Person and the Executors and Administrators of his Power and Dominion Whilst therefore they act within the compass of their Commission they act in his stead and as his Vicegerents and whatsoever they bind he binds and whatsoever they loose he looses their Commands are his their Decrees and Sentences are his and all their authoritative Acts carry with them the same force and obligagation as if they had been performed by him in his own person For it is he that wills and speaks and acts by them because they Will and Speak and Act by his Authority For so he himself declares to them Luke 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me i. e. because I speak by you and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me because my Authority is in you even as my Fathers is in me and therefore he who despises mine in you despises my Fathers in me whence mine in you is derived Your Authority is mine and mine is my Fathers and therefore he who rejects yours doth therein reject both my Fathers and mine And this authority is given them by Christ for the same end that his Authority was given him by the Father for he came into the World to seek and to save lost souls Luk. 19.10 He came not to judge the world but to save the world Joh. 12.47 And to call sinners to repentance Mar. 2.17 And upon the very same errand he sent all those whom he appointed to propagate and govern his Kingdom in his absence for he set them up as so many Lights to the benighted World to reduce Men from those dangerous paths in which they were wandering to eternal misery and shew them the way to everlasting happiness and all the power he devolved upon them was for edification and not for destruction 2 Cor. 13.10 and to them he hath committed the care and charge of Souls whose blood he will one day require at their hands if they miscarry through their neglect or default Heb. 13.17 and that he might the better secure these precious beings for whom he shed his blood from miscarrying for ever he placed this spiritual Polity in a subordination of Officers and made the inferior accountable for their charge to the superior Officers as well as both accountable to himself So that whereas had he placed it in co-ordinate hands there had been only one soul accountable to him for each particular Cure or Charge of Souls because then each single Pastor would have been supreme in his particular Cure and consequently no other Pastor or Pastors would have been accountable for not calling him to account now each particular Cure of Souls is under the charge and inspection of several orders and degrees of Pastors who in their several stations are all accountable for it to the Tribunal of Christ. For first the inferior Pastor who hath the immediate Charge of it and is obliged by his Office to teach and instruct it by good Example and Doctrine and to administer to it the holy Ordinances of Christianity stands accountable to Christ for every soul in it that miscarries through his neglect or omission next the Bishop stands accountable for not correcting the neglects and misdemeanours of the inferior Pastor and then the Metropolitan for not taking Cognizance of the default of the Bishop Thus in that excellent form of Government which Christ hath established in his Kingdom he hath made all possible provision for the safety and welfare of Souls for according to this Oeconomy he hath taken no less than a threefold security every one of which is as much as a Soul amounts to that every Soul within every Cure shall be plentifully supplied with the means of Salvation that so none of them might miscarry but such as are incorrigibly obstinate So that now if any Soul within the Dominions of our Saviour perish for want of the means of Salvation there are no less than three Souls one after another besides it self accountable to him for its ruin Having thus shewn what these Regal Acts are which Christ hath once for all performed in his Kingdom I proceed II. To declare what those Regal Acts are which he hath always performed and doth always continue to perform and these are recucible to four particulars First His pardoning penitent sinners Secondly His punishing obstinate Offenders Thirdly His protecting and defending his faithful Subjects in this life Fourthly his blessing and rewarding them in the life to come I. One of the Regal Acts which our Saviour always hath and always continues to perform is his pardoning and forgiving penitent sinners which being one of the Articles of our Creed I shall endeavour to give an account of it more at large the Apostle defines sin to be a transgression of the Law 1 Joh. 3.4 Now the Law obliges us under a certain stated Penalty to do and forbear what it commands and forbids whenever therefore we transgress the Law we are thereby obliged to undergo the Penalty it denounces and this is that which we call the guilt of sin viz. its obligation to punishment and it is this guilt which pardon and forgiveness relates to For to pardon is nothing else but only to release the sinner from the obligation he lies under to suffer the penalty of the Law. Now the penalty of the Law of God for every known and wilful sin is no less than everlasting perdition and therefore from this it is that we are released by that pardon and indemnity which the Gospel proposes So that the pardon or remission of sins whereof we are now treating consists in the loosing of sinful men from that obligation to eternal punishment whereunto they have rendered themselves liable by their wilful disobedience to the Law of God. Since therefore this pardon consists in the release of offenders from the penal Obligation of the Law it must be a Regal Act because the Obligation of the Law can be dispenced with by no other Authority but that which made it and therefore since to make the Obligation of the Law is an Act of Regal Authority to release or dispence with it must necessarily be so also and accordingly forgiveness of sin is in Scripture attributed to our Saviour as one of his Regal Rights Acts 5.51 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin So that now it is by Christ immediately that our sins are pardoned and our Souls released from those Obligations to eternal punishment in which they have involved us for the Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son Joh. 5.22 So that now it is by him immediately that the Father judgeth us i. e. absolves and condemns us for so Col. 3.13 the Apostle exhorts them to forbear and forgive one another even as Christ forgave them and Col. 2.13 Christ is said to have forgiven them all trespasses It is true forgiveness
And therefore to satisfie us in this also after he had abode some time upon Earth after his Resurrection and satisfied his Disciples by frequent converses with them that he was really risen and given them all necessary Orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his Gospel he carried them out to Bethany where after he had lift up his hands and blessed them he ascended before their eyes into Heaven upon which it is said Luke 24.52 That they worshipped him and returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them never in this World to be seen by them more that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father there to intercede in Person for them and for ever to exhibite that wounded and bleeding body of his by which he had made expiation for the sins of the World and purchased the promise of the Spirit and of eternal life upon this account indeed they had great cause to rejoyce because now they knew they had a sure Friend in Heaven where their main hope and interest lay even that very Friend who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death to rescue them from death eternal and who after such an instance of love they could not but conclude would employ his utmost interest with the Father in their behalf and in a word who being the only begotten of the Father whose precious Bloud he had graciously accepted as a ransom for the sins of the World could not but have an interest with him infinitely sufficient to obtain for them all the graces and favours that were fit either for them to ask or for his Father to bestow So that now if we heartily comply with him as Mediating for his Father with us we have all the encouragement in the world to depend on him as Mediating for us with his Father since he doth not Mediate with him by a second hand or at a distance but in his own Person in that very Person which is not only infinitely dear to the Father as being his only begotten Son but hath also infinitely merited of him by offering him his own life at his command as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And accordingly upon this consideration the Apostle founds the hope of Christians 1 Iohn 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin let him not presently give up himself as hopeless and irrecoverable for we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins VI. And lastly Another thing which the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning this Mediator is that upon his return from us to Heaven there to Mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the divine and Omnipresent Spirit Personally to promote and effectuate his Mediation for God with Men. When he went up to Heaven there to Mediate for us with God he did not thereby abandon his Mediation for God with us but immediately substituted a certain mighty spiritual Being to act for him whom he calls the Advocate or as we render it the Comforter and the Holy Ghost and who was to Mediate with Men in his behalf even as he Mediated with them in the behalf of his Father and to Advocate for his Authority as he Advocated for his Father's For so he tells his Ministers whom he left behind him to assert and propagate his Authority in the World I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter or Advocate i. e. to plead for and inforce your Ministry in my behalf whose Ministers you are that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth c. I will not leave you comfortless or without an Advocate I will come to you that is by this Spirit of Truth who is to be my Vicegerent even as I am my Father's Iohn 14.16 17 18. But for the fuller explication of this great and necessary Article I shall first shew what this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence Secondly I shall explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediation Thirdly I shall shew what it is that he hath done and still continues to do in order to the effecting this Mediation First What this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence I answer it is the third Person in the Tri-une Godhead For that besides the Father and the Son there is a third divine Person subsisting in the Godhead seems to have been a current Doctrine among the ancient Writers both Gentile and Iewish and is most plainly and expresly asserted in holy Scripture which third Person is known in Scripture by the name of the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of the Lord. For that the Holy Ghost so often named in the New Testament is the same with that Spirit of the Lord so much celebrated in the Old S. Peter expresly asserts 2 Pet. 1.2 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost from which words it is evident that this Holy Ghost whom S. Peter here mentions is the very same with that holy Spirit or Spirit of the Lord by whom as we are told in the Old Testament the ancient Prophets were inspired vid. Isa. 63.11 2 Sam. 23.2 Mich. 2.7 and abundance of other places and accordingly S. Peter applies that Prophecy of Ioel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh to that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost Acts 2.16 17. but this is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Ioel c. which could not be true if Peter's Holy Ghost were not the same with Ioel's spirit of the Lord. But it is most certain that the Holy Ghost whom S. Peter and the New Testament so often mention was in the first place a real Person and not a meer Quality as the Socinians vainly dream For so we every where find personal properties and actions attributed to him Thus he is said to speak Acts 28.25 and Heb. 3.7 yea and his speeches are frequently recorded so Acts 10.20 The Spirit said unto Peter arise therefore get thee down and go with them for I have sent thee and Acts 13.2 The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and how can we without horrible force to such plain historical relations which ought to be literal and not figurative attribute these speeches to a meer Vertue or Quality And elsewhere he is said to reprove the world Iohn 16.8 and to search into and know the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and to divide his Gifts
the Kingly which later remained in Moses after he by the command of God had devolved the Priesthood which was originally in himself upon his Brother Aaron and so according to divine institution the Priesthood was to continue in the Family of Aaron separate from the Regal Power till the coming of our Saviour who reunited those Offices in himself and became a Royal Priest after the ancient Order of Melchisedeck For upon the separation of these Offices none could be a Priest of the Aaronical Order but such as were descended from the Family of Aaron and therefore Christ could not be a Priest of that Order because he descended from the Family of Iudah and being of the Royal Lineage he resumed the Priestly Office from the House of Aaron and joyned it to the Kingly Office again with which it was originally united by which he abrogated the Priesthood of the Aaronical Order and in its room restored the ancient Melchisedecan or Royal Priesthood And hence the Author to the Hebrews observes that Christ pertaineth to another Tribe of which no man gave attendance at the Altar for it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Iudah of which Tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the Priesthood Heb. 7.13 14. and therefore by being a Priest of a different Tribe from that to which the Aaronical Order was confined he disannulled that Order and erected another in the room of it viz. the ancient Order of Melchisedeck which was before the Aaronical Hence S. Ambrose in Loc. quomodo translatum est Sacerdotium Ex tribu ad tribum de Sacerdotali ad Regalem ut eadem ipsa sit Regalis Sacerdotalis intuere mysterium primum fuit Regale Sacerdotium Melchisedâ—ch secundum consequentiam hujus sermonis secundum etiam fuit Sacerdotale in Aaron tertium in Christo fuit iterum Regale i. e. How was the Priesthood translated Why from one Tribe to another viz. from the Sacerdotal to the Regal that so it might be both Regal and Sacerdotal and this is the Mystery the first Priesthood of Melchisedeck was Regal the second was Sacerdotal in Aaron the third was Regal again in Christ. For that which distinguished the Melchisedecan from the Aaronical Priesthood was not as some imagine the difference of their Sacrifice viz. that Melchisedeck sacrificed only inanimate things whereas Aaron sacrificed Animals also for that Melchisedeck sacrificed there is no doubt because he was Priest of the most high God but that he sacrificed inanimate things only such as Bread and Wine there is not the least intimation in Scripture only it is said that when he met Abraham he brought forth Bread and Wine Gen. 14.18 that is to refresh Abraham's Soldiers after their Battel with Chedorlaomer as the manner was in those Countries Vide Deut. 23.4 and Iudg. 8.15 and 6.15 And what is all this to his Sacrificing But that he sacrificed Animate as well as Inanimate things is evident not only because animal Sacrifices were generally used before the institution of the Aaronical Priesthood and it is very improbable that he who was so eminently the Priest of the most High God should never offer the accustomed Sacrifices but also because Christ's Sacrifice was an animate one who was a Priest after Melchisedeck's Order and not of the Order of Aaron Heb. 7.11 so that if the difference between these two Orders consisted in this difference of their Sacrifice Christ must be rather a Priest of the Aaronick than the Melchisedecan Order And how could the Acts of the Priesthood of Aaron be Typical of our Saviour's which is Melchisedecan as the Scripture all along makes them if they were of a different nature from those of Melchisedeck How could Aaron's bloudy Sacrifices be Typical of our Saviour's Priesthood which was after the Order of Melchisedeck if Melchisedeck's Priesthood admitted no bloudy Sacrifice As to the Acts of their Priesthood therefore for any thing that appears to the contrary these two Orders were the same but in this they apparently differed that whereas the Regal Power was united to Melchisedeck's Priesthood it was wholly separated from Aaron's who in all probability was the first High Priest in the World that was not a King as well as a Priest. The Priestly acts therefore of these two different Orders being the same we shall better understand the nature of our Saviour's Priesthood though it be of the Order of Melchisedeck by the account we have of the Aaronical than by that of the Melchisedecan Order because the former is far more distinct and particular than the later For of the Acts and Functions of Melchisedeck's Priesthood there is very little mention in Scripture whereas those of Aaron's are described at large in all their particular Rites and Circumstances The Priestly Office therefore in general consists in officiating for sinful men with God in order to the reconciling of God to them and obtaining for them his Favour and Benediction To which end there are two Offices necessary to be performed First to offer Sacrifice for them and thereby to make some fitting reparation to God for their past sins and provocations Secondly To present that Sacrifice to God and in the Vertue and Merit of it to interceed with God in their behalf in order to the Restoring them to his Grace and Favour And accordingly we read of the Iewish High Priest who of all their other Priests was the most perfect Type and Representative of Christ in his Priestly Office and this more especially in Celebrating the Mysteries of the great day of Expiation that on this day he was appointed to bring the Beast to the door of the Tabernacle which was set apart to die for the Sins of the People and to kill it there with his own hands by which action he did as the Peoples Representative offer a life to God as a reparation for those manifold sins by which they had justly forfeited their own lives to him after which he was to take the Bloud of it and present it before the Lord in the Holy of Holies sprinkling it seven times with his finger upon and before the Mercy-Seat by which action he interceded with God to accept that Bloud in lieu of the forfeited lives of the People and accordingly the whole performance is called making an Atonement for the Children of Israel for all their sins once a year Lev. 16 34. But for the fuller explication of the Priestly Office it is necessary we should briefly explain these two essential Acts of it viz. of sacrificing and presenting the Sacrifice to God by way of Intercession for the People As for the first of these the Apostle tells us that every High Priest is ordained to offer gifts and Sacrifices Heb. 8.3 And that he is ordained for men in things pertaining unto God that he may offer both Gifts and Sacrifices for sins Heb. 5.1 It is true indeed to sacrifice in a strict sence i. e. to kill the Sacrifice seems not to have been
holes through which it ran into a Channel that conveyed it into the Valley of Kidron but in the Sin-Offerings for the High Priest and the Congregation he was to carry the bloud within the Sanctuary and to sprinkle of it seven times before the Vail of the Sanctuary and to put some of it upon the Horns of the Altar of Incense after which the Remainder of the bloud was to be disposed of as was said before on the Altar of Burnt Offerings And at the great day of Expiation the High Priest himself having slain the Sacrifice was to carry the bloud of it into the Holy of Holies and there with his finger to sprinkle the bloud of it seven times before the Mercy-Seat Now this sprinkling of the bloud was nothing else but a solemn presenting of the life of the sacrificed Animal to God as an exchange or price of Redemption for the forfeited life of the Offender For whatsoever was offered upon the Altar was always looked upon as religiously presented to God so that by sprinkling the bloud on the Altar which is the Vehicle of life and therefore is sometimes called the Life vide Gen. 9.4 the Life was solemnly tendered and presented to God as to the supreme Lord of life and death and the meaning of this tendry was to move God by way of Intercession to accept of that life instead of the Offenders which was forfeited into his hands For since as a Learned Author of our own hath observed all Divine Worship whether natural or instituted was either to implore or to commemorate God's grace and favour this solemn sprinkling of the bloud in expiatory Sacrifices must necessarily respect the imploring of God's Pardon of those sins for which the Expiation was designed So that in performing this Rite the Priest was a silent Intercessor with God in the behalf of the People and his action was a solemn Deprecation of which this was the natural language and meaning O Lord I beseech thee be merciful to these guilty Supplicants in lieu of whose bloud which I acknowledge is justly forfeited to thee I here present thee the life of this sacrificed Animal whose bloud I am sprinkling on thy Altar humbly imploring thee to accept it as a ransom for their lives and in consideration of it to release them from that mortal penalty in which they stand bound to thy Iustice. Upon which Intercession of his God's high displeasure was atoned and the Priest thereupon Authorized to bless the People i. e to declare that God was appeased and reconciled to them And thus you see what the Office of Priesthood is and in what acts it consists in sum therefore it consists in sacrificing to God for the sins of the People and interceding with him in the vertue of the Sacrifice to be propitious and merciful to them I proceed now in the second place to shew that both these Acts of the Priestly Office among the Iews were designed and intended by God for Types and Shadows of the Priesthood of our Saviour For as for the first viz. Sacrificing the Scripture plainly tells us that it was instituted for a Typical representation of the death of our Saviour For so the Author to the Hebrews makes the Sacrificed body of our Saviour to answer to and succeed in the room of the whole body of the Iewish Sacrifices as the true Antitype of those Types and Shadows Heb. 10.5 6 c. Wherefore when he cometh into the World speaking of Christ he saith Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared me that is a body to be sacrificed in the room of that former Sacrifice and Offering In burnt Offerings and Sacrifices thou hast had no pleasure Then said he verse 9. Lo I come to do thy will O God that is to die a Sacrifice for the sins of the world and hereby saith he he taketh away the first that is those Typical Sacrifices that he may establish the second that is that great Sacrifice of Christ's body for so it follows verse 10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all in which words he plainly makes all the Jewish Sacrifices in general to be Types and Figures of the great Sacrifice of our Saviour's Death And indeed as those Sacrifices were all of them to be slain and to be all sound and immaculate they were so far forth at least express Types of our Saviour both as to his death and unspotted innocence and purity But then as for those Sacrifices whose bodies were burnt without the Camp they were more peculiarly Types than any of the rest of our Saviour's Sacrifice because they had not only all those things appertaining to them by which the other Sacrifices represented it but besides that they were Expiations for sin as well as the Sacrifice of our Saviour and by their being burnt without the Camp did more eminently prefigure our Saviour's being Crucified without the City Hence the Apostle Heb. 13.10 11 12. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle for the Bodies of those Beasts whose bloud is brought into the Sanctuary by the High Priest for sin are burnt without the Camp lest they should pollute the Congregation as being defiled and cursed upon the account of the Peoples guilts which were transferred upon them Wherefore Iesus also that he might sanctifie the People with his own bloud suffered without the Gate that is as an Expiatory Sacrifice that took upon him the guilts of Mankind and thereby became polluted and accursed in which words the death of our Saviour is plainly represented as the true Antitype of the Expiatory Sacrifices of the Iews and accordingly as all Types have much less in them of that which they prefigure than their Antitypes so those Expiatory Sacrifices had something of real Expiation in them though much less than the Sacrifice of our Saviour For so Heb. 9.13 14. For if the bloud of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh by which it is evident that there was a real Expiation made by those Sacrifices so far as concerned the purifying mens flesh i. e. releasing them from corporal punishments and legal uncleannesses How much more saith he shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead works where the same expiation in kind that was made by those Legal Sacrifices is expresly attributed though in a much higher degree to the Sacrifice of our Saviour which plainly argues the former to be a Type and Shadow of the later And then as for the second Act of the Jewish Priesthood viz. his presenting the bloud of the Sacrifice to God by way of Intercession for the People this was also instituted for a Typical representation of our Saviour's presenting the bloud of his sacrificed body to
sins of many and make intercession for the transgressors all which expressions do as plainly denote him to be substituted to be punished for us in order to our release as it is possible for words to do and unless we will admit that to be the sence of Scripture which the words of it do as plainly import as they could have done if it had been its sence it will be impossible to determine it to any sence whatsoever because men may prevaricate upon the plainest words and with quirks of Wit and Criticism pervert them to a contrary meaning And I dare undertake by the same Arts that our Adversaries use to avoid the force of these Testimonies to elude the plainest words that the Wit of man can invent to express this Proposition that Christ's Death was a punishment for our sins which to any reasonable man is a sufficient answer to all the Socinian Cavils And indeed the whole current of Scripture runs so clear against them that they do as good as acknowledge that according to the most common and natural acceptation of its words it fairly implies the Doctrine we contend for viz. that the Death of Christ was a real punishment for the sins of the World but their main Plea is that it is unjust in the nature of the thing to punish one man for the sins of another and therefore we ought rather to impose any sence on the words of Scripture how forein soever than attribute to God so great a piece of injustice as the punishing his own Son for the sins of the World. But as for the Iustice of this procedure I shall endeavour by and by to clear and vindicate it II. He died in pure and spotless Innocence and this was highly necessary to his being an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of others For had he been a sinner he had deserved to die upon his own account and the utmost effect of his Death could have been only the Expiation of his own sin by which his life must have been forfeited to the divine Justice and it is impossible that he who hath forfeited his own life should by his death redeem the forfeited lives of others And accorcordingly Heb. 7.26 27. we are told that such an High Priest became us who is holy harmless and undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the Heavens who needed not daily as those High Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins c. because the Sacrifice which he offered was his own life so that had he been obliged to offer that for his own sins it could have made no Expiation for ours the bare payment of a man 's own debt being no satisfaction for other mens And therefore herein the Apostle places the vertue and efficacy of Christ's bloud by which it was rendred sufficiently precious to be a ransom for the sins of the World that it was of a Lamb without spot or blemish i. e. the bloud of a most holy and innocent person who never deserved the least evil on his own account and therefore was truly precious and sit to be a ransom for the sins of others 1 Pet. 1.18 19. And accordingly he is said to be made sin for us i. e. to be devoted as a Sacrifice for our sins who knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 where you see the great Emphasis of his Sacrifice is laid upon his Innocence as that which was necessary to qualifie him to be a Sacrifice for others So that by that spotless obedience of Christ's life through the whole course of which he did no sin neither was there any guile found in his mouth he consecrated himself an acceptable Sacrifice to God for the sins of the World. III. His Death was of sufficient intrinsick worth and value to be an equivalent commutation for the punishment that was due to the whole world of sinners For the reason why God would not pardon sinners without some commutation for the punishment that was due from them to his Justice was that he might preserve and maintain the Authority of his Laws and Government For had he exacted the punishment from the sinners themselves he must have destroyed the whole Race of Mankind and had he pardoned them on the other hand without any punishment at all he must have exposed his authority to the contempt and outrage of every bold and insolent Offender and therefore to avoid these dangerous extremities of severity and impunity his infinite wisdom found out this expedient to admit of some exchange for our persons and punishment that so some other thing or person being substituted in our stead to suffer and be punished for us neither we might be destroyed nor our sins be unpunished This therefore being the reason of God's admitting of Sacrifice it was highly requisite that the punishment of the Sacrifice should bear some proportion to the guilt of the Offenders otherwise it will not answer God's reason of admitting it For since the reason of his admitting it was the security of his Authority the less he had admitted the less he must have secured his Authority by it For to have exacted a small punishment for a great demerit would have been within a few degrees as destructive to his Authority as to have exacted none at all to punish but little for great Crimes is within one remove as mischievous to Government as total impunity and therefore to support his own Authority over us it was highly requisite that he should exact not only a punishment for our sin but also a punishment proportionable to the guilt and demerit of it For there is no doubt but the nearer the punishment is to the demerit of the sin the greater security it must give to his Authority And upon this account the Sacrifices of the Iews were infinitely short of making a full expiation for their sins because being but brute Animals their death was no way a proportionable punishment to the great demerit of the sins of the People For what proportion could there be between the momentany sufferings of a Beast and those eternal sufferings which the sins of a man do deserve The death of a Beast is a punishment very short of the death of a Man but infinitely short of that eternal death to which the man's guilts do oblige him and accordingly the Expiations which were made for Men by the death of those Beasts were very short and imperfect For so the Apostle tells us that they only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 that is to the acquitting them from their Corporal Penalties and legal Vncleannesses but could not at all make them perfect as pertaining to their Consciences i. e. could not expiate the guilt of any wilful sin by which their Consciences were laid waste and wounded ver 9. And accordingly the Heathen seem to be aware how short the death of Beasts was of the punishment which was due for the sins of Men. For though in ordinary cases they
Prince or that that voice was a designed delusion Since therefore our Saviour declares that he is the first and the last which is the essential Character by which Iehovah the King of Israel describes himself and doth no where intimate a different sence of this Character as applied to himself from what it signified as applied to the Iehovah it necessarily follows that either he meant not sincerely or that himself and that Iehovah the King of Israel were the same Person And accordingly Zach. 9.9 which all agree is a Prophecy of our Saviour he is expresly called the King of Israel Rejoyce greatly O Daughter of Sion shout O Daughter of Ierusalem behold thy King cometh unto thee the most natural sence of which Phrase thy King is he that is now thy King not he that is hereafter to be so and if then when this Prophecy was delivered he was King of the Daughter of Zion or People of Israel to be sure he was always so and therefore the Prophet Malachi calls the Temple which was the Palace of the divine King of Israel the Temple of Christ Mal. 3.1 Behold I will send my Messenger i. e. John Baptist and he shall prepare my way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the Angel of the Covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts from whence I infer first that this Lord of Hosts which is the ordinary stile of the God of Israel was Christ whose Messenger and fore-runner Iohn Baptist was vid. Luke 1.76 And secondly That the Temple which was the abode of this Lord of Hosts was the Temple of Christ the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple which cannot be meant of God the Father because in the next words he is called the Angel of the Covenant which all agree is Christ if then the Temple of Ierusalem was the Temple of Christ and he was that Lord of Hosts that dwelt in it it necessarily follows that he was that divine King of Israel who under God the Father governed the Iewish Church And now having proved at large this fourth Proposition which is the principal Hinge upon which the whole Argument turns I proceed Fifthly That after his coming into the World he still retained this his Right and Title of King of Israel in particular till they finally rejected him and Apostatized from that Covenant on which his Kingdom is founded For he did not at all divest himself by his Incarnation of that Royal Authority he was vested with as he was the Eternal Word and Son of God hereafter to be incarnate For this his Royal Authority as I shewed before is necessarily implied in his Mediatorship of the New Covenant of which as I have also shewed he was always Mediator without any discontinuance or interruption So long therefore as the New Covenant continued in force with the Iews in particular so long he was their Mediatorial King in particular under God the Father Now it is certain that the New Covenant continued in force with them so long as they continued to be the Church of God because it was the New Covenant that made them so and it is certain they continued the Church of God many years after the Incarnation of our Saviour even till such time as by their obstinate rejecting of our Saviour and incurable Apostasie from that Covenant which made them the Church and People of God they had finally incensed him to reject them to break off his Covenant-relation to them and utterly to dispark and un-Church them And therefore we find that for several years both our Saviour and his Apostles continued in close Communion with the Iewish Church frequented their Temple and Synagogues and joyned with them in all the Solemnities of their Publick Worship by which they owned them to be the true Church of God and consequently to be yet in Covenant with him Since therefore they continued in the New Covenant after Christ's Incarnation Christ must also continue the Mediator of that Covenant to them and consequently their Mediatorial King. And hence he is stiled the King of the Iews in particular after his Incarnation for so the Wise-men in their enquiry after him Where is he that is born King of the Iews Matt. 2.2 And that he was born King of the Iews not merely as he was descended from the Loins of David but by a Title that he had Antecedent to his birth viz. as he was the Son of God hereafter to be Incarnate is evident by that confession of Nathanael Joh. 1.49 Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel where his being the King of Israel is consequent to his being the Son of God and so Iohn 12.13 they who attended him in his progress to Ierusalem salute him with a Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord which S. Iohn makes the accomplishment of that forementioned Prophecy Zach. 9.9 Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion behold thy King cometh unto thee sitting on an Asses Colt verse 14 15. And this Title our Saviour assumes to himself in that good confession he made before Pontius Pilate who asking him Art thou King of the Iews He answered him Sayest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me And when Pilate presses him for a more explicite answer he tells him My Kingdom is not of this world as much as if he had said I know the Jews mine enemies have insinuated to thee that by assuming to my self this Title of King of the Iews I design to usurp the temporal Dominion of Caesar thy Master but let not that trouble thee for though it is most certain that I am King of the Jews yet my Kingship and Caesar's are of a quite different nature and do no way clash or interfere with one another for whereas his Kingdom is Temporal mine is purely spiritual and not of this world and when Pilate insists farther Art thou a King then Jesus answers Thou sayest I am a King i. e. thou sayest truly so to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness to the truth John 18.33 34 35 36 37. And as he retained the Title of King of the Jews after his Incarnation so we frequently find him exercising his Royal Authority among them For in the first place he not only authoritatively explained to them those old and eternal Laws of Morality which he delivered to them from Mount Sinai and inforced them with new Sanctions and Motives but he also gave them two new Laws viz. that of Baptism and that of the Lord's Supper to be continued in force to the end of the world Secondly He erected a perpetual form of Government and Discipline in his Church and gave Commission to his Apostles to exercise and administer it and to derive down their Commission to all succeeding Generations Thirdly
he actually forgave sins Matth. 9.2 compared with the sixth where he doth not only pronounce to one that was sick of the Palsie Son thy sins are forgiven thee but declares that he did it by that power and authority which he had upon earth to forgive sins All which being acts of Regal power do sufficiently manifest that even whilst he was upon Earth he was vested with Royal Authority and that by assuming our nature he did not divest himself of his ancient Royalty but still continued King of the Iews so long as they continued a Church Sixthly That though the main body of the People of Israel rejected Christ and were thereupon rejected by him yet there was a Remnant of them that received and acknowledged him for their rightful Lord and King. For so as S. Paul observes it is foretold of Isaiah concerning Israel Though the number of the Children of Israel be as the sand of the Sea a remnant shall be saved Rom. 9.27 and accordingly it proved in the event For though the much greater part of the Jewish Nation obstinately persisted in their Infidelity and Rebellion against the blessed Iesus their King notwithstanding all those powerful Arts and Methods he had used to reclaim and save them yet there was a great number of them that willingly received and loyally adhered to him For not only the Disciples which he gathered whilst he was upon Earth but also the first Converts after his Ascension into Heaven were generally of the Iewish Nation within which not only his own Personal Ministry was confined but also the Ministry of his Apostles for some time after his Ascension For so S. Paul and Barnabas tell the Jews that it was necessary the Word of God should first have been spoken to them Acts 13.46 But this Proposition is so manifest from the whole Gospel that I shall not need to insist any farther upon it Seventhly Therefore that this Remnant still continued the same individual Church or Kingdom of Christ with the former though very much reformed and improved For it still remained upon the same basis with the former as having the self-same Covenant for its Charter which is the form that Identifies all Societies and notwithstanding the perpetual change and renovation of their parts still continues them the same individual Politick bodies Since therefore that remnant of Israel who believed in Christ continued still in the same Covenant with that whereupon the old Jewish Church was founded it necessarily follows that they were not a new or distinct Church but still remained the same individual sacred society with the old So that they were the unbelieving Jews that revolted from their old Church by rejecting the Mediator of that Covenant by which it was formed and constituted but as for the believing Jews who imbraced and acknowledged him they still continued in it and so remained the same continued Church as being still united and incorporated by the same Charter But though it was the same continued body with the old Jewish Church yet was it very much reformed and improved by our blessed Saviour For in the first plâ—ce whereas before it was extremely corrupted through the many false glosses and superstitious traditions of their Elders and like an unâ—â—est Garden was all overgrown with Thorns and Weeds its Religion being almost dwindled away into Ceremonies and outward observances and evaporated into a dead shew and formality our blessed Saviour repaired its ruines and decays removed its rubbish and reformed its disorders and restored it to its primitive beauty and purity For the great design of all his Sermons and Parables was to explain the Laws of it into their Genuine sence and to rescue them from the false Glosses and Comments of the Scribes and Pharisees to reprehend and expose its hypocrisie and formality and to refine its Religion from all those corrupt and heterogeneous mixtures with which it was dasht and sophisticated That Remnant of the Jews therefore who believed in Christ and submitted to his Doctrine when all the rest of them finally rejected him were the same individual continued body with the Old Jewish Church as purified and reformed from its errors and corruptions For by submitting to our Saviour's regulations they did not commence into a new Church but still continued the same body only with this difference that whereas before it was distempered with sundry corrupt humours now it was throughly purged and recovered And as our Saviour restored that Church to its ancient purity so secondly he advanced and improved it to a far more perfect state than it was in even under its primitive Constitution It is true as for the Religion of that Church it was for substance the same with that which our Saviour and his Apostles taught it proposed to them the same Covenant and the same Mediator and the very same Doctrines and Articles concerning this Mediator to create in them the same belief and oblige them to the same practice only with this difference that whereas it proposed him to their belief as hereafter to be incarnate and sacrificed to rise and to ascend into heaven it proposes him to ours as actually incarnate and sacrificed and as actually risen and ascended but this is only a circumstantial difference since that as to all the purposes of his Mediation his future Incarnation and Sacrifice c. had the same vertue and influence with his actual But though as to the main the ancient Iewish Religion was the same with ours yet in respect of clearness and easiness and amplitude there is a vast difference between them For first as to clearness it is evident that it was much more darkly and obscurely revealed to the ancient Iews than it is to us for to them it was revealed only either in general Promises out of which they were fain to argue and deduce particulars or in temporal Promises that carried a mystical sence with them and obscurely implied the spiritual blessings which the Gospel proposes or in dark Types and material Figures and Emblems which were Prophetick Pictures or as the Apostle calls them shadows of good things to come For thus in that general Promise In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed was included Christ and all those particular blessings which we receive by and through him under those temporal promises of deliverance from their enemies and peaceâ—ble possession of Canaan was couched their deliverance from sin and hell and their eternal rest and happiness in heaven and under their legal Sacrifices the all-sufficient Sacrifice of the blessed Mediator was exhibited and represented to them and in a word under the High Priest's offering the bloud of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies was intimated the Mediator's intercession for them in heaven Thus both the Promises and Types of the Iewish Religion were all of them obscure revelations of Christianity which is nothing but Mystical Judaism or Judaism explained into its spiritual sence and meaning And accordingly
of sin is in Scripture frequently attributed to the Father as well as to the Son So 1 Iohn 1.9 If we confess our sins he i. e. the Father is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and Eph. 4.32 Forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you From whence it is plain that forgiveness of sin appertains to God as well as Christ and that both have their appropriate shares in it and therefore since it is impossible that the same individual action should proceed from two distinct Agents in this Act of forgiveness the Father must do something which the Son doth not and the Son must do something which the Father doth not They must both of them act an appropriate part in it and each have a distinct agency from each other For the fuller explication therefore of this Article I shall endeavour to shew first what it is which the Father doth in forgiving sins and secondly what the Son doth I. What is it that the Father doth in this Act of forgiveness of sin To which in short I answer That the Fathers part herein is to make a general grant of pardon to offenders upon such a consideration as he shall think meet to accept and with such a limitation and restriction he shall think fit to make which general Grant is nothing else but those glad tidings of the Gospel which he proclaimed to the World by Jesus Christ viz. that in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice he would freely forgive all penitent and believing sinners their personal obligation to eternal punishment and receive them into grace and favour So that in forgiving our sins there are these three things peculiar to God the Father First His making a general Grant of Pardon to us Secondly His making it in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice Thirdly His making it with those restrictions and limitations of Faith and Repentance First One thing peculiar to God the Father in forgiving sins is his making a general Grant of pardon and forgiveness to sinners For the Law against which all men had sinned and by which they were obliged to eternal punishment was strictly and properly the Law of God the Father who being the first and supreme person in the Godhead was consequently always the first and supreme in the divine Dominion Now the divine Dominion consisting even as all other Dominions do of a Legislative and executive power the Father must be supreme in both and consequently the Laws of the divine Dominion must be more especially and peculiarly his And hence it is called The Will of the Father Mat. 7.21 so in the Lords Prayer the Divine Law is in a peculiar manner stiled the Will of God the Father Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Matth. 12.50 our Saviour stiles it the Will of his Father which is in Heaven and elsewhere the Commandment of his Father vid. Ioh. 12.5 Mat. 15.3.6 Mar. 7.8 9. by all which it is evident that the Divine Law against which we have all offended and by which we are obliged to punishment is appropriately and peculiarly the Will and Commandment of God the Father and it being so the right of exacting or remitting the punishment of this Law must be peculiarly and appropriately inherent in him For the penalty of the Law is due to him whose Law it is and it is he alone can loose us from it who bound it upon us so that it was the Fathers peculiar as to give the Law so to indemnifie offenders from the Penalty of it and accordingly we find that publick Grant of pardon which through Jesus Christ is made to sinners is in Scripture every were attributed to the Father so we are told that it is God who for Christs sake hath forgiven us Eph. 4.32 and that it is God who hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation though faith in his bloud to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past that he might be just and the justifier of them that believe in Iesus Rom. 2.25 26. that it was God who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5.19 And in a word that it is God who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 where his being faithful and just plainly refers to some publick Grant and Promise by which he hath obliged himself to penitent offenders And indeed the whole new Covenant in which this publick Grant of remission of sins is contained vid. Heb. 8.12 is the act and deed of God the Father It was he that in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice granted this grand Charter of mercy to the World for seeing it was to the Father that that Sacrifice was offered in consideration of which the new Covenant was granted vid. Eph. 4.2 compared with Col. 1.20 the grant of it must necessarily be from the Father And as it was the Father that made this publick grant of Remission to sinners so II. It was he that made it in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice for so Christ himself tells us that it was by commandment which he received from his Father that he laid down his life Iohn 10.17 18. and when he was going to offer up himself upon the Cross he tells his Disciples As the Father gave me Commandment even so do I arise let us go hence i. e. to execute that Command which the Father hath given me to lay down my life for the sheep Ioh. 10.15 from whence it is evident that it was the Father who exacted the Death and Sacrifice of Christ in consideration of that publick Grant of forgiveness which he made to the World for it was through his blood that we have redemption the forgiveness of sins according to the Riches of his i. e. the Fathers grace Eph. 1.7 and that blood of his was an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 So that it was God the Father that did both exact and accept the sacrifice of Christ which as I have shewed at large Sect. 4. was in consideration of his pardoning and forgiving Sinners III. And lastly It was God the Father also that made this Grant of forgiveness to us with these restrictions and limitations of our believing and repenting For as the promises of the Covenant were his in which remission of sin is proposed to us so must the conditions of it be also by which it is limited and restrained Because it can belong to none but the giver to limit and conditionate his own Gifts and Grants Now the Conditions of our forgiveness are faith and repentance oâ—â—ather the condition of it is such a Faith such a lively and active belief in Jesus Christ as doth beget in us sincere repentance and renovation of life for so S. Paul tells us again