do any way fall short of it instead of being our kind and merciful Advocate our Mediator will become our implacable Judge and doom us to a place of dismal torment where we shall live with everlasting horrour and despair so that now we can no longer persevere in our impenitence without trampling at the same time on the highest encouragements and charging headlong through the most amazing danger IV. That as he acts for and in the behalf of God and Men so he partakes of the natures of both For that this high and important Office might be the more effectually executed and performed the eternal Father thought meet to place it in the hands of his own eternal Son the Son of his natural Generation to whom he communicated from all eternity his own Divine Essence and Nature and whom in due time he appointed to assume the Humane Nature into a personal union with his Divinity that so being God-man in one person he might be the better fitted and accomplished to Mediate between God and Men. For in Mediating Authoritatively for God with us he was to perform the Office of a divine King to rule and Govern us as God's Vicegerent and either reduce us under his Authority or chastise us for our Rebellion against him which is a Sphere so vast and so sublime as needs no less than some divine Intelligence to inform and actuate it For to wield the Divine Scepter and Government is a Province that requires a Divine Knowledge and Power for the souls and hearts of men are the principal Seat and Subject of the divine Government and therefore it is very requisite that he who is intrusted with the administration of it should have a through and perfect inspection of all our most secret Thoughts and Intentions and Purposes and Resolutions otherwise how is it possible he should take cognizance of them so as to command and over-rule and reward and punish them But to know the hearts of men is in Scripture always appropriated to the divine Omniscience so 1 Kings 8 3â— Thou even thou only knowest the hearts of the Children of men and if only God's all-searching Eye can penetrate into the hearts of men who but a God can Rule and Govern them And accordingly our Saviour upon whose shoulders this inward and spiritual Government rests challenges to himself this divine Prerogative which is so necessary a qualification for it Rev. 2.23 And all the Churches shall know saith he that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and will give to every one of you according to his works Nor is it less requisite to qualifie him for this spiritual Empire that he should be Almighty than that he should be Omniscient for to enable him to rule the hearts and souls of men it is necessary that he should have the Command and Disposal of all those outward Events and Accidents in which they are any way concerned since it is by these in a great measure that their hearts are swayed their affections formed their intentions and resolutions squared and regulated and in a word their good and evil actions rewarded and punished in this World and to wield and manage moderate and dispose such infinite numbers of Events as concern such infinite numbers of Men so vastly distant from one another in place condition and temper requires a power that can do whatsoever it pleases both in Heaven and Earth which the Psalmist appropriates to the divine Power as its peculiar Prerogative Psal. 135.6 7. and if it be only a divine power that can manage and dispose all the affairs of all men what can be more requisite than that he who rules and governs them should communicate of the divine Omnipotence And accordingly our Saviour upon whom this Government is devolved assures his Disciples that all power was communicated to him both in Heaven and Earth Matt. 28.18 which being the Prerogative of the divine Power seems impossible to have been communicated to any but a divine Person And therefore the Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Government of Christ tells us that his name should be called Wonderful Counsellour the mighty God Isa. 9.6 where by Counsellour and mighty God he seems to design his infinite Knowledge and Power whereby he should be qualified for this his divine Government for so Mighty God doth always in the Scripture-phrase signifie Almighty God so in Deut. 7.21 Psal. 50.1 Ier. 32.18 Hab. 1.12 and elsewhere By all which it is evident that to Mediate Authoritatively for God with men is a Province so sublime as that it requires no less than divine perfections in the Person that undertakes and manages it and consequently that it is requisite he should be God. Nor is it less requisite to render his Government more awful and Majestick For though the condition of the Person alters not the nature of the Authority he is vested with yet in the estimation of men the same Authority is more or less venerable according as the quality and condition of â—he Persons cloathed with it is more or less considerable Since therefore the quality of the Person doth always cast a Cloud or Lustre on the Office it was very requisite that he who was Authorized to Mediate for God with men which is the highest Office under God the Father should be a Person of the highest Rank and Dignity next to God the Father himself and consequently that he should be God the Son and hence the Author to the Hebrews Chap. 1. to render his Authority moâ—e awful takes a great deal of pains to imblazon the dignity of his Person in which he gives him such Stiles and Characters as cannot without extreme force be applied to any but a Person divine he stiles him The brightness of his Father's Glory and the express Image of his Person the Founder of the Earth and the Maker of the Heavens and the Vpholder of all things by the word of his power Vers. 3.10 he tells us that he was set far above the Angels and that the Father had ordered all his Angels to worship him declaring him to be God in these terms Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever and then he concludes all with this application Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard of him Chap. 2. v. 1. which shews that in the Apostle's sense to Mediate for God is a station so sublime that it was very fit it should be supplied as it was with a Person of the highest Dignity that so his Person might reflect a Majesty on his Office and render it more awful and venerable in the World. And as to accomplish him for this high Office of Mediating for God with Men it was most fit he should be God so it was no less requisite he should be Man. For Man being naturally a sensitive as well as a rational Creature in this degenerate state of his nature wherein his sensitive part is predominant there are
which they are most endeared and familiarized into the divine and spiritual world there is no one duty whatsoever to the due performance of which our carnal affections are naturally more listless and averse and therefore as herein we have most need of the Holy Spirit 's assistance so herein he more especially operates on our minds exciting in us all those graces and affections which are proper to the several parts of our Prayer such as shame and sorrow in the confession of our sins a sense of our need of mercy and a hope of obtaining it in our supplications for pardon and forgiveness resignation to God's Will and dependance on his truth and goodness in our address for temporal mercies and deliverances hunger and thirst after Righteousness in our Petitions for his grace and assistance and in a word Gratitude and Love and Admiration of God in our praises and thanksgivings for mercy and in these divine affections the life and soul of Prayer consists And accordingly in Gal. 4.6 the Apostle tells us Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father that is by kindling devout and pious affections in your Souls enabling you to cry to God with all earnestness and assurance as to a kind and merciful Father and hence also we are said to pray in or by the Holy Ghost Iude 20. because all the proper graces and affections of Prayer are excited in us by him And this his excitation of the graces of Prayer in us is called his making Intercession for us Rom. 8.26 27. which imports no more than his enabling us to offer up the matter of our Prayers to God in a most devout and affectionate manner or as he there explains himself with sighs and groans that are not to be uttered that is with such earnest and flagrant affections as are too big for words to express And this is properly to intercede for us For as Christ who is our Advocate in Heaven doth offer up our Prayers to the Father and enforce them with his own Intercessions so his Spirit who is our Advocate on Earth begets in us those affections which render our Prayers prevalent and wings them with fervour and ardency the one pleads with God for us in our own hearts by kindling such desires there as render our Prayers acceptable to him and the other pleads with him for us in Heaven by presenting those desires and soliciting their supply and acceptance Now this Intercession of the Holy Spirit is also performed as all the aforegoing operations by suggesting to and imprinting such thoughts upon our minds as are most apt to raise and excite our affections which thoughts he often urges with that vehemence and presses with that reiterated importunity that if we do not wilfully repel them from our minds and refuse them admittance to our hearts and affections they cannot fail to stir up in us all the graces of Prayer and enflame our Souls with a servent devotion and accordingly whenever we harbour these suggestions of the Spirit and by seriously attending to them cherish and encourage them we find by experience they so affect and influence our devotions as that in every Prayer our Souls take wing and like the Angel that appeared to Manoah â—ly up to Heaven in the flames of our Sacrifice And thus I have given a brief account both of what the Holy Spirit hath done and of what he still continues to do towards the promoting and effectuating of Christ's Mediation for God with men And by what hath been said it abundantly appears that he hath done for us and still continues to do all that our case and necessity requires and that there is nothing imaginable wanting on his part towards the reducing and reconciling our minds to God. So that now he may justly say to us what God doth to his Vineyard Isa. 5.4 What could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done Or as the Hebrew expresses it What is to be done more Not but that by his omnipotent power absolutely considered the Holy Spirit can do more for us than he ordinarily doth he can in an instant infuse a new nature into us in despite of all the resistance of our Wills and make such irresistible impressions on our minds as our most inveterate prejudice and enmity against God shall never be able to withstand but then his power always acts by the direction of his wisdom and can do no otherwise that is it can do no more than it can wisely do and it is certain that ordinarily and regularly it cannot wisely so act upon men as to determine their natural liberty to good and evil since by so doing he must not only commit a perpetual violence on the frame of our Beings and thereby reverse the established course of our natures but also destroy the very being of Vertue in us which is no longer Vertue than while it is free and unconstrained But whatsoever he can wisely do or which is all one consistently with the liberty of our nature he hath done and still continues doing So that now to the reduction of our Souls to God there is nothing wanting but our own consent and free co-operation which if we will refuse we may for for desperate obstinacy there is no remedy if we will not comply with the blessed Spirit it is certain he will not save us whether we will or no. So that when inquisition shall be made for the bloud of our Souls the utmost we can charge him with is that he did not drag us to Heaven in spite of our teeth and bind up our hands in the Cords of an irresistible Fate to hinder us from murdering our selves but if we have so little regard of our selves as to spurn at our own happiness it is by no means fit that he should force it upon us and it would be a very mean and unreasonable condescension in him to prostitute his grace to such as scorn and refuse it If therefore after all these things that the Spirit hath done for us we persist and finally perish in our enmity against God he may fairly wash his hands in innocency over us and charge our bloud upon our own heads and how deplorable soever our condition proves in the future state his Iustice will Triumph gloriously in our ruine and our own Consciences together with all the reasonable World will be forced to be his Compurgators and to pronounce him infinitely just and righteous in all his ways SECT II. Concerning the particular Offices of Christ's Mediation FOR the clearer stating what are the particular Offices of the Mediator it will be necessary briefly to enquire into the state and condition of the Parties between whom he Mediates as they stand related to one another For he being to officiate for and between God and Man to be sure his Offices must be such as their respective states and conditions do require For how can
is right as my servant Iob hath therefore take unto you seven Bullocks and seven Rams and go to my servant Iob and offer up for your selves a burnt Offering and my servant Iob shall pray for you for him will I accept lest I deal with you after your folly as if he should have said that you may see how ill I resent your severe and cruel usage of that good man know that if you offer to address to me immediately for your selves I will certainly throw your Prayers back upon your faces as therefore you hope to be restored to my favour go to that injured Friend of yours and beseech him to mediate for you and I will hear him though I will not hear you And after the same manner doth God manifest his high displeasure against our sins that he will not suffer us to approach him immediately to present our Petitions to him with our own hands but will have them all presented to him by a hand that is more acceptable to him than our own and not only so but by the greatest and most acceptable hand in the World even that of his own Eternal Son the Son of his Essence and delight in whom he is for ever well pleased For it is through him alone that we have access to the Father whom our sins have so horribly incensed against us that no Advocate in Heaven or Earth less great and less dear to him than his own Son can prevail with him to be reconciled to us upon our most unfeigned repentance or so much as to accept of our humble Supplications O good God! what a woful distance have my sins made between thee and me that notwithstanding the infinite goodness and benignity of thy nature I cannot be admitted to thee nor expect any favour at thy hands upon any less powerful interest or application than that of thine only begotten Son but O stupid creature that I am to make light of those sins that have so highly incensed thee against me that none in Heaven or Earth but only that dearly beloved Son can prevail with thee to cast a propitious eye on me or so much as to give me access to the footstool of the Throne of thy grace III. This way of God's communicating his favours to us through the intercession of Christ is also most apt to secure us from presuming upon God's mercy while we continue in our sins There is no one thing doth more universally obstruct the reformation of men than their confident presumption that God will be merciful to them notwithstanding they persist in their rebellions against him For all men have a natural notion of the infinite goodness and benevolence of the Divine Nature together with which all bad men have a natural desire to sin without disturbance when therefore their Conscience begins to clamour against their wickedness and to vex and persecute them for it the mercy of God is the usual Sanctuary they fly to Peace froward Conscience cry they God is a most gracious and merciful Being hard to be provoked and easie to be pacified fear not therefore his mercy is infinitely greater than my faults and I am sure so good a God as he is can never find in his heart to destroy his Creature and Off-spring for such Peccadillo's as these With such presumptions as these they commonly lull their Consciences asleep and so sin on securely in despite of all the threats and warnings of Heaven that Thunder about their ears Now to prevent such presumptions as these and dash them quite out of countenance there is no consideration in the world can be more effectual than this of God's communicating his mercies to us through the intercession of our Saviour For if notwithstanding the goodness of his nature he will not be propitious to us no not upon our repentace without being moved thereunto by the powerful intercession of his own Son how can we ever expect that he should be propitious to us whether we repent or no Is it likely he should be more indulgent to us for our own sake than he is for his Son's sake and our own together or that when all that his Son can obtain for us is to receive us into favour in case we will lay down our Arms that we by our own interest should prevail with him to receive us while we persist in our obstinacy and rebellion in short if our repentance which is the best thing we can render him be not sufficient to move him to pardon us without being seconded and enforced with the powerful Oratory of our Saviour's Intercession what should move him when we have neither repentance nor a Saviour to intercede for us For our Saviour will not intercede for us unless we repent and our repentance will not prevail for us unless he intercede what hope have we therefore while we continue impenitent when our repentance it self which is the best thing we can do to move God to be propitious to us is insufficient without Christ's intercession and when without our repentance Christ will not intercede for us and if the tears of a penitent suppliant will not prevail with him without an Intercessor what hope is there that the affronts of an impenitent rebel should But suppose we might reasonably presume upon the benignity of God's nature that he will be propitious to us notwithstanding our impenitence yet it is to be considered that now he hath placed the dispensation of his mercy in the hand of a Mediator who is not left to dispose of it arbitrarily as he shall think fit but is confined and limited to dispose of it only to penitent offenders For Christ's Trust can extend no farther than to dispence God's mercy to us upon the terms of that Covenant of which he is Mediator which Covenant proposes mercy to us only upon condition of our repentance So that now we can expect no mercy from God but what passes through the hands of Jesus our Mediator who cannot without violating his trust dispence the mercy of God to us except we repent and amend For now God cannot dispence his mercy to us immediately without displacing his Son from his Mediatorship and his Son cannot dispence his mercy to us unconditionally without transgressing the bounds and limits that are prescribed to him and therefore since God hath restrained himself to dispence his mercy only through his Son and restrained his Son to dispence it only to penitents for us to presume upon the mercy of God while we continue impenitent is the greatest nonsense in the world it is to suppose either that God will cancel the Oeconomy of his mercy for our sakes and resume the dispensation of it immediately into his own hands meerly to favour and encourage us in our Rebellion against him or that Christ will betray the trust which his Father hath reposed in him and dispence his mercy to us contrary to his Orders that is either that God the Father will depose his Son
God himself can give us of his mercy and our happiness hath any force in it to oblige us to repent and amend this our Saviour's Intercession you see fairly proposes to us so that if this proposal doth not effectually influence our hope and thereby excite and animate our endeavours it is impossible that any encouragement should ever move or affect us And thus you see in all these several particulars how effectually this way of God's communicating his Favours to us through the Intercession of our Saviour tends to our reformation and amendment what a fruitful Topick of motives it is to induce us to repentance and how pathetically it addresses to every affection in us that is capable of persuasion what awful and reverential thoughts of Almighty God it suggests to our minds to dispose our stubborn Wills to an humble submission to him what a horrible representation it makes of our sins and of God's wrath and indignation against them and what a dreadful alarm it gives to our fear to rouse and awake us out of our sinful security And in a word how powerfully it encourages us to draw near unto God and to make our addresses to him with an humble and generous freedom and what vast assurances it gives to our hope of his gracious intentions towards us if we repent and amend All which considered one would think it were impossible for any man that believes and understands this wonderful method of mercy not to be moved and affected by it and certainly that man who hath obstinacy enough to withstand all its persuasions and finally to defeat and baffle those powerful attempts which it makes to reclaim him is a Creature not to be moved by Reason and Argument For in this he hath conquered the greatest motives of all sorts that can be urged to persuade men and when once he is got beyond the reach of persuasion and no motive of ingenuity or hope or fear can affect him his condition is desperate and his obstinacy incurable Wherefore as we would not finally disappoint this wonderful contrivance of God to reclaim us and thereby render our selves for ever desperate let us at length be persuaded seriously to consider the Motives and Arguments it proposes to us and never to cease urging and pressing them upon our own souls till they have conquered our obstinate Wills and prejudiced Affections and finally captivated us into a free compliance with their powerful persuasions For if through our wilful neglect and inconsideration this mighty project of mercy prove utterly unsuccessful with us it is certain we have sinned our selves past all hope of recovery and it will be in vain to make any farther experiment on us And when we have once baffled this last and most powerful remedy of the divine Goodness what remains but that it should give us up and utterly abandon us to the just desert and dire effects of our own folly and obstinacy SECT VI. Of the Kingly Office of our Saviour WHen I first entred upon this Argument of the particular Offices of our Mediator I proposed to handle them in the same order that he performed and executed them and accordingly as he began with his Prophetick Office of which his whole life was a continued Ministry so I have treated of this Office in the first place and as from his Prophetick he proceeded to his Priestly Office one part of which he executed on the Cross where he offered himself a Sacrifice for the sins of the World and the other upon his Ascension into Heaven where he presented and still continues to present his Sacrifice to the Father by way of intercession for us so I proceeded in the next place to treat of his Priesthood in both the parts of it and now in the last place in pursuit of the same order I proceed to his Regal or Kingly Office which was the last he entered upon after he had finished his Prophecy offered his Sacrifice and presented it to his Father in Heaven For so in Scripture the Regality of Christ is always spoken of as successive to both his Prophetick and Priestly Office and as the fruit and reward of his faithful discharge and execution of them So Phil. 2.8 9 10. it was because he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross that God highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth And Rom. 14.9 the Apostle tells us that it was for this end that Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living and accordingly the Angels in St. Iohn's Vision attribute his advancement to his Regal dignity to the merit of his Death and Sacrifice Rev. 5.12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing And hence his sitting at the right hand of God which is the great Scripture-Metaphor by which his Regal Authority is expressed of the sense and meaning of which Pearson's Exposition of the Creed p. 277 278 279. is mentioned as the fruit and consequence of his Death and Intercession So Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins i. e. by dying for us on Earth and presenting his Sacrifice in Heaven he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high and Heb. 10.12 But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God and so also 1 Pet. 3.22 we are told that it was upon his going into Heaven i. e. to present his Sacrifice to his Father there that he was advanced to the right hand of God and that Angels and Authorities and Powers were made subject to him For his going into Heaven was a Priestly Act corresponding to the Priest's going into the Holy of Holies to present his Sacrifice to God there so that Christ's first arrival into Heaven and presenting his Sacrifice there is the beginning and commencement of his Intercession in answer to which he first received of his Father that Royal Power and Authority which he exercises both in Heaven and Earth and it is by vertue of the continuance of that his Priestly Intercession that this his Royal power is continued and perpetuated to him So that as he is a Royal Priest i. e. a Priest invested with Regal power to bestow the blessings he intercedes for so he is a Sacerdotal King i. e. a King that holds his Regal power in the right and virtue of his Priestly Intercession For it is by the continuance of his Intercession that he obttains the continuance of his Royal Authority to bestow those blessings on us which he intercedes for So that as Christ intercedes in the vertue of his Sacrifice so he rules in the vertue of his Intercession And accordingly you find in
by an Angel requiring him to send to Ioppa for St. Peter to instruct him in the Christian Religion in Acts 10.3 4 5. But since that Christ hath revealed his whole Will to his Church and transmitted it down by a standing Scripture this Ministration of the holy Angels is in a great measure ceased and to this written Word of his we are intirely referred as to the perpetual Rule of our Faith and Manners insomuch that if thenceforth even an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel to us than what we have there received he is pronounced accursed Gal. 1.8 Not but that sometimes and upon great Emergencies they may be still sent from heaven with new Messages to us to discover some useful secret or to inspire our minds with the notices of some future contingencies that are of great moment to us though this very rarely it being no part of their ordinary Ministry But since the Revelation of the Gospel was compleated to be sure they never reveal any new Doctrine to us they may be assisting Geniuses to our understandings to excite in them a true apprehension of what is already revealed by impressing our imaginations with clear and distinct Idea's and Representations of things that are revealed more obscurely But to suppose that they still reveal new Doctrinal truths to us is not only to deny the perfection of written Revelation but to open a wide door to all manner of Enthusiasm II. Another instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their guarding and defending his Subjects against outward dangers for thus the Angels are said to encamp round about those that fear God to deliver them Psal. 34.7 And though I see not sufficient reason to be fully persuaded that every faithful Subject of the Kingdom of Christ hath an appropriate Guardian Angel appointed to him yet from that Caution of our Saviour Matt. 18.10 it is evident that he imploys his Angels to attend as an invisible Lifeguard upon the persons of all good Christians for saith he Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in heaven their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven i. e. those blessed spirits which are appointed by God to be their Guardians upon Earth have yet their continual returns and recourse to God's glorious Presence in Heaven and having always access to him to offer up requests or complaints in their behalf it must needs be a very dangerous thing for any to presume to despise or offend them lest he thereby provoke those mighty spirits to sue out and execute some Commission of vengeance upon him From whence it is evident that the blessed Angels are greatly concerned in the vindication and protection of the faithful and that that promise Psal. 91.10 11 12. is still in force viz. There shall no evil befal thee for he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways they shall bear thee up in their hands left thou dash thy foot against a stone And this they do sometimes by removing such evil accidents from us as in the course of necessary causes must have befaln us for there is no doubt but these powerful Spirits have a mighty influence upon necessary causes at least upon a great many of them and can retard or precipitate or vary or divert their motions as they see occasion and thereby prevent a great many accidents which must otherwise have befaln had they permitted them to proceed in their natural courses Other times again they divert the mischievous intentions of our Enemies by injecting sudden fears into them and brandishing horrid Phantâ—sms before their imaginations as the Angel did the flaming Sword before Balaam when they are just upon executing their Malice Sometimes again they warn us of dangers approaching either by some external sign or unaccountable impression on our fancies by which we are vehemently solicited without any visible Cause or Reason either to proceed very cautiously in the ways where our danger lies or to stop and forbear a while or steer some other course Of all which there are innumerable instances to be found in History III. Another instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their supporting and comforting his faithful Subjects upon difficult undertakings and under great and pressing Calamities for thus not only our Saviour himself was comforted in his last Agony by an Angel from Heaven Luk. 22.43 but St. Paul also tells us that being in imminent danger of being shipwreck'd in a storm in his voyage to Rome there stood by him in the night an Angel of God whose he was and whom he served saying fear not Paul thou must be brought before Caesar and lo God hath given thee all them that sail with thee Acts 27.23 24. So also when the Apostles by an Order from the High Priest were cast into the common Prison the Text tells us That an Angel of the Lord by night opened the Prison doors and brought them forth and said go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this life Acts 5.19 20. So also in the ancient Martyrologies of the Church we meet with sundry relations of the appearances of Angels to the suffering Martyrs and of the wonderful Comforts they administred to them to support their Faith and Patience under their Agonies and Torments And although since the Cessation of Miracles they do not Ordinarily perform this Ministry to us in visible appearances yet there is no doubt but as they are Spirits they have spiritual and invisible ways of conversing with our Spirits and of administring Comforts to us in our needs and extremities for though they can have no immediate access to our mind which is a dark Mysterious Chamber into which no other Eye can penetrate but his who is the searcher of all hearts yet that they can vehemently impress our Fancies with joyous Representations and thereby exhilarate our drooping spirits to that degree as to transport us into Raptures of bodily passion is not to be doubted there being so many sensible experiments of it in the ancient Prophets whose imaginations were sometimes so vehemently impressed with frightful Idea's by the Angels which conversed with them as that they immediately fell into an Agony and were seized with unaccountable horrors and tremblings and not only the Prophets themselves that saw the Angel were thus affected but sometimes their Companions too that saw him not of which you have an instance in Dan. 10.7 where Daniel tells us that he alone saw the vision of the Angel and that the men that were with him saw not the Vision but a great quaking fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves which is a plain evidence of the great power which the Angels have over our bodily passions even when they are invisible to us so as to strike what note soever they please upon
his continual intercession in Heaven Royal Authority to dispense that Promise to us doth by vertue of that Authority actually pardon us upon our actual repentance So that as soon as ever we perform the condition of Gods grant of pardon our Saviour who knows the inmost thoughts of our hearts and perfectly discerns our sincerity immediately pronounces our sentence of pardon and by a particular application of that general grant to us absolves us from our obligation to eternal punishment and freely receives us into Grace and Favour For though the completion and publication of our pardon is reserved for the day of judgment when we shall be absolved from all punishment i. e. not only of eternal misery but also of corporal death and temporal sufferings in the publick view and audience of the World yet it is certain that every penitent Believer in Jesus is actually pardoned by him in Heaven as soon as ever he believes and repents that is he is in foro Christi and before the Tribunal of his Royal Judgment Absolved from the obligation to suffer eternal misery which he lay under during his state of impenitence and Christ in his own mind judgment and estimation hath Judicially thus pronounced concerning him By vertue of my Fathers grant to all penitent offenders and of that Royal Authority which he hath committed to me I freely release thee from all that vast debt of everlasting punishment which thou hast too justly incurr'd by sinning against him Thus as the Father forgives us vertually by that publick grant of mercy which for Christs sake he hath made to all penitent offenders so the Son forgives us actually by that Royal Authority which the Father hath given him to make a particular application of that his general grant to us upon our actual repentance and as it is by the Fathers grant that the Son pardons us so it is by the Sons application of it that the Father pardons us and therefore we are said in or by Christ to have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin Col. 1.14 i. e. to be forgiven for the sake of his blood in consideration whereof God the Father hath given him power to forgive us for so he himself tells us that all power in Heaven and Earth was given him Matth. 28.18 and there is no doubt but in all power the power of forgiving sins was included for so S. Peter tells us that through his Name i. e. by his Authority or judicial sentence Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 10.43 And thus you see what the first Regal act is which our Saviour hath always performed and will always continue to perform viz. forgiving of sins II. Another of his Regal acts of this kind is punishing obstinate offenders For as he mediates for his Father in ruling and governing us he must be the Minister of his Fathers providence and being so whatsoever divine punishments are inflicted upon offenders are to be look'd upon as the stroaks of his hand and the Ministries of his power for he hath the Keys of Death and Hell i. e. the power of punishing both here and hereafter Rev. 1.18 and accordingly he threatens the corrupt Churches of Asia that he would remove their Candlestick and that he would fight against them with the sword of his mouth that he would come upon them as a Thief and that he would spew them out of his mouth Rev. 2.5.3.16 and Chap. 3. Vers. 16. all which is a sufficient proof that the punishment of offenders both here and hereafter is committed to him as a branch of that Royal Authority with which he is invested by the Father in the execution of which Commission he many times Chastens bad men in this life in order to their reformation and amendment for as many as I love saith he i. e. wish well to I rebuke and chasten Heb. 3.19 and many times he persecutes them with exterminating judgments thereby hanging them up in Chains as it were as publick examples of his vengeance to warn and deter the World from treading in their impious footsteps For so he threatens Iezebel and her followers I gave her space to repent of her fornications and she repented not behold I will cast her into a bed i. e. into a Bed-rid and irrevocable condition and them that commit Adultery with her into great tribulation and I will kill her Children with death and all the Church shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and heart and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Rev. 2.21 22 23. And though for wise and gracious ends he oftentimes spares bad men in this life and sometimes shines upon them a continued day of prosperity without any cloud or interruption yet he always overtakes them with the fearful storms of his vengeance in the life to come For no sooner do their souls depart from their bodies but they are immediately consigned by his warrant into the hands of evil Angels those skilful spiteful and powerful executioners of his justice under whose savage Tyranny they indure all the tortures and Agonies that the wrath and power of Devils together with their own awakened consciences and furious and unsatisfied affections are able to inflict Of which see Part 1. Ch. 3. For that the souls of bad men are transmitted into a state of wretchedness and misery immediately upon their separation from their bodies is evident from the Parable of Dives and Lazarus wherein in the first place Dives immediately after his death is said to be in great torment in Hell and this while his body lay buried in the grave Luk 16.22 23. which is a plain argument that in all that interval between death and the resurrection of the body the souls of bad men abide in a state of torment for secondly this torment of Dives's soul in hell was then when his Brethren were living upon earth and under the teaching of Moses and the Prophets ver 27. and 28 29 30 31. which shews that our Saviour supposes it to be at that very time when he delivered this Parable and consequently he supposes all bad men who were then dead and whose condition he represents by that of Dives to be then in Hell and there suffering unspeakable Agonies and Torments and if so then it 's plain that when ever impenitent souls leave their bodies they are carried by Devils into some dismal abode and there kept under a perpetual discipline of torment and in this deplorable state they remain expecting that fearful day of accounts when their condition through their reunion to their bodies and that dread bodily Torment they must then be condemned to will be rendered yet far more intolerable III. Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always and always will continue to perform is his protecting and defending his Kingdom in this World. For thus he promises his faithful Church of Philadelphia Because thou hast kept the
of himself to God and if every one then to be sure the Righteous must as well as the wicked not that there will be any doubt of the righteousness of the Righteous in the breast of the Judge to whose all-seeing Eye the darkest secrets of all hearts lie open but yet for otheâ—â—â—asons it is highly convenient they should undergo a trial as well as others As first for the more solemn and publick vindication of their wronged innocence that all that infamy and scandal with which their malicious Enemies have bespattered them may be wiped off before men and Angels and that being assoiled before all the World they may triumph for ever in a bright and glorious reputation And secondly That all those brave and unaffected acts of secret Piety and Charity to which none but God and themselves were conscious may be brought into the open light and to their everlasting renown proclaimed throughout all the vast Assembly of Spirits for now we shall see all those modest souls unmask'd whose silent and retired graces do make so little shew and noise in the world and all their humble pieties and bashful beauties which scarce any Eye ever saw but Gods shall be exposed to the publick view and general applause of Saints and Angels Thirdly They shall be tried also for the vindication of Gods impartial procedure in proportioning their reward to their vertue that so the degrees of each mans proficiency in piety and vertue being exposed to the view of the world by an impartial trial Angels and Men may be convinced that in distributing the different degrees of happiness the Almighty Judge is no way biassed by a fond partiality or respect of persons but that he proceeds upon immutable Principles of Iustice and doth exactly adjust and ballance his rewards with the degrees and numbers of our deserts and improvements that so even those that are set lowest in those blessed Forms and Classes of glorified Spirits may not envy those that are above them or complain that they are advanced no higher but every one may chearfully acknowledge himself to be placed where he ought to be as being fully convinced that he is only so many degrees inferiour to others in glory as they are superiour to him in divine graces and perfections Fourthly and lastly The Righteous shall undergo this Trial for the more glorious manifestation of the divine mercy and goodness For which reason I am apt to think that even their sins of which they have dearly and heartily repented shall in this their trial be exposed and brought upon the Stage that so in the free pardon of such an infinite number of them the whole Congregation of the blessed may behold and admire the infinite extent of the divine mercies and be thereby the deeper affected with and more vigorously excited to celebrate with Songs of praise the goodness of their merciful Iudge For these reasons the Wise man tells us Eccles. 12.14 that God shall bring every secret thing to judgment whether it be good or whether it be evil which Proposition being universal must extend to the Righteous as well as to the Wicked But yet though their sores shall be then laid open it shall be done by a soft and gentle hand by a serene Conscience and a smiling Iudge who without any angry look or severe reflection or any other circumstance but what shall contribute to the joys and triumphs of that day shall read over all the Items of their guilt and then cancel them for ever For IV. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Sentence Although to us whose operations are so slow and leisurely by reason of the unwieldiness of these fleshly Organs with which we act such a particular trial as hath been before described of such an infinite number of men and women may seem to require an unreasonable length of time yet if we consider that then both the Iudge and those who are to be judged shall be array'd in spiritual bodies in which they will be able to act with unspeakable nimbleness and dispatch we shall find that a little time comparatively may very well suffice for so great a transaction for the Iudge being one that can attend to infinite causes at once without any distraction and they who are to be judged being by reason of their spirituality in a condition to attend to every ones trial while they are undergoing their own I see no reason we have to imagine that they shall be tried successively one after another and if not why may we not suppose that we shall all be tried together at the same time and consequently that the trial of all may be transacted in as short a time as the trial of one And that they shall all be tried together is very probable since it is apparent from Scripture that they shall all be sentenced together for thus Mat. 25.34 Then shall the King say to those on his right hand i. e. to them all together Come ye blessed c. Having first by an accurate and impartial Trial manifested their integrity to all the world he shall arise out of his flaming Throne and with an audible voice and smiling Majesty pronounce their Sentence all together in these or such like words Come ye blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world to which welcome Sentence they will doubtless all immediately resound a joyful Choir of Halelujahs through Heaven and Earth Allelujah Salvation and Glory and Power be to the Lord our God for true and righteous are his Iudgments ' Salvation be unto our Lord that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for wonderful are thy works O Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways O thou King of Saints And now all their business being finished here below they shall from henceforth be no longer detained in this Vale of tears and misery but with overjoyed hearts shall take their leave of it for ever For V. And lastly Another thing implyed in this their Iudgment is their Assumption into the Clouds of heaven For their blessed Lord having thus publickly acquitted and pronounced them blessed they shall immediately feel the happy effect of it for now he will no longer suffer them to stand below at the Bar but from thence will call them up to his Tribunal there to give them a nearer access to his beloved person and more intimate participation of his glory At which powerful call and invitation of his they shall in an instant all take wing together like a mighty flock of pure and innocent Doves and fly aloft into the air singing and warbling as they go to meet their Redeemer in the Clouds of Heaven For so the Apostle in 1 Thes. 4.17 Then that is after their Resurrection and Judgment we which are alive and remain who never died but only have been changed and glorified shall be caught up together with them who shall be raised from the dead
all things under him and when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him which did put all things under him that God may be all in all the whole sense and meaning of which passage I shall cast into these Propositions First That the Kingdom or Dominion here spoken of was committed to him by God the Father Secondly That he is to possess this Kingdom and Dominion so long and no longer as till all things are actually subdued to him Thirdly That during his possession of it he is subject to the Father Fourthly That after his delivering it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now Fifthly That he being thus subjected to the Father all Power and Dominion shall from thenceforth be immediately exercised by the Deity I. That the Kingdom or Dominion here spoken of was committed to him by God the Father and this is expresly affirmed vers 27. For he i. e. the Father hath put all things under his feet which words are a quotation of Psal. 8. ver 6. Thou madest him to have Dominion over the works of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feet which words are to be understood literally of the first Adam but mystically of the second as is evident not only because 't is here applied to Christ by S. Paul but also by the Author to the Hebrews Heb. 2.7 8. where he expresly tells us that it was God the Father that crowned Christ with Glory and Honour and that did set him over the works of his hands and put all things in subjection under his feet and accordingly our Saviour himself declares that all Power in Heaven and Earth was given him i. e. by the Father and that it was the Father that committed all judgment to him and the Apostle expresly tells us that it was God that exalted him with his own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour Acts 5.31 From all which it is evident that the Dominion which the Apostle here treats of is not the Essential Dominion of Christ which as he is God Essential is Co-eternal with him but that Mediatorial Dominion which was committed to him by the voluntary disposal of his Father and which once he had not and will hereafter cease to have II. That he is to possess this Kingdom or Dominion so long as and no longer than till all things are actually subdued unto him So vers 24. you see the time of his delivering up this Kingdom is then when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power i. e. till he shall have converted or destroyed all those Powers of the Earth that oppose themselves against him for so vers 25 26. For he must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death which plainly implies that when he hath conquered all Enemies and destroyed Death which is the last Enemy by giving a glorious Resurrection to his faithful Subjects then and not till then his Mediatorial Reign is to conclude For so Psal. 110.1 to which the Apostle here refers the Psalmist brings in Iehovah the Father thus bespeaking Iehovah the Son The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine Enemies thy footstool now to sit at the Right Hand of God when ever 't is applied to our Saviour doth in Scripture always denote his possessing and exercising this his Mediatorial Kingdom so that the meaning of the Psalmist is this the Father hath Commissioned his Son to continue the exercise of his Mediatorial Dominion till such time as either by the dint of his Almighty Vengeance he hath trampled all his Enemies under foot or by the power of his Grace reduced them voluntarily to prostrate themselves before him and indeed the end for which this Kingdom of our Saviour was erected was to subdue the Rebellious World to God and either to captivate men into a free submission to hâ—s Heavenly Will which is its first intention or if they will not yield to make them the Triumph of his everlasting vengeance which end at the day of Judgment will be fully accomplished for then the fate of all the rational World will be fixed and determined then the faithful Subjects will be crowned and the incorrigible Rebels condemned and executed and so one way or t'other all things will be subdued unto him So that from hence-forth the end and reason of this his Mediatorial Dominion will cease and when the end of it ceaseth he who never doth any thing in vain will immediately deliver it up into those hands from whence he received it For when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power i. e. conquered and subdued all that resisted and opposed him then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father III. That during his possession of this Kingdom he is subject to the Father So Ver. 27. But when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he i. e. the Father is excepted which did put all things under him As if he should say Do not mistake me for when I say all things are put under him my meaning is all things except God the Father for it was he that did put all things under him and it 's manifest that he who gave him this superiority over all things must himself be superior to him and indeed considering Christ as Mediatorial King he is no more than his Fathers Viceroy and doth only act by deputation from him and rule and Govern for him and hence the Father stiles him his King Psal. 2.6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion So that now he is subject to the Father in the capacity of a Vice-King to a supreme Sovereign and whatsoever he doth in this capacity he doth in his Fathers Name and by his Authority for he Mediates as for men with God in doing which he is our Advocate so for God with men in doing which he is our King. Gods part is to Govern us and our part is to sue to him for favour and protection and both these parts our Saviour acts as Mediator between God and us He acts our part for us in being Advocate and Gods part for him in being King. So that in that Rule and Government which he now exercises over us he is only the supreme Minister of his Fathers Power and Dominion and as the Father reigns by his Ministry so he reigns by the Fathers Authority But tho now while his Mediatorial Kingdom doth continue he is subject to the Father in the Admistration of it yet from this passage of S. Paul it is evident IV. That when he hath delivered it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now for so ver 28. and when all things shall be subdued unto him that
is actually and as they will be at the day of Judgment when the good are Crowned and the wicked consigned to that fearful Execution Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that did put all things under him which necessarily implies that then he should enter into a different state of subjection to the Father from that wherein he was before Why Then shall the Son himself be subject to him Was he not subject to him before Yes doubtless he was and therefore either this then must be impertinent or then he shall be so subject to him as he was not before before he was subject to him as he was his Mediatorial King or Viceroy as he reigned under him and by his Authority but then he is to be subject to him after a different manner For the explication of which it is to be considered that now the Son considered as Mediator reigns under God in the right of what he did and suffered in his human Nature Hypostatically united to his God-head for it was because he humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the Death of the Cross that God highly exalted him Phil. 2.8.9 Now 't was as he was Man that he became obedient to death and 't was in the right of that obedience that God exalted him to his Mediatorial Kingdom so that now as Mediator he not only reigns in his human Nature but in right of the passion of his human Nature his Mediatorial Kingdom is the purchase of his Blood by which he both obtained the new Covenant for us and Regal Power to execute it upon us When therefore he hath executed it to the full as we are sure he will do at the day of Judgment this Regal Power of his which he purchased with his Blood will cease as having fully accomplish'd that for which it was given and intended And now he being to Reign no longer in right of the sufferings of his human Nature his human Nature will be subject to the Father in a more different manner than it was before Before it was subject to him as Authorized in consideration of its passion to reign and govern under him but then having delivered up its Reign and Government it will be subject to him in a more private capacity as the Presidents of the Roman Empire were subject to Caesar while they governed under him but when they rendered back their Character they became his Subjects in a more private station Not that the humanity of Christ shall be any way depressed or degraded by his delivering up his Mediatorial Kingdom but as an Embassador after he is discharged of the burthen of his Embassie doth still retain the honour and dignity of it so the Human Nature of Christ after he hath surrendered up its Mediatorial Dominion shall still remain as highly exalted in Honour Dignity and Beatitude as ever and Angels and Saints shall for ever render to it the same religious respect and veneration as they did before he surrendered it for it shall still remain Hypostatically united to his Godhead and so God shall for ever reign in it tho it shall not for ever reign with God so that it being still the Temple of the Deity and all the glorious atchievements it made during its Humiliation and Mediatorial Reign reflecting still the same honour and praise and glory upon it it will to eternity be as great and glorious throughout all the Heavenly World as ever it was in the full splendor of its Kingdom so that in this respect what the ancient Fathers added to the Nicene Creed is most true his Kingdom shall have no end because without possessing it he shall for ever enjoy the Glory and Honour and Beatitude of it 5. And lastly That the Son being thus subjected to the Father all Power and Dominion shall from thenceforth be immediately exercised by the Deity that is to say by God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost for so ver 18. Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that did put all things under him that God may be all in all Where the variation of the Person is very observable for it is not said that the Son shall be subject to him that did put all things under him i. e. the Father that he may be all in all but that God may be all in all that is the Triune Godhead subsisting in three Persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost for had he meant the Father only he ought according to the common rules of speech to have said he or the Father of whom he had been before speaking instead of God nor can it be reasonably supposed that after the resignation of the Mediatorial Kingdom the Father only shall act and reign and the Son and Holy Ghost sit still for ever and do nothing but the meaning is that this Mediatorial Kingdom ceasing in which the Son as Man as well as God now reigns there shall from thenceforth be no other Kingdom or Dominion exercised in that Celestial State but what is essential to the Godhead in which the Son and Holy Ghost subsisting together with the Father shall for ever reign together with him for this I take to be the meaning of that phrase that God may be all in all that is that he may rule and govern all things immediately by himself that his immediate Will may reign alone in all and be the proximate guide of all that blessed world that there may be no mediate or Mediatorial Governour between him and us to exact our obedience and convey to us his favours and rewards but that we may render all our duty immediately to him and derive all our happiness immediately from him so that as now Christ the Theantropos or God-man is all in all Col. 3.11 because the Father doth all things and governs all things by him having given him all power in heaven and earth so when this Oeconomy ceases God alone or the Triune Godhead shall be all in all because he shall do all things and govern all things by himself immediately Thus when the Son of Man is subjected to him that did put all things under him that one divine Essence whence all things did proceed and in which the Father Son and Holy Ghost subsist shall from thenceforth resume all Rule and Dominion to it self and only the Son of God together with the Father and the Holy Ghost shall reign But yet in this purely divine Government there is no doubt but those divine persons will still continue to act in subordination to each other according to that natural subordination in which they are placed by their personal properties For the Godhead being communicated from the Father to the Son the Father in the order of nature must necessarily be Prior to the Son and the same Godhead being communicated to the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son both Father and Son must also in order of nature be Prior to
Reward Had he continued to govern us by himself immediately we had wanted one of the most encouraging instances of his immense bounty in rewarding obedience that ever was given to the World and that is his advancement of our Saviour to that Mediatorial Royalty which he now exercises at the right hand of the Majesty on high for had our Saviour been God only he had been incapable of Reward his happiness as such being so immense as that it can admit of no addition but being Man as well as God he is thereby capacitated for all that vast reward which the possession of his Mediatorial Kingdom together with an everlasting Heaven includes and all this reward is the product of that perfect and profound obedience which he render'd to his Father whilst he was in this World. So that now in him by whom God hath promised to reward our obedience we have an illustrious instance of Gods liberality in rewarding Obedience by his happy fate we may be fully assured that we shall not serve God for nought but that the reward of our obedience shall ten thousand-fold exceed the labour and difficulty of it for he is a man as well as we though he be hypostatically united to God and this man for some few years faithful service upon Earth for revealing Gods Will to men and exhibiting a perfect example of obedience to it for exposing himself to some temporal Calamities and finally for offering up himself a spotless Victim for the sins of the World is now advanced to the utmost height of bliss and glory that it is possible for a Creature to arrive to he is set far above all principality and power he is served and Adored as the only Potentate under God the Father throughout all the Heavenly World he is worship'd and Celebrated by Cherubin and Seraphin by Archangels and Angels he is extol'd in the Songs of the Patriarchs and Prophets the Apostles and Evangelists the Confessors and Martyrs and his Name is resounded with everlasting praises and thanksgivings throughout all the vast Choire of the spirits of just men made perfect and in a word he hath all Power given him both in Heaven and Earth and to his all-commanding Will the whole Creation is subjected In this ever blessed King therefore by whom God now rules us we have for the assurance of our hope of a future reward the most stupendous instance of it that ever was given to the World. And indeed since the great end of Christs Mediation was to reduce men to their duty by giving them a sure and certain hope of the remission of their sins at present and of a glorious reward hereafter it was highly condecent that it self should be an Example of its own design and that the glorious part of it should be made the reward of the more painful and difficult that so having in the Mediation it self a signal instance of Gods immence liberality in rewarding obedience we might thereupon the more confidently expect that glorious recompence of Reward which God hath promised to those that obey him and be thereby the more vigorously excited to our duty And hence our Saviour proposes himself to us as an instance of the reward of obedience To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I have overcome and am sat down with my Father on his Throne As much as if he should have said that upon your overcoming the difficulties of your duty you shall receive a most glorious reward you need not at all doubt having so illustrious an Example of it in my self who having conquer'd the difficult parts of my Mediation which was to teach you as a Prophet and to expiate for you as a Priest am now crowned with the reward of transacting the glorious part of it i. e. sitting with my Father on his Throne and there reigning with him in unspeakable Glory and Beatitude and accordingly the Apostle bids us Look unto Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him indured the Cross despised the shame and is sate down on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty on high Heb. 12.2 SECT XIII That Iesus Christ is this Mediator of whom we have been treating HAving in the foregoing Sections explain'd at large the nature and Offices of the Mediator between God and men all that now remains is to prove that Jesus Christ the Author of our Religion is the Person whom God hath ordained and constituted this Mediator between him and us And that he is so he himself openly averr'd whilst he was upon Earth and afterwards proclaimed it to the World by the Mouth of his Apostles but this singly by it self is no argument at all of the truth of the thing because a deceiver might have aver'd the same thing and since there were sundry pretenders to this Office as well as he it was necessary there should be some other evidence of his being invested with it besides his pretending to it otherwise it would have been impossible for us to distinguish him from those that falsly pretended to it and accordingly he himself tells us Iohn 5.31 If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true i. e. If I can produce no other testimony of my being the Mediator than my own bare word you have no reason at all to believe me and therefore he tells us that he had not only Iohn's Witness to it who was his forerunner but also a much greater than Iohn's even the Witness of his Father ver 32 33. 36 37. Now there are Three ways by which the Father Testified for him all which do abundantly evince his being the true Mediator First by sundry ancient predictions of him which were all exactly accomplished in him for the Testimony of Iesus saith S. Iohn is the spirit of Prophesie Rev. 19.10 Secondly by sundry Voices from Heaven by which the Father proclaimed him his well-beloved Son. Thirdly by Miracles which by the power of God he frequently wrought in his own Person while he was upon Earth and in the persons of his followers after his ascension into Heaven To treat of all which would require a Volume by it self and therefore for the first of these ways I shall refer the English Reader to the Reverend Mr. Kidders Demonstration of the Messias wherein the Testimony of Prophesie is handled at large with very great strength and clearness of Judgment And as for the second way of Gods bearing Witness to Jesus viz. by Voices from Heaven I refer the Reader to our Learned D. Hammonds reasonableness of the Christian Religion at the end of his Practical Catechism it being my intent to insist only upon the Third and last way of Gods attesting Jesus to be the Mediator viz. by Miracles for this way our Saviour himself most insists on and appeals to So in the aforecited Ioh. 5.36 But I have a greater witness than that of John for
come unto God by him that is who by submitting to him as mediating for God submit to God himself seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them or to Mediate with God in their behalf The belief of which carries with it the most indispensable Obligations to Christian Piety and Vertue but while we look upon Christ as acting only for one Party whether it be for God or our selves we do in a great measure enervate the Motives of Christianity For thus while we look upon him as acting only for God that is as God's Vicegerent we must necessarily conclude that he is concerned only for God's Authority and that when he hath secured or vindicated that by reducing us to our duty or punishing our disobedience he will have no more to do with us or our concerns but even leave us to shift for our selves and to seek our reward where we can find it that he is substituted by his Father for no other end but to exact our Homage or revenge our Rebellion but that as for us he is no way concerned either to procure us any pardon for our past sin or reward for our future Obedience and while we look upon him by whom alone we have access to God as one that is utterly unconcerned for our welfare we must look upon our selves as desperate and abandoned Creatures that are utterly forsaken of all hopes and encouragements For what hope can we have when not only the Deity we are to address to is highly offended at us but also the Mediator we are to address by is utterly regardless of us And in such a hopeless condition all the arguments in the World are void and insignificant And so on the other hand while we look upon Christ as acting only for us that is as our Propitiation and Advocate we must unavoidably conclude that he is concerned only for our preservation and happiness that his Office requires no more of him but only to pay off the scores of our sins with his bloud and by pleading that payment in Heaven to obtain our actual release from the rigorous demands of divine Justice in short that he hath nothing else to do but only to purchase and sue out our pardon and to justifie and set us right in the Court of Heaven but as for reducing us under his Father's Authority and subduing our Wills and Lives to his obedience that is no part of his Mediatorship nor consequently is he at all concerned about it and if so all that his Mediation can oblige us to supposing that he hath effectually discharged it is to rest and relie upon it for our Pardon and Iustification with God and if out of pure gratitude we will be dutiful and obedient to him for the future he will kindly accept it but if not he hath no remedy against us and what likelihood is there that any argument of Religion should ever prevail with us to submit to the divine Authority so long as we presume upon Christ's Mediation for Pardon and Justification without it and believe it to be left wholly to our own Ingenuity whether we will submit or no. Thus while we consider Christ's Mediation by halves and mistake either part of it for the whole we pervert and deprave it and instead of what it is viz. a most wise and powerful inducement to Piety and Vertue render it an inevitable temptation either to Despair or Presumption both which are equally and utterly inconsistent with a holy and Christian Life But if we consider this Doctrine in its full extent as it takes in both parts of Christ's Mediation it inforces our duty upon us with the most necessary and powerful obligations For it addresses it self to every passion in us that is capable of being moved and perswaded and at once proposes to our hope and fear which are the most vigorous principles of action the most encouraging and dreadful considerations For since his Office obliges him to act for God and men together we may depend upon it that through the whole course of his Mediation he will be most just and impartial to both and that as on the one hand he will not so act for his Father's Authority as to neglect our safety and welfare so neither on the other will he so concern himself for our safety and welfare as to expose his Father's Authority and if he proceed with this exact equality between the Parties he acts for we have all the reason in the World to conclude that if we submit our selves to God we shall be graciously received and rewarded but that if we persist in our Rebellion against him we shall be most severely punished For in the first place his being concerned for us as well as for God gives us the most ample security that if we will submit to his Fathers Authority which he stands ingaged to secure or vindicate he will have a most zealous regard to us and our concerns and be as mindful of our interest as if it were his own For in undertaking to be our Advocate he assumed our Persons and took our Affairs into his own hands so that now he is another our selves and stands obliged to act for us with as much care and concern as if our Persons and Interests were his and therefore we may depend upon it that he will act as much for our advantage as we our selves could do if we were in his place and had the same power and interest with his Father that he hath and that if we were sitting in his room at the right hand of God and there interceding for our selves we could not justly wish for or desire more or greater instances of Grace and Favour than he will ask and obtain for us And what greater encouragement can we have to return to our duty than this very consideration that all our concerns with our offended God are deposited in the hands of a most faithful Mediator who upon our return will concern himself as zealously for our Good as for his Father's Authority and solicit our cause in the Court of Heaven as Industriously as we our selves could do if we were admitted to be our own Advocates But then in the second place his being concerned for his Father's Authority as well as for our Interest gives us as full assurance on the other hand that he is no less obliged by his Office to reduce us to our duty to his Father or avenge him upon us for our disobedience than he is to restore us to his grace and favour and if he should so attempt the later as to be any way deficient in the former he would not perform the part of a just Mediator which consists in acting impartially for both Parties For should he favour our interest beyond his Father's Authority he would be so far partial to us against his Father Now though he loved us so well as to sacrifice his life for us on Earth and in the vertue of that Sacrifice to appear
to base Compliances with the lusts of men and the iniquities of times for a maintenance and that so Religion it self may not be exposed to contempt through their wretched Poverty and indigence who are the Ministers of it and who for want of a fair and honourable subsistence can never obtain Credit and Authority enough to do any considerable good in the World. And this is the food and sustenance of the Church without which it cannot long flourish either in true Knowledge or true Piety but must insensibly wither away and degenerate into Barbarity and Ignorance And accordingly if you consult Ecclesiastical History you will find that it was ever the practice of Pious Princes and Emperors to take care both for the erecting of decent and convenient Churches in all parts of their Dominions for the Celebration of Divine Worship and to furnish them with all the decent Accommodations and Ornaments that were proper thereunto and also for the endowing the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with such honourable subsistences as becomes the Port and Dignity of their several Orders and Offices in which they did no more than what they stood obliged to as they were the Viceroys of Jesus and the foster Fathers of his Church by vertue of which Relation to it they are bound in duty to supply it with decent Raiment and convenient Food And now having explained the subjection of the Sovereign Powers of the Earth to our Lord and Saviour and shewn what those Ministries are which they are obliged to render to him in his Kingdom I proceed to the Fourth and last sort of his Ministers by which he governs his Kingdom viz. the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Governours in treating of which I shall endeavor these three things First To shew that Christ hath erected a spiritual Government to minister to him in his Church Secondly To shew in what hands this spiritual Government is placed Thirdly To shew what are the proper Ministries of this Government I. That Christ hath erected a spiritual Government in his Church And indeed supposing the Church to be a regular and formed Society subsisting of it self distinct from all other Societies it must necessarily have a distinct Government in it because Government is essentially included in the very notion of all regular Society which without Rule and Subjection is not a formed Society but a confused multitude for what else do we mean by a Humane Society but only such a company of men united together by such and such Laws and Regulations But how can any company of men be united by Laws without having in it some Governing Power to rule by those Laws and exact obedience to them So that we may as well suppose a compleat Body without a Head as a Regular Society without a Government Now that the Church is a Regular Society utterly distinct from all Civil Society is as evident as the truth of Christianity which all along declares and Recognizes the Law or Covenant upon which it is founded and by which it is united to be Divine and consequently to be superior to and independent upon all Civil Laws and if that which constitutes the Church be Divine Law and not Civil then the Constitution of the Church must be Divine and not Civil for that which makes us Christians at the same time makes us parts of the Christian Church and that which makes all the parts of the Church makes the Church it self which is nothing but the whole or Collection of all the parts together and therefore as we are not made Christians so neither are we made a Christian Church by the Laws of the Commonwealth but by the Laws and Constitutions of our Saviour which were promulgated to the World long before there were any Laws of the Commonwealth to found a Christian Church on for there was a Christian Church for three hundred years together before ever it had the least favour or protection from the Laws of Nations In all which time it subsisted apart from all other Societies and was as much a Church or Christian Society as it is now and as it is now it is only a continued Succession of that Primitive Church and therefore as to the Constitution of it must necessarily be as distinct now from all other Societies as it was then when it subsisted not only apart from but against the Laws and Edicts of all other Societies in the World in short therefore since the Church of Christ is founded on a Charter and incorporated by a Law that is utterly distinct from the Charters and Laws of all Civil Societies it hence necessarily follows that it self is a distinct Society from them all because that which individuates any Society or makes it a distinct body from all other Societies is the Charter or Law upon which it is founded and accordingly our Saviour tells Pilate when he asked him whether he was a King that he was a King indeed but that his Kingdom was not of this world Joh. 18.36 i. e. though my Kingdom be in this World yet is it not of the World for neither are the Laws of it Humane but Divine nor the powers of it external but invisible nor the Rewards and Punishments of it temporal but Spiritual and eternal From the whole therefore these two things are evident First That Government is Essential to formed and regular Societies Secondly That the Church of Christ is in the Nature and Constitution of it a formed and regular Society distinct from all other Societies from both which it necessarily followeth that it must have a distinct Government included in the very essence and being of it And accordingly in the New Testament besides the Civil Magistrates we frequently read of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Governors so Heb. 13.17 there is mention made of the Rulers that watch for our souls and a strict injunction to obey and submit our selves to 'em and so again in the 7th and 24th Verses and in 1 Tim. 5.17 The Apostle speaks of the Elders that Rule well who are to be accounted worthy of double Honour And indeed the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Bishop or Overseer doth in Scripture always import a Ruler or Governour Vid. Hammond Acts 1. Note 1. and therefore being applied as it is frequently in the New Testament to a certain Order of Men in the Christian Church it must necessarily denote 'em to be the Rulers and Governors of it and this power to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Oversee and Rule and Govern the Church was derived to 'em from Christ the Supreme Bishop of our Souls even by that Commission he gave 'em John 20.21 As the Father hath sent me so send I you i. e. so I Commission you with the same Authority in kind to Teach and Govern in my Kingdom as I my self have received from the Father and accordingly as Christ is called the Pastor or Shepherd which name imports Authority to Govern his Flock for
rewarded accordingly with the Government of ten Cities ver 16 17. the other had been faithful though not altogether so diligent and by his one pound had gained five and accordingly he is made Lord of five Cities ver 18 19. By which he plainly declares that by so much as we fall short of those improvements we might have made in Piety and Vertue so much he will substract from our furure reward So that the sense of the Law of perfection is this as you would not incur the forfeiture of some degrees of your happiness in the other life be sure you imploy your utmost diligence in this to improve your selves in every grace and vertue of Religion II. There is the Law of sincerity which requires the being and Reality of all Christian Graces and vertues in us together with the proper Acts and Exercises of them as we have opportunity and doth no farther forbid those gradual defects of them which are within our possibility to supply than as they are the effects of our gross continued and wilful neglect and so inconsistent with sincerity Now the Reality of these Christian Vertues in us consists in the universal and prevailing consent and resolution of our Wills to regulate our practice by them so as not wilfully to admit of any thing that is contrary to them upon any occasion or temptation whatsoever and so long as this resolution continues firm and prevails in our practice we are just in the eye and judgment of this Law of sincerity though we do not always exert it to the utmost of our possibility He therefore who hath so submitted his Will to God as to be throughly resolved without any reserve to obey him and not to do any thing that is contrary to his Will either against knowledge or through affected ignorance or inconsideration hath in this resolution the real being of all Christian vertues in him and so long as this holds he stands uncondemned in the judgment of the Law of sincerity But though this resolution includes in it the being and reality of all Christian vertue yet doth it not include the utmost possibility of it nor doth it at all follow that because I am sincerely resolved to conduct my life by the Laws of Piety and Vertue therefore I must be in all respects as Pious and Vertuous as it is possible for me to be considering my present state and circumstances I may be sincerely resolved and yet not be always equally diligent and active I may now be exceeding vigilant and watchful and what I am now I may always be if I always exert the utmost of my possibility yet it may so happen anon that though I am sincerely resolved still I may be more remiss supine and inadvertent and in this posture a temptation may surprize me before I am aware and hurry me into an action against which I am firmly resolved And there is no doubt but even the best of men might have beâ—n much better than they are had they always 〈…〉 their possibilities and applied themseâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 their utmost skill and diligence to the methods and Ministries of improvement Now though not to exert our utmost power in the avoidance of evil and the improvement of our selves in vertue and goodness is doubtless a sin yet it is only a sin against the Law of perfection the Penalty of which is only deprivation of some degree of our future reward but so long as we keep up a prevailing resolution in our Wills to govern our 〈◊〉 by the Laws of Piety and Vertue we stand â—â—ear in the eye of the Law of sincerity the Penalty of which is no less than everlasting Exile from the presence of God into the dark and horrible Regions of endless misery and despair only this proviso it admits that if after we have sinned against it we reassume our good Resolution and heartily repent and amend we shall be released from the obligation to this dreadful Penalty and be restored to that happy state of grace and favour from whence we fell by our transgression So that the great difference between the Law of Perfection and the Law of Sincerity is this that the penalty of the later is much more severe but the duty of the former much more comprehensive Having thus given this brief account of our Saviours Legislation and Laws I proceed to the II. Of those Regal Acts which Christ hath performed in his Kingdom once for all and that is his Mission of the Holy Spirit to subdue Mens minds to the Obedience of his Laws and to govern them by them For so the Apostle makes the Mission of the Spirit to succeed the Triumphal progress of our Saviour to his Coronation in Heaven Eph. 4.8 He ascended up on high he led captivity captive he gave gifts unto Men where by the gifts which he gave we are to understand the Holy Spirit and in him all those extraordinary Gifts which he poured out upon his Church on the day of Pentecost for so Acts 2.33 S. Peter makes the effusion of the Spirit by Christ to be the consequence of his advancement to his universal Royalty 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 Now the end for which he sent his Spirit was to supply his room when he went from earth and in his absence to preside as his Vicegerent in his Kingdom below Since therefore this blessed Spirit acts as our Saviours Agent whatsoever he doth that our Saviour doth by him So that all those operations he performs in order to the subduing us to the obedience of Christ and to the governing of us when we are subdued are truly the operations of Christ himself It is he that conquers and governs us by his Spirit our hearts are the Territories which Christ invades by him and his inspirations are the victorious Arms by which Christ conquers and subdues them Our Wills are the Thrones on which Christ sits and rules and governs by him and his holy suggestions are the awful powers by which Christ himself commands our obedience But what it is that this blessed Spirit doth and hath done in order to the subduing Men to Christs Laws and governing them by them hath been already shewn at large and therefore of this I shall need say no more at present III. And lastly therefore another of those Regal Acts which Christ hath once for all performed in his Heavenly Kingdom is his erecting in it an external Polity and Government What this Polity is and what are the functions of it hath been shewn at large and it is as well by this external Government as by the internal Ministry of his Spirit that Christ now rules his Kingdom for in all just and lawful things the lawful Governours of his Church do act by his Commission and Authority as being substituted by him the visible representatives of his
of sin is in Scripture frequently attributed to the Father as well as to the Son So 1 Iohn 1.9 If we confess our sins he i. e. the Father is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and Eph. 4.32 Forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you From whence it is plain that forgiveness of sin appertains to God as well as Christ and that both have their appropriate shares in it and therefore since it is impossible that the same individual action should proceed from two distinct Agents in this Act of forgiveness the Father must do something which the Son doth not and the Son must do something which the Father doth not They must both of them act an appropriate part in it and each have a distinct agency from each other For the fuller explication therefore of this Article I shall endeavour to shew first what it is which the Father doth in forgiving sins and secondly what the Son doth I. What is it that the Father doth in this Act of forgiveness of sin To which in short I answer That the Fathers part herein is to make a general grant of pardon to offenders upon such a consideration as he shall think meet to accept and with such a limitation and restriction he shall think fit to make which general Grant is nothing else but those glad tidings of the Gospel which he proclaimed to the World by Jesus Christ viz. that in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice he would freely forgive all penitent and believing sinners their personal obligation to eternal punishment and receive them into grace and favour So that in forgiving our sins there are these three things peculiar to God the Father First His making a general Grant of Pardon to us Secondly His making it in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice Thirdly His making it with those restrictions and limitations of Faith and Repentance First One thing peculiar to God the Father in forgiving sins is his making a general Grant of pardon and forgiveness to sinners For the Law against which all men had sinned and by which they were obliged to eternal punishment was strictly and properly the Law of God the Father who being the first and supreme person in the Godhead was consequently always the first and supreme in the divine Dominion Now the divine Dominion consisting even as all other Dominions do of a Legislative and executive power the Father must be supreme in both and consequently the Laws of the divine Dominion must be more especially and peculiarly his And hence it is called The Will of the Father Mat. 7.21 so in the Lords Prayer the Divine Law is in a peculiar manner stiled the Will of God the Father Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Matth. 12.50 our Saviour stiles it the Will of his Father which is in Heaven and elsewhere the Commandment of his Father vid. Ioh. 12.5 Mat. 15.3.6 Mar. 7.8 9. by all which it is evident that the Divine Law against which we have all offended and by which we are obliged to punishment is appropriately and peculiarly the Will and Commandment of God the Father and it being so the right of exacting or remitting the punishment of this Law must be peculiarly and appropriately inherent in him For the penalty of the Law is due to him whose Law it is and it is he alone can loose us from it who bound it upon us so that it was the Fathers peculiar as to give the Law so to indemnifie offenders from the Penalty of it and accordingly we find that publick Grant of pardon which through Jesus Christ is made to sinners is in Scripture every were attributed to the Father so we are told that it is God who for Christs sake hath forgiven us Eph. 4.32 and that it is God who hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation though faith in his bloud to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past that he might be just and the justifier of them that believe in Iesus Rom. 2.25 26. that it was God who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5.19 And in a word that it is God who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 where his being faithful and just plainly refers to some publick Grant and Promise by which he hath obliged himself to penitent offenders And indeed the whole new Covenant in which this publick Grant of remission of sins is contained vid. Heb. 8.12 is the act and deed of God the Father It was he that in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice granted this grand Charter of mercy to the World for seeing it was to the Father that that Sacrifice was offered in consideration of which the new Covenant was granted vid. Eph. 4.2 compared with Col. 1.20 the grant of it must necessarily be from the Father And as it was the Father that made this publick grant of Remission to sinners so II. It was he that made it in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice for so Christ himself tells us that it was by commandment which he received from his Father that he laid down his life Iohn 10.17 18. and when he was going to offer up himself upon the Cross he tells his Disciples As the Father gave me Commandment even so do I arise let us go hence i. e. to execute that Command which the Father hath given me to lay down my life for the sheep Ioh. 10.15 from whence it is evident that it was the Father who exacted the Death and Sacrifice of Christ in consideration of that publick Grant of forgiveness which he made to the World for it was through his blood that we have redemption the forgiveness of sins according to the Riches of his i. e. the Fathers grace Eph. 1.7 and that blood of his was an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 So that it was God the Father that did both exact and accept the sacrifice of Christ which as I have shewed at large Sect. 4. was in consideration of his pardoning and forgiving Sinners III. And lastly It was God the Father also that made this Grant of forgiveness to us with these restrictions and limitations of our believing and repenting For as the promises of the Covenant were his in which remission of sin is proposed to us so must the conditions of it be also by which it is limited and restrained Because it can belong to none but the giver to limit and conditionate his own Gifts and Grants Now the Conditions of our forgiveness are faith and repentance oâ—â—ather the condition of it is such a Faith such a lively and active belief in Jesus Christ as doth beget in us sincere repentance and renovation of life for so S. Paul tells us again
our faith cannot be sufficient to discharge us from its penalty unless it be such as includes in it repentance and sincere obedience In short the law of grace condemns us as well for impiety injustice and uncharitableness as for infidelity and therefore we cannot be acquitted by it upon forsaking our infidelity unless we also forsake our impiety c. and while we continue in any one wilful sin for which it condemns it is impossible that at the same time we should be acquitted and pardoned by it so that unless our faith be such as doth include in it a renuntiation of all wilful sin or which is the same thing repentance and sincere obedience we cannot be acquitted upon it by the Law of Grace And then if we consider the matter of our Pardon and Remission which is nothing but a releasing us from our obligation to punishment it will from thence also appear that that faith upon which we obtain our pardon must be such as works in us sincere repentance and obedience For the punishment to which we are obliged by the Law of grace consists in the loss of Heaven as well as in the positive Torments of Hell and therefore our pardon must include a release from both but to be released from our obligation of losing Heaven is the same thing as to have a right of enjoying it confer'd upon us so that the Faith upon which we are pardoned and forgiven is the Faith upon which we are intitled to Heaven as all agree includes in it repentance and sincere obedience For these two things are of undoubted certainty that every man shall go to Heaven that dies intitled to it and that no man shall go to Heaven that dieth in impenitence and wilful disobedience For it is our keeping the Commandments of God that gives us a right to the Tree of life Rev. 22.14 And our keeping Gods Commandments is that Holiness without which no man shall see God Heb. 12.14 And accordingly in Scripture the Remission of our sins is attributed to our repentance and obedience as well as to our faith so Acts 3.19 Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And in Eph. 1.7 If ye walk in the light as he is in the light you have communion with him and the blood of Christ cleanseth you from all sin So also Acts 10.34 35. God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that fearâ—th him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him From whence it is evident that when the Scripture makes mention of faith only in the matter of our Justification it is to be understood of faith in the greatest latitude as comprehending Repentance and sincere obedience for how can we be justified by faith only and yet be justified by obedience too unless our obedience be included in our faith and indeed the Scripture plainly declares that faith it self is not at all available with God unless it be accompanied with sincere obedience So Gal. 5.6 In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth nor Uncircumcision but faith whick worketh by Love and what he means by faith working by love he tells us Gal. 6.16 Circumcision is nothing and Uncircumcision is nothing but the new Creature and what he means by the new Creature he also tells us 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and Uncircumcision is nothing but keeping the Commandments of God so that the only thing which avails us with God is faith working by love Faith working by Love is the new Creature the new Creature is keeping the Commandments of God and in Iames 2.26 we are told that as the body without the spirit is dead so faith also is dead without works that is it is altogether ineffectual For so if you compare the 14. and 17. Verses of this Chapter you will find that those two phrases faith cannot save and faith is dead do both signifie the same thing Since therefore faith it self without obedience is unavailable when the Scripture makes mention of our being justified by faith it must necessarily be understood of faith comprehending Obedience And thus you see what God the Fathers part is in remitting our sins viz. that it consists in granting to us an universal act of pardon and Indemnity in consideration of our Saviours Sacrifice and upon Condition of our sincere Repentance and future obedience And this is the ground-work and foundation of all remission of sins without which our Saviour himself hath no right to pardon and forgive us for since the Law against which we have all sinned was peculiarly from God the Father as he is the fountain of Divinity and consequently the head of the divine Dominion it was he peculiarly that was the party offended and consequently it was he to whom our obligation to punishment was due and by whom alone it can be released and remitted and as the grant of Remission was wholly in his will and pleasure so was it also to accept the consideration and appoint the Conditions of it So that now as none can be pardoned but upon his Grant so neither can his grant be available to any but upon that consideration which he hath accepted viz. the precious sacrifice of his own Son and upon such conditions as he hath appointed viz. faith working in us sincere repentance and obedience and accordingly our Saviour in all that he doth in the part he acts in forgiving sins proceeds upon and according to this Grant of his Father for 't is in the right and upon the consideration and condition of this Grant that he forgives us nor can he forgive any by any other right than that which it gives him or upon any other consideration than that which it hath admitted or upon any other condition than that which it hath specified and determined And this brings me to the second Head I proposed which was to shew what it is that the Son doth in forgiving Sins In short therefore the part which our Saviour bears in it consider'd as King under God the Father is to make an actual and particular application of this general Grant of his Father to particular Sinners upon their faith and repentance For the Fathers grant is only a general promise that we shall be pardoned for Christs sake whenever we sincerely believe and repent but the actual pardoning us consists in the application of this general Promise to us in particular by which the general promise of pardon is converted into a particular sentence of pardon For the promise says thus Whosoever believes and repents shall be pardoned the particular application of the Promise says thus Thou doest believe and repent and therefore by vertue of that Promise I pardon and forgive thee And this is the proper part of our blessed Saviour who having first obtained this Promise of his Father by his sacrifice upon Earth and then still continuing to obtain of him by
reason to repose our trust and confidence in him and therefore that we might have the same reason to confide in him in his Mediation for us as God had in his Mediation for him God so ordered it not only that he should assume our nature which if he had so thought meet he might have done without either being seen of us or born among us but also that he should so assume it as to be visibly born of humane kind and manifested in it in the open view and sight of the World. For in the fulness of that time which was long before prefixed in the Eternal Council of God the Holy Ghost by an immediate invisible and miraculous operation on the pure and Immaculate Womb of a Virgin called Mary of the Lineage of David inabled her without any Congress of Man to conceive a Child of humane kind consisting of a rational Soul in a mortal body which the Eternal Word or natural Son of God who was before all Worlds immediately assumed into a personal Vnion with himself whereby he became God-man who before was only God and this without either commixing his two natures into one or converting either of them into the other but under their Personal Union preserving them still distinct and separate which God-man the blessed Virgin that conceived him actually brought forth after the natural time of Women and Nursed and Educated till he arrived to the Age of man at which time he began personally to treat with men in his Father's behalf and in order to the reducing them to their bounden duty and allegiance to the Throne of Heaven revealed his Mind and Will to them with his own mouth and pressed and inforced it upon them with the most powerful Motives that ever were urged to mankind and by his own miraculous Works and most holy Example abundantly demonstrated to them that what he revealed to be the Will of his Father was true and practicable Thus far in his own person he Mediated for his Father with Men as I shall shew more fully hereafter The consideration of which ought in all reason and conscience to render his Mediation more prevalent with us For when God the Father hath condescended so far as to send down his only Son from Heaven on an Embassie to us to propose to us terms of reconciliation who had so highly incensed and affronted him when God the Son hath condescended so far as to cloath himself in our nature that therein he might indear himself to us and thereby oblige us to listen more attentively to his gracious proposals what a stupendous height of obstinacy will it be in us to stop our Ears against him and reject those terms of Mercy he proposes to us by persisting in a wilful rebellion Had God sent but one of the lowest Angels in Heaven to us to promise pardon and eternal life to us upon condition we would but sincerely submit to his Will one would have thought a proposal so infinitely reasonable in it self and advantagious to us should have been imbraced by us with transports and raptures but to reject it now when he hath sent it to us by his own Eternal Son whom all his Angels adore and by his Son incarnate in our own natures is such a degree of obstinacy and ingratitude together as no Devil was ever guilty of Suppose that you beheld this most glorious Person coming down to you from the right hand of God to tender you a Pardon and a Crown upon condition you would submit to his Father's Will and denounce everlasting vengeance against you if you persist in your rebellion would you dare by refusing to submit to reject that Pardon and that Crown and defie that vengeance to his face One would think it were impossible but yet in effect you do the same thing who believe that that Jesus who preached this Gospel to the World 1600. years ago was the Son of God in Humane Nature and yet obstinately refuse to submit to its proposals Hence from this very Topick that God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his own Son Heb. 1.2 the Apostle himself makes this inference Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip Heb. 2.1 And now having finished his Personal Treaty or Mediation with us for God he lays the foundation of his everlasting Intercession for us with God before our own Eyes viz. in the Sacrifice of himself for the sins of the World. He might if he had pleased have suffered death for us in the invisible state and received those tortures from the malice of Devils which were inflicted on him by the malice of devilish men but that would not have given so great a satisfaction to our Faith. For for the Son of God to lay down his life for Sinners is such a stupendous instance of love as would have exceeded the belief of Mankind had it not been openly and visibly transacted and therefore he rather chose to resign up himself into the hands of the Iews his cruel Persecutors and by them to offer up his Life upon the Cross in the Publick view of the World. And now having given this sensible evidence to our Faith that he died for us to satisfie us farther that his death was accepted by his Father as a full atonement for our sins he rose again from the dead the third day after his Crucifixion which was a plain evidence that his Father was fully satisfied with what he had suffered for us because he exacted no more but by his Resurrection actually discharged him from any farther suffering for ever So that the Resurrection of Christ is not only an evidence of the truth of his Religion under which notion I shall discourse of it hereafter but also of the acceptation of his Sacrifice For so the Apostle intimates in Rom. 8.33 34. Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again i. e. Who is there now that can presume to denounce eternal condemnation against any good Christian since Christ himself hath laid down his life for him yea rather since he is risen again from the dead and hath thereby given sufficient evidence that God hath accepted his death as our ransom from eternal condemnation And now having satisfied our Faith in these two great points that he died for our sins and that God hath accepted his death in lieu of that eternal punishment that was due for them all the farther satisfaction we can ask or need is that as he came down from the Father to Mediate personally with us for him so he should return back again to the Father to Mediate personally for us with him to exhibite and plead his meritorious Sacrifice in our behalf and in vertue thereof to solicite our pardon and acceptation with God.
And therefore to satisfie us in this also after he had abode some time upon Earth after his Resurrection and satisfied his Disciples by frequent converses with them that he was really risen and given them all necessary Orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his Gospel he carried them out to Bethany where after he had lift up his hands and blessed them he ascended before their eyes into Heaven upon which it is said Luke 24.52 That they worshipped him and returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them never in this World to be seen by them more that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father there to intercede in Person for them and for ever to exhibite that wounded and bleeding body of his by which he had made expiation for the sins of the World and purchased the promise of the Spirit and of eternal life upon this account indeed they had great cause to rejoyce because now they knew they had a sure Friend in Heaven where their main hope and interest lay even that very Friend who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death to rescue them from death eternal and who after such an instance of love they could not but conclude would employ his utmost interest with the Father in their behalf and in a word who being the only begotten of the Father whose precious Bloud he had graciously accepted as a ransom for the sins of the World could not but have an interest with him infinitely sufficient to obtain for them all the graces and favours that were fit either for them to ask or for his Father to bestow So that now if we heartily comply with him as Mediating for his Father with us we have all the encouragement in the world to depend on him as Mediating for us with his Father since he doth not Mediate with him by a second hand or at a distance but in his own Person in that very Person which is not only infinitely dear to the Father as being his only begotten Son but hath also infinitely merited of him by offering him his own life at his command as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And accordingly upon this consideration the Apostle founds the hope of Christians 1 Iohn 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin let him not presently give up himself as hopeless and irrecoverable for we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins VI. And lastly Another thing which the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning this Mediator is that upon his return from us to Heaven there to Mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the divine and Omnipresent Spirit Personally to promote and effectuate his Mediation for God with Men. When he went up to Heaven there to Mediate for us with God he did not thereby abandon his Mediation for God with us but immediately substituted a certain mighty spiritual Being to act for him whom he calls the Advocate or as we render it the Comforter and the Holy Ghost and who was to Mediate with Men in his behalf even as he Mediated with them in the behalf of his Father and to Advocate for his Authority as he Advocated for his Father's For so he tells his Ministers whom he left behind him to assert and propagate his Authority in the World I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter or Advocate i. e. to plead for and inforce your Ministry in my behalf whose Ministers you are that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth c. I will not leave you comfortless or without an Advocate I will come to you that is by this Spirit of Truth who is to be my Vicegerent even as I am my Father's Iohn 14.16 17 18. But for the fuller explication of this great and necessary Article I shall first shew what this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence Secondly I shall explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediation Thirdly I shall shew what it is that he hath done and still continues to do in order to the effecting this Mediation First What this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence I answer it is the third Person in the Tri-une Godhead For that besides the Father and the Son there is a third divine Person subsisting in the Godhead seems to have been a current Doctrine among the ancient Writers both Gentile and Iewish and is most plainly and expresly asserted in holy Scripture which third Person is known in Scripture by the name of the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of the Lord. For that the Holy Ghost so often named in the New Testament is the same with that Spirit of the Lord so much celebrated in the Old S. Peter expresly asserts 2 Pet. 1.2 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost from which words it is evident that this Holy Ghost whom S. Peter here mentions is the very same with that holy Spirit or Spirit of the Lord by whom as we are told in the Old Testament the ancient Prophets were inspired vid. Isa. 63.11 2 Sam. 23.2 Mich. 2.7 and abundance of other places and accordingly S. Peter applies that Prophecy of Ioel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh to that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost Acts 2.16 17. but this is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Ioel c. which could not be true if Peter's Holy Ghost were not the same with Ioel's spirit of the Lord. But it is most certain that the Holy Ghost whom S. Peter and the New Testament so often mention was in the first place a real Person and not a meer Quality as the Socinians vainly dream For so we every where find personal properties and actions attributed to him Thus he is said to speak Acts 28.25 and Heb. 3.7 yea and his speeches are frequently recorded so Acts 10.20 The Spirit said unto Peter arise therefore get thee down and go with them for I have sent thee and Acts 13.2 The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and how can we without horrible force to such plain historical relations which ought to be literal and not figurative attribute these speeches to a meer Vertue or Quality And elsewhere he is said to reprove the world Iohn 16.8 and to search into and know the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and to divide his Gifts