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
which he very often imprints on us with that life and vigour and repeats and urges with that efficacious Ardour and restless Importunity that unless we are strangely obstinate we cannot find in our hearts to repel or resist them Fourthly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on mens minds is comforting and supporting them or inspiring their minds with such joys and refreshments as are necessary to support them under the difficulties and temptations they are here exposed to For this operation of the Spirit is a standing provision against such Difficulties and Temptations as are too great for an ordinary patience and courage to conâ—est with and is not ordinarily vouchsafed to us but only at such times when we are called to do or suffer something beyond our selves and above our own strength and ability in which cases we are secured of this supporting influence of the Spirit by that Promise 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer ye to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it For thus we read of the Primitive Church that they walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Acts 9.31 i. e. had the constant supporting influence of the Spirit of God to strengthen and bear up their minds under that mighty work and grievous persecutions they were to undergo and the Apostle makes it his earnest Prayer to God for his Christian Romans that he would fill them with all joy and peace in believing that is in their profession of the Christian Faith and that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 And accordingly we find the Ages of Persecution abounding with remarkable instances of this operation of the Holy Ghost For whereas constant Persecutions never failed to exterminate false Religions from the World witness the Heathen Religion and the Christian Heresies the Priscillians Arians and Donatists which whilst they were tolerated or connived at did mightily encrease and multiply but under vigorous persecutions immediately shrunk and in a little time dwindled into nothing the true Christianity on the contrary bore up its head under the heaviest oppressions and triumphed in the midst of flames and was so far from being vanquished by all the barbarous cruelties of its Persecutors that the more they persecuted it the more it conquered and prevailed which doubtless is in a great measure to be attributed to this supporting influence of the Holy Spirit which still accompanied its Confessors and Martyrs For how was it possible that a company of tender Virgins delicate Matrons and aged Bishops could ever have endured those long and dolorous Martyrdoms as many times they did when their Tormentors took their turns from morning to night and plied them with all kinds of cruelties till they were oftentimes forced to give over and confess that they had not heart enough to inflict the Tortures which those poor Sufferers had courage enough to endure How could they have sung in the midst of Flames smiled upon Racks triumphed upon Wheels and Catastaes and there challenged their Executioners as they often did to distend their Limbs to the utmost stretch to tear their flesh with Vngulae to scorch their tender parts with fires and rake their bowels with Spikes and Gaunches How I say could they have endured all these miserable harrasings of their tender flesh with the most witty and exquisite Tortures and this sometimes for sundry days together when for one base and cowardly word they might have been released when they pleased had they not been supported with an invisible hand and refreshed with such strong consolations as not only abated but sometimes quite extinguished their pains And the same comforts though not perhaps in the same degree other good men have frequently experienced sometimes upon their undertaking some great and Heroick Office of Piety or Vertue sometimes in their conflict with some great Temptation sometimes when they have been sorely oppressed with some mighty sorrow or affliction and sometimes in the hour and extremities of Death for it is only upon these or such like extraordinary occasions that the Holy Spirit usually administers these great Consolations to our minds And this he also performs in the same manner as he doth the aforenamed operations viz. by suggesting to and vigorously impressing comfortable thoughts upon our minds for there is no doubt but that as he can impress on us what thought soever he pleases so he can also impress it with what strength and vigour soever he pleases and accordingly as he impresses a comfortable thought on us more or less vigorously it must of necessity be a greater or a less consolation to us if he think fit and our state require it he can imprint a comfortable thought on us with that strength and vehemence as that it shall even ravish us from our sense and so ingross all our attention to it as that we shall be altogether mindless and insensible of any pain or pleasure of the body For thus it is usual for serious Contemplators in their profound Muses to collect and call together all their animal spirits to attend that work so as that many times there are none or not enough at least remaining to supply the Offices of their sense and carry on the inferiour operations of Nature and if we our selves by intense thinking can thus alienate our minds from sense we may easily suppose that the Holy Ghost who hath the command of our minds can when he pleases stamp a joyous thought so vigorously upon them as that it shall instantly transport them into an ecstasie and ravish them from all Corporeal sensation And that thus he hath done is notoriously evident in the above-named Martyrs whose Senses were many times so intranced by the rapturous contemplations their minds were seised with that they lay smiling and sometimes singing under the bloudy hands of their Tormentors without any apparent sense of those long and exquisite cruelties that were practised upon them And though the blessed Spirit seldom applies these strong and powerful Cordials to pious minds but in such great and urgent extremities it being much more for their interest to be kept humble and lowly than to be ravished with continued comforts yet ordinarily he administers a standing peace and satisfaction to them and when ever their necessities call for it he inspires them with such degrees of joy and consolation as their case and condition requires Fifthly and lastly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on Men's minds is Intercession by which he enables us to offer up our Prayers to God with such ardent and devout affections as are in some measure sutable to the matter we pray for For Prayer being the immediate converse of our Souls with God wherein our minds are obliged to withdraw themselves from sense and sensible things and wholly to retire themselves from those Objects to
sacrificed body to the Father he did what the High Priest did when he sprinkled the bloud of his Sacrifice i. e. he interceded for us with God and indeed he interceded more prevalently by this significant action than if he had used all the Eloquence of Men and Angels For his wounds are vocal and his bloud speaks yea and not only speaks better things for us than the bloud of Abel spoke but also expresses what it speaks far more powerfully and emphatically than it is possible for any verbal Oratory to do So that by the presenting to his Father his wounded and bleeding body which carries with it an inexhaustible fountain of Rhetorique and Persuasion he makes the most moving and pathetical intercession for us the sense of which is this though the full force and Emphasis of it no Language can express O my Father behold this sacrificed body of mine which by thy consent and approbation hath been substituted to bear the punishment which was due to thee from Mankind and through the wounds of which I have chearfully poured out the precious bloud of God as a ransom for the sins of the World for the sake of this bloud therefore be thou so far propitious to those miserable sinners it was shed for as upon condition they shall repent to accept it in exchange for the lives of their Souls which are forfeited to thee to release them from the Obligation they are under to die eternally and upon their final perseverance in well-doing to crown them with eternal life and that this bloud which at thy command I have willingly shed for them may not through their inability to repent and persevere be utterly ineffectual to them O send thy Holy Spirit to assist their weak faculties to excite their endeavours and co-operate with them This is the Language of Christ's sacrificed body in Heaven and these are the better things which his bloud bespeaks for us For his bloud bespeaks those good things for us in Heaven for which he shed it upon Earth i. e. the remission of our sins and our eternal life of which blessings his bloud being the price that God had promised to accept his presenting it to him in Heaven not only speaks for but humbly demands them as carrying with it the unanswerable claim of an accepted Price to a stated Purchace So that this address which Christ makes for us to God in heaven is not performed by him after the manner of a prostrate Supplicant with bended knees up-lifted hands and lowly supplications but in such a manner as comports with the Kingly Majesty he is advanced to and so as at the same time to assert his own right of purchace in the blessings he addresses for and yet to acknowledge God to be the supreme fountain and disposer of them And this the Scripture tells us he performs by appearing in the presence of God for us and presenting his sacrificed body to him as a standing motive to prevail with him to be propitious to us and to crown us with all those graces and favours in consideration of which he laid down his life for us And accordingly he is said to offer himself to God for us in heaven Heb. 9.25 and to offer his one Sacrifice i. e. to God in heaven for sin for ever Heb. 10.12 By which offering or presenting his Sacrifice to God he doth at once claim for us by the right of his purchace all those good things for which he paid down the price of his bloud and also by a silent desire pray to God to bestow them upon us whereby he acknowledges him to be the sovereign disposer of them So that this significant action of Christ's presenting his sacrificed body to God is both a Claim and a Prayer or rather it is a Prayer backt and enforced with a rightful claim to the blessings he prays for For so for that particular blessing of the Spirit he himself tells us I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever John 14.16 not that he offers up any other Prayer to the Father but what his wounds and bloud continually make which with incessant importunity do move and solicite God in our behalf but his meaning is this by presenting that Sacrifice to my Father in Heaven which I am going to offer on the Cross and by which among other blessings I shall purchace of my Father his Holy Spirit for you I will pray him to send his Holy Spirit to you I will pray him by my wounds and bloud which are a thousand times more moving and eloquent than any vocal Prayer I can offer in your behalf for while they pray him to send his Spirit to you they lay an undeniable claim to what they pray for as being the dear and inestimable price by which I am purchasing his Spirit for you From all which it is evident that this address which Christ now makes for us to his Father in Heaven consists in the presenting his sacrificed body to him by which he both prays to him and claims what he prays for III. It is by the continued and perpetual oblation or presentment of this his sacrificed body to the Father that Christ continues and perpetuates this his address or intercession in our behalf For the fiâ—st presenting or oâ—lation of his sacrificed body in Heaven was the beginning and commencement of his intercession and the whole progress of his intercession is nothing but that same oblation continued and perpetuated For as the High Priest was interceding for the people all the time that he was presenting the bloud of the Sacrifice before the Lord so Christ is interceding for us all the while that he is presenting his sacrificed body in Heaven For it is by the presence of his sacrificed body that he intercedes and therefore so long as his body is present in Heaven so long he must be interceding by it in our behalf So that between the Iewish High Priest's Intercession and Christ's there is this vast difference that the former presented himself in the Holy of Holies with his Sacrifice and consequently interceded by it but once a year viz. on the great day of Expiation whereas the latter continually presents his Sacrifice in Heaven and so doth continually intercede by it and whereas the bloud which the High Priest presented was so mean and inconsiderable that the whole vertue of it was still spent in one Act of Intercession as not being available enough for him to intercede with it twice insomuch that in every new act of Intercession he was still fain to present new bloud the bloud of Christ was of that infinite moment and value as that though he makes a continued and perpetuated Intercession by it yet the vertue and efficacy the power and prevalency of it with God remains fresh and unimpaired so that he needs not sacrifice again that so he may have new bloud to present but with that
of Chriâ—t was the great consideration upon which the Father granted to him the blessings of the New Covenant in our behalf and since it is by presenting that Sacrifice and in the vertue of it that he intercedes with the Father for those blessings we may confidently assure our selves he cannot fail of success because he intercedes with a righteous God of whom by presenting to him the consideration of his grant he hath acquired a right to obtain the blessings he intercedes for For now he intercedes for us with the price of our Redemption in his hands so that he doth not act precariously or as a meer Orator that begs and supplicates without any claim and so may be denied and rejected without any injustice but whatsoever he asks he asks in the right of his Sacrifice by accepting of which inestimable consideration the Father hath obliged himself to grant what he aks for So that now he cannot be denied those Favours which he craves in our behalf without manifest injustice because by mutual Contract between himself and his Father he hath purchased to himself a right to obtain them and hath bought and paid for them with his own bloud And how can we imagine that the most just and holy God can ever be so outragiously unjust to his own Son as to be deaf to his Intercessions while he intercedes in the right of that precious bloud which his Son freely paid and he as freely accepted in consideration of those blessings he intercedes for It being therefore evident by what hath been said that the Intercession of Christ is a most effectual and successful address to the Father to all the intents and purposes for which it is made it now remains only that we give an account to what intents and purposes it is that he makes this address to the Father First Therefore it is to move and solicite him graciously to receive and accept our sincere and hearty Prayers and Secondly To obtain of him Power and Authority to bestow on us all those Graces and Favours which in consideration of his Sacrifice God hath promised us I. One intent or purpose of Christ's making this address to the Father is to move and solicite him graciously to receive and accept our sincere and hearty Prayers For thus the Incense which the Priests offered twice a day upon the Golden Altar and which the High-Priest offered once a year in the Holy of Holies was a Symbol or Emblem of the Prayers of the People which they mystically offered up to God with it and hence the Psalmist Let my prayers be set forth before thee as Incense Psalm 141.2 and S. Iohn calls the Odours that filled the Golden Vials the prayers of the Saints Rev. 5.8 and that the Prayers of the Saints were offered with the Incense upon the Golden Altar is evident from Rev. 8.3 And accordingly while the High-Priest was offering the Incense in the Holy of Holies the People in their Court offered up their silent and mental Prayers to God for so Ecclus. 50.15 18 19 21. we read that whiles Simon the High-Priest was offering the Incense to God all the People fell on their faces to the ground and besought the Lord most High in prayer till the Ministry of the Lord was done i. e. till the High-Priest had offered the Incense and S. Luke makes mention of the Peoples praying without in the time of Incense Luke 1.10 By all which it is evident that this fuming of the Incense by the Priests and High-Priest was nothing but a mystical Oblation of those Prayers to God which the People were pouring out while the Mystery was performing Since therefore the High-Priest was a Type of Christ and his entrance into the Holy of Holies a Type of Christ's entrance into Heaven his offering Incense there which was a mystical Oblation of the Prayers of the People must necessarily be a Type of Christ's offering and recommending our Prayers to his Father which he promised his Disciples he would perform when he came to Heaven John 16.26 27. In that day ye shall ask in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you which in our Saviour's way of expression which is when he mentions two things to pass by and seemingly deny the one that so he may the more illustrate and amplifie the other Vide John 12.4 Joh. 5.45 46 47. plainly implies that he would for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me And therefore it is through him that we are said to have access unto the Father Eph. 2.18 and by him to have access to the divine grace Rom. 5.2 and in him to have boldness and access with confidence Eph. 3.12 and Rev. 8.3 he is represented as that Angel of the Covenant who at the Golden Altar before God doth offer up the prayers of the Saints incensed by the merit of his Sacrifice For it is the Sacrifice of Jesus that hallows and consecrates all our prayers and good works the best of which have so many sinful defects and imperfections cleaving to them as would render them abominable to the pure and holy God were they not purged and expiated by this great Propitiation And though Prayer be a duty we stand eternally obliged to by our continual dependence upon God yet in this degeneracy of our Nature there are so many sins do still accompany our Prayers as that were they not expiated by some very acceptable and meritorious satisfaction the cry of them would drown the cry of our Prayers and for ever hinder their access to the divine ear and aceptance So that it is only in the vertue of that Sacrifice with which our Saviour intercedes for us in Heaven that our Prayers have admittance thither it is his bloud alone that purifies our polluted Supplications and out-cries the guilt of those sins that go along with them For by presenting that Sacrifice to his Father with which he made satisfaction for our sins on the Cross he continually moves and solicites that those sinful defects which cleave to our Prayers may be pardoned and remitted upon which motion of his our Prayers are continually purged from the guilt of those defects and thereupon introduced into the divine acceptance as pure and innocent spotless and unblemished devotions And as by presenting his Sacrifice he purges the guilt of our Prayers so he enforces and seconds them For as hath been shewn before the very presenting his Sacrifice is a Symbolical Prayer for those very blessings which we pray for and not only so but a Prayer that is enforced with a just claim and doth plead the right of Purchace to all the blessings it sues for and so cannot justly be denied or rejected And when he thus prays with us and continually joyns the cry of his Bloud to the cry of our Prayers we may safely depend upon it that we shall prevail and find free access to the Throne of God's grace and acceptance And
6.3 in doing of which he even then Mediated for God with Men under the Great Mediator and so he hath continued to do through all successive Ages of the World. For there is nothing more apparent from Scripture than that it is under Christ that the Spirit acts in the Kingdom of God upon which account he is called the Spirit of Christ 1 Pet. 1.11 even as by the ancient Jews he is called the Spirit of the Messias as was observed before and this Spirit whom St. Peter calls the Spirit of Christ was as he himself there tells us the Spirit which was in the ancient Prophets by which it is evident that long before Christ came this Spirit was his and that he acted by him And even when he came down into the World to transact personally with men he generally acted by this holy Spirit For so at his Baptism we are told that the Holy Ghost descended on him in a bodily shape Luke 3.22 upon which it is said that he went away full of the Holy Ghost Luk. 4.1 after which it is plain that it was by this Holy Ghost in him that he Prophesied and wrought his Miracles for so Isa. 61.1 the Prophet attributes the whole Prophecy of Christ to the Spirit of the Lord which was upon him and in Matt. 12.28 our Saviour himself affirms that he cast out Devils by the Spirit of God and therefore he calls the Jews attributing his miraculous works to the Devil blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Matt. 12.31 because it was by the power of the Holy Ghost that he wrought them Now as the Father's acting by the Son implies the Son's Subordination to him so the Son 's acting by the Spirit implies the Spirit 's subordination to him which subordination of the Spirit in his Mediatorial Office is immediately founded in that Compact of the Son with the Father upon which he undertook the Mediation For the Spirit was a part of the purchace of the Son's Bloud and whatsoever he purchased he purchased of the Father by compact and agreement with him so that now he hath a right to the Spirit 's Ministry not only by vertue of his proceeding from him together with the Father but also by the purchace of his own Bloud whereby he obtained the promise of him from the Father For so the Holy Ghost is said to be shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour i. e. through the Intercession he makes in vertue of his meritorious Sacrifice Tit. 3.5 6. For whatsoever comes to us from God through Christ is part of what he hath purchased for us and in Rom. 5.5 6. he makes Christ's dying for the ungodly the reason of the giving the Holy Ghost to us The promise of the Holy Ghost therefore being part of the purchace of Christ's bloud he by his Advocation in Heaven obtained the performance of it of the Father even as he doth the performance of all his other promises For the Father being the supreme person in the Holy Trinity is the prime and Original Fountain of all our blessings and every good thing we receive is derived from him to us through the Son and by the Holy Ghost and even the Holy Ghost himself is derived to us from the Father through the Advocation of the Son. For so he himself tells us I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter namely the Holy Ghost Iohn 14.16 So that though Christ hath purchased the Holy Ghost of the Father as he hath also all the other blessings of the New Covenant yet it is plain this Purchace vests him not with a right to bestow and send him without the Father but only to obtain him of the Father upon his Prayer or Advocation and so of all those other blessings So that still the Father is the supreme Source from whence the Spirit and all those blessings are derived to us and it is from his hands that the Son procures them by his powerful Intercession in short therefore Christ by his death purchased a right of the Father to obtain of him by his Intercession Authority to send the Holy Ghost to Minister for and under him in his Mediation for God with men and accordingly he promises his Disciples that when he departed this World he would send the Comforter to them Iohn 16.7 where he uses the very same phrase as he did when he Commissioned his Apostles to minister under him As the Father hath sent me so send I you John 20.21 and accordingly his sending the Comforter must denote his Commissioning him by the Authority he had received from the Father to minister under him in his Mediation for the Father For so in Iohn 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me where first the Son is said to Commission or send him Secondly to Commission or send him from the Father i. e. by Authority from him And thirdly to Commission or send him to testifie of him and therein to minister to him and so in Luke 24.49 when he was just ascending into Heaven he tells his Disciples Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you i. e. the promise of the Holy Ghost and accordingly Acts 2.33 St. Peter tells us upon that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost that Christ being exalted to the right hand of God and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost i. e. having by his Intercession received authority of the Father to send the Holy Ghost according to that promise which he had before purchased of him with his bloud he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear i. e. this Miraculous Gift of the Holy Ghost in all which places it is evident that the Holy Ghost was substituted commissioned and sent by the Son authorized thereunto by the Father to minister under him For as the Son acts by the Father's Authority as he is his Minister so all that authority which he communicates to others to act under him he must derive Originally from the Father and consequently that Authority by which he sent the Spirit to act as his Minister he must have derived from the Father whose Minister himself is and hence the Father is said to send the Spirit in the name of the Son i. e. to appoint the Spirit to act under the Son and by his authority Iohn 14.26 as the Son is said to send the Spirit from the Father i. e. by the authority which he had received of the Father and this I verily believe is the reason why the Apostle in Eph. 4.8 quotes the Psalmist with that variation he ascended up on high saith he speaking of Christ he led Captivity Captive he gave gifts unto men whereas the words of the Psalmist are He received gifts for men Psal. 68.18 to denote that that gift of the Holy Ghost which Christ gave
hence we are said to have boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies that is to draw near by Prayer to God by the Bloud of Iesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail that is to say his flesh Heb. 10.19 20. And our Saviour himself assures us that whatsoever we shall ask in his name he will do it and again he repeats it If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it John 14.13 14. that is he will procure it for us by joyning his Intercessions with our Prayers for so ver 16. he explains himself I will pray the Father II. The other intent and purpose of his making this Address or Intercession for us to the Father is to obtain of him Power and Authority to bestow on us all those graces and favours which in consideration of his Sacrifice God hath promised us It is not to move the Father to bestow on us the blessings of the New Covenant immediately with his own hand that our Saviour intercedes but to impower himself as Mediator between the Father and us to bestow them upon us according to the terms and conditions upon which they are proposed to us For though it is most certainly true that every good and perfect gift comes down from above even from the Father of Lights yet it is as certain that they come not down to us from the Father immediately but are all derived to us through the hands of the Son who by his continual Intercession obtains continual power and authority of the Father to derive and confer on us all those heavenly gifts So that as the High Priest when he had presented the bloud of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies was Authorized by God to bless the people vide 1 Chron. 23.13 even so our blessed Saviour by presenting his meritorious Sacrifice in Heaven and in the vertue thereof interceding for us with the Father is continually authorized by him effectually to bless us i. e. to confer on us the blessings of the New Covenant upon the terms and conditions that they are therein proposed For this power he obtains of God by his perpetual Intercession and hence he is said to be able to save all those to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 where his power or ability to save us to the utmost i. e. to confer on us all the blessings of the New Covenant is expresly attributed to his ever living to make intercession for us which is a plain Argument that the intent of his Intercession is to move God to authorize him to save us seeing that in answer to his Intercession he is continually impowered and authorized thereunto For it is to be considered that this power and authority and the exercise of it appertains to his Kingly Office which he first arrived to and still continues in by vertue of his Intercession and indeed herein consists the Royalty of his Priesthood in that by interceding for us as Priest in the vertue of his Sacrifice and continuing to do so he first obtained and still continues vested with Kingly Power and Authority to bestow on us those heavenly blessings he intercedes for and it is to this purpose that he intercedes not that the Father would bestow them on us immediately but that he would put and continue it in his power to bestow them as Mediator between the Father and us so that he acquired and holds his Royalty by his Priesthood and that Kingly Power by which he gives us the blessings of the New Covenant God gave and continues to him by way of answer and return to his Priestly Intercession And hence he is said upon his offering one sacrifice for sin for ever i. e. upon the perpetual Oblation of his Sacrifice in Heaven to have sate down on the right hand of God i. e. in the Throne of his Kingly Power and Authority Heb. 10.12 and accordingly Eph. 4.8 we are told that upon his ascending up on high i. e. to present his sacrificed body in heaven he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men which necessarily implies that he had received power and authority from his Father to give them and so Psal. 68.18 whence these words are quoted expresses it He received gifts for men i. e. upon the presenting his Sacrifice as Priest he received of the Father those Gifts for men which by his Kingly power he afterwards distributed among them So that what he gives by his Kingly power he receives by his Priestly and both the gifts which he gives and the authority by which he gives them are the fruits and returns of that perpetual Intercession which he makes by his Sacrifice And that by his Intercession our Saviour hath acquired this Royal power of giving us the blessings of the New Covenant he himself doth plainly enough intimate for thus of the Spirit which is one of those great blessings he tells his Disciples It is expedient for you that I go away i. e. to Heaven to intercede for you for if I go not away the Comforter will not come i. e. he will not come but upon my Intercession but if I depart I will send him unto you namely by that Royal Authority which upon my Intercession I shall receive from the Father Ioh. 16.7 And accordingly St. Peter tells the Jews that Christ being exalted by the right hand of God and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost i. e. upon his Intercession in Heaven he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear i. e. the miraculous vertues of the Holy Ghost Acts 2.33 And so for remission of sins he tells us that he hath the Keys of hell and death Rev. 1.18 i. e. power to bind or loose to pardon or condemn and lastly for eternal life he expresly tells the Church of Laodicea To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I have overcome and am sate down with my Father on his Rev. 3.21 By all which it is abundantly evident that Christ hath a Royal power delegated to him from the Father upon his intercession to grant and bestow all the blessings of the New Covenant upon those that comply with its terms and conditions For so all the graces and favours of God are in Scripture said to be derived in by or through Jesus Christ for so Eph. 1.3 God the Father is said to bless us with all spiritual blessings in or through Christ and Rom. 6.23 Eternal life is said to be the gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord and we are said to be heirs of God or inheritors of his blessings through Christ Gal. 4.7 which plainly implies that though it is from God the Father originally that all our mercies are derived yet it is through God the Son immediately that they are all derived to us and that whatsoever God
bestows upon us he bestows by the hand of Jesus Christ whom upon his first Oblation of his precious Sacrifice in heaven and continual intercession with it he constituted and continues the Royal distributer of all his graces and favours to the World. And therefore since there is no doubt but that that which he obtains by his intercession is the thing which he intercedes for it necessarily follows that the thing which he intercedes for is power to bestow on us the blessings of the New Covenant because he hath actually obtained that power by his Intercession Having thus given as plain and as brief an account as I could of this second Priestly Act of our Saviour viz. his Intercession for us in Heaven by the continual Oblation of his Sacrifice there I proceed in the second place to shew the admirable tendency of this method of God's communicating his Graces and Favours to us through the intercession of our Saviour to reduce and reform Mankind which will plainly appear by considering the following particulars First This method naturally tends to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of God's Majesty Secondly It also tends to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins Thirdly It also tends most effectually to secure us from presuming upon God's mercy while we continue in our sins Fourthly It tends to encourage us to draw near to God with Chearfulness and freedom Fifthly It tends to give us the most ample assurance of his gracious intentions towards us if we repent and return to our duty I. This method of God's communicating his Favours to us through our Saviour's intercession is naturally apt to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of the divine Majesty For in this degenerate condition wherein our Nature is inverted and turned upside down and our sensitive faculties have got the ascendant of our Reason rational Objects have incomparably less force on and prevalence with us than material and sensitive And hence it is that we are so unapt to be affected with the Majesty of God though in it self infinite and incomprehensible because it being purely spiritual is objected only to our Faith and Reason and doth not strike upon our sense with the Rays of a visible glory And hence it was that under the Old Testament God so frequently exhibited himself to mens eyes in sensible appearances as particularly sometimes in a humane shape and sometimes in a body of light or of shining flame that so by making an impression of his great Majesty on their sense he might affect them with a sutable aw and dread of it And for the same reason that he conversed with them in these sensible appearances he also treated with them by a Mediator on Mount Sinai for God commanded that bounds should be set round about the Mountain which the People were forbid upon peril of death to break through unto the Lord to gaze and only Moses their Mediator together with his Brother Aaron were permitted to ascend the Mount and to have immediate access to him and by thus keeping them at a distence from his sacred presence and only suffering them to approach him by their Mediator he took an effectual course to inspire their minds with a reverential aw of his divine Majesty which is in it self so infinitely sacred and August that it seems it would have been an high Prophanation in them to have conversed with it immediately And accordingly God by keeping us at a distance from him and allowing us to have access to him only by our Mediator expresses the greatness of his Majesty which is too sacred to be mingled in conversation with us too sublime to admit of the immediate addresses of poor Mortals yea and which no Mortal must approach without the Mediation of his own Eternal Son for thus Plato in his Sympos gives it as an instance of the Majesty of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God doth not mingle himself with men but all the converse and intercourse between him and us is transacted by the Mediation of Demons And if it were thought so great an instance of God's Majesty that he would not be approached by us without the Mediation of Angels to what an infinite height must he be exalted above us when no less a person than he who is God-man can so much as give us access to him or present our Prayers and Supplications at his feet O! what an awful sense therefore of the Majesty of God should this consideration beget in our minds For how can we think of him without dread and reverence when we consider how he is secluded by the infinite sacredness of his own Majesty from all immediate converse and intercourse with us and how he is exalted so infinitely above us as that we cannot have access to him so much as by our Prayers and Supplications without the interposition of a Mediator who is greater than the greatest of all the Kings on Earth or Angels in Heaven Surely he who can thus think of God without being struck into a profound aw and reverence of his Majesty must have a mind so hardened against all the impressions of Reason as that no wise thought can ever move or affect it II. This method of God's communicating his favours to us through our Saviour's Intercession tends also to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins For doubtless to convince us how deeply he resents our sinful behaviour towards him the most effectual course he could take next to that of banishing us from his presence for ever was to exclude us from all immediate intercourse with him and not to admit of any more addresses or supplications from us but by the hand of some Mediator Hereby he plainly demonstrates how infinitely pure and abhorrent to sin his nature is that he will not suffer a sinful Creature to come near him but by Proxy nor accept of a service from a guilty hand nor listen to a Prayer from a sinful mouth till it is first hallowed and presented to him by a pure and holy Mediator If therefore we are not infinitely conceited of our selves this procedure of his cannot but lay us low in our own eyes and make us deeply sensible of our own vileness and baseness For how infinitely detestable must our sins be in his eyes when notwithstanding all his kindness and benevolence towards us he keeps us at such a distance from him and will not be prevailed with without some powerful intercession so much as to hear our Prayers or to have any kind of communication or intercourse with us And accordingly you find that when the three Friends of Iob had treated him so despitefully and uncharitably God to manifest his displeasure against them commands them to make use of Iob's Mediation Iob 42.7 My wrath saith he to Elephas is kindled against thee and against thy two Friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that
Ministries Common to the Bishops with the inferiour Clergy is the administration of the Evangelical Sacraments for it was to his Apostles and in them to their Successors that our Saviour gave the Commission of Baptizâ—ing all Nations in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and of doing this i. e. of consecrating and administring the holy Eucharist in remembrance of me but yet it is evident that this Ministry was not so confined to the Apostolick Order as that none but they were allowed to exercise it for even in the Apostles days Philip and Ananias who were no Apostles Baptized and S. Peter commanded the Brethren with him who were no Apostles neither to Baptize those Gentile Converts upon which the Holy Ghost descended Acts 10.48 and there is no doubt but when those three thousand Souls Acts 2. were all Baptized at one time there were a great many other Baptizers besides the Apostles and that passage of S. Paul 1 Cor. 1.13 14 15 16 17. where he tells us that he baptized none in the Church of Corinth though it were of his own planting except Crispus Gaius and the Houshold of Stephanus is a plain Argument that when the Apostles had converted men to the Christian Faith they generally ordered them to be baptized by the inferiour Ministers of the Church that attended them and then as for the Consecration of the holy Eucharist though when any of the Apostles were present it was doubtless ordinarily performed by them yet considering how fast Christianity encreased and how frequently Christians did then partake of this Sacrament it is not to be supposed that the Apostles could be present in all places where it was administred nor consequently that they could consecrate it in every particular Congregation For though it was a very early Custom for the Bishop to consecrate the Elements in one Congregation and then send them abroad to be administred in several others yet this was only upon special occasions but ordinarily they were consecrated in the same places where they were administred in all which places it was impossible either for the Apostles at first or after them for their Successors the Bishops to be present at the same time and therefore there can be no doubt but the Consecration as well as the Administration was ordinarily performed by the inferiour Presbyters in the absence of the Apostles and Bishops But it is most certain that none were ever allowed in the Primitive Church to consecrate the Eucharist but either a Bishop or a Presbyter And as for Baptism because it is in some degree more necessary than the Eucharist as being the sign of admission into the New Covenant by which we are first intitled to it not only Bishops and Presbyters but in their absence or by their allowance Deacons also were Authorized to administer it for so even in the Apostles days Philip the Deacon baptized at Samaria Acts 8.12 and afterwards not only Deacons but Lay-men too were allowed to administer it in case of necessity when neither a Deacon nor Presbyter nor Bishop could be procured that so none might be debarred of admission into the New Covenant that were disposed and qualified to receive it but the Churches allowing this to Lay-men only in cases of necessity is a plain Argument that none had a standing Authority to administer it but only persons in holy Orders For that authority which a present necessity creates is only present and ceases with the necessity that created it III. And lastly Another of the Ministries common to the Bishops with the inferiour Clergy is to offer up the Publick Prayers and intercessions of Christian Assemblies For to be sure none can be authorized to perform the publick Offices of the Church but only such as are set apart and ordained to be the publick Officers of it Now Prayer is one of the most solemn Offices of Christian Assemblies and therefore as in the Jewish Church none but the High Priest and Priests and Levites who were the only publick Ministers of Religion were authorized to offer up the publick Prayers of the Congregation vid. 2 Chron. 39.27 so in the Christian none but Bishops Priests and Deacons who alone are the publick Ministers of Christianity are authorized to offer up the publick addresses of Christian Assemblies it is their peculiar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to perform the publick Offices to the Lord Acts 13.2 for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Publick Service and is used to denote those publick services of which one was offering up the Common Prayers of the People which the Priests in their turns performed in the Temple Vid. Luk. 1.23 and hence it is that the Ministers of Christian Religion are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 15.16 because it is their proper business to officiate the publick services of the Christian Church and accordingly in Rev. 5.10 the four and twenty Elders that is the holy Bishops of the Church as appears by their having Crowns of Gold or Mitres on their heads in allusion to the High Priests Mitre Chap. 4. ver 4. are said to have every one of them Harps and golden Vials full of Odours which are the Prayers of Saints referring to the Incense which the Priests were wont to offer in the Sanctuary which Oblation was a mystical offering up the Prayers of the People vid. Luk. 1.10 which plainly intimates that as it was one part of the Office of those Iewish Priests to offer the Incense and therewithall the Prayers of the People so is it also of the Publick Ministers of Christianity to offer up the Prayers of Christian Assemblies And as in the Jewish Church not only the Priests but the Levites also Communicated with the High Priest in this Ministry of offering up the Prayers of the Congregation so in the Christian Church not only the Presbyters but the Deacons also always Communicated in it with their Bishop Having thus given an account of those Religious Ministries which are common to the Bishops with the inferiour Officers of the Church I proceed in the next place to shew what those Ministries are which are peculiar to the Bishops or Governours of the Church all which are reducible to four particulars 1. To make Laws for the peace and good order of the Church 2. To Ordain to Ecclesiastical Offices 3. To execute that spiritual Jurisdiction which Christ hath established in his Church 4. To confirm such as have been instructed in Christianity I. One peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of the Church is to make Laws and Canons for the security and preservation of the Churches peace and good order and this is implied in the very Essence of Government which necessarily supposes a Legislative power within it self to command and oblige the Subject to do or forbear such things as it shall judge conducive to the preservation or disturbance of their Common-weal without which power no Government can be enabled to obtain its end