of man made of the dust of the Earth laying aside all consideration of sin made it impossible for man to be brought so near to God as Christ has brought him 'T is something difficult to apprehend how Adam in Innocency held Communion with God how he could pray without a Mediator But after he fell for those few hours before the Promise of Christ came to him no doubt he was full of horror The Text says he was afraid and hid himself from the presence of the Lord Gen. 3. 8 9 10. But Christ interposes took our nature upon him to convey his to us to make that ours by Grace which was his by Nature so uniting us to God again CHAP. IV. 4. How Christ was fitted and qualified for the Office of a Mediator HE had the Nature of both parties in him as our Immanuel Isa. 7. 14. He had a right in both as God manifest in the Flesh he stood in the middle between both parties and may be called the Third Isa. 19. 24. because Israel was joined in league and amity with Egypt and Assyria they all had an interest in one another all were Blessed of God v. 25. So God and man considered as united in a Third Person who is God-man they both have an interest in him and he is them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mediator is one who stands in the middle between Two partaking of both the extreams In this sense Christ is a middle Person medius not only by Office but by Nature as God-man Divinity and Humanity being substantially united in his Person he must be God that he may be able to satisfie he must be man that he may be in a capacity to die So that medius may refer to the Person Mediator to the Office the Office depends upon the Person such an Office requires such a Person who was God-man Christ is a Mediator according to both his Natures as God-man as his Divine Person is Incarnate in Christ's Mediation both natures are imployed and do act distinctly His Deity did what was Divine his Humanity what was Humane and what was done according to either Nature is ascribed to his Person The Person of the Mediator hath something common to both the dissenting parties viz. The same essence of the Godhead though not the same Personality with the Father and the Holy Ghost and the same humane Nature with us not numerical but specifical In the Incarnation of Christ humane Nature is not individuated to a formal subsistency in this particular Man by the Divine Essence but by the Personality of the Son and therefore the Son is said to be Incarnate because the Person of the Son gives humane Nature a subsistency in himself The Person of Christ joins Two Natures not disagreeing for the sinless Humanity of Christ was never contrary to his Divinity though inferior to it Christ thus Incarnate lays out himself to reconcile God and man which his Two Natures do fit him for disposing and giving an aptitude to the Office of a Mediator for Christ is Mediator oeconomically and by Office Christ's assuming humane Nature was part of his Humiliation and did fit him for his Mediatory Office Phil. 2. 7 8. Though as has been said there was no enmity between God and Christ's sinless humane Nature yet as 't is in us 't is defiled and contrary to God therefore Christ mediates for us with the Father Though Christ Offered up himself a Sacrifice for us in humane Nature yet the whole Divine Person may be said to be offered up in that Nature John 10. 17 18. Christ speaks there as Mediator the power that he had of laying down and taking up his life was the power of the Divine Person not of his humane Nature Some of the Schoolmen have this apt similitude viz. As a man draws a Sword out of a Scabbard holding the Sword in one hand and the Scabbard in the other so the Divine Person of Christ separated his Soul from the Body as a Sword from the Scabard and yet kept both parts united to himself Toletus Christ took our Flesh in which he was mortal and freed even our flesh from that mortality when he raised it from the dead Aug. de Civ D. l. 9. c. 15. mortalitatem habuit transeuntem and so raising us ex mortuis facit immortales Who could swallow up death but he who was life it self It makes much for the relief of fearful Consciences that our Mediator is God-man we should tremble at the mention of God only but when we hear he is Man as well as God then we come willingly to a man like our selves God hath hid and veiled his Majesty under our flesh that the brightness of his Glory might not overcome us When God appeared of old to the Patriarchs it was in some visible shape which he took up for that time and laid down again but now he has really taken the substance and truth of humane Nature into a fixed union to the Person of his Son never to be dissolved Heb. 1. 1. Christus Incarnandus was Mediator under the Old Testament as Exod. 23. 20 21. This could not be a created Angel because he had power to forgive sin therefore it was Christ to come apud Deum facta facienda things actually done and to be done hereafter things present and to come are all one Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. Who was verily fore-ordained 1 Pet. 1. 20. Faith in Christ to come saved our fore-fathers Christ was an effectual Mediator then in esse cognito not in esse reali this gives present efficacy to a moral Cause hence Abraham had the benefit of Christ's Mediation therefore he rejoyced John 8. 56 58. The Israelites are said to tempt Christ 1 Cor. 10. 9. Therefore he was with the Church then so verse 4. called a rock David calls Christ Lord Psal. 110. 1. Which shews that Christ had power over him to save him to redeem him so that you see Christ tho not actually Incarnate procured Remission of sin for the Saints then who acted Faith on Christ to come they saw him a far off Numb 24. 17. Promises do signifie something before they are fulfilled the Merits of Christ's Blood being known to God before it was actually shed had its vertue and influence from the beginning According to the Divine Oeconomy Christ mediates with the Father only he is never in Scripture brought in praying to the Son or the Spirit Christ as God-man is Mediator to himself as he is essentially God and Christ as Mediator is inferior to himself As he is essentially God so he is the Party offended but as Mediator God-man so he is the party that makes reconciliation A Mediator is not of one i. e. He consists of two distinct Natures Angels and Saints are mere Creatures and never will be more and therefore will make but sorry Mediators the Man Christ is the highest Creature Image of God because he
way fitted for the Office of a Mediator touched with the feeling of our Infirmities in all points tempted as we are Heb. 4. 15. A body hast thou prepared me Heb. 10. 5. i. e. Framed to such a temper that Christ through our nature might best express God's love to man Christ acted over the life of God in man's nature therefore it was necessary that the humane Nature of Christ should be adapted and suited to the Divine Nature which was done three ways viz. First By the perfection of it being free from all contagion of sin by a miraculous conception the Holy Ghost over-shadowing the Virgin Mary and separating humane Nature in the first conception of Christ from original sin that descends down upon it in all who come into the World by natural Generation Secondly By the Hypostatical union of the humane Nature to the Divine in the second Person of the Trinity which eternally secures our humane Nature in Christ from all possibility of the least defection puts it quite out of the power of the Devil any way to corrupt or vitiate it by all his subtil contrivances and temptations by which he did vainly attempt such a thing perfect Nature in the first Adam I don't say could not but did not preserve it self Adam did not fall for want of light and knowledge no he could never have fallen unless he would 't was from the mutability of his Will that he fell but the humane Nature of Christ the second Adam being under the Government of a Divine immutable Will can never fall hence it is that our standing in Christ is secured to eternity Thirdly By the pouring out of the Spirit without measure upon him that so strengthned all his humane Faculties that 't was impossible the Devil should ever impose upon him such an overflowing fulness of the Spirit leaves no room for any carnal impression to be made upon him his humane Nature received such a Divine tincture from the essence of the Godhead so powerfully influencing his Manhood that the Devil found nothing in him to work upon he met with God in every thought in every word in every Action of Christ in every motion and affection of his heart and finding one so much greater than himself continually aiding and strengthning the Man Christ he despairs of Victory and leaves him The Devil was not mistaken in the Nature of the Man Christ which was really humane but he was mistaken in the Person of Christ which was solely Divine such a Person in such a Nature he never thought to meet with that which posed the Devil was the Person of Christ he might know him to be God and yet apply himself to him as Man that he is sure he was he could not conceive how humane Nature could subsist but in a humane Person and as such a Person he set upon him but found it hard to kick against the pricks such a mighty Man he never grapled with before he was so shamefully foyled in this encounter that he never durst look Christ in the face afterwards he came behind him often like a Coward in disguise and by his wicked Instruments annoyed him all he could but durst not send him a second Challenge to fight it out with him once more hand to hand no he had enough of that already now he foams and rages at a distance throws his fiery darts here and there strikes at the Image of Christ in the Saints where ever he sees it but dares not come up to his Person face to face the great thing that the Devil dreads in the second coming of Christ he knows that is the time of his torment Therefore having such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens Heb. 8. 1. who is not ashamed to call us Brethren let us not be ashamed to call God Father Christ will bear us out in it the Children of God as such are not known to the World 1 John 3. 1. Have hard usage from the World 2 Cor. 48. 9 10. Yet God knows them is kind to them and tender of them Isa. 54. 11. Behold now we are the sons of God 1 John 3. 2. Now under all our infirmities and afflictions God is with us in the fire and in the water he has a great love to and very high esteem of all his Children since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee Isa. 43. 2 3 4. He will by no means take away his loving kindness utterly from them Psal. 89 32 33. Deut. 8. 5. We are apt to think otherwise Isa. 49. 14. Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me We shall be apt to entertain hard thoughts of God upon all occasions if we live not under the daily sense of our Adoption in which we see the Fatherly love of God flowing down so strongly towards us through Christ that we cannot but greatly rejoyce in it THE NECESSITY OF Preaching CHRIST I COR. I. 23 24. But we preach Christ crucified c. THE design of the Apostle here is to vindicate the Doctrine of our Salvation by Christ from all those Aspersions that were cast upon it both by the Jews and Gentiles the Gospel then was as much cry'd down by some as it was cry'd up by others The Apostle tells you who were for it and who were against it he divides all men into two ranks viz. The Called and Uncalled the Converted and Unconverted he tells you that they who were effectually Called and Converted were for the Gospel but the Uncalled and Unconverted were against it and as it was then so it is now Hence note Obs. That all unregenerate Persons whether Jews or Gentiles will have a fling at the Gospel 't is contrary to them and they are as contrary to it they can't reach the Mystery of it and therefore do slight and contemn it but all who are effectually called and savingly enlightned do highly prize it they see much of the Power and Wisdom of God in that excellent contrivance of Man's Salvation by Christ they desire to know nothing but Christ and him Crucified Let us have a care we do not darken the evidence of our Conversion by a Spirit of opposition to the Gospel in the main fundamental points of it I shall do little else in this Exercise but open the terms of the text observing some things by the way But we preach Christ crucified c. He shews the matter and manner of his Preaching in this Chapter what he Preached and how 1. The matter of his Preaching or what he Preached viz. The Gospel v. 17. The Cross v. 18. Or Christ Crucified v. 23. 2. The manner of his Preaching v. 17. Not with Wisdom of words So 1 Cor. 2. 4. vide Vnto the Jews a stumbling-block they were offended at Christ's low mean humble state in the flesh they did not look for any great matter from such
Matth. 5. 16. with Rom. 8. 30. and you will find that we are said to glorifie God and God also is said to glorifie us but with this difference We glorifie God by declaring those Divine Excellencies that were in God before God glorifies us by putting an Excellency upon us which we had not before We glorifie God here on Earth God glorifies us in Heaven as our Saviour saith John 17. 4 5. I have glorified thee on earth now O Father glorifie thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was What was that I wish I were able to tell you It may be some of you may think I say too much and others too little I desire as God will help me to say something of it that may lead your Thoughts into a further Consideration of this matter Therefore I shall endeavour to open that difficult Scripture Glorifie thou me with that glory which I had with thee before the World was John 17. 5. I conceive thus That Christ's Human Nature upon his Ascension to Heaven was according to its finite capacity lifted up by vertue of the Hypostatical Union into the Essential Glory of the Godhead which did not so shine forth in the Man Christ here on Earth as it doth now in Heaven It was under an Eclipse then in his state of Humiliation but now this Glory is fully communicated to the Human Nature of Christ and through Christ unto us John 17. 22. compared with Joh. 14. 20. I am in my father and ye in me and I in you saith he I say the Glory of the Godhead is communicated to the Human Nature of Christ and through Christ unto us who are united to him And by vertue of this Union the other Two Persons of the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost are said to dwell in us and to be in us The Father dwells in us and we in him 1 John 4. 12 13 16. If we dwell in Love we dwell in God and God dwells in us that is we have deep Apprehensions of the Love of God And the Spirit dwells in us Rom. 8. 11. comp with 1 Cor. 3. 16. I speak this to shew how near we are brought to God in Glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost And thus you see how Saints are glorified in Christ blessed with all Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly Places in Christ Eph. 1. 3. And how Christ is glorified in them John 17. 10. Christ takes the Saints into his own Glory which is their Glorification perfective of their Happiness And this Manifestation of the Glory of Christ in and upon the Saints is said to be a glorifying of Christ John 17. 10. The Original Glory of Christ shining out upon us is our Glorification which doth consist in the Beatifical Vision in beholding the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ we see him face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. Mat. 18. 10. We see him as he is which transforms us into his likeness 1 Joh. 3. 2. We then appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. Joh. 7. 24. What can we conceive of this Glory What is this Glory The Scripture sets it forth by Allusions to things that are natural and so shall I. Glory then is a Splendor or Lustre arising up and resulting from the Beauty and Excellency of a thing above other things So God outshines all Creatures being transcendingly Good So that Glory in its perfection as it is in God the Fountain of it it is a continual Effulgency and Brightness flowing from God the Perfection of Beauty He dwells in inaccessible Light This is called sometimes The brightness of his glory Heb. 1. 3. always sending forth resplendent Beams and Rays of Light which do reach us in Heaven and do reflect a Glory upon us Thus the Glory of God is set forth in Scripture by things that are most glorious in our sight And I must tell you That Faith sees something in God that is beyond all these Metaphors of Light and Brightness I say beyond all these Notions of Light and Brightness a more excelling Glory in comparison of which all created Glory is no Glory But the Beatifical Vision is aboâ—e all the Visions of this Glory that Faith now gives us because it fills and satisfies the whole Capacity of our Souls We are then possessed of all and desire no more The School-men tell us Heaven is Appetitus quietivum doth satisfie and quiet the Desires of a man So saith the Scripture Psal. 17. 15. When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness speaking of the Resurrection If the Love of the world is in you the love of the father is not in you 1 John 2. 15. If we are still flying out in our affections after worldly things it is a sign our minds are not quieted and satisfied with God alone School-Divines say further That in Hell there is fear but Heaven is above all Hope And they give this reason for it Because in Hell there is Successio Poenarum a Succession of Punishment which causes Fear but say they in Heaven Glory is absque Successione without Succession i. e. 'T is all present before ' em I suppose they mean this That the Saints above have a kind of actual Comprehension of their Eternal Beatitude in which there is nothing past or to come but all as present before them They don't Hope but certainly know that their Blessedness doth continue for ever That is I say the Saints above after the Resurrection cannot be more happy to all Eternity than they are the first moment of their Glorification And this I mean by an actual Comprehension of our Eternal Beatitude All is as present to Glorified Saints Brethren If these things seem difficult to you and do pass your knowledge are above your comprehension it is your happiness it is so that there is more Glory reserved for you than you can conceive Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him Besides pray consider we that are Ministers do prophesie but in part we see but through a glass darkly no wonder then if these things seem abstruse and enigmatical The more spiritually-minded you are about these deep things of God seriously considering the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that shall follow as 1 Pet. 1. 11. the more plain and evident will this Glory be unto you You will know more of it than the Tongue of Men or Angels can express There are certain Elevations of an enlightned mind that do sometimes raise our Apprehensions of Divine Mysteries above and beyond our ordinary thoughts of them The Spirit takes us up into the Mount of Glory and shews us the things of Christ more demonstatively than any Minister in the World is able to do When we are heaving at some heavy body we lift here and we lift there and it may be upon some sudden
the eye of our Faith because many who looked upon Christ with their bodily eyes when he was upon Earth saw the man Christ but saw not God in that man Nay they Crucified him as a Blasphemer for saying he was God Obj. How can we now see God in the Person of Christ since his Ascension Who shall Ascend into Heaven after him Answ. You may as well nay upon some accounts betteâ— discern God now in the Person of Christ since his Ascension as they could who were present with him upon Earth for they could not discern his Godhead but by Faith and so may we now But you will further Object We cannot see his Person Answ. Not with our bodily Eyes neither would that help us to discern his God-head if we could so see him with our bodily eyes unless the Father did inwardly reveal him and this he does now to his Saints as well as then then he did convincingly reveal the God-head of Christ in the Person of Christ livingupon Earth now he does reveal the same God-head of Christ in the same Person of Christ though not as living upon Earth but as represented to us in the word and living now in Heaven We must consider Christ as held forth in the word it 's enough that he was once upon Earth and that we have such a perfect Character of him such a full authentick description of the Person of Christ Incarnate and of his coming again left upon record in the Scriptures the word is nigh thee act your faith upon that and you will quickly have a spiritual discerning of God in Christ. You cannot believe all that the Scripture says of Christ but you must believe him to be God the very Son of God by eternal Generation from the Father and if you believe this you cannot but believe the eternal Procession of the Spirit from them both How can you conceive a living eternal Father and a living eternal Son without a living eternal Spirit The account the Scriptures give of the Son of God incarnate is ground enough for our Faith to fix upon set but your Faith a-work upon Christ and you 'l quickly have a spiritual sight of God in him Faith will observe that in Christ that speaks out his Godhead 't will spy out such Rays and Beams of Divine Majesty shining out in his Person that will create in us a holy Reverence towards him and cause us to fall down and worship him Though Christ be Personally Ascended yet he is Spiritually present with us and in us faith knows how in the light of the word to follow him up to Heaven to sit down in Heavenly places by him and to keep up a constant Communion with him As Christ was in Heaven as God when he was upon Earth as Man John 3. 13. So tho now he is contained in Heaven as Man yet he fills both Earth and Heaven as God Tho his finite Humane Nature cannot co-extend it self to an Ubiquity to reach as far as the Divine yet the Two Natures in Christ are always hypostatically united and tho the Divine Nature do act in with and through the Humane yet it does in many things act above and beyond it even under this hypostatical Union by which God intended to advance Humane Nature but without any Contraction or Diminution of the Divine If you ask What is that Object which we should set before us in every Act of Worship Publick or Private I Answer The Father Son and Holy-Ghost one God and Three Persons Through Christ by one Spirit we have access unto the Father Eph. 2. 18. According to that Oeconomy we worship one God all along applying our selves in a distinct manner to each Person according to the Word that the whole of our Worship may center in one God We shall become vain in our imaginations if we worship God any otherwise Our own Notions of Omnipotency c. let them rise never so high are but mere empty Speculations till we know the subject to whom they belong If they are true they are true of something Attributes ascribed to nothing are nothing in themselves but when we see in whom they are vested they command a Reverence in us towards so great an Object they that know thy name will trust in thee the name leads us to the thing to God himself as an Infinite Eternal Being cloathed with all those Attributes that render him worthy of all Honour Praise and Glory from us The Heathens for want of a right Object to fix their natural Notions of a Deity upon set up such Similitudes and Images of God as did no way represent him but rendred him like unto corruptible things God forbid us to make any Image or Likeness of him and set up his Son as his only True Living Image that we might conceive of him according to that Image and no otherwise The Sum of all is this The New Testament declares Christ to be the Son of God equal with the Father the express image of his person Flesh and blood cannot reveal this to us i. e. can 't perswade us to believe it but when it pleases the Father to reveal his Son in us then we see the Eternal Father in his Son in knowing one we know both because both are one and the same God We see the Eternal Spirit in Christ also who is called the Spirit of Christ residing in him without measure 'T is by the Son that we know both the Father and the Spirit as One God and Three Persons One and yet Three Three and yet One God has said it therefore let us admire and believe The greatest things that are cause no admiration till we believe them and then we sit down astonished That Three Personalities belong to One Infinite Essence must needs be true because God in effect says it who knows himself best I am that I am says God i. e. I am all that is revealed and I am that I am besides Secret things belong to God not to know what is not revealed is not culpable ignorance but a holy Nescience that will become us 'T is fit that God should so reveal himself to us that he may appear incomprehensible by us had he revealed himself as comprehensible by us we should have had no reason to believe him to be God for he must have been a finite God and therefore none at all 'T was fit therefore that God should shew himself to man in his transceedent Excellencies as incomprehensible by man so that his very incomprehensibleness which may occasion some doubt and hessitation in us yet if rightly considered it may be brought in as a strong argument to prove the truth and certainty of his Divinity Men are now for Comprehending not Believing but all men are not Philosophers Besides the Philosophical Reasons you bring for the Being of a God may prove there is a God and that you know there is a God but they do not prove that you know who that God
c. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die Nothing does establish this Law and give it its full course towards Believers but faith in Christ Jesus who was made a curse and died according to Law for our sins and being risen again he brings those whom he freed from the curse of the Law under the blessing of the Gospel giving eternal Life as a free-gift to all who thankfully receive it from his hand by faith owning him as the Author and Donor of it 3. The nature of the Offence as committed against an infinite God requires a price equivalent to it of infinite value none but God could satisfie God the wrath of God is asswaged by the blood of God and that he might bleed he became Man the Second Person of the Trinity as incarnate died for man tasted death for us in our nature which he still kept hypostatically untied to his own Divine Person for Christ by dying did not lay down humane Nature but humane Life only which he took up again and now lives for ever as a quickning Spirit communicating eternal Life to Believers through his humane nature now glorified in Heaven Therefore Christ is said to be our life Col. 3. 4. And this life is in his son 1 John 5.11 Hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 3. The life which we derive from mere humane nature will quickly fail but the life which we derive by faith form the Divine Person of the Son of God is everlasting John 3. 16. As the father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself John 5. 26. i. e. He is life essentially the essence of the Deity is communicated by the Father to Christ incarnate and so he becomes the Fountain of life to us therefore let all those who hope to inherit eternal life join themselves by faith to Christ the only Fountain of life How little of this hidden life does appear in the effects of it among Professors We live more by sense than faith very solicitous about natural life but how few do carry it as those who have eternal life abiding in them 1 John 3. 15. Living in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. Who fell a Sacrifice for our sins but rose again and now lives for ever And gives eternal life to as many as the father hath given him John 17. 2. He has undertaken to the Father to draw all the Elect into a participation of that eternal life which he as man possess now in Heaven and because he lives we shall live for ever in him The Second person in the Trinity died as a man in our human nature to satisfie the Law and to evidence the reality of his death he lay buried three days in the Grave he was alive as God when dead as Man what a profound Mystery is this that the Deity of Christ should suffer his human Body to fall under the power of death for three days this shews the strength of sin the strength of the law and the strength of the wrath of God that so great a man as Christ was could not stand under and live die he must by the sanction of the law being found in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 3. bearing our sins in his own Body on the Tree but the dignity of his person was such and the extremity of his sufferings so great that his three days death was equivalent to eternal death he did that in three days which a damned sinner in Hell cannot effect to eternity for that which is doing to eternity can never be actually done and compleated i. e. Christ gave full satisfaction to the Law in three days and therefore could not longer be detained in the Grave there was no Law nor Reason for it having paid the utmost farthing of our whole Debt the Prison-doors were opened and Christ let out That which keeps the Damned in Hell for ever is because they can never fully satisfie the law of God by all their sufferings therefore they must suffer on still to eternity but Christ by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Christ could have chose whether he would have died or no but for this end he came into the World and did voluntarily yield up himself to the Death of the Cross but rising the Third Day he lives for ever and has brought eternal life into human Nature to be communicated to all his Members who cannot forfeit that life which they derive from the second Adam as we all did that which we derived from the first Adam In Adam all die and in Christ all are made alive 1 Cor. 15. 22. CHAP. II. To whom was this PRICE paid FIfthly To whom was this Price paid viz. Into the hands of God the Father to appease his wrath under which we were Joh. 3. 36. God's justice requires this 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the judgment of God that sinners are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. To this end Christ is our propitiation Rom. 3. 25. Reconciling God to us that we may be received into his favour again hence God declares in the new Covenant I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 8. 12. Sing O ye heavens c. Isa. 44. 23. vide That satisfaction that Christ gave to the Justice of God lay in his bearing the Punishment of our sins which is the wrath of God in all the dreadful effects of it 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 24. He was made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. Died for us Mat. 20. 28. Isa. 53. 5. Was cut off for our sins Dan. 9. 26. Death was required to make satisfaction for sin In the day thou eatest c. The Wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 23. There is no escaping this death for us but by dealing with the Justice of God in some way that may satisfie Justice and save the sinner this Christ undertook and by his own Death effected for us He gave himself for our sins Gal. 1. 4. His Blood was the Price of our Redemption Price here is not taken as vulgarly for Money but whatever may satisfie him in whose hands the captive is that is the Price of Redemption God does not seek to make a gain of us that which he stand upon is the vindication of the honour of his Law and Justice the maintaining his Truth and Faithfulness To declare his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth ion Jesus Rom. 3. 26. Christ did not pay the Price of our Redemption to the Devil but to God the Father who had power to condemn us and as a Judge to detain us in prison till his Justice was satisfied therefore Christ deals with the Law-giver takes the penalty upon himself Whilst the condemning power of the Law is in force against us the Devil has a right in
and Fear lest we should not walk worthy of it unto all well-pleasing Grace pleases a Believer so well that he cannot but study to please God in all things ever after the Law of Grace constrains him Obs. The clearer Gospel-Light we live under the more holy we should be in our lives and conversations not continuing in sin because Grace abounds Since we are delivered from the terror and bondage of the Law let us not desire to be under it Gal. 4. 21. We are not under the Law but under Grace or which is all one are not come unto Mount Sinai but unto Mount Sion God was very terrible upon Mount Sinai but very amiable and gentle upon Mount Sion sitting upon a Throne of Grace ready to shew Mercy to all who come unto him Heb. 7. 25. he will in no wise cast off any So that Believers now are in a far better case than they were under the Old Testament they enjoy now far greater Priviledges and among the rest we have a more powerful Mediator than Moses was even Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant CHAP. III. Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant IN opening these Words I shall speak to these following Heads viz. 1. What a Mediator is 2. The difference between Moses and Christ. 3. The necessity of a Mediator between God and fallen man 4. How Christ was fitted and qualified for the Office of a Mediator 5. What are those special Mediatory Acts that Christ puts forth 6. Answer some Popish Objections and open some Scriptures very much perverted by them 7. Shew what use we should make of Christ our Mediator First What a Mediator is viz. One who interposes himself as a middle person between two or more who are at variance that he may reconcile them and joyn them together in a New Covenant A Mediator is one coming between two parties at variance to take up the quarrel and reconcile them Medium refertur ad duo extrema the middle refers to two extremes so a Mediator is not of one Gal. 3. 20. There must be two at variance God is one there must be some other at variance with God else no need of a Mediator whilst God and man were one i. e. united in love and affection for then they are said to be one Joh. 17 21. 1 Cor. 6. 17. of the same nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. But there being a difference between God and man Christ is not the Mediator of one i. e. of God only but of God and man God and sinful man for God and a just man are not at variance The first Covenant in Innocency was made between persons perfectly united and agreed the second Covenant between persons mortally offended therefore this needed a Mediator extrema unjuntur in medio So here 2 Cor. 5 18 19. A Mediator stands in the middle to unite both extremes So Christ is the Prince of Peace Isa. 9 6. The Parties disagreeing are God and Man the cause of the difference is sin Isa. 59. 2. which cannot be expiated but by the blood of Christ and because God would not contend for ever Isa. 57. â—6 he sent his Son to dye for our sins and so to make Peace Rom. 5. 10. A Mediator is one who takes hold of both disagreeing Parties one with his right the other with his left hand so bringing them together in Love as Job 9. 33. Isa. 41. 10. God and Man agreeing in one Mediator do walk together Amos 3. 3. The Person of the Mediator as Mediator is inferior to the Father by a voluntary exinanition of himself in the form of a servant but he is above us 1. As God by his Divine Nature 2. As Man by the Purity of his Humane Nature 3. By vertue of his Office and high Prerogatives belonging to it Mediator and Saviour are all one for Mediation is in order to Salvation one the means the other the end He is our Saviour because he is our Mediator Heb. 7. 25. The knowledg of a Mediator is not from the Creatures but from the Scriptures 't is a point of revealed Religion to know who is our Mediator even the Son of God Secondly The difference between Moses and Christ as to their Mediation 1. Christ as Mediator of the new Covenant effectually wins and draws to it all those to whom the benefit of this Covenant belongs he undertakes for the full accomplishment of the Covenant on both sides So did not Moses He was mediator of the old covenant Gal. 3. 19. Exod. 20. 19. Deut. 5. 4 5. 2. The Mediator of the New Testament must die because he is the Testator as well as Mediator Heb. 9. 15 16 17. vide The Priests under the Law did offer Sacrifice but did not offer up themselves as Christ did Moses was only a Ministerial Mediator he was not the Author of the Covenant but only a Witness to the delivery and publication of it in God's Name by his Hand But Christ himself is the Author of the New Covenant and he stands engaged to make good the terms of it to take up the difference between God and us Eph. 2. 14. He is our peace Man's reconciliation with God was drawn into a Covenant therefore Christ is called the Mediator of the New Covenant he is both our Mediator and our Ransom he that is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is also our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 2. 1 2. 3. The Priest and Sacrifices of old were tipes of Christ the great Mediator of the New Testament the only high Priest who is both Priest and Sacrifice 4. Under the Law many Sacrifices and they often repeated Heb. 10. 11. But in the Gospel but one Sacrifice and but once offered Heb. 9. 28. Heb. 10. 12 14 18. 5. Christ does not only intercede with the Father for us Joh. 16. 23. but promises to do it himself John 14. 14. He does not only intercede for us as an Advocate but himself hears our Prayers and grants our Petitions so could not Moses he is an extraordinary Mediator not only procuring remission from the Party offended but actually remitting the offence himself 6. The new Covenant comprehends both Jew and Gentile Eph. 2. 14 15. Eph. 1. 10. So did not the old 7. There was only Typical forgiveness in the old Covenant as pertaining to the conscience Heb. 9. 9 10 13 14. Heb. 10. 1 2 3. But real forgiveness in the new Heb. 10. 16 17. A real purging the Conscience Heb. 9 14. 8. Moses was not Surety of the new Covenant unto God on the part of the people but only an Internuncius or middle agent between them declaring the mind of God unto the people 9. The Sinai Covenant had relation to the Covenant of Grace and therefore the Ceremonial Law was annexed to it Circumcision was a Seal not of the Covenant of works as the Jews misconceived but of the second Covenant of Righteousness by Faith Rom. 4. 11. Confirmed before of God in Christ Gal. 3.
the true Vine bring forth much fruit John 15. 5. The efficacy of Christ's Mediation and the effectual Application of the Merits of his Blood to us in our Justification appears 1. In our Regeneration Tit. 3. 5 6. 2. By preserving us from final Apostacy John 10. 28. John 17. 12. 3. By raising us up unto glory at the last day John 6. 39 40. John 17. 22. In order to all this God chose us in Christ our Mediator from Eternity Eph. 1. 4. The office of a Mediator lies in Trans acting all things with God that concerns the people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2. 17. That he may save his people from their sins Mat. 1. 21. Christ is Mediator of Redemption to man 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 2. 16. Of Conservation and Confirmation unto Angels who need such a Mediator Job 4. 10. Angels were mutable Creatures till Confirmed by Christ for which they are no doubt very thankful unto God We ought to be thankful not only for deliverance out of evils already come upon us but also for being kept from many evils that might have befallen us as Psal 86. 12 13 Psal. 144. 9 10 11. Upon this account Christ is to be worshipped not only by men but by Angels Heb. 1 6. And Angels being sensible of so great a benefit by Christ their Head they do willingly Minister to his Members Mat. 18. 10. Heb. 1. 14. They rejoyce at the Conversion of sinners Luke 15. 10. They gain more knowledge in Gospel Mysteries by the Church Eph. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 12. They have all Prophetick Revelations from Christ Rev. 19. 10. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesy All such Gospel discoveries are called the Revelation of Jesus Christ Rev. 1. 1. The word of God and the testimony of Jesus v. 2. Who is the faithful witness v. 5. Men and Angels bare record to the truth of this John did Rev. 1. 2. That Heavenly Host of Angels did it Luk. 2. 13. 14. Angels are a part of the Church which is preserved by Christ Heb. 12. 22. They are called the Sons of God Job 1. 6 Job 2. 1. Elect and therefore in Christ 1 Tim. 5. 21. Therefore that the Angels stand and that fallen man is raised up again both are from Christ our great Mediator and Intercessor whose Prayers are always heard for the Church Zech. 1. 12 13 c. Because Christ hath the same will with the Father John 10. 30. Because Christ is well beloved his Person is Accepted and we in him Ephes. 1. 6. and his Prayers are offered on the Altar of his Godhead Heb. 9. 14. 6. Answer Some Popish Objections and open some Scriptures very much perverted by them 1. Obj. Christ is Mediator in respect of his Humane Nature only as man from 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one God and one Mediator between God and men tbe Man Christ Jesus Answ. Man here is taken in the concrete for the whole Person of the Mediator not in the abstract for his Humane Nature only in saying the man Christ we don't exclude his Divinity quia in homine Deus est Ambros. The Man Christ and Christ as a man differ very much the First signifies God-man the Second only Man Therefore we say against the Lutherans That though Christ who is man be every where yet Christ as man is not every where these Two Propositions are not equipollent The First is true the Second is false 't is the Error of the Vbiquitarians If Christ were only God or only Man then not medius inter Deum hominem and consequently no Mediator Therefore how can Saints who are only men become fit Mediators When we say the Man Christ the Species is explained and limited by the individuum to such a man who is the Christ of God God and Man 2. Obj. Since Christ our Mediator is Ascended and Glorified and is to resign up his Mediatory Kingdom 't is necessary that others be preferred to that Office v. 9. the Virgin Mary the Apostles Martyrs and Confessors c. Answ. 1. Christ has not yet resigned up his Mediatory Kingdom 2. The Apostle 1 John 2. 1 2. confutes this and says We now have an advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous So Psal. 110. 4. Thou art a priest for ever always making intercession for us Rom. 8. 34. Heb. 9. 24. I grant indeed according to 1 Cor. 15. 24. that Christ will resign up his Mediatory Kingdom to the Father when Sin Death and all the Enemies of the Church are overcome there will be no need of such a Mediator then as Christ now is riding on conquering and to conquer Rev. 6. 2. So long as there are any to be conquered Christ is in a Warlike posture on Horseback but when all are subdued then he possesses the Kingdom in peace with his Father Reigns with him as God to Eternity Triumphing in the final overthrow of all his Enemies Though he then cease from those Mediatory acts which the present necessities of his suffering Church and People call for yet he continues a Mediator still he did not finish that Office in the Garden or upon the Cross that he should be no more a Mediator When 't is said Christ shall deliver up the Kingdom to the Father this is not to be so taken as if the Father did not now Reign or that the Son should not Reign afterwards But because while the Prince of Darkness reigns and the far greater part of the World goes after him God seems not to reign while they won't own him for their King But when Christ shall have conquered all his Enemies and brought all the Elect into a due subjection to God then he shall deliver up the Kingdom in a quiet setled state to the Father so as the Son shall Reign with him for ever for of his kingdom there is no end Luke 1. 33. The subjection spoken of here is not any thing unworthy of Christ but makes rather for his glory to have his humanity more visibly subject to the Divine Nature For as long as Christ holds his Mediatory Kingdom having all Judgment committed to himself doing all himself though by Commission from his Father yet while he is exerting this Regal Authority by virtue of his Mediatory Office it does not so well appear how as Man he is subject to the Father as it will do when God shall be all in all Yet still the Efficacy of Christ's Offices is eternal though the present Execution of them may in divers respects then cease Obj. 3. The Papists hold That though there be but one Mediator of Redemption yet there may be many Mediators of Intercession Answ. If many Mediators in any sense had been necessary to save man this had reflected upon the Grace of God since the sin of one man was enough to damn all mankind By one man's disobedience many were made sinners Rom 5. 19. Wy should not the Obedience of one especially such a Man
is the exemplar the Spirit impressing upon us the similitude of that exemplar we become the Children of God I shall open this a little and shew you what influence Christ has into our Adoption God gives the Elect to Christ as his Children as the Heirs of God and joint-Heirs with Christ they lostt-heir Inheritance in the first Adam and recovered it in the second Adam they now stand in the same relation to God in their measure as Christ does I and the children thou hast given me Heb. 2. 13. The Son of God must become the Son of Man that we might be made the Sons of God in him Gal. 4 4 5. Here comes in our Adoption by vertue of our relation to Christ our elder Brother as one with him Gal. 3. 28. All God's Adopted Children are found in his natural Son mystically united to him deriving from him that filial relation which they have to God Al God's Chidren are of one mould of one shape and fashion all conformable to the image of his Son this is the Mark by which they are known and distinguished from others The great enquiry that God makes is What of Christ there is in us what of Christ there is held forth by us God owns none for his Children but such as resemble Christ Christ is the express Image of the Father and Christians are the express Image of Christ. The reason why God the Father is so well pleased with the man Christ is because he sees his own Image in him he sees himself his own essence in Christ not so in the Saints the Image of the Father in Christ and the Image of Christ in the Saints do agree in many things yet they differ in some the Image of Christ in the Saints is not the essence of God for that is incommunicable to any mere Creature but it is a lively resemblance of all the communicable attributes of God in some degree and measure drawn from the very face of Christ upon the faces hearts and lives of all Christians yet still Christ is the original by eternal Generation the Saints are but so many Copies drawn in time from that Original and they are drawn to the life not only in a way of outward resemblance but by a real inward participation of the Life and Spirit of Christ according to their finite capacity As the humane Nature does subsist in the Divine Person of Christ so our humane Persons so far as we are new Creatures do Subsist in Christ in whom we spiritually live move and have our Being as New Creatures the Divine Graces of Christ do subsist in the Saints by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them i. e. They act the same Graces finitely which Christ acts infinitely they receive of his fulness but cannot contain all his fulness they have not a capacity for that they enter into his fulness but all his fulness cannot enter into them 3. Our Adoption is brought about not only by the Father and the Son but also by the Spirit bearing Witness with our spirit to the truth of the Image of Christ drawn upon the Soul inferring from thence our Adoption The same Image bears the same name implies in a measure the same nature and Spirit to be in us that is in Christ puts us into the same relation to God that the Man Christ stands in the names of things would never occur to our memories if the likeness of the object we look upon did not teach us what to call it conveniunt rebus Nomina c. The Spirit witnesses by inward impressins tho no voice be heard and these impressions are always according to the word the Spirit does not speak from himself suggesting any thing to us not contained in the word but of this more hereafter I am now shewing how Adoption is carried on by the Spirit therefore called the Spirit of Adoption because given only to the Adopted and because he bears witness to them of the good Will of God wherewith the Father hath accepted them in the beloved that he might be a Father to them Tho the Spirit works all other saving Graces in us yet because Adoption is the prime and chief work of the Spirit therefore he is called the Spirit of Adoption 2. The manner of it This is clearly set down Gal. 3. 25. ad finem 'T is Faith makes us the Children of God by joyning us to Christ our union to and communion with Christ the natural Son of God is the Foundation of our Adoption Gal. 3. 29. Christ by coming into the World in our Nature made way for our Adoption of which Baptism is the symbol or sign we are Baptized into Christ we put on Christ are incorporated into him by Faith are all one in him Gal. 3. 27 28. If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise Gal. 3. 29. All Abraham's believing Posterity are blessed in Isaac i. e. in Christ Gal. 3. 16. They are Children and remain in the House of God i. e. in the Church for ever John 8. 35. 3. The time of it 1. From Eternity in the purpose of God This is virtual Adoption Eph. 1. 5. Hence the Elect not yet called are said to be the Children of God John 11. 52. compare with John 10. 16. God intended Adoption in Predestination and in the fulness of time sent Christ to effect it Gal. 4. 4 5. And his Spirit to evidence it Gal. 4. 6. We were Adopted in the purpose of God before we were born this is virtual Adoption 2. At our effectual vocation then actual Adoption begins we receive the first fruits of it here it follows Faith at least as to our sense of it Ephesians 1. 13. 3. At our Glorification then will our Adoption be compleated and perfected in our Bodies and Souls we shall actually enjoy all the Priviledges of it then there will be a clearer manifestation of the Sons of God the glorious Liberty of the Children of God will more fully appear then now it does Rom. 8. 19 21. Hence the Consummation of our Redemption at the last day is called Adoption Rom. 8. 23. 24. But I now speak only of the present fruits of Adoption which the Saints enjoy in this life CHAP. II. Thirdly How it differs from humane Adoption 1. DIVINE Adoption presupposes a Title to the Heavenly Inneritance by Justification John 1. 12. Humane Adoption gives all the Title that a Man otherwise a Stranger to the Blood hath to the Inheritance of him who adopts him 2. Humane Adoption conveys only outward goods to a person does not change his nature but the Father communicates to us the Spirit and likeness of his natural Son Rom. 8. 29. 3. Humane Adoption is for want of a natural Son 't is an act of law imitating nature for the comfort of those who have no Children But Divine Adoption is from the abounding love of God to us making us joint heirs with his well-beloved Son Though God
choice of his God 6. Many of the more civilized sober Professors even of Christianity are apt to rest in general Notions of a Deity when they don't know God himself they don't know him who is God My Text leads me to speak of The Knowledge of God in Christ if what I shall say be not so plain and easie as you would have it Pray remember that I am speaking of that great mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh which no tongue neither of men or angels is able fully to set forth and to express Yet I hope through the guidance of the Spirit of God what I shall deliver upon this high Subject will fall in with the Conceptions of your Faith and with the Spiritual Apprehensions of an Enlightned Mind Now I proceed A True Saving Knowledge of God implies these Three Things 1. A Knowledge of God in the Person of Christ Incarnate That God manifest in the Flesh of Christ is the only True God 3. That this only True God manifest in the Flesh is our God CHAP. IV. Of the Knowledge of God in the Person of Christ. WHat this Personal Knowledge of God in Christ is I shall explain We conceive God to be a distinct Being from all created Beings above all beyond all and before all the only Jehovah the Great Essentiator who is an Eternal Being himself and gives Being to all other things this God we cannot see with our bodily eyes but with the eyes of a mind spiritually enlightned we may i. e. we may see him by an eye of Faith conceiving him to be all that which he hath revealed himself to be in Christ. Till we see God in the Person of Christ the Mediator we have no certain Object for our Faith to fix upon our natural Notions of God will never carry us to any Person who is God the Scriptures only lead us to Christ as the Son of God The Person of the Father and of the Holy-Ghost are invisible but the Second Person hath made himself visible by taking our Nature upon him and is the only True Visible Image of the Invisible God He is God-Man which signifies not Two Personalities but Two Natures united in One Divine Person The Person of Christ Incarnate is Divine tho many in the days of his flesh here saw his Person who did not own his Divinity they saw him who was God but did not own him to be God 't is Saving Knowledge only that gives us a true sight of God in Christ we never see him till then God in Christ is God indeed all other representations of God do change his Glory into a lye they are all idols and vanities The Heathens became vain in their imaginations multiplying gods to themselves but never agreed who was the only true God Christ said to the Jews vers 19. Ye neither know me nor my Father if ye had known me ye should have known my Father also because the Will of the Father concerning the Salvation of Sinners is revealed by Christ. To believe the Being of a God That there is a God and to believe in God are two things The light of Nature leads to the former but not to the latter because we must have a particular distinct Knowledge of God i. e. of him in particular who is God the only True Living Eternal God we must know his Name his Attributes his Power Wisdom Infinite Love and Mercy We must be able to prove all this from Divine Revelation before we can have sufficient ground for our Faith and Hope in him to believe we know not why in we know not whom is not Faith but fond Credulity this way we render Faith a very irrational thing a mere fancy We cannot prove the Attributes of God but by the Almighty Acts and Works of God we believe him to be God for his Works sake which the Word gives us so full an account of 'T is strange to see what a slight Knowledg of God men do rest in reposing so great a trust as they pretend to do in one whom they know not whether he be able to answer that trust they worship they know not whom they trust they know not whom Tho they own God whoever he be to be Almighty Infinite in Wisdom Love c. yet they chuse a God for themselves who is none of all this and so deceive themselves General Notions of Infinite Power Wisdom c. unless we see where to place them and to whom they do belong are but empty speculations no sufficient ground for our Faith Christ has outdone all that ever were called gods and therefore he only deserves that Name who has in himself revealed the true God to us all the Idols of the world are vanities The Son of God hath made himself visible by taking our flesh upon him and through that veil we look in upon the whole Trinity and know all that is called God in Christ Jesus He that hath seen me hath seen the Father John 14. 9. hath seen the Infinite Power of that Holy Spirit put forth by me No mere Creature holds forth two Natures but the Person of Christ does and therefore is the only Image of the Invisible God holding forth all that is contained in the Infinite Essence of the Divine Nature truly representing God in all his Essential Properties as God and his Father Christ is properly the Image of the Father not of the God-head for that is really in him he is very God The thing it self cannot be said to be the Image of it self Christ and the Father are one in the Essence of the God-head I and my father are one John 10. 30. But Christ is not the same Person with him whose Image he is When Christ is said to be the Image of God God is taken personally for the Father not essentially for the Divine Nature I am not now speaking of the Characteristical Differences of the Three Persons but of the Unity of Essence in which they all agree These three are one If you would know what manner of God the Father is you must look upon Christ his Image and conceive of him according to that manifestation of himself in the Flesh of Christ who has in that very flesh expressed and acted over all the Divine Attributes of God in the Miracles he wrought upon earth letting out a Divine Power through our humane Nature acting as God in our flesh Something of God's Glory appears in the Works of Creation but the Brightness of his Glory shines out only in the Face of Christ as men are known by their faces so God is known by Christ God having in an ineffable manner communicated his Essence to Christ he is therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the express image of his person As he holds forth the Glory of God to us he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his glory This is that Divine Person upon whom the eye of our Faith must be fixed I say
17. The Law was given 430 Years after the promise made to Abraham threatning the sinner not with an intent that the Curse should be executed or the hand-writing against us fulfilled but rather blotted out Col. 2. 14. Is the law then against the promises Gal. 3. 21. 'T is certain the Law as threatning is against the Promises against us and contrary to us as Col. 2. 14. But not so against the Promises as to vacate and abolish them but is rather subservient to them stirring up the sinner to fly to the Promise for a Pardon When the people just after the giving of the Law had grievously sinned in making the Calf and God threatned to consume them Exod. 32. 9 10. Moses does not plead the Mount Sinai Covenant but the Covenant made with Abraham vers 13. So Deut. 9. 27. 2 Kings 13. 23. The condition of the Sinai-Covenant being performed by Christ the New Covenant becomes absolute to us nothing more can be demanded of us in a way of satisfaction for sin Heb. 10. 14. Christ as our Advocate pleads this and that we ought to be discharged from the Curse of the Law All doing for life is over in the New Covenant our Surety has done that and therefore is become the Mediator of a better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. Having made way for our receiving the Promise Heb. 9. 15. This full satisfaction is the main thing we are to believe in order to our Salvation this is the sense of every act of Justifying-Faith to which Salvation is annexed we must mean this in believing or we mean nothing neither do we understand those Scriptures Mark 6. 16. Joh. 3. 16 36. The Obedience of Christ comes instead of our doing for life he is the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. Christ being made of God our Righteousness for Justification it is the will of God that he should by his Spirit sanctifie us and make us inherently holy Our Mediator does not only take away the guilt of sin which legal Sacrifices could not do they only purified the Flesh Heb. 9. 13. but not the Conscience the Blood of Christ only does this v. 14. So the Spirit of Christ by Faith purifies the Heart sanctifies the whole person 1 Thes. 5. 23. since we are come to the Mediator of the New Covenant let us see we don't abuse the free Grace of God Heb. 12. 25. In the New Covenant great Grace is revealed to Believers and great wrath against all Unbelievers Mat. 3. 7 10 12. Isa. 61. 2. vide 3. The necessity of a Mediator between God and Fallen man If one man sin against another the judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2. 25. This necessity appears 1. From God's just anger against us 2. From our inability to appease his wrath I put them both together Adam was the Son of God by Creation Luk. 1. ult but soon alienated himself and all his Posterity from God his Father and Creator neither could we ever become the Children of God again but by Christ John 1. 12. Heb. 2. 10 c. Angels though they need no Redeemer yet they need a Mediator a Head in and through whom they have access to God and communion with him much more does fallen man need a Mediator by whom he may come unto the Father Joh. 14. 6. 'T is impossible to see God any otherwise than through Christ John 1. 18. if any man sin as every man does let him not despair for we have an Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. in whom God is well pleased Mat. 3. 17. We cannot have immediate access to God himself but through a Mediator we may 3. By those terrors of Conscience which we are under when our hearts smite us for any sin accusing us Rom. 2. 15. telling us that God knows all this evil and much more by us 1 John 3. 20. Then whither shall I go from thy spirit whither shall I flee from thy presence Psalm 139. 7. How terrible is God out of Christ to a convinced sinner 4. The dreadful Punishments that are inflicted upon sinners upon the fallen Angels upon the old word many particular instances in former and latter times do render it a very fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10. 31. When a guilty sinner has none to speak for him what trembling must needs seize upon him lest God tear him in peices and there be none to deliver him Psal. 50. 22. 5. By the Sacrifices of the Old Testament and also of the Heathens which were designed to pacifie God some means was to be used all the Sacrifices of old appointed by God himself could never expiate sin nor pacifie God but as they pointed to the great Sacrifice in the New Testament Christ is the great Reconciler Col. 1. 20. We come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant to be freed from the curse of the Old and invested in the priviledges of the New The Covenant of Works made at the Creation with Adam in Innocency being broken and the legal Administration of the Mount Sinai-Covenant being faulty and unprofitable Heb. 8. 7 13. Our Father 's not continuing in it God regarded them not Heb. 8. 9. And being thus alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked Works God thus provoked gave up man a child of wrath to be a slave to sin Satan and Death Rom. 1. 28. Heb. 2. 14 15. Yet God so loved the world John 3. 16. Whilst we were yet without strength Rom. 5. 6. when we were sinners v. 8. and enemies v. 10. Then did God reconcile us to himself by the death of his Son entring into a New Covenant with us by appointing Christ to be the Mediator 1 Tim. 2. 5. and Surety of a better Covenant Heb. 7. 22. Heb. 8. 6. so reconciling us to himself 2 Cor. 5. 18. God the Father provided this Mediator John 3. 16. Rom. 3. 25. Isa. 49. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 30. You may see the greatness of the sin and of the Punishment too in the greatness of the Mediator God himself in the person of his Son became our Mediator and Redeemer 6. The Law was ordained in the hand of a Mediator to shew that 't is not in the power of any man since the Fall to satisfie the Law Gal. 3. 19. By the hand of a Mediator we must understand not only Moses but the virtue and power of the great Mediator Christ of whom Moses was a Type Thus you see the necessity of a Mediator Fallen man himself could not deal with God because of sin Angels could not being not of Humane nature and since there is but one God then either the Majesty of Heaven must descend down to us immediately which could not be or else this one God must become our Mediator our Immanuel his Godhead and our humane Nature being joyned together in the Divine Person of the Son The low estate
is God as well as Man The Hypostatical union of the two natures in Christ is the Foundation of our spiritual and mystical union to God God and his Creature Man meet in Christ the Mediator We must not understand our union to Christ so grosly as if we were Deified I abhor that blasphemous Famelistical Notion of our being Christed and Godded no the new Creature in its nearest union and highest communion with God is but a Creature and never will be more nothing that is infinite eternal and uncreated can in its immensity enter into us but we may enter into it hence the Saints are said to enter into life Mat. 18. 8. Mat. 19. 17. As a Barrel cast into the Sea is in the fulness of the Sea tho the fulness of the Sea be not in the Barrel 't is filled according to its Capacity and can hold no more So is the life of Christ derived to us by gradual Communications in a way of influence from Christ the Fountain of life we live because he lives who hath life in himself and is a quickning Spirit in us certainly great things are intended by and implied in our union to Christ I remember a late eminent Divine now in Glory expresses it thus That provided we keep below the Hypostatical union of the two natures in Christ we cannot ascend too high in our thoughts and conceptions of the mystical union between Christ and his Members all that is below the hypostatical union may be allowed to this So that I would not have any interpret our union to Christ and communion with him into so low a sense as not to apprehend how Believers by vertue of their union to Christ stand in a nearer relation to God than the Angels do whose Nature Christ took not I say Believers are under a more special immediate influence of the eternal Spirit their life is hid with Christ in God and will be better understood by us in Heaven than it is here on Earth though we should be studying it more and more I am sorry to see the most spiritual expressions of the Gospel sealed up as it were by a common short exposition of them that goes with most for the full sense of the Text it contains it may be truth but not all the truth or at least does not fully express all the truth 't is looked upon as very unsafe to put a further and higher construction upon the words than others has done before though they will bear it I think while we keep within the Analogy of Faith not wounding any vital part or fundamental Principle of Religion nor wresting the Scriptures to a forced sense we may admit any farther light that shines through the word unto us waiting upon God to lead us by his Spirit further and further into the knowledge of the truth as 't is in Jesus that our light may shine out into the perfect day Christ being thus qualified for his Office is 1. Called the Messenger or Angel of the Covenant Mal. 3. 1. Because he does declare and interpret the terms of the Covenant between God and Man as Moses did Exod. 20. 19. Deut. 5. 5 27. In this he was a type of Christ Deut. 18. 15 18 19. Therefore Christ as Mediator is referred to in the Old Testament Isa. 7. 14. Isa. 8. 8. 2. The Angel absolutely Exod. 23. 20. 3. The Angel of his Face or Presence Isa. 63. 9. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 2. 1. An advocate The Holy Ghost has the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 14. 16. 26. Because as Christ makes intercession for us above his Spirit makes intercession in us here Rom. 8. 26. God is in Christ reconciling the World unto himself if ever we meet with God in peace it must be in and through this great Mediator Jesus Christ. 5. What are those special Mediotory acts that Christ puts forth CHAP. V. Of Christ's Mediatory Acts. WHAT are those special Mediatory Acts that Christ puts forth Some proper to his Prophetical some to his Priestly and some to his Kingly Office To his Prophetical Office 1. To know and rightly to state the case between God and Man 2. To propose and declare the terms of the Agreement between God and Man contained in the New Covenant To his Priestly Office 1. To make satisfaction in order to our Redemption 2. To make intercession for us by Arguments drawn from that satisfaction To his Kingly Office 1. To Protect and Govern his Church defending it against all the sworn Enemies of it 2. To give Rules Laws and Ordinances to his Church for the avoiding of all Will-Worship But I shall not tye my self to this Method But speak of Christ's Mediatory Acts. First As Mediating with God for us Secondly As Mediating with us on God's behalf 1. As Mediating with God for us 1. By giving satisfaction to his Father's Justice He undertook this as our Surety Heb. 7. 22. Heb. 10. 7. And actually performed this Undertaking 1 Tim. 2. 6. Mat. 20. 28. John 10. 15. To give satisfaction is tantum facere quantum satis est Christ as a Priest offering himself up to death for us was one of the chiefest acts of his Mediation that he might take away the guilt of sin bur this was not all for as our Mediator he puts forth a further act viz. 2. By promising to sanctify us to free us from the filth of sin Eph. 5. 25 26 27. He shews there that Christ upon giving himself for the Church laid himself under Engagements to sanctifie and cleanse it here the law of the spirit of life in Christ makes us free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8. 2. Thus Christ by himself purges our sins Heb. 1. 3. 3. By making Intercession for us 1. On Earth John 17. 9. 20. I pray for them and for all that shall believe on me through their word 2. In Heaven Heb. 9. 24. Rom. 8. 34. 1 John 2. 1. Heb. 7. 25. He ever lives to make Intercession for us 't is continual Intercession should it cease but for a Moment we should be in great danger therefore Christ is continually representing in Heaven what he has done and suffered for us in the flesh 2. As Mediating with us on God's behalf Christ as Mediator came about the Father's business Luk. 2. 49. And deals with us Prodigals about our returning to our Heavenly Father 1. By declaring the Father's Will to us John 1. 18. John 6. 38 39 40. John 17. 8 14. 2. By applying his Merits in the efficacy of them unto us The son quickneth whom he will John 5. 21. If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the deatb of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5. 10. There is a mighty Power in the Death and Resurrection of Christ Phil. 3. 10. Rom. 6. 3 4 5. When we are planted in the likeness of both we shall then as Branches abiding in