procures them by his powerful intercession: in short therefore, Christ by his death purchased a right of the Father to obtain of him, by his intercession, authority to send the Holy Ghost to minister for and under him in his mediation for God with men; and accordingly he promises his disciples, that when he departed this world, he would send the Comforter to them, John xvi. 7. where he uses the very same phrase as he did when he commissioned his apostles to minister under him, As the Father hath sent me, so send I you, John xx. 21. and accordingly his sending the Comforter must denote his commissioning him by the authority he had received from the Father to minister under him in his mediation for the Father. For so in John xv. 26. When the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: where first, the Son is said to commission or send him; secondly, to commission or send him from the Father, i. e. by authority from him; and thirdly, to commission or send him to testify of him, and therein to minister to him; and so in Luke xxiv. 49. when he was just ascending into heaven, he tells his disciples, Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you, i. e. the promise of the Holy Ghost; and accordingly, Acts ii. 33. St. Peter tells us, upon that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost, that Christ being exalted

to the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, (i. e. having by his intercession received authority of the Father to send the Holy Ghost, according to that promise which he had before purchased of him with his blood,) he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear, i. e. this miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost. In all which places it is evident, that the Holy Ghost was substituted, commissioned, and sent by the Son, authorized thereunto by the Father, to minister under him. For as the Son acts by the Father's authority, as he is his minister, so all that authority which he communicates to others to act under him, he must derive originally from the Father; and consequently that authority by which he sent the Spirit to act as his minister he must have derived from the Father, whose minister himself is: and hence the Father is said to send the Spirit in the name of the Son, that is, to appoint the Spirit to act under the Son, and by his authority, John xiv. 26. as the Son is said to send the Spirit from the Father, i. e. by the authority which he had received of the Father: and this, I verily believe, is the reason why the apostle in Eph. iv. 8. quotes the Psalmist with that variation, he ascended up on high, saith he, speaking of Christ, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men; whereas the words of the Psalmist are, he received gifts for men, Psalm lxviii. 18. to denote that that gift of the Holy Ghost, which Christ gave to his church, was nothing but what he himself had first received from the Father: so that though it was from the Father that the Son had his authority to send the Holy Ghost; yet it was from the Son that the Holy Ghost had his mis