SECT. I. What it is that we are to believe in general con­cerning the Person and Office of this Me­diator.

THE Greek word [...], which we tran­slate Mediator, signifies one that interposes between two Parties, either to obtain some favour from the one Party for the other, or to adjust or make up some difference between them. And this undertaking of his, is either, first, of his own head and voluntary, undertaking without any Warrant or Authority from the Parties between whom he interposes, in which case he acts altogether pre­cariously, and as a meer Orator, and can only per­swade and intreat on both sides; or secondly, it is Authoritative, and this is two ways; first, when the Person who mediates is Authorized thereunto by the consent and designation of both Parties, both being equal, and consequently having an equal right to Authorize him. For when the Parties are equal, he must be authorized by both before he can pretend to any right to oblige and determine them; but when once both Parties have agreed to put their case into his hands, and refer themselves to his determination, he from thence­forth commences a Mediator by Office, and is the Legal Representative of both, as being Autho­rized by them to act in their stead in all those points that are referred by them to his determina­tion. So that whatsoever he doth in the matter [Page 5] before him is in effect the act of both Parties, who having both submitted their wills to his, and vo­luntarily impowered him to will for them both, are thereupon as effectually concluded and deter­mined by what he doth, as if it were their own personal Will and Action. And in this sence a Mediator is the same with that which we in Eng­lish call an Vmpire, who is one that acts for both Parties by Authority from both, and in whose judg­ment and determination both have obliged them­selves to consent and agree. But then secondly, the Mediation is authoritative when he who mediates is Authorized thereunto by a superiour Party, who hath a just Authority and Dominion over the infe­riour. For when a Mediator acts the part of two unequal Parties, whereof the one is superiour, and hath a just dominion over the other, it is sufficient that he be Authorized by the appointment of the superiour, and the subject or inferiour Party will be as much obliged by his determination, as if he had voluntarily referred himself to him. For a Media­tor between a Superiour, as such, and a Subject, is one who is Authorized to act on the part of the Superiour in requiring the Subjects Duty and Obe­dience, and to act on the part of the Subject in im­petrating the Superiour's favour and protection; and there can be no doubt but every absolute Supe­riour hath right to Authorize a Mediator between him and his Subjects, to act for him in ruling them, and for them in soliciting his favour. For he who Mediates between a Sovereign and Subject, is the Sovereign's Vicegerent and the Subject's Advocate; and he who without our consent hath a right to our duty, and to all the favours he bestows upon us, [Page 6] may, whether we consent to it or no, demand our duty by what Vicegerent, and bestow his favours by what Advocate he pleases. And as for the Subject, he will be obliged, whether it be by his consent or no, to abide by the Mediator whom the Sovereign appoints, and by the terms which he shall impose on him; otherwise he will be justly liable to punishment.

Having given this short account of the general Notion of a Mediator, I proceed to shew what it is in the general that the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning the Person and Office of this great Mediator between God and men; the whole of which I shall reduce under these six heads:

First, That he is Designed and Authorized to this Office by God who is our absolute Lord and Sovereign.

Secondly, That this Office to which he is au­thorized consists in acting for and in the behalf of God and men, who are the parties between whom he Mediates.

Thirdly, That this his Mediation proceeds up­on certain terms and stipulations between God and men, which he obtained of God for us, and in his name hath published and tendered to us.

Fourthly, That as he acts for and in the behalf of God and men, so he partakes of the natures of both.

Fifthly, That as he partakes of the natures of both, so, that he might transact personally with both, he was sent down from Heaven to us, and is returned again from us to Heaven.

Sixthly, That upon his return from us to Hea­ven, there to Mediate personally for Men with [Page 7] God, he substituted the Divine and Omnipresent Spirit personally to promote and effectuate his Me­diation for God with Men.

I. That he is Designed and Authorized to this Office by God, who is our absolute Lord and So­vereign. For since God for just and excellent rea­sons was resolved not to converse with sinful men immediately, they having rendered themselves, through their woful degeneracy, utterly unsit for, and unworthy of any such near and close access to his most holy Majesty; and since his tender mercy and compassion towards us would not permit him utterly to reject and abandon us, there was no ex­pedient, at least that we know of, in which the holiness of his Majesty could so fairly accord with the tenderness of his Mercy, as this of transacting with us by a Mediator, by whose inter-agency, he, though a most holy Sovereign, may without deba­sing himself freely converse with us, and we, though his guilty subjects, may without terrour and anxiety as freely draw near unto him; But, by vertue of his essential Sovereignty and absolute Dominion over us, the right of choosing and ap­pointing this Mediator was wholly in him, because, as I shewed just before, he only can have the right of appointing the person who shall be his Vice­gerent and our Advocate, who is the Sovereign Lord of our beings, and the supreme dispos [...]r of all our blessings. And accordingly he hath constituted the holy and blessed Iesus to be the sole Mediator between himself and us, to exercise his authority over us, and to procure for, and convey his favours to us; and hence he is called the Christ or Messias of God, that is, his anointed, Anointing with oyl [Page 8] being anciently the visible sign by which the Re­gal, Priestly, and Prophetick Offices were conferred. This Title of the Lord's Anointed therefore be­ing applied to Iesus, denotes his being designed, appointed, and authorized by God to this great Office of Mediator, in which all those three Offices are included. For so, Acts 5.31. we are told, him, i. e. Christ, hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repen­tance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins; And Acts 2.36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Iesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ; and, 10 name no more, Phil. 2.9, 10, 11. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Iesus every Knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The belief of which is absolutely necessary to create in our minds the reverence that is due to our holy Religion. For unless we suppose the founder of it to be Au­thorized and Commissioned by God, we must strip and disarm it of all its authority, and look upon it at best but as a Pious Imposture, contrived on pur­pose to Chouce men of their Sins, and to train and delude them into Piety and Vertue. For as it is a Religion, it can have no Authority but Divine, and a Divine Authority it cannot have unless the Au­thor of it had a Divine Commission; but supposing him to be Commissioned from God, we owe the s [...]me respect and reverence to his Religion as if God himself had proclaimed it to us in an audible [Page 9] voice from the Battlements of Heaven; and it will be no less disrespect to the Divine Majesty for us to contemn and slight what he, a [...] God's mouth, hath delivered to us, than it would have been for a Iew to have laughed at the Ten Command­ments while God himself was proclaiming them from Mount Sinai in a voice of Thunder. For if we believe that God authorized him to reveal his Will to us, we must believe his voice to be the voice of God, who spake to us by him as by a li­ving Oracle; and consequently, that in refusing to hear and to obey him we stop our ears against God, and do in effect declare that we regard what he saith no more than we do the whistling of the Wind. And as the belief of Christ's being Com­missioned and appointed by God is highly necessa­ry to Create in us a due reverence for his Religion, so it is no less requisite to create in us a due trust and confidence in his Intercession for us. For had he thrust himself upon this Office without any Call or Commission from God, God would have been no way obliged to hear him how earnestly soever he had supplicated in our behalf; but since he inter­cedes for us by God's own Commission, we may de­pend upon it that God will be always ready to hear him, and graciously accept our addresses to him when ever they are presented by his hand. For since God appointed him to be our Advocate, it must be either with an intent to hear him in our behalf, and if so, we may be sure his Ears will be always open to him; or with a design to mock and ridicule him, and recreate his own inexorable spleen with the spiteful pleasure of denying and repulsing him, which to imagine of God is no less senseless [Page 10] than blasphemous. Since therefore he Advocates for us by God's own Commission, we may be sure his Plea in our behalf will be always acceptable and successful, since in repulsing him, he must in effect affront his own Authority by which he inter­cedes for us.

II. That this Office to which he is authorized consists in acting for, and in the behalf of God and Men, who are the Parties between whom he Mediates. And this is implied in the very No­tion of an authorised Mediator, who, as such, is an Agent between two Parties, acting by autho­rity for both, in order to the adjusting some dif­ference between them, and reducing them to a mutual accord and agreement; and if he act only for one Party, he is not a Mediator, but an At­tourney; and accordingly the Apostle tells us, that a Mediator is not a Mediator of one, but God is one, Gal. 3.20. For the better understanding of which words it is to be considered that in the foregoing Verse the Apostle had asserted, that the Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator, that is, in the hand of Moses, who was appointed to Mediate not only for God with the People of Israel, but also for the People of Israel with God; and this, saith he, is implied in the very Notion of a Mediator, for a Mediator is not of one, but God is one, that is, God is only one of the two Parties between whom this Media­tion is made, and therefore Moses must be sup­posed not only to act for God with the People as his Vicegerent, but also for the People with God as their Advocate; in short, he must act for both Parties, otherwise he acts not as a Mediator. And [Page 11] accordingly as Moses who was the Mediator of the Iewish Covenant acted for and between God and the People, so Iesus Christ, who is Media­tor of the Christian Covenant, is stiled the one Mediator between God and men, 1 Tim. 2.5. that is, that goes between the two opposite Parties, and transacts for both in order to their accord and re­conciliation; that as God's Vicegerent acts for him with us in order to the reducing us to our duty and allegiance to him, and as our Advocate acts for us with God in order to the inducing him to be gracious and favourable to us; that so having prevailed with us to lay down our enmity against God, and obtained of God to remit his displeasure against us, he may effect a happy Reconciliation between us. Both which parts of his Mediation are expressed in those words of the Apostle, Heb. 7.25. Wherefore he is able to save to the utmost those who come unto God by him, that is, who by submitting to him, as mediating for God, submit to God himself, seeing he ever lives to make inter­cession for them, or to Mediate with God in their behalf.

The belief of which carries with it the most in­dispensable Obligations to Christian Piety and Ver­tue; but while we look upon Christ as acting only for one Party, whether it be for God or our selves, we do in a great measure enervate the Motives of Christianity. For thus while we look upon him as acting only for God, that is, as God's Vicegerent, we must necessarily conclude that he is concerned only for God's Authority, and that when he hath secured or vindicated that by reducing us to our duty, or punishing our disobedience, he will have no [Page 12] more to do with us or our concerns, but even leave us to shift for our selves, and to seek our reward where we can find it; that he is substituted by his Father for no other end but to exact our Homage, or revenge our Rebellion, but that as for us, he is no way concerned either to procure us any par­don for our past sin, or reward for our future Obe­dience; and while we look upon him by whom alone we have access to God, as one that is ut­terly unconcerned for our welfare, we must look upon our selves as desperate and abandoned Crea­tures, that are utterly forsaken of all hopes and en­couragements. For what hope can we have, when not only the Deity we are to address to is highly offended at us, but also the Mediator we are to ad­dress by is utterly regardless of us? And in such a hopeless condition all the arguments in the World are void and insignificant. And so on the other hand, while we look upon Christ as acting only for us, that is, as our Propitiation and Advocate ▪ we must unavoidably conclude that he is con­cerned only for our preservation and happiness; that his Office requires no more of him but only to pay off the scores of our sins with his bloud, and by pleading that payment in Heaven to ob­tain our actual release from the rigorous demands of divine Justice; in short that he hath nothing else to do but only to purchase and sue out our pardon, and to justifie and set us right in the Court of Heaven; but as for reducing us under his Fa­ther's Authority, and subduing our Wills and Lives to his obedience, that is no part of his Mediatorship, nor consequently is he at all concerned about it; and if so, all that his Mediation can oblige us [Page 13] to (supposing that he hath effectually discharged it) is to rest and relie upon it for our Pardon and Iustification with God; and if out of pure grati­tude we will be dutiful and obedient to him for the future, he will kindly accept it, but if not, he hath no remedy against us; and what likelihood is there that any argument of Religion should e­ver prevail with us to submit to the divine Au­thority, so long as we presume upon Christ's Me­diation for Pardon and Justification without it, and believe it to be left wholly to our own Ingenuity whether we will submit or no. Thus while we consider Christ's Mediation by halves, and mistake either part of it for the whole, we pervert and deprave it, and instead of what it is, viz. a most wise and powerful inducement to Piety and Ver­tue, render it an inevitable temptation either to Despair or Presumption, both which are equally and utterly inconsistent with a holy and Christian Life.

But if we consider this Doctrine in its full ex­tent, as it takes in both parts of Christ's Media­tion, it inforces our duty upon us with the most necessary and powerful obligations. For it ad­dresses it self to every passion in us that is capa­ble of being moved and perswaded, and at once proposes to our hope and fear, which are the most vigorous principles of action, the most encoura­ging and dreadful considerations. For since his Office obliges him to act for God and men toge­ther, we may depend upon it, that through the whole course of his Mediation he will be most just and impartial to both, and that as on the one hand he will not so act for his Father's Authority as to neglect our safety [Page 14] and welfare, so neither on the other will he so concern himself for our safety and welfare as to expose his Father's Authority; and if he proceed with this exact equality between the Parties he acts for, we have all the reason in the World to conclude, that if we submit our selves to God we shall be graciously received and rewarded, but that if we persist in our Rebellion against him we shall be most severely punished.

For in the first place his being concerned for us as well as for God, gives us the most ample security, that if we will submit to his Fathers Au­thority, which he stands ingaged to secure or vin­dicate, he will have a most zealous regard to us and our concerns, and be as mindful of our interest as if it were his own. For in undertaking to be our Advocate he assumed our Persons, and took our Affairs into his own hands, so that now he is another our selves, and stands obliged to act for us with as much care and concern as if our Persons and Interests were his; and therefore we may de­pend upon it that he will act as much for our ad­vantage as we our selves could do if we were in his place, and had the same power and interest with his Father that he hath▪ and that if we were sit­ting in his room at the right hand of God, and there interceding for our selves, we could not justly wish for, or desire more or greater instances of Grace and Favour than he will ask and obtain for us. And what greater encouragement can we have to return to our duty than this very conside­ration, that all our concerns with our offended God are deposited in the hands of a most faithful Mediator, who upon our return will concern [Page 15] himself as zealously for our Good as for his Fa­ther's Authority, and solicit our cause in the Court of Heaven as Industriously as we our selves could do if we were admitted to be our own Ad­vocates? But then in the second place his being concerned for his Father's Authority as well as for our Interest, gives us as full assurance, on the other hand, that he is no less obliged by his Office to reduce us to our duty to his Father, or avenge him upon us for our disobedience than he is to re­store us to his grace and favour; and if he should so attempt the later as to be any way deficient in the former, he would not perform the part of a just Mediator, which consists in acting impartially for both Parties. For should he favour our inte­rest beyond his Father's Authority, he would be so far partial to us against his Father. Now though he loved us so well as to sacrifice his life for us on Earth, and in the vertue of that Sacrifice to ap­pear our Advocate in Heaven, yet we can never be so fond sure as to imagine that he loves us bet­ter than his own Father; and if he doth not, we may build upon it that he is as zealously concerned to assert his Authority as to prosecute our interest, and to provide that he be obeyed or avenged as that we be pardoned and rewarded; but for us to rely upon Christ as mediating for us, without submit­ting to him as mediating for God, is in effect to hope that he will be so exceeding gracious to us as to betray his Father's trust for our sake, and sacri­fice his authority to our safety. For should he take our part with God, and solicite him to favour us while we persist in our rebellions against him, he would in effect abandon the cause and interest of [Page 16] God's Government, and endeavour all that in him lay to expose his authority to the scorn and con­t [...]mpt of Mankind. Whilst therefore we obstinate­ly refuse to hearken to him in his Mediation for God, that is, to submit to his Laws, and return to our duty and allegiance, he will be so far from interceding for us in the vertue of his meritorious sacrifice, that he will appear against us as an in­censed Judge in the quarrel of his Father's Autho­rity, and dearly revenge upon our guilty heads all those shameless affronts and indignities we have offered it, and by making us everlasting Monu­ments of his Vengeance, convince us by woful ex­perience, that he is no less a just Mediator for God than a merciful Mediator for Men. So that by re­solving to persist in our rebellion against God, we do in effect renounce the Mediation of our Saviour, and proclaim before God and Angels that we will not be beholden to the one and only Advocate of sinners. And when we have flung our selves out of this Protection, Lord! whither shall we go for sanctuary from thy vengeance? When there is but this one Mediator and he hath discarded me, O my wretched Soul, whither wilt thou betake thy self? Call now and see if there be any will hear thee, to which of all the Saints or Angels wilt thou turn thee? What Favourite of Heaven will plead thy cause when the only Advocate of Souls hath reject­ed thee? For if he who is my only Mediator, be incensed against me, who shall Mediate between me and him? When God alone was angry with me, there was some hope, because my Saviour stands as a living Screen between me and his displeasure, to guard and defend me from it; but when that [Page 17] is kindled against me too, what is there to inter­pose between me and the devouring flame? Be wise therefore, O ye sinners, be instructed, ye ob­stinate Rebels against God; Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way; for if his wrath be kindled but a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him, but Wo be to them that pro­voke him.

Thus the Mediation of Christ addresses to our fear as well as hope, in order to the subduing us to the Will of God, and presses at once upon both these great Avenues of our Souls with the most ir­resistible Motives.

III. That this his Mediation proceeds upon certain terms and stipulations between God and Men, which he obtained of God for us, and in his name hath published and tendered to us. For when Mankind, by reason of the degeneracy of hu­mane nature, were cut off from all immediate in­tercourse with God, and this most wise and holy Method of conversing with us by a Mediator was resolved on by the Divine Council, God, in con­sideration of what our Mediator had ingaged him­self to suffer for us in the fulness of time, granted to him in our behalf a most gracious and merciful Covenant, whereby he ingaged himself to bestow his spirit upon us to inable us to repent and return to him, upon condition that we should seek it, and co-operate with it; to pardon all our past sins, upon condition that we should unfeignedly repent of them; and to crown us with eternal life, upon condition we should persevere to the end in well-doing. This is the substance of that gracious Co­venant which God hath granted to us for the sake [Page 18] of our Mediator; who hath accordingly assured us from God, that he will give his holy Spirit unto them that ask, Luke 11.13. That if we will repent and be converted, our sins shall be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, Acts 5.19. And that if we will be faithful to the death we shall receive a Crown of life, Rev. 2.10. And upon this Covenant it is that our blessed Saviour proceeds in his Mediation between God and Men. For our Baptismal Vow is nothing else but only a solemn engagement of our selves to perform the condition of this Covenant, upon which there results to us a conditional right to all that God hath promised in it; and when by this fede­ral solemnity of Baptism God and we have once obliged our selves to each other, by mutual promi­ses and engagements, Christ's Office, as Mediator between us, is to solicite on both sides for mutual performance; and accordingly in Mediating for God with us, he requires nothing of us but what we promised to God, and in mediating for us with God he claims nothing of God but what God promised to us. And hence he is called, The Me­diator of this better Covenant, Heb. 8.6. and The Mediator of the new Covenant, Heb. 12.24. be­cause he transacts between both Parties to solicite the performance of their mutual engagements. For so the same Author in Heb. 9.14, 15. seems to ex­plain it, How much more, saith he (having spoken be­fore of the vertue of the bloud of Bulls and Goats) shall the bloud of Christ, who through the eternal Spi­rit offered himself without spot to God, purge our Con­sciences from dead Works to serve the living God; and for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Co­venant, [Page 19] that by means of death for the Redemption of transgressions, &c. they which are called might re­ceive the promise of eternal Inheritance; where those words [and for this cause] seem as well to refer to what went before as to what follows, and then the sence will be this, For this cause he is the Mediator of the New Covenant, both that he might take care that our Consciences being purged from dead works we might serve the living God, and that having redeemed us by his Death, we might receive the promise of eternal Inheritance. And accordingly he proceeds in his Mediation; for in acting for God as his King or Vicegerent, he hath enacted the con­ditions which this Covenant requires of us into the Laws of his Kingdom, and exacts them of us under the fearful Penalty of eternal Damnation; where­by he hath taken effectual care that we shall either perform these conditions, or undergo a punishment as great as the guilt of our neglect and contempt of them; and having thus tied them upon us by the utmost force of Law, that is, by Law established on the most dreadful Penalty, he hath, so far as his Regal Authority extends, compelled us to the performance of our part of this Covenant; so that if we do not perform it, it is not to be attributed to any neglect or omission of the Mediator, who to oblige us to perform it hath most faithfully acted for God, even to the utmost extent of that power wherewithal he invested him.

And so on the other hand, in acting for us as our Intercessor, he hath taken no less care to insure God's part of this Covenant to us than he did to in­sure our part of it to God. For this Covenant be­ing granted to us by God in consideration of a [Page 20] valuable satisfaction for our sins, Christ hath not only rendered this satisfaction to God by dying for us, and thereby purchased for us a just right and claim to all the blessings which God hath promised on his part if we perform what he requires on ours, but in the vertue of this satisfaction he also ap­pears for us at the right hand of God, there to plead our right, and to prefer our claim, by exhibi­ting that vocal Bloud, and those importunate Wounds with the price of which he purchased and obtained it. So that now we are intitled to all the blessings of this Covenant, not only by God's Promise, but by Christ's Purchace too, and to secure both, we have Christ himself advocating for us in Heaven with the price of that Purchace in his hands. So effectually hath he transacted for us in his Mediation with God in our behalf, that we have the highest security imaginable, that if we perform our part of this Covenant, God will not fail to perform his; since in so doing he would not only violate his own truth which he hath engaged to us by promise, but also injuriously defraud his own Son of what he hath duly purchased for us by his Death, and claims upon that Purchace by his Intercession. For he intercedes for no other bles­sings in our behalf but what he purchased for us upon a consideration that was not only infinitely valuable in it self, but also freely accepted by his Father; and he purchased no other blessings for us but what are specified in this gracious Cove­nant; so that he asks nothing for us but what he hath a right to obtain, nothing but what he pur­chased by his bloud, and is in strict Justice due to his meritoriou [...] sacrifice, and consequently no­thing [Page 21] that his Father can deny him without doing him the most outragious wrong and injury; and therefore this we may be as confident of as we can be of any thing in the World, that whatso­ever he hath purchased for us he will not fail to ask, and that whatsoever he asks he will be sure to obtain.

Thus Christ by his Mediation between God and Men hath taken the most effectual care to insure the mutual performance of this everlasting Cove­nant to both Parties. For to insure God of our per­forming our part, he hath bound it upon us by a Law enforced with an everlasting Penalty; which is the strongest obligation he could lay upon us; And to insure us of God's performing his part, he duly purchased it for us by his Death, and in vertue of that just Right he ever lives to claim it by his Intercession, which is the strongest obligation he could lay upon God; so that now, as God cannot fail in his part without violating his Truth and Ju­stice, which would be to destroy his own Being, and un-god himself, so neither we can in ours with­out exposing our everlasting well-being, and plung­ing our selves body and soul together into everlast­ing wretchedness and calamity. And hence I sup­pose it is that our Saviour is called the surety of a better Covenant, Heb. 7.22. or, as the Greek word may be rendered, the Trustee between both Parties, to see that they mutually perform their several parts of this Covenant to each other; which Office our blessed Lord hath faithfully performed, in that he hath taken the utmost care to oblige both God and us mutually to make good our several engage­ments to each other. For though he hath not [Page 22] undertaken for us that we shall certainly perform our part, yet he hath undertaken to oblige us to it by the highest and most urgent reason, which was all that he could reasonably undertake for Beings that are free to good and evil; and if notwithstanding he hath thus obliged us, we will be so desperately obstinate as not to comply, he hath undertaken to chastise our obstinacy with a most dire and exemplary vengeance.

And since he thus proceeds in his Mediation up­on the certain and stated terms of a Covenant, which he himself hath published and revealed to us, we may hereby most certainly inform our selves what he expects from us, and what we are to expect from him. For now we are sure that all he can expect from us is that we should faithfully perform our part of this Covenant, that is, that we should implore the assistance of God's holy Spirit, and diligently to co-operate with it, so as to repent and return from our evil ways to the sincere practice of all Christian Piety and Vertue, and that herein we should persevere to the end; and less than this he cannot admit without being an unfaithful Trustee for God of that blessed Covenant upon which he Mediates. And now we are also sure that all we can expect from him is, that if we implore the assistance of his Spirit we shall have it, that if with his assistance we repent we shall be pardoned, and that if being pardoned we persevere in well-doing, we shall be crowned with everlasting life; and less than this he cannot obtain for us without being an unfaithful Trustee for us. For if he should exact less for God of us, or procure less for us of God than that Covenant [Page 23] upon which he Mediates obliges God and us to, he would be wanting in his care one way or t'other to see this Covenant with which he is intrusted duly and impartially executed, and either defraud God or us of some part of that right which it de­volves upon us; which we have all the assurance in the world he will never do. So that now we proceed upon certain terms, and do know infal­libly what to trust to; we know that our Mediator exacts of us the whole and intire condition of the Gospel-Covenant; that this he will certainly ac­cept, but that this he expects without the least de­falcation or abatement; so that if we heartily im­plore the assistance of his holy Spirit, and co-ope­rate with it, we have all the assurance in the world that we shall be effectually enabled to render him that sincere repentance and obedience he requires, and that if we repent we shall be pardoned, and if we persevere in our obedience, be advanced to everlasting glory. On the other side, we know infallibly before hand, that if we refuse to submit to this condition, or do any way fall short of it, instead of being our kind and merciful Advocate, our Mediator will become our implacable Judge, and doom us to a place of dismal torment, where we shall live with everlasting horrour and despair; so that now we can no longer persevere in our impenitence, without trampling at the same time on the highest encouragements, and charging head­long through the most amazing danger.

IV. That as he acts for, and in the behalf of God and Men, so he partakes of the natures of both. For that this high and important Office might be the more effectually executed and per­formed, [Page 24] the eternal Father thought meet to place it in the hands of his own eternal Son, the Son of his natural Generation, to whom he communicated from all eternity his own Divine Essence and Na­ture, and whom in due time he appointed to as­sume the Humane Nature into a personal union with his Divinity, that so being God-man in one person he might be the better fitted and accom­plished to Mediate between God and Men. For in Mediating Authoritatively for God with us, he was to perform the Office of a divine King, to rule and Govern us, as God's Vicegerent, and either reduce us under his Authority, or chastise us for our Rebellion against him; which is a Sphere so vast, and so sublime, as needs no less than some divine Intelligence to inform and actuate it. For to wield the Divine Scepter and Government is a Province that requires a Divine Knowledge and Power; for the souls and hearts of men are the principal Seat and Subject of the divine Govern­ment, and therefore it is very requisite that he who is intrusted with the administration of it should have a through and perfect inspection of all our most secret Thoughts, and Intentions, and Pur­poses, and Resolutions, otherwise how is it possible he should take cognizance of them so as to com­mand, and over-rule and reward, and punish them? But to know the hearts of men is in Scripture al­ways appropriated to the divine Omniscience; so 1 Kings 8.3 [...]. Thou, even thou only knowest the hearts of the Children of men; and if only God's all-searching Eye can penetrate into the hearts of men, who but a God can Rule and Govern them? And accordingly our Saviour, upon whose shoul­ders [Page 25] this inward and spiritual Government rests, challenges to himself this divine Prerogative which is so necessary a qualification for it; Rev. 2.23. And all the Churches shall know, saith he, that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, and will give to every one of you according to his works. Nor is it less requisite to qualifie him for this spi­ritual Empire that he should be Almighty than that he should be Omniscient; for to enable him to rule the hearts and souls of men it is necessary that he should have the Command and Disposal of all those outward Events and Accidents in which they are any way concerned, since it is by these in a great measure that their hearts are swayed, their affections formed, their intentions and resolutions squared and regulated, and in a word, their good and evil actions rewarded and punished in this World; and to wield and manage, moderate and dispose such infinite numbers of Events as concern such infinite numbers of Men so vastly distant from one another in place, condition, and temper, requires a power that can do whatsoever it pleases both in Heaven and Earth, which the Psalmist ap­propriates to the divine Power as its peculiar Pre­rogative, Psal. 135.6, 7. and if it be only a di­vine power that can manage and dispose all the affairs of all men, what can be more requisite than that he who rules and governs them should com­municate of the divine Omnipotence? And ac­cordingly our Saviour, upon whom this Govern­ment is devolved, assures his Disciples that all power was communicated to him both in Heaven and Earth, Matt. 28.18. which being the Prerogative of the divine Power seems impossible to have been [Page 26] communicated to any but a divine Person. And therefore the Prophet Isaiah, speaking of the Go­vernment of Christ, tells us, that his name should be called Wonderful, Counsellour, the mighty God, Isa. 9.6. where by Counsellour and mighty God he seems to design his infinite Knowledge and Power whereby he should be qualified for this his divine Government; for so Mighty God doth always in the Scripture-phrase signifie Almighty God; so in Deut. 7.21. Psal. 50.1. Ier. 32.18. Hab. 1.12. and elsewhere. By all which it is evident, that to Mediate Authoritatively for God with men is a Province so sublime as that it requires no less than divine perfections in the Person that undertakes and manages it, and consequently that it is requi­site he should be God.

Nor is it less requisite to render his Government more awful and Majestick. For though the con­dition of the Person alters not the nature of the Authority he is vested with, yet in the estimation of men the same Authority is more or less ve­nerable according as the quality and condition of [...]he Persons cloathed with it is more or less consi­derable. Since therefore the quality of the Per­son doth always cast a Cloud or Lustre on the Of­fice, it was very requisite that he who was Autho­rized to Mediate for God with men, which is the highest Office under God the Father, should be a Person of the highest Rank and Dignity next to God the Father himself, and consequently that he should be God the Son; and hence the Author to the Hebrews, Chap. 1. to render his Authority mo [...]e awful takes a great deal of pains to im­blazon the dignity of his Person, in which he [Page 27] gives him such Stiles and Characters, as cannot without extreme force be applied to any but a Per­son divine; he stiles him The brightness of his Fa­ther's Glory, and the express Image of his Person; the Founder of the Earth, and the Maker of the Heavens, and the Vpholder of all things by the word of his power, Vers. 3.10. he tells us, that he was set far above the Angels, and that the Fa­ther had ordered all his Angels to worship him, de­claring him to be God in these terms, Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever; and then he concludes all with this application, Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard of him, Chap. 2. v. 1. which shews that in the Apostle's sense to Mediate for God is a station so sublime that it was very fit it should be supplied (as it was) with a Person of the highest Dignity, that so his Person might reflect a Majesty on his Office, and render it more awful and venerable in the World.

And as to accomplish him for this high Office of Mediating for God with Men, it was most fit he should be God, so it was no less requisite he should be Man. For Man being naturally a sensi­tive, as well as a rational Creature, in this de­generate state of his nature, wherein his sensitive part is predominant, there are no sorts of objects do so vigorously impress and affect him, as those which strike immediately on his senses; and hence it is that he so greedily prefers carnal before ra­tional, and sensitive before spiritual goods, not­withstanding the later are in themselves infi­nitely greater and more eligible, and that in his conceptions of spiritual objects he is so prone to [Page 28] blend and intermix them with carnal and Corpo­real Phantasms, because his mind is so estranged from spiritual objects by its continual intimacy and familiarity with sensual ones, that it can hardly frame any Idea of them without disguising them into some bodily semblance. God therefore being a spiritual and invisible Essence, and upon this account far removed out of the Ken and Pro­spect of our sense, our sensual and depraved minds must either be naturally indisposed to think seriously of, and consequently to be duly affected by him, which renders us prone to Irreligion, or to sophisticate our conceptions of him with cor­poreal Images and Phantasms which renders us prone to Idolatry; to prevent both which God in great condescension to this deplorable weak­ness of humane minds hath always thought meet to converse with us under some sensible appearance or visible Symbol of his Divine Pre­sence. Thus when God conducted his Chosen People through the Red Sea and Wilderness, he went before them in a Pillar of Cloud by day, and in a Pillar of Fire by night, and when afterwards he gave them his Law, he descended upon Mount Sinai in a bright and glorious flame, overcast with thick and solemn clouds, in which illustrious ap­pearance he afterwards made his entrance into the Tabernacle, where he made his constant abode, and from whence he frequently exhibi­ted himself to the Peoples eyes and senses in a body of visible light and glory, which visible light is in holy Scripture very often called the Glory of the Lord. And since God in condescension to the weakness of humane minds thought it [Page 29] meet to present himself to the senses of men in some visible appearance, there is the same reason why the Mediator should assume some visible substance to his invisible Godhead, that therein he might exhibit himself to our sense, and thereby at once affect our minds with a great love and dread of his divine Majesty, and by vouchsafing us a visible presence prevent our fra­ming Idols and false Images, and Representations of him in our own minds. Now of all sensible substance there was none so proper for this end as Humane Nature, which is that above all others that we are most intimately acquainted with and most accustomed to love, and reverence, and obey. It is true, had his design been to Govern us by terrors and affrightments, as he did the Iews, it would have been more proper for him to assume that dreadful appearance of a consuming fire, in which he was wont to converse with them; but his design being to erect his Empire in mens Souls, and to captivate their Wills into a free and generous obedience, he could not have appear­ed to us in any visible substance so proper for this end, so apt to oblige and aw, to indear and terrifie us together, as Humane Nature. And accordingly as God dwelt of old in the Iewish Tabernacle, and thence displayed himself before the Eyes of that People in a visible Glory; so the Word, as St. Iohn tells, was made flesh, and tabernacled among us, (for so the Greek word [...] signifies,) i. e. as in condescension to the weakness of the Iews he pitched his Tabernacle among them, and thence frequently appeared in a visible Glory to their sense, so in condescension [Page 30] to ours he pitched his Tabernacle in our flesh or nature, from whence, as he proceeds, we behold his Glory (i. e. at his Baptism and Transfigurati­on) as the glory of the only begotten Son, or in which the only begotten Son was wont to display himself from between the Cherubins, Iohn 1.14. In short therefore since in Mediating for God with us it was very needful that in compliance with our weakness he should address to our sense in some visible appearance, and since there was no visible appearance in which he could so advantagiously address to us as that of Humane Nature, it hence evidently appears how requisite it was that he should assume our Nature to his Deity, and be Man as well as God.

And as it was requisite he should be God-man in order to his Mediating for God with us, so was it also no less requisite in order to his Mediating for us with God; because, as I shall shew hereafter, to Mediate for us with God implies, first, his making an atonement for our sins with his Bloud; Secondly, his appearing for us as our Advocate in Heaven. Now as for the first, it was highly re­quisite that he should be Man, that so he might suffer for us, his Divinity being wholly impas­sible; and this reason the Apostle himself assigns, Heb. 2.14. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud, he also himself (speak­ing of Christ) took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him who hath the power of death; and seeing he was to assume another Na­ture to his Divinity, that so he might suffer for us, it was most fit and proper that he should as­sume ours rather than any other. For since God [Page 31] in mercy had consented to accept of another per­son's suffering for our sins, it was very requisite that what he suffered for us should come as near to our own personal suffering as it was possible, that so it might be more exemplary to us, and more nearly affect us with dread and horrour for our sins; and next to our own personal suffering is the suffering of our Nature: and therefore since the punishment of our sins was to be transferred from our Persons, it was highly fit it should be in­flicted on our Nature, which it could not have been had not he been Man who endured it.

And as it was requisite that he should be Man, that so he might suffer, and that so the Nature at least that had sinned might suffer, so it was no less requisite that he should be God-man in one and the same person; to render his sufferings a valuable Consideration for all that Punishment that was due to God upon the score of the infinite sins of an infinite number of sinners. For how could the bloud of one man, though never so in­nocent or excellent, have amounted to a valu­able commutation for the forfeited lives and souls of a world of guilty sinners? Or what less than the bloud of God-man could have been any way equivalent to that Eternal Punishment that was due to God from the whole Race of Mankind? And yet that it should be in some measure equiva­lent was highly requisite, as I shall shew hereaf­ter, both to satisfie the divine Iustice for what is past, and to secure the divine Authority for the future; and accordingly we are said to be purcha­sed with the bloud of God, Acts 20.28. not that the Divine Essence can suffer or bleed, but being [Page 32] united into one Person with the Humane Nature, the Properties of this Nature, and also the Acti­ons and Passions thence proceeding, may be truly attributed to it; and therefore since in the Per­son of Christ God was united to Man, whatso­ever his Humanity suffered may be truly called the suffering of God; and being so, it was a suffer­ing every way equivalent to the Eternal damnation of the whole world of sinners.

Lastly, As he was to appear as our Advocate at the right hand of God, it was very fit he should be Man, that so, as the Apostle discourses, ha­ving an High Priest that was in all points tempted like as we are, as having been placed in our Na­ture and Circumstances, he might be the more affectionately touched with the feeling of our infir­mities, Heb. 4.15. i. e. that so our nature being a part of himself, and that himself having experi­enced its weakness and infirmity, he might be the more nearly concerned for it, and be touched with a more tender compassion towards it, & con­sequently solicite its cause and interest at the right hand of God with greater zeal and importunity. For so the same Author reasons, Heb. 3.17, 18. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the People, for in that himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

And that he should be God as well as Man is no less requisite to create in us the greater confidence of the success of his Advocation. For what Rea­son or Argument could be great enough to satisfie [Page 33] our guilty, and therefore anxious minds, that ever a meer man, who had nothing beyond our selves to recommend him to God but only his In­nocence and Vertue, should be able to obtain such a prevailing interest in Heaven, as not only to reconcile the Almighty Father of all things to a world of sinful men, against whom he was so justly and so highly incensed, but also to obtain of him to imbrace them with infinite Love, and crown them with eternal Favours; which is such a stupendous success as we could scarce have mo­destly hoped for from the most importunate inter­cession, not only of the best man that ever was up­on earth, but of the highest Angel in Heaven? For unless we could reasonably suppose God to be more pleased with one innocent man or Angel than he is displeased with a world of guilty sinners, which is hardly supposable, we could have no just ground to hope that the cries of the ones in­tercessions should be more prevalent with him than the cries of the others guilts. But when we consider, that he who hath undertaken our cause is the Son of God, the Son of his natural Ge­neration, that from all Eternity was begotten of his Essence, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, what may we not expect from the Prayers of one so near and dear to the Eternal Father, that is fit either for him to ask, or for the Eternal Father to bestow? For this we may be confident of, that he can never be so highly dis­pleased with us as he is pleased with his own Son, who is the stamp of his very Essence, and express Character of his Person, and that therefore his pleasure in him will be far more prevalent than [Page 34] all his displeasure against us; and while it is so, we have all the security in the world that he will succeed in his Advocation, and prevail in our be­half. Thus that Christ should be God-man was in it self highly expedient to qualifie him for all the Parts and Offices of his Mediation, and accor­dingly the holy Scripture expresly declares him to be so.

For first, That he is God is as plainly asserted as any Proposition in the Bible. For thus not to instance in the Old Testament, where he is fre­quently stiled Iehovah, the incommunicable name of God, and the Mighty or Almighty God, and Immanuel, that is, God with us; In the New Testament he is not only called God, Acts 20.28. where the Pastors are exhorted to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud, which can be applied to none but Christ; and Iohn 20.28. where Thomas calls him my Lord and my God, which Confession of his our Saviour him­self approves, Verse 29. but moreover he is called the true God, 1 John 5.20. And we are in him that is true, even in his Son Iesus Christ, he is the true God and eternal life, and God over all blessed for ever, Rom. 9.5. and accordingly the Father him­self is brought in thus bespeaking him, Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever, Heb. 1.8. where his design is to shew the excellency of Christ above the Angels; for saith he in Verse 7. Of the Angels he saith, who maketh his Angels Spirits, and his Ministers a flame of fire, but unto the Son he saith, Thy Throne O God, &c. which stile, O God, here must necessarily import something greater than was ever attributed to Angels, and conse­quently [Page 35] something greater than a Nominal or Ti­tular Deity, which our Adversaries in this Article allow was frequently given to the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. If therefore that Angel of the Lord were a meer created Angel, as they affirm, he had as much attributed to him as our Saviour, unless we suppose this stile, O God, to import real and essential Deity, and not meerly nominal. So also Iohn 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. For the clearing of which noble Text, which our Adversaries with a world of Art have indeavoured to perplex and intangle, it is to be considered that this Phrase, [...], the Word, was a term of Art by which in that very Age when this Gospel was written, and long before and after it, both the Iewish and Heathen Writers were wont to express and signifie a divine Person, Vide Note ad finem. by whom the Ancient Jews understood the Messias, Vide Note ad finem. who is that very Person the Apostle here treats of.

Since therefore by this Phrase the Word, both Jews and Gentiles, when S. Iohn wrote this Gospel, understood a divine Person; and since by this di­vine Person the Jews understood the Messias, there is no reason to imagine that S. Iohn here meant it in any other signification, since in so doing he could not but foresee he should impose upon the World, and take an effectual course to make us believe he meant what he never intended. For he is so far from explaining this Phrase into any different sence from that of the Jewish and Gentile Writers, that he all along explains himself in the very same. Vide Note ad finem.

[Page 36]Now it is hardly to be imagined by any one whose mind is not deeply tinctured with Heretical Pravity, but that had the Apostle used this Tech­nological Phrase in any different sence from its common acceptation, he would have told us of it, and not have given us such an unavoidable occasi­on to mistake in so great a Doctrine, by clothing its sence in such Phrases as in the Language of the Age he wrote in signified so differently from what he meant and intended by them.

And as in the above-named Texts he is expresly stiled God, so other Texts, to convince us that he is not a meer titular Deity, attribute sundry things to him which are peculiar to God Essential. For so the making of the World is in sundry pla­ces expresly attributed to him, (which as the Apostle tells us, Heb. 3.4. is peculiar to God; For he, saith he, that made all things is God;) for so in the above-named Text we are told, That by him were all things made, and that without him was not any thing made which was made; where by all things we must necessarily understand the whole World, unless we will suppose the Apostle to equivocate, because it was then a common and re­ceived Doctrine that the Word was the maker of the World. For so, besides the above-cited Au­thorities, the Chaldee Paraphrase upon Isa. 45.12. instead of I made the Earth, and created man upon it, saith the Lord, renders it, I by my word made the Earth, and created man upon it; and on Gen. 1.27. instead of God created man, the Ieru­salem Targum renders it, The Word of the Lord created man, and so in several other places. This therefore being the Doctrine of the Age, S. Iohn [Page 37] could not but apprehend that they would certainly understand these words of his in their own sence, because in all appearance they are so to be under­stood; if therefore he meant them in any other sence, he ought immediately to have explained himself, which since he hath not, it is plain either that he meant according to the common sence, or that he intended to equivocate; but that he meant according to the common Doctrine of the Age is sufficiently evident from other Texts of Scripture. For Heb. 11.3. the Apostle expresses this Article to the Jews in their own Language, through Faith we understand that the Worlds were made by the Word of God; now that by this Word he meant Christ, is plain from Heb. 1.1, 2. In these last days God spake unto us by his own Son, by whom also he made the Worlds; and that by these Worlds he means the whole Creation is evident from the 8, 9, and 10. verses of this Chapter, But unto the Son he said, thy Throne O God is for ever and ever, &c. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity, &c. speaking still of the Son, and then it follows, And thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the Earth, and the Heavens are the work of thine hands; for the conjunction ( And) here plainly connects these words to the foregoing, viz. But unto the Son he said, &c. so that still it is the same Son of whom it is said, Thy Throne O God, &c. and thou Lord in the beginning, &c. the same Per­son whose Throne in verse 8. is said to be for ever and ever, that is said in verse 10. to have laid the foun­dations of the earth. So also Col. 1.15, 16, 17. Who is the Image of the invisible God, the first-born of every Creature, for by him were all things created [Page 38] that are in Heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be Thrones, or Domini­ons, or Principalities, or Powers, all things were created by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things do consist; where to shew that he means a proper and literal creation, the Apostle describes it in those very words where­in Moses describes the creation of the World, For by him were all things created that are in Hea­ven, and that are on Earth; and to shew that he doth not mean by creating, renewing or regenera­ting, as the Socinians will needs understand him, he tells us, that not only Men were created by him, who are the only Subjects of this new Meta­phorical creation, but all things in general that are on Earth, and not only all things that are on Earth, but all things that are in Heaven too, where there never was any thing new-created or regene­rated; for the Thrones and Dominions, the Prin­cipalities and Powers, i. e. Orders of Angels that are here said to be created by him have never been renewed or regenerated, but those of them that fell fell for all eternity, and they which stand have always stood, and shall stand for ever; and there­fore by his creating them must be meant his giving them their being and existence.

And as the creation of the World is in Scripture attributed to Christ, which speaks him a divine Being, so there are other things ascribed to him which are peculiar to the Divinity, as particularly his being Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, in Rev. 22.13. and seve­ral other places, which is a stile that God hath appropriated to himself, Isa. 44.6. Thus saith [Page 39] the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God. If then Christ be the first and last, as he himself declares he is, Rev. 1.17. he must be that Lord the King and Re­deemer of Israel.

Hitherto we have been proving that he is God, but then there are other Texts that do as plainly prove him to be God-man. For so in 1 Tim. 3.16. Without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness, God was manifested in the flesh, which is the same with that of S. Iohn, John 1.18. And the Word (which in the first verse he saith was God) was made flesh; so also Phil. 2.6, 7. For be­ing in the form of God he thought it not Robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; from which words it is plain that Christ was in the form of God before ever he was in the form of a servant, for it was by taking on him the form of a Servant that he emptied himself, and his being in the form of a servant consisted in being made in the likeness of men, so that his being in the form of God doth as much imply that he was God, as his being in the form of a servant doth that he was Man, and since in becoming man he em­ptied himself, it necessarily follows, that be­fore he became so he was full, and also that that fulness of his consisted in being in the form of God; if then he was full by being in the form of God, before he emptied himself into the form of a servant by being made in the likeness of men, it is certain that he was in the form of God before he was in the form of man, and that [Page 40] his being in the form of God doth as much signifie his being really God as his being in the form of men doth his being really man: But for further satisfaction concerning these two last cited Texts I refer the Reader to that most learned and in­comparable Treatise, Pearson's Exposition of the Creed, fol. 121, and 127. where the Cavils of the Socinians are all shamefully baffled with clear and convincing reasons.

Thus as it is highly requisite in it self that the Mediator should partake of the Natures of both the Parties between whom he interposes, so we are sufficiently assured that he doth, by Scrip­ture Testimony. So that now in his Mediation for God with us we have all the reason in the world to dread and reverence his Authority, and also to resign up our selves to its conduct with a free and chearful mind. For being God, we are sure that he hath an all-seeing Eye that inspects our hearts, and pries into the inmost thoughts and purposes of our Souls, and an Almighty Arm that can stretch forth it self to the remotest di­stance, and reach us even to the bottomless Pit; and being thus exposed to the inspection of an all-seeing Eye, and the vengeance of an Almighty Arm, how dare we harbour any thought or pur­pose, any desire or affection with which that Eye is offended, or that Arm provoked? But then being Man as well as God, his Authority comes armed to us with equal Sweetness and Majesty, and is every whit as apt to affect our love and in­genuity, as our dread and reverence. For how can we refuse to obey him when he commands us in our own nature; a nature which is most intimate [Page 41] and familiar to us, and which we are most inured to love and to obey; and above all, a nature where­in he bled and died for us, and chearfully exposed himself to sorrow, and shame, and torment, that we might live and be happy for ever? And so on the other hand, in his Mediation for us with God we have all the reason in the World stedfastly to relie upon his meritorious Sacrifice and powerful Intercession; for as he was man, he was not only capacitated to suffer for us, but he actually suffer­ed in our nature, that very nature wherein we had justly deserved to suffer for ever. So that what he suffered for us came as near to our suffering for our selves, and consequently did as much satisfie the ends of divine Justice in exacting punishment of Offenders, as it was possible for any substitu­ted or vicarious punishment to do. For though our persons escape, our nature hath been punish­ed in him. But then being God as well as Man, what he suffered for us was not only instead of what we ought to have suffered, but equivalent to it. So that our ransom from eternal punishment being paid with the bloud of one of our own kind, hypostatically united to God, we did as much suf­fer in him as we could do without suffering in our own persons, and what we suffered in him was every way equivalent to what we had deserved to suffer in our own persons. So that now we have all possible assurance that the Divine Justice is so far satisfied by what Christ hath suffered for our sins, that if we repent and forsake them, we shall be freely discharged from all that infinite Debt of punishment which we have justly con­tracted by them. And then again being Man, we [Page 42] may be secure that he hath a most tender sympathy with the whole Mass of humane nature by what distances soever of time or place divided and dis­pers'd, and consequently that having in himself experienced its weaknesses and temptations, so far as was consistent with his innocence, he must needs be a very concerned and zealous Advocate for us with the Almighty Father. And then being God-man, the Son of the Almighty Father's Es­sence as well as the Son of man, we may be equal­ly secure that he cannot fail being successful in his Advocation, especially when he pleads for us, as he doth in the right of his own meritorious Bloud by which he purchased our admission into the di­vine Grace and Favour. So that considering all these things, it is evident that there could have been no Mediator between God and us so every way fit and proper to govern us for God, and intercede for us with God, none in whom both God and we could have reposed that Trust and Con­fidence, as a Theanthropos or God-man.

V. Another thing which the Scripture propo­ses to our belief concerning this Mediator, is that as he partakes of the natures of both the Parties between whom he mediates, so, that he might transact personally with both, he was sent down from Heaven to us, and is returned again from us to Heaven. For since he was appointed to Medi­ate between God and Men, it was highly expedi­ent that he should personally address to both Par­ties, that so he might more closely and effectually solicite a mutual reconciliation between them, and that being personally known to both, they might both repose their trust in him with greater [Page 43] confidence and assurance. He was well known to the Father, in whose bosom he dwelt from all Eternity, to be a Person every way fitted to be intrusted with his authority and the administra­tion of his Government, as communicating with him in the same divine Essence, and consequently essential Dominion; by reason of which no person in the World could be so much concerned for his Father's Authority as he was, and consequently no Person could be so proper to be intrusted with it; and therefore when upon the first breach be­tween God and men there arose an occasion for a Mediator, God could not but be infinitely satis­fied that there was none so fit to act on his part, or Mediate for him, as his own Son. But then since he was neither known to us by person, nor allied to us by nature, as he was to his Father, we could have no such reason as the Father had to place our trust and confidence in him; and there­fore though when he first undertook his Mediator­ship between God and us he was not related to us by nature as he was to the Father, yet it was upon an agreement between the Father and him that he should hereafter assume this relation to us, and be­come the Son of Man as well as the Son of God, that he was admitted to this Office. So that though from our Fall to his Incarnation he was not Man but only God, yet all that time he Mediated as God-man between God and Men; he Mediated for God as actually subsisting in the Divine Nature, he Me­diated for men as he was infallibly to subsist in the humane nature also. He having therefore vertu­ally and intentionally assumed our nature from his very first entrance on his Mediatorship, did there­upon [Page 44] become equally related to both Parties, but till he had actually assumed our natures, and there­in manifested himself unto us, we could not have that knowledge of him, nor of his relation to us, that the Father had, nor consequently that reason to repose our trust and confidence in him; and therefore that we might have the same reason to confide in him in his Mediation for us as God had in his Mediation for him, God so ordered it, not only that he should assume our nature, which, if he had so thought meet, he might have done without either being seen of us, or born among us, but also that he should so assume it as to be visibly born of humane kind, and manifested in it in the open view and sight of the World. For in the fulness of that time, which was long before prefixed in the Eternal Council of God, the Holy Ghost by an immediate, invisible, and miraculous operation on the pure and Immaculate Womb of a Virgin called Mary of the Lineage of David, inabled her without any Congress of Man to con­ceive a Child of humane kind, consisting of a ra­tional Soul in a mortal body, which the Eternal Word, or natural Son of God, who was before all Worlds, immediately assumed into a personal Vnion with himself, whereby he became God-man who before was only God; and this without ei­ther commixing his two natures into one, or con­verting either of them into the other, but under their Personal Union preserving them still di­stinct and separate; which God-man the blessed Virgin that conceived him actually brought forth after the natural time of Women, and Nursed and Educated till he arrived to the Age of man, [Page 45] at which time he began personally to treat with men in his Father's behalf, and, in order to the reducing them to their bounden duty and allegi­ance to the Throne of Heaven, revealed his Mind and Will to them with his own mouth, and pressed and inforced it upon them with the most powerful Motives that ever were urged to mankind, and by his own miraculous Works and most holy Example abundantly demonstrated to them that what he revealed to be the Will of his Father was true and practicable. Thus far in his own person he Mediated for his Father with Men, as I shall shew more fully hereafter.

The consideration of which ought in all reason and conscience to render his Mediation more pre­valent with us. For when God the Father hath condescended so far as to send down his only Son from Heaven on an Embassie to us to propose to us terms of reconciliation who had so highly in­censed and affronted him; when God the Son hath condescended so far as to cloath himself in our nature, that therein he might indear himself to us, and thereby oblige us to listen more atten­tively to his gracious proposals, what a stupendous height of obstinacy will it be in us to stop our Ears against him, and reject those terms of Mer­cy he proposes to us, by persisting in a wilful rebellion? Had God sent but one of the lowest Angels in Heaven to us to promise pardon and eternal life to us upon condition we would but sincerely submit to his Will, one would have thought a proposal so infinitely reasonable in it self, and advantagious to us, should have been imbraced by us with transports and raptures; but [Page 46] to reject it now when he hath sent it to us by his own Eternal Son, whom all his Angels adore, and by his Son incarnate in our own natures, is such a degree of obstinacy and ingratitude together, as no Devil was ever guilty of. Suppose that you beheld this most glorious Person coming down to you from the right hand of God to tender you a Pardon and a Crown upon condition you would submit to his Father's Will, and denounce ever­lasting vengeance against you if you persist in your rebellion, would you dare by refusing to submit, to reject that Pardon and that Crown, and defie that vengeance to his face? One would think it were impossible; but yet in effect you do the same thing, who believe that that Jesus who preached this Gospel to the World 1600. years ago was the Son of God in Humane Nature, and yet ob­stinately refuse to submit to its proposals. Hence from this very Topick, that God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his own Son, Heb. 1.2. the Apostle himself makes this inference, There­fore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip, Heb. 2.1.

And now having finished his Personal Treaty or Mediation with us for God, he lays the foun­dation of his everlasting Intercession for us with God before our own Eyes, viz. in the Sacrifice of himself for the sins of the World. He might, if he had pleased, have suffered death for us in the invisible state, and received those tortures from the malice of Devils which were inflicted on him by the malice of devilish men, but that would not have given so great a satisfaction to our Faith. For [Page 47] for the Son of God to lay down his life for Sinners, is such a stupendous instance of love, as would have exceeded the belief of Mankind, had it not been openly and visibly transacted; and therefore he rather chose to resign up himself into the hands of the Iews his cruel Persecutors, and by them to offer up his Life upon the Cross in the Publick view of the World. And now having given this sensible evidence to our Faith that he died for us, to satisfie us farther that his death was accepted by his Father as a full atonement for our sins, he rose again from the dead the third day after his Crucifixion, which was a plain evidence that his Father was fully satisfied with what he had suffer­ed for us, because he exacted no more, but by his Resurrection actually discharged him from any far­ther suffering for ever. So that the Resurrection of Christ is not only an evidence of the truth of his Religion, under which notion I shall discourse of it hereafter, but also of the acceptation of his Sacrifice. For so the Apostle intimates in Rom. 8.33, 34. Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect? It is God that ju­stifieth: Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, i. e. Who is there now that can presume to denounce eternal condemnation against any good Christian, since Christ himself hath laid down his life for him, yea rather since he is risen again from the dead, and hath thereby given sufficient evidence that God hath accepted his death as our ransom from eternal condemnation? And now having satisfied our Faith in these two great points, that he died for our sins, and that God hath accepted his [Page 48] death in lieu of that eternal punishment that was due for them, all the farther satisfaction we can ask or need is, that as he came down from the Father to Mediate personally with us for him, so he should return back again to the Father to Me­diate personally for us with him, to exhibite and plead his meritorious Sacrifice in our behalf, and in vertue thereof to solicite our pardon and accepta­tion with God. And therefore to satisfie us in this also, after he had abode some time upon Earth af­ter his Resurrection, and satisfied his Disciples by frequent converses with them that he was really risen, and given them all necessary Orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his Gospel, he carried them out to Bethany, where after he had lift up his hands and blessed them, he ascended before their eyes into Heaven, upon which it is said, Luke 24.52. That they worship­ped him, and returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy; surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them, never in this World to be seen by them more, that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them; but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father, there to intercede in Person for them, and for ever to exhibite that wounded and bleeding body of his, by which he had made expiation for the sins of the World, and purcha­sed the promise of the Spirit, and of eternal life; upon this account indeed they had great cause to rejoyce, because now they knew they had a sure Friend in Heaven where their main hope and inter­est lay, even that very Friend who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death to rescue them from death [Page 49] 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 [Page 50] 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 [Page 51] in the Godhead, seems to have been a current Doctrine among the ancient Writers both Vide Note d ad finem. Gentile and Iewish Vide Note e ad finem., 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 S. 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. [Page 52] 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 severally to every man as he will, 1 Cor. 12.11. And not only so, but such things and actions are attribu­ted to him as can in no sence be attributed to the Father, which would be non-sence if he were only the vertue or power of the Father, and not a real Person, distinct from him. Thus the Holy Ghost is said to come, as sent from the Father, in the name of Christ, Iohn 14.26. and in Iohn 16. he is said to come, as sent from Christ, verse 7. And when he comes, Christ promises them, that he shall guide them into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, saith he, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak, ver. 13. Again, he shall glorifie me, saith Christ, for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you, verse 14. And to name no more, the Holy Ghost is said to make Intercession for the Saints according to the Will of God, Rom. 8.27. none of which things can in any tolerable sence be said of God the Father. Since there­fore not only personal actions, but such personal actions also as cannot be attributed to the Fa­ther, are frequently attributed to the Holy Ghost; it hence necessarily follows, that he is [Page 53] not meerly the vertue or power of the Father, but a distinct principle of action from him, that acts from and by himself, and consequently is a real person or subsistence.

It being evident therefore, from what hath been said, that the Spirit of the Lord in the Old Testament is the same with the Holy Ghost in the New, and that the Holy Ghost in the New is a real person distinct from the Father, it hence fol­lows in the second place, that this Holy Ghost is a divine person, because in the Scripture-forms of Baptism and Benediction he is always ranked with divine persons, viz. the Father and the Son; thus Baptism is in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Matth. 28.19. And the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ, and the love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all, is the usual form of Benediction, 2 Cor. 13.14. Now that the Father is a divine person all acknowledge, and that the Son is so too hath been proved at large, and therefore since the Holy Ghost is ranked with the Father and the Son, both in our Baptismal Dedication and form of Benediction, that is a sufficient evidence that he is a divine person also. For what likelihood is there that in such solemn acts of Religion a meer Creature should be taken into copartnership with the divine Father and Son? But besides both in the Old and New Testament divine actions and perfections are attributed to him. Thus in Iob 33.4. Creation is ascribed to him, The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life. So also Iob 26.13. By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens. Since [Page 54] therefore to Create is a divine Act, and since eve­ry Act flows from the Essence of the Agent, it follows that the Essence of this Spirit from which this divine Act of Creation flows, is divine. Again, in Psal. 139.7. Omnipresence is attributed to this divine Spirit; Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? And if there be no place whither we can go from him, as the Question plainly implies there is not, then he must necessarily fill all places, and be Omnipresent. So again, 1 Cor. 2.10. Omniscience is attributed to him, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God; and that by searching here is not meant Enquiry, but Knowledge and Comprehension, the next verse will inform us, For what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, save the Spirit of God. If then the Spirit's search be knowledge, and his Knowledge comprehends all things, what else is this but Omniscience? And as the Actions and Attributes which the Scripture attributes to the Holy Ghost are divine, so are the Honours also. For so 1 Cor. 6.19. our bodies are said to be the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us; now since there is nothing can make a Temple, which as such is the house of God, but only the Inhabitation of a divine Person, and since no person can have right to the honour of a Temple, which as such is made for divine Worship, but he to whom divine Wor­ship is due; it will hence necessarily follow, both that the Holy Ghost is a divine Person, and that he hath right to divine Worship; and according­ly, 1 Cor. 3.16. the Apostle makes the Inhabi­tation of God's Spirit in us to be that which con­stitutes [Page 55] us Temples of God, but how could his Spi­rit's dwelling in us constitute us Temples of God, unless he himself were God?

Besides all which he is in express words affirm­ed to be God. So in 2 Cor. 3.15, 16, 17. Even unto this day when Moses is read, the Vail is upon their h [...]arts; nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the Vail shall be taken away; now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; in which words the Apostle, as all agree, refers to Exod. 34.34. When Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the Vail off until he came out; from whence I argue, that Lord whom Moses went in to speak with was Iehovah, the true God, this Iehovah, the Apostle tells us, is that Spirit, this Spirit he also tells us is the Spirit of the Lord, or the Holy Ghost, therefore the Holy Ghost is Iehovah, the true God. So also Acts 5.3, 4. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost, &c. Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God, i. e. in Lying to the Holy Ghost, who is God; for if he were not God, as we are sure he is not man, it might as well have been said, thou hast not lied unto men only, no nor to the Holy Ghost only, but unto God; and indeed it ought to be so expressed, supposing that by the Holy Ghost and God he did not mean the same thing, because the design of the words was to aggravate Ananias his crime, from the consideration of the greatness of the Person against whom it was committed, and therefore had the Holy Ghost been any thing less than God, as we are sure the Apostles were, to whom the lye was immediately told, he ought [Page 56] to have pursued the [...] as well to the Ho­ly Ghost as to men, and then it must have been, it was not meerly to men that thou didst lye, no nor to the Holy Ghost meerly, but unto God him­self; since therefore he places the Aggravation of his lying to the Holy Ghost in this only, that he lyed not unto men but unto God, it is plain that by the Holy Ghost and God he meant the same thing. From all which Testimonies it is very apparent that this great Spirit or Holy Ghost, whom Christ hath substituted to carry on his Me­diation for God with men in his absence, is no other than the third divine Person subsisting in the eternal Godhead. And indeed considering the mighty part he was to act, viz. to Mediate under Christ for God with men, the same reason which rendered it necessary for Christ to be God to qua­lifie him for this Office, vide Page 24. do render it altogether as necessary for the Holy Ghost to be so. And indeed how is it possible he should ope­rate upon so many men together, at such remote distances as he is obliged to do by his Office, and at once move every member of that vast Body of Christ▪ the Catholick Church, dispersed over the Face of the whole Earth, unless like an Omnipre­s [...]nt soul, he be diffused through the whole, and co-exists with every part; and if he be Omnipre­s [...]nt, [...]e must be God. And now having given an account of the Person and Quality of this Divine Spirit, I proceed

Secondly▪ To explain his subordination and sub­stitution to Christ, in this part of his Mediatorship for God with men. In order to which it is to be considered that this subordination of the sacred [Page 57] Persons in the holy Trinity proceeds not from any inequality of Essence, but from the inequality of their personal Properties. For as to their Essence they are all of them God, i. e. infinite in being and perfections; and being infinite, they must all be equal, there being no such thing as more or less in infinity; and then being equal in Essence, they must necessarily be equal in essential Power and Domini­on, and consequently, as such, are no way subject or subordinate to one another. But as to their per­sonal Properties it cannot be denied but they are unequal; for the Father who begot, must in that respect be superiour to the Son, who was begotten, and the Holy Ghost who proceeded, must in that respect be inferiour to the Father and Son from whom he proceeded; and upon this inequality their subordination is founded. For as there is a stated Number in the Trinity, by which the sacred Persons are determined to Three, so there is also a stated Order, by which they are ranked into a First, a Second, and a Third; which Order is not made by mutual consent or arbitrary constitution, but founded in the nature of those personal proper­ties by which they are distinguished from one ano­ther. For as the Father, being the Fountain of Godhead to the Son, must be first in order of na­ture; and as the Son together with the Father was the Fountain of Godhead to the Holy Ghost, and therefore must be second to the Father, and in order of nature before the Holy Ghost; so the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son, must of the Three be in order of nature the Third. For so the Scripture expresly asserts that he proceeded from the Father, John 15.26. and [Page 58] also that he is the Spirit of the Son, Gal. 4.6. and the Spirit of Christ, Rom. 8.9. and the Spirit of Iesus Christ, Phil. 1.19. And being the Spirit both of the Father and the Son, he must be sup­posed to proceed from both. And where-ever the Holy Ghost is in the Old Testament called the Spirit of God, it is in the Hebrew Ruach Elohim in the Plural, which seems to intimate that he proceeded not from one, but from two divine Per­sons, i. e. not from the Father alone, but from the Son also. So that though, as to their Godhead, they are all equal, yet in order of nature, and in respect of their personal properties, the third is inferiour, the second superiour, and the first su­preme; and being unequal in those personal Pro­perties by which they stand related to each other, it is very reasonable that according to these their personal inequalities they should be subordinate to one another, and consequently that the Father, who is the Fountain of the Divinity, should be su­preme in the Divine Monarchy, and that the Son, who was begotten of him, should minister to him, and that the Holy Ghost, who proceeded from the Father and the Son, should minister to both. And accordingly in all its external actions and admini­strations this hath ever been the Oeconomy of the Holy Trinity, for the Father to act by the Mini­stry of the Son, and the Son by the Ministry of the Holy Ghost. For so before the Fall of man, and consequently, before this Mediation of the Son commenced, it is evident that even in crea­ting the World the Father acted by the Son, and therefore is said to have made the World by him, Heb. 1.2. and the Son acted by the Spirit, who [Page 59] is said to have moved upon the face of the Chaos, Gen. 1.2. for that by the Spirit of God there is meant the third Person in the Holy Trinity, we have reason to believe, because he is elsewhere said to have made man, and to have garnished the Heavens, as hath been already shewn. And in the same Method of subordination the Godhead hath always proceeded in its transactions with the world, and that more especially and remark­ably in this great affair of Mediating with man­kind; wherein the Father hath always used the Ministry of the Son, and the Son the Ministry of the Holy Ghost; but in the matter of the Media­tion it is evident that this subordination of these sacred persons was founded not only in these their personal inequalities, but also in a mutual agree­ment between them, in which the Son agreed with the Father that in case he would be so far reconci­led to Rebellious Mankind as to grant them a Covenant of mercy, and therein among other bles­sings to promise them his Holy Spirit, he himself would assume our natures, and therein not only treat with us personally in order to the reducing us to our bounden Allegiance, but also die a Sa­crifice for our sins; upon which agreement the Father long before the Son had actually performed his part of it, even from our first Apostasie, gran­ted his Spirit to mankind, which Spirit was gran­ted to this end, that under the Son he should Me­diate with men in order to the reducing them to their due subjection to the Father. For all that heavenly influence which the Holy Ghost sheds forth upon the minds of men is wholly Mediato­rial in God's behalf, and in order to the reconci­ling [Page 60] men's minds unto him; and therefore in this his Mediation he must be supposed to act in subor­dination to the Son who is supreme Mediator; and accordingly as the Son hath been, and will be al­ways Mediating with men by this blessed Spirit, even from his Ascension to the end of the World, so I make no doubt but he always Mediated with them by the same Spirit, even from the Fall of man to his Incarnation. For so in the time of the Old World, we read of the Spirit's striving with men, i. e. in order to the subduing their stubborn Wills to a due subjection to the Will of the Fa­ther, Gen. 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 [Page 61] 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 [Page 62] 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 [Page 63] 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 [Page 64] 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 to his Church, was nothing but what he himself had first received from the Father; so that though it was from the Father that the Son had his autho­rity to send the Holy Ghost, yet it was from the Son that the Holy Ghost had his Mission immedi­ately. And accordingly you may observe, that after Christ's departure from this World, the Holy Ghost acted immediately under Christ as the supreme Vicegerent of his Kingdom. For next and immediately under Christ he Authorized the Bishops and Governours of the Church, and con­stituted them overseers of the flock of Christ, Acts 20.28. it was he that chose their Persons, and ap­pointed them their Work, Acts 13.2. and gave them their several Orders and Directions, Acts 15.28. Acts 16.6. in all which it is evident he acted under Christ, and still continues to act as his su­preme Substitute and Vicegerent; and accordingly he is stiled by Tertullian, the Vicarious vertue or power, as he was the supreme Vicar and Substi­tute of Christ in mediating for God with Men; [Page 65] so that now the Holy Ghost is subordinated to the Son, not only by vertue of his procession from him together with the Father, but also by vertue of his being purchased and obtained by him of the Fa­ther by his meritorious Death and Intercession. I proceed,

III. To shew what it is that this Holy Spirit hath done, and still continues doing in order to the effectuating this his Mediation. For there are some things which he hath done, and now ceases to do, and some things which he hath always done, and will still continue doing to the end of the World, of both which I shall give some brief ac­count in order to the fuller explication of the Mi­nistry of the Holy Ghost under Jesus the great Mediator. First therefore there are some things which he hath done, and now ceases to do, and of this sort were those extraordinary operations he performed in order to the Planting and Propa­gating Christ's Gospel in the World, upon and after that his Miraculous Descent, of which we read in Acts 2. For when Christ was departing from his Disciples into Heaven, he ordered them to stay at Ierusalem, and not to undertake that mighty work of Planting his Gospel through the World till they were endued with power from on high, Luke 24.49. which power from on high was no other than that miraculous assistance which upon his Descent the Holy Ghost did afterwards vouch­safe them; upon which Order they return to Ie­rusalem, and there continue till the day of Pente­cost, fasting and praying together in an Upper Room, when all of a sudden the Holy Ghost de­scended upon them in a visible body of bright [Page 66] shining fire, and endowed them with all those Heavenly powers which were requisite to qua­lifie them for the propagation of Christ's Gospel through the World. For as they were to be the first Planters of the Gospel, it was requisite, First, that they should be able to speak the several Lan­guages of those Nations to whom they were to preach; Secondly, that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrines which they were to preach; Thirdly, that they should be able to give the most convincing evidence of the truth and divinity of their Doctrines; Fourthly, that they should be conducted by Infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry; a­gainst all which necessities the Holy Ghost abun­dantly supplied them: For,

First, He inspired them with the gift of Lan­guages, without which they must have spent a great part of their lives, before they could have been capable of preaching the Gospel to the World, in learning the several Languages of the seve­ral Nations they were to preach to; which must have very much retarded the progress of the Go­spel. And therefore the Holy Ghost upon this his miraculous Descent, did in an instant infuse into them the Habit of speaking several Langua­ges; insomuch that all of a sudden, and with­out any Rules of Grammar or previous instructi­ons, they were heard to speak, to the great asto­nishment of their Auditors, in the fifteen several Tongues of fifteen several Nations, Acts 2.4, &c. And though they were immediately dispersed a­broad in the World, and some of them into remote Countries, whose names perhaps they had never [Page 67] heard of, yet still where-ever they came they were inspired with the Language of the Country, which they spake as freely as their own Mother Tongue. And this was a vast advantage to them in their Ministry, because they were not only en­abled by it to preach the Gospel to all Nations, but were enabled in such a manner, as gave a mighty confirmation to their Doctrine. For their very gift of speaking being a miraculous effect of divine power was an undeniable demonstration that what they spake was divine.

Secondly, The Holy Ghost fully and clearly in­structed them in the Doctrines which they were to preach; and this was no more than what was necessary. For what they preached, who were the first Planters of the Gospel, was to be the standard of truth and falshood to all succeeding Generations, and therefore it was highly necessa­ry that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrine of the Gospel, that so their Successors in all Ages might safely relie on their Authority. But whilst they were under the Per­sonal Discipline of our Saviour, who instructed them by Humane Methods, i. e. by proposing his Doctrine to their Ears, and through their Media­tion to their Vnderstandings, it is plain they made but very slow and slender improvements. For after all his pains with them, they continued very ignorant of some of the most material Arti­cles of Faith, and at best they had but gross Ap­prehensions of the nature of Christ's Kingdom, and of the ends and reasons of his Death, and were very diffident even of his Resurrection; and the reason was, that Christ taught them as a man doth [Page 68] a man, i. e. by words, which are only the audible Images and Representations of things, which be­ing liable to misapprehension and oblivion, some of them they utterly fo [...]got, and some of them they grosly misunderstood. But when the Spirit came upon them, a wondrous Light broke all of a sudden into their Vnderstandings, by which they discovered farther into the Gospel Myste­ries in an instant than they had done under all our Saviour's teaching. For though the Spirit taught them no new Doctrines, but did only re­peat and explain to them what our Saviour had taught them before, ( for he shall receive of mine, saith Christ, i. e. of my Doctrine, and shall shew, or explain it unto you,) yet it is evident he taught them much more effectually than our Saviour. For he spoke not to their Ears, but to their Minds, and represented things more nakedly and immedi­ately to their understandings; he conversed with their spirits, even as Spirits do with Spirits, without invol [...]ing his sense in articulate sounds, or material representations, but objected it to them in its own naked light, and characterized it imme­diately on their understandings. And as he im­mediately proposed the divine light to their minds, so he also illuminated their minds to discern and comprehend it; he raised and exalted their intellectual faculties, and, as a vital form to the light of their reason, did actuate, and thereby enable it to comprehend his Revelations. And hence, Acts 19.6. we are told that the Disciples who upon St. Paul's laying his hands on them received the Holy Ghost, spake with Tongues, and Prophesied, i. e. explained the deep Mysteries of [Page 69] the Gospel; for so Prophesying in the New Testa­ment doth most commonly signifie; hence 1 Cor. 13.2. the Apostle makes Prophecy to consist in understanding divine Mysteries and Knowledge, and in ver. 9. We know in part, saith he, and we Prophesie in part; so that the effect of their re­ceiving the Holy Ghost, you see, was Prophecy, that is, a clear understanding of, and ability to explain the Mysteries of Religion. A plain evi­dence how effectually he taught them, in that they no sooner became his Scholars, but they were fit to be the Teachers of the World. For though it seems probable that he as well as our Saviour in­structed them gradually in the knowledge of the Gospel, since it was some time after this first de­scent that the Mystery of the calling of the Gentiles was revealed to them, yet it is very apparent that he instructed them much faster than our Saviour had done, and much fuller, and that those impres­sions of divine truth which he made upon their un­derstandings were much more vigorous and clear, and therefore could not be so easily either forgot­ten or mistaken by them. And accordingly our Saviour himself tells them, that he had many things to say unto them, but they could not bear them, such was the narrowness of their capacity, and the way of his teaching: Howbeit, saith he, when the spirit of truth is come, he shall lead you into all truth, John 16.12, 13. and teach you all things, John 14.20. Thus the Holy Ghost fully instruct­ed them what Doctrines they were to preach to the World, and by his immediate inspirations enabled them to deliver down the truth to us, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

[Page 70]Thirdly, The Holy Ghost enabled them to give the most convincing evidence of the Truth and Divinity of their Doctrines; without which it was impossible they should ever have succeeded in their Ministry. But the only certain evidence they could give that their Doctrine was divine, was the testimony of Miracles. For there is no­thing which pretends to be divine can any other­wise evidence it self to be so, but by something that is apparently divine; and there being nothing apparently divine but what is plainly and evidently a miraculous effect of divine power, it follows that Miracles only can attest the Divinity of any Do­ctrines. Wherefore to enable the first Planters of the Gospel to convince the World that their Doctrine was divine, it was highly requisite that they should be endowed with this divine power of working Miracles; and accordingly so they were upon this miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost upon them. For so, Acts 2.43. upon this coming of the Holy Ghost on them we are told that many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles; so al­so, Acts 4.30, 31. that upon their praying that God would stretch forth his hand to heal, and that signs and wonders might be done by the name of Ie­sus; God in answer to their Prayer filled them with the Holy Ghost, that is, enabled them by his Spi­rit to effect these signs, and wonders they had prayed for. It is true indeed, they had in some measure this gift of the Holy Ghost before this mi­raculous Descent, even while our Saviour was among them, but that was very sparingly, and on­ly upon some particular occasions, and for the ef­fecting some particular Miracles; but our Savi­our [Page 71] promised them that upon his going to the Fa­ther, to send the Comforter to them, They who believed on him should not only do the Works which he did, but greater works than those, John 14.12. and accordingly when after his Ascension the Holy Ghost came upon them, he continued with them▪ and upon all occasions impowered them to do all kinds of Miracles for the confirmation of their Doctrine; so that whereas before the greatest part of these miraculous signs of the divinity of the Christian Doctrine were performed by Christ him­self in his own Person, and by that means confined to the place of his Personal habitation, which was too narrow a Theatre for many Spectators to be­hold them, the Holy Ghost by working Miracles in his name of all sorts, and upon all occasions in and by his Ministers, who were presently to be dispersed over the face of the whole Earth, did much more amply display his divine power, and with greater speed spread the renown of it through the World, and by constantly im­powering so many persons in so many parts of the World to perform so many miraculous things in Christ's name, did as it were carry him in open Triumph through the World, and at once display his Majesty and Power, over the face of the whole Earth. For what Christ did in his own Person while he was on Earth, that and much more the Holy Ghost did in the persons of all his Ministers; and the Holy Ghost did that at the same time in a thousand parts of the World which Christ did on­ly in one; and by these miraculous effects, which are therefore called the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 2.4. the Holy Ghost asserted [Page 72] to the World the truth and divinity of those Do­ctrines which the Ministers of Jesus taught. For this gift of Miracles expired not with those Primi­tive Ministers, but was continued down to their Successors for several Generations together, until the Christian Doctrine was propagated through the World; and then, when it had done its work, and accomplished its end, it was withdrawn, as being no longer necessary.

Fourthly and lastly, The Holy Ghost conduct­ed them by his own infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry. For the work wherein they were ingaged was atten­ded with difficulties that were utterly insuperable to Humane Wisdom and Power. For first their work being such as required an invincible courage and firm integrity of mind, a watchful prudence and spotless purity of manners, it was highly need­ful, especially at first (a good beginning being of vast importance to all great undertakings) that they should be infallibly directed what persons were fit to be ordained to it, and which of those were mos [...] fit and proper for the several Countries and Provinces of the World; and then through the whole course of their Ministry they were fain to contend with all the united Wit and Malice of the World, and were very often sent to preach among strange Nations, whose Tempers and Man­ners they understood not, and still where-ever they came they had Spies upon them to watch their Designs, and observe their actions, and ever and anon they were accused and impleaded by subtil and insinuating Orators before the Tribunals of their Enemies, and there forced to answer for them­selves. [Page 73] Besides that they being to convert both Iews and Gentiles, between whom there was an inveterate aversion, and to unite them together into one communion, it could not be otherwise expected but that great dissentions should arise among their own Converts, as accordingly it hap­ned; which if not managed with infinite pru­dence, must needs give a great disturbance to them, and interrupt the course, and hinder the success of their Ministry. And in such difficult circumstances it was almost impossible for them not to miscarry without being conducted by an in­fallible prudence and circumspection; under all which exigencies the Holy Ghost served the primi­tive Church in the same capacity as the Vrim and Thummim did the ancient Iews, i. e. as an Oracle to advise them in all cases of difficulty, and direct them in the management of all their great and weighty affairs. Thus in that difficult case, which of the Apostles should be sent forth to the Gen­tiles, the Holy Ghost either by a Bath Col, i. e. Voice from Heaven, or an immediate inspiration, thus directs them, Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them, Acts 13.2. and when they went forth among the Gentiles, the Holy Ghost advises them where they should preach, and where not, Acts 16.6. and so also in the choice of their Bishops they had always the Direction of the Holy Ghost; so in Acts 20.28. it is said that it was the Holy Ghost that set them over the Flock, and S. Paul tells Timothy, that the [...], or Episcopal Office wherewith he was invested, was given him by Prophecy, i. e. by the immediate direction of the Holy Ghost; and [Page 74] S. Clemens, who was a Disciple of the Apostles, tells us, that in those times they ordained Bishops, [...], discerning by the Spirit who should be ordained; and again, that they did it, [...], having a perfect fore-knowledge who they should chuse. And thus also for composing the differences which arose between their Iewish and Gentile Converts, they had the immediate advice of the Holy Ghost, who direct­ed them to that wise expedient, Acts 15.28. by which the peace of the Church was secured for the present, and afterwards maintained in despite of all the attempts of seditious Incendiaries to break and divide it. And thus having recourse upon all occasions to this infallible Guide, they were never at a loss either what to say, or how to behave themselves; the Holy Ghost making good to them what our Saviour had promised them, When they bring you before Magistrates, take no thought what ye shall answer, for the Holy Ghost shall teach you at the same hour what ye ought to say, Luke 12.11, 12.

These are the extraordinary things which the Holy Ghost acted for and under Christ, in order to the planting and propagating his Gospel through the World, and which he continued to act so long as it was necessary for that end. For as for the first, the Gift of Tongues, it seems to have been continued no longer than till the Gospel had been preached to, and some Converts made in the se­veral Nations, the First-fruits of whom were al­ways ordained to the work of the Ministry; and when once the several Nations had Natives of their own to preach the Gospel to them in their [Page 75] own Languages, there was no farther necessity of this miraculous Gift of Tongues. And then as for the second, the Gift of Revelation, it seems to have been continued no longer than till the whole New Testament was revealed, and the several parts of it were collected into one Volume, and di­stributed to the several Churches, after which there was no farther necessity of any new revela­tion. But as for the third, the Gift of Miracles, it seems to have been continued much longer than either of the former, as indeed there was long­er occasion for it, especially for that of ejecting evil Spirits, who for many Ages had been the Gods of the World, and detecting their frauds and impostures, that so by beholding the mani­fold Triumphs of Christ's power over them, the Heathen might be at length convinced of the false­ness of their own Religion, and of the truth of Christ's; and accordingly this gift, as I shall shew hereafter, was continued in the Church for above two hundred years together, till it had wrought its designed effect, i. e. had sufficiently detected the fraud and malice of those Idol Gods, to the conviction of all that were convincible, and then it was withdrawn as being no farther necessary. And then as for the last, viz. the Gift of Counsel and Direction, it seems to have been continued no longer than till the Government of the Church was every where established, and its Affairs redu­ced into a stated course and method, by which suffi­cient provision being made against those emergent difficulties with which the state of Christianity was perplexed, this Gift also ceased, together with the reason and necessity of it. Thus by these [Page 76] extraordinary Gifts and Operations the Holy Ghost continued to sollicite the cause of Christ and his Religion in the World, till by their invin­cible evidence he had baffled the malice and pre­judice of a deluded World, and captivated Man­kind into the belief and obedience of the Gospel; and this being effected he discontinued those Ex­traordinaries, and now proceeds to solicite the same cause in a more ordinary and standing way and method, viz. by co-operating with mens minds and wills in a more humane and regular man­ner, by joyning in with their Reason, and thereby influencing their Wills and Affections; which brings me to the

2. Second sort of the Holy Ghost's operations, viz. that which he ordinarily doth, and always hath done, and will always continue to do. For upon the cessation of these his miraculous operati­ons the Holy Ghost did not wholly withdraw him­self from mankind, but he still continues Media­ting with us under Christ in order to the recon­ciling our Wills and Affections to God, and subdu­ing that inveterate Malice and Enmity against him, which our degenerate nature hath contracted. For it is by this blessed Spirit that Christ hath pro­mised to be with us to the end of the World, Matth. 28.20. and Christ himself hath assured us that upon his Ascension into Heaven he would pray his Father, and he should give us another Comforter, meaning this Holy Ghost, that he might abide with us for ever, John 14.16. and accordingly the Holy Ghost is vitally united to the Church of Christ, even as Souls are united to their bodies. For as there is one body, i. e. Church, so there [Page 77] is one Spirit, i. e. one Holy Ghost which animates that body, Eph. 4.4. and hence the Unity of the Church is in the foregoing verse called the Vnity of the Spirit, because as the soul by diffusing it self through all the parts of the body unites them to­gether, and keeps them from flying abroad and dispersing into atomes, so the Holy Spirit by dif­fusing himself throughout this mystical body joyns and unites all its parts together, and makes it one separate and individual Corporation. So that when by Baptism we are once incorporated into this body we are intitled to, and do at least de jure participate of the vital influence of the Holy Ghost, who is the Soul of it; and accor­dingly, as Baptism joyns us to that body of which this divine Spirit is the Soul, so it also conveys that divine Spirit to us. So that as in natural bo­dies those Ligaments which unite and tie the parts to one another, do also convey life and spirit to them all; so also in this mystical body those federal rights of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, which are as it were its Nerves and Ar­teries, that joyn and confederate its members to one another, are also the conveyances of that spi­ritual life from the Holy Ghost which moves and actuates them all. And hence the washing of Re­generation, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, the being born of water and of the Holy Ghost are put to­gether as concurrent things, and in Acts 2.38. Bap­tism is affirmed to be necessary to our receiving the Holy Ghost; and if by Baptism we receive the Holy Ghost, that is, a right and title to his Grace and Influence, then must the Holy Ghost be still supposed vitally united to the Church, [Page 78] whereof we are made members by our Baptism, and like an Omnipresent Soul, to be diffused all through it, and to move and actuate every part of it by his heavenly Grace and Influence.

It is true, he doth not move and actuate us by meer force and irresistible power, so as to neces­sitate us, or to determine our natural liberty one way or t'other; nor doth he ordinarily work up­on men in such a strange and miraculous way as he did in the first Ministration of the Gospel, when he frequently transformed men in an instant from Beasts and Devils into Saints, and as it were at one act turned the whole Tide of their natures into a quite contrary Current. For so Origen a­gainst Celsus very often triumphs in these sudden and miraculous Conversions wrought by the Chri­stian Religion; so lib. 1. p. 21. should any man, saith he, release men's Souls from all sorts of wickedness, from Lust, and Unrighteousness, and Contempt of God, and this but in a hundred in­stances, surely no man would imagine that he could ever have inspired so many men with rea­sons strong enough to conquer so many Vices without a divine assistance; but if you enquire into the lives of those that have imbraced Chri­stianity, you will find that whereas before they lived in all impurities and lusts, [...], i. e. from that very time where­in they received the Word, how much more equal, and temperate, serious and constant are they grown? So again, li. 2. p. 78. in answer to Cel­sus, who calls Christianity a pestilent Doctrine, neither Jew, saith he, nor any one else can ever [Page 79] make it out, [...], i. e. that a pe­stilent Doctrine should so wonderfully convert the most profligate persons that embraced it, to a life most sutable to Nature and Reason, and all man­ner of Vertue. Such were the miraculous opera­tions of the Holy Ghost in those days as to tran­sport men in an instant from an inveterate habit of wickedness to a habit of Piety and Vertue. For so Lactantius de fals. sup. lib. 3. c. 26. what a mighty influence the divine Precepts have upon mens Souls daily experience shews, for, saith he, Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus, maledicus, effrae­natus, paucissimis Dei Verbis tam placidum quam ovem reddam: da cupidum, avarum, tenacem; jam tibi eum liberalem dabo & pecuniam suam ple­nis manibus largientem: da timidum doloris ac mor­tis; jam cruces & ignes & Taurum contemnet: da libidinosum, Adulterum, Ganeonem; jam sobrium, castum, continentem videbis: da crudelem & san­guinis appetentem; jam in veram clementiam furor ille mutabitur: da injustum, insipientem, peccato­rem; continuò & aequus & prudens & innocens erit; i. e. Give me a man who is wrathful, reproachful, ungovernable, and with a few words of God I will render him as placid as a Lamb; give me a cove­tous, a niggardly and tenacious man; I will return him to thee liberal and distributing his money with a bountiful hand; give me one that is timorous of grief and death, he shall despise all manner of tor­ment; give me one that is lustful, adulterous, and a Buffoon, you shall presently see him sober, chaste, and continent; give me one that is cruel and [Page 80] thirsty of bloud, his fury shall be immediately converted into pity and clemency; give me one that is unjust, foolish, and criminal, and he shall be presently rendred just, prudent, and innocent; which wondrous Changes were so very frequent in the Primitive times, that the Heathen, as St. Austin hath observed, were very much amazed at them, and therefore attributed them to the power of Magick, thinking it impossible they should ever be effected without the assistance of some very powerful Spirit.

But since Christianity hath been spread through the World, and prevailed so far as to be the Re­ligion of Nations, the divine Spirit doth not or­dinarily work upon men in such a strange and mi­raculous way, nor produce in them such sudden Changes and instantaneous Conversions, but pro­ceeds more gradually, and more suitably to the Methods of Humane Nature, by joyning in with our understandings, and leading us on by reason and persuasion from Acts to Dispositions, and from Dispositions to Habits of Piety. So that whatso­ever Grace he now affords us, it ordinarily works on us in the same way, and after the same manner as if all were performed by the strength of our own reason; so that in the Renovation of our na­tures we cannot certainly distinguish what is done by the Spirit from what is done by our natural Reason and Conscience co-operating with him; on­ly this we do most certainly know, that in this blessed work the Spirit is the main and principal Agent; that without him we can do nothing; and that he is the Author and Finisher of our faith, who worketh in us to will and to do according to his [Page 81] own pleasure; but yet that he doth not work up­on us as a Mechanick upon dead materials, but as upon living and free Agents, that can and must co­operate with him; that he acts not on us by any necessary causality, but in such a way as is fairly consistent with the natural liberty of our Wills; and doth not renew us whether we will or no, but takes our free consent and endeavour along with him; and that having done all on his part, that is necessary to perswade us, he expects that we should consider what he saith, and upon that con­sent to his gracious Motions, and express this con­sent in a constant course of holy and vertuous en­deavour; and that unless we do thus concur with him, we shall for ever remain and perish in our sin, notwithstanding all that grace which he af­fords us. But as for the particular manner of the Holy Ghost's operation on our mind, it is not to be expected that we who know so little of the nature and intercourse of Spirits should be able to render a clear and distinct account of it; on­ly thus much may be said, that our Soul being a thinking Spirit, whose very Essence consists in a power or principle of cogitation, seems natural­ly incapable of any other passion from any ex­ternal Agent, but only the impression of Thoughts. For how can a Spirit, whose very Essence is thinking, be any otherwise affected by any thing without it, but only by being made to think, or by having such thoughts and considerations impres­sed on it? And by the same reason that bodies which are material substances are impressible on­ly by matter, Souls which are thinking substan­ces must be impressible only by Thought. And [Page 82] hence we find by experience that there is no Ob­ject we converse with can any otherwise affect our Mind, than by suggesting such thoughts and cogitations to it, and that all the pleasure and torment of our minds consists in joyful and tor­menting thoughts; which are plain Arguments that our mind is a sort of Being which no­thing but thought can strike or touch, and which hath no sense or feeling of any thing but only of dreadful or hopeful, pleasant or painful Cogita­tions. And if this be so, then the way of the Holy Spirits working upon our minds, supposing that he works sutably to their natures, must be by inspiring or impressing them with thoughts. For as he is an infinite Spirit, he is always and every where present with our Spirits, and hath an immediate access to them, by vertue of which he can speak to our minds whenever and whatever he pleases, and also urge what he speaks with that life and power, as to excite our most serious consi­deration and attention; and by this it is that he ordinarily works upon us in order to the reducing us to God, viz. by inspiring such good thoughts into our minds as are most apt to move and per­swade us to believe and obey the Gospel, and by a continued repetition of them urging and pres­sing them upon us in order to the reducing our vain and roving minds to a fixed and serious attention to them. For it is very apparent that our Faith and all our good Resolutions are the immediate ef­fects of deep and serious consideration, I conside­red my ways, saith David, and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies. So that in reducing us to God the great work of the Spirit is to reduce us to [Page 83] a fix'd and steady consideration; which being once effected, there naturally follows a good reso­lution, unless the Will be invincibly obstinate; and to this as naturally succeeds the actual return of the Soul to God. Now to reduce us to this fix'd consideration the Holy Ghost, in the first place, suggests good thoughts to our minds, and then to keep our minds fix'd and intent on them, that so our worldly cares or pleasures may not di­vert us from them, he most importunately urges and repeats the same thoughts, or seconds them with a train and succession of new ones to the same pur­pose; so that unless we are incorrigibly obstinate against all good motions, we cannot avoid ad­mitting them into our most serious consideration, and when they are there, they cannot fail of rai­sing in us good desires and affections, which if we carefully cherish will soon determine in holy pur­poses and resolutions. In all which things, you see, it is only by impression of thoughts that the Holy Spirit operates on our minds. But this will more plainly appear by considering those particular o­perations on our minds which the Scripture attri­butes to the Holy Ghost, all which may be ranked under these five Heads:

• 1. Illumination.
• 2. Sanctification.
• 3. Quickening or excitation.
• 4. Comforting or supporting.
• 5. Intercession.

First, Illumination or informing our minds with the light of heavenly truth; thus Eph. 1.17, 18. [Page 84] the Apostle prays that the God of our Lord Iesus Christ, the Father of Glory, would give unto them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of their understanding being en­lightned, they might know what is the hope of Christ's calling, and what the riches of the glory of his in­heritance in the Saints; and 1 Cor. 2.12. we are told, that it is by receiving the Spirit of God that we know the things that are freely given us of God. Now this illumination of the Spirit is two-fold; first, External, by that revelation which he hath given us of God's Mind and Will in the holy Scri­pture, and that miraculous evidence by which he sealed and attested it; for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, 2 Tim. 3.16. or as it is elsewhere expressed, was delivered by holy men, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Pet. 1.21. And all those miraculous testimonies we have to the Truth and Divinity of Scripture are, as hath been already proved, from the Holy Ghost, and upon that account are called, the demonstration of the Spirit. So that all that light we receive from Scripture, and all the evi­dence we have that that light is divine, we derive originally from the Holy Spirit. But besides this external illumination of the Spirit, there is also an internal one, which consists in impressing that external light and evidence of Scripture upon our understandings, whereby we are enabled more clearly to apprehend and more effectually to believe it. For though the divine Spirit doth not (at least in the ordinary course of his operation) illuminate our minds with any new truths, or new evidences of truth, but only presents to our [Page 85] minds those old and Primitive truths and evidences which he at first revealed and gave to the World, yet there is no doubt but he still continues not on­ly to suggest them both to our minds, but to urge and repeat them with that importunity, and there­by to imprint them with that clearness and efficacy, as that if we do not through a wicked prejudice against them wilfully divert our minds from them to vain or sinful objects, we must unavoidably ap­prehend them far more distinctly, and assent to them far more cordially and effectually than other­wise we should or could have done. For alas! our minds are naturally so vain and stupid, so giddy, listless, and inadvertent, especially in spiritual things which are abstract from common sence, as that did not the Holy Spirit frequently present, importunately urge, and thereby fix them on our minds, our knowledge of them would be so confu­sed, and our belief so wavering and unstable,as that they would never have any prevailing influ­ence on our Wills and Affections. So that our knowledge and belief of divine things, so far forth as they are saving and effectual to our renovation, are the fruits and products of this internal illumi­nation of the Spirit.

Secondly, Another of these ordinary operati­ons of the Spirit is Sanctification; which consists in the purifying our Wills and Affections from those wicked Inclinations and inordinate Lusts, which countermand God's Will in us, and set us at enmity against him; and this also the Scripture attributes to the Holy Spirit. So Tit. 3.5. For according to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost; [Page 86] and in 1 Cor. 6.11. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of our Lord Iesus, and by the Spirit of our God. And this is the meaning of our being sealed by the Spi­rit, so often mentioned in the New Testament, viz. our receiving his Image or Impression from him; which consists in holiness and righteousness, and by this Image or Impression we are discrimi­nated and set apart from the rest of the World, as a chosen Generation, a royal Priesthood, an holy Nation, and a peculiar People, 1 Pet. 2.9. and made Kings and Priests unto God, Rev. 1.6. upon which account we are said to be anointed by the Spirit, 1 John 2.20. and by the same Image we are also intitled to, and secured of all the blessings of the New Covenant: upon which account it is called, The earnest of the Spirit, and the first-fruits of the Spirit. And this Image of himself the Ho­ly Ghost produces in us by suggesting to our minds the powerful Motives and Arguments of Religion, and by often reiterating, imprints them upon us with all their native force and efficacy in the most lively and affecting Characters; and by these his blessed suggestions he by degrees perswades and bends our stubborn Wills, m [...]lts and mollifies our hard hearts, reduces and tempers our wild affecti­ons to a willing compliance with the Will of God, and at length to a hearty complacency in all those instances of Piety and Vertue wherein our Sanctifi­cation, or this Image of himself, consists. Which operation of the Spirit we frequently experience in our selves. For how often do we find good thoughts injected into our minds, we know not how nor whence, which are many times improved [Page 87] into such strong and vehement convictions of the folly and danger of our sin, as even in the midst of our loose mirth and jollity, and in despite of all our endeavour to chase them from our minds, and rock our selves into a deep security, cease not to follow, and haunt, and importune us, till they have scared us into wise and sober Resolutions; and though we, like ungrateful Creatures, do often­times stifle the good motions of the Spirit, and turn a deaf Ear to his Calls and gracious Invitati­ons, yet doth he not presently give us over, but still, as we are running away from him, we hear a voice behind us calling after us to return; and though we still run on, yet still he follows us with his importunities through the whole course of our sinful life, till either he hath brought us back, or sees us past all hope of recovery. And indeed such is the degeneracy of our Natures, the vanity of our Minds, and the prejudice of our Wills and Affections against God and Goodness, that with­out this sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost it is certain no man ever was, or ever will be re­claimed to a state of Piety and Vertue. For though our Religion furnishes with such Motives as are infinitely sufficient to perswade us, and though our Minds and Wills are not so depraved, but that still we are naturally capable to consider, and naturally free to follow those Motives; yet so vain and ro­ving are our Minds, so averse to all serious and spiritual thoughts; so stubborn and inflexible are our Wills to those spiritual duties which those Motives perswade to; so cankered and prejudiced against them, that did not the Holy Ghost fre­quently impress them on our Minds, and Patheti­cally [Page 88] urge and apply them to our Wills and Affecti­ons, we should never of our selves so throughly consider them, as to be conquered and perswaded by them; but either our thoughts would presently fly away from them, and rove into sensual cares or pleasures, or our Wills and Affections, by ob­jecting their prejudices and the interest of their Lusts against them, would infallibly b [...]ssle and de­feat them. So that it is to this sanctifying influ­ence of the Holy Ghost that all the Graces and good Dispositions of our Minds are owing.

Thirdly, Another of th [...]se ordinary operations of the Spi [...]it is Quickning or Exciting us in the ways of Piety and Vertue. For as by his sancti­fying influence he first inspires us with spiritual life, so he still proceeds to cherish and invigorate it, and to quicken it up into Activity and Motion, whe [...]ever he perceives it droop or languish. Hence the Apostle, Gal. 5.25. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit; i. e. if we have re­c [...]i [...]ed spiritu [...]l life from him, let us move and act by him; and hence also we are said to be led by the Spirit of God, i. e. to be moved and conducted in our motion by him, Rom. 8.14. And this he also doth partly by admonishing and putting us in mind of our duty, which in the C [...]ud and Hurry of our Worldly occasions we are too prone to for­get, and partly suggesting to our minds such consi­derations of Religion as are most apt to quicken ou [...] sluggish endeavour, to allure our hope, or alarm our fear, or [...]ff [...]ct our ingenuity, and by th [...]se to excite our zeal, and render us more active and v [...]gorous in the ways of Piety and Vertue; and of this operation of the Holy Spirit there is [Page 89] no good man but hath frequent experience. For thus when our thoughts are squandered abroad among our worldly cares and pleasures, we are many times assaulted with unexpected temptations, which [...]inding our minds in a careless, forgetful, and incogitant posture, are apt to surprise and hurry us into sinful actions before we are aware, in which nick of time a good thought is suddenly shot into our minds to warn and admonish us of the precipice of sin and guilt we are falling into, by which, if we are not wilfully deaf and inadver­tent to it, the temptation is discovered, and baf­fled, and defeated; and thus also when through the many temptations that do here surround us, our zeal for God and goodness doth at any time languish, and we begin to grow cold and indiffe­rent in Religion, we find a world of good thoughts pressing so hard upon our minds, as that without doing violence to our selves we cannot avoid listening and attending to them, and when they have almost forced themselves into our at­tention, there they do so vigorously struggle with our reluctant Wills, so Pathetically address to our listless affections, that without equal violence to our selves we cannot avoid being moved by their perswasions, and at last conquered by their power­ful importunities. Now these good thoughts are many times the immediate inspirations and whispers of the Holy Spirit to our minds, 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.

[Page 90]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 con [...]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 [Page 91] 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 [Page 92] 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 [Page 93] 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 [Page 94] 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 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 [Page 95] 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 [Page 96] 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, [...]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 [Page 97] 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 he offi­ciate effectually between them, unless he performs all those good Offices on both sides, which, con­sidering their states as they stand related to one another, are necessary to create a mutual accord and agreement between them? Now the state of God as he stands related to us, is that of a supreme and absolute Sovereign over blind and rebellious Subjects, who were so far depraved and degenera­ted, as that we neither understood his Will, nor were at all disposed to obey it. Wherefore that he might officiate effectually for God with us, his ig­norant and rebellious Subjects, it was necessary, First, that he should perform the Office of a Pro­phet, in revealing God's Will and pleasure to us, of which the whole Race of Mankind was so de­plorably ignorant. Secondly, That he should per­form the Office of a King, in exacting our obedi­ence to God, and subduing our stubborn Wills to his heavenly pleasure; so that in officiating for [Page 99] God with us, it was necessary that he should both teach us as God's Prophet, & rule us as God's King. And then the state of man as it respects God, is that of a most guilty and criminal Subject, who by a continued course of Rebellion had justly and highly incensed and provoked his Sovereign Lord against him, in which state of things it was highly necessary that in officiating for us with God, our Mediator should in the first place, render him some great and honourable reparati­on in our behalf, such as he in his infinite wis­dom should think meet to exact for those high and manifold affronts and Indignities which we had offered to his Sacred Person and Authority. For without some such reparation he could not well have admitted of any reconciliation with us, without prostituting his own Authority, and rendring it cheap and vile in the eyes of bold and insolent Offenders. Now the greatest re­paration he could make for us was to take our punishment on himself, by offering up his own life to God as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And then, secondly, it was necessary that having made this reparation for us, he should thereupon become our Advocate, and plead his Sacrifice to God in our behalf, that for the sake thereof he would be so far propitious to us as to admit us upon our unfeigned repentance, to his grace and favour. Both which are comprehen­ded in the Priestly Office, which consists, as I shall shew hereafter, in atoning God with Sacri­fice. So that the particular Offices which the respective states of God and Man require of him that Mediates between them, is to teach and [Page 100] rule for God, and to expiate and Advocate for men.

But for the better understanding of these particular Offices it is necessary we should briefly consider the Method and Oeconomy of them, and explain in what Order and Manner the Mediator hath proceeded and advanced in the exercise and administration of them. Which in short was thus; by Commission from God the Father he came down into this World, where the first Mediatorial Office he undertook was that of Pro­phet, in the discharge whereof he made a full revelation of God's Mind and Will to the World. And having performed this, at least so far as was needful in his own Person, he next enters upon the first part of his Priestly Office, which was to make an expiation for the sins of the World, by the Sacrifice of himself; and this being finished, he a little after proceeded to the other part, which was to make an Oblation of his Sacrifice to God in Heaven, and in vertue thereof to Ad­vocate for us, and solicite our Pardon and admis­sion into the divine favour; upon the performance of all which, and as a glorious reward of it, he was admitted to sit down at the right hand of God in the Throne of Regal Authority next and imme­diately to the Father. For so Phil. 2.8, 9, 10. the Apostle tells us, He humbled himself, and be­came obedient to the death, even the death of the Cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Iesus every Knee should bow. And in Heb. 12.2. his sitting down at the right hand of the Throne of God is the consequence of his enduring [Page 101] the Cross, and despising the shame of it. So that in short, the Order and Method in which he pro­ceeded in his Mediatorial Offices was this; First, he Prophesied, then he made expiation for our sins on the Cross, then presented his Expiation in Hea­ven, and therein began to Advocate or intercede for us; and then he received that Regal Authori­ty by which he is to reign till the Consummation of all things. And therefore for the more clear and distinct explication of these particular Offices, it will be most proper to treat of them in the same order wherein they are placed in the divine Oeco­nomy, beginning first with the Prophetick, thence proceeding to the Priestly, and thence to the Kingly Office.

SECT. III. Of the Prophetick Office of Iesus Christ.

COnsidering the manifold Errors, and the deep Ignorance in which Mankind was almost universally lost and bewilder'd, it was absolutely necessary that he who Mediated for God with men, in order to the reconciling them to him, should in the first place take care to inform them of the Nature, and instruct them in the Will of God; without which it was impossible for them so much as to know what it is to be reconciled to him. And accordingly this was the first Me­diatorial Office that our Saviour undertook, [Page 102] viz. to Prophesie to the World, i. e. to reveal and publish the Gospel to Mankind, wherein the Na­ture and the Will of God, and the Method of our Salvation, are plainly stated and described, so far forth at least as it is necessary to our reconcili­ation to him. Upon which account he is called the Light of the World, the Sun of Righteousness, the Way, and the Truth, and the bright Morning Star; all which refer to his Prophetick Office, which is the fountain of all that spiritual light that shines through the World. For long be­fore our Saviour was born, it was foretold of him that he should execute the Office of a Prophet; so Deut. 18.15. The Lord thy God shall raise up unto thee a Prophet, from the midst of thee, of thy bre­thren, like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken; which prophecy S. Peter applies to our Saviour, Acts 3.22. And upon this and other Prophecies of the Old Testament it is evident, it was a ge­neral anticipation among the Iews in our Savi­our's time, that the Messias should be a Prophet. For thus upon Christ's feeding five thousand men with five Loaves and two Fishes, they cried out, This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world, John 6.14. so upon his resto­ring the Centurion's Servant, they were ama­zed, and glorified God, saying that a great Pro­phet was risen up among them, Luke 7.16. And so also his own Disciples stile him, A Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the People.

Now this Prophetick Office of Christ consisted not so much in foretelling of future events (though this he also did so far as it was needful [Page 103] for the Church) as in expounding, declaring, and making known the Will of God to us by divine re­velation. For so, to Prophesie signifies no more than to speak from, or in the stead of another; [...] in composition, being all one with [...]: thus Ex­od. 7.1. God said to Moses, I have made thee a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy Prophet, that is, he shall be thy mouth to deliver to Pharaoh what I shall deliver to thee. For so the word is explained, Exod. 4.16. He shall be thy spokes-man, he shall be to thee instead of a Mouth. And in this sence the Poets were anciently called the Prophets of the Muses; so Theocritus, ‘ [...].’ i. e. the sacred Prophets of the Muses; and Saint Paul himself, Tit. 1.12. calls the Heathen Poets their Prophets, quoting a passage out of Epime­nides, who though he is stiled by Laertius [...], a great Favourite of the Gods, and, as he relates the Story, directed the Atheni­ans how to Lustrate their City in a time of Pesti­lence, yet if we may credit Aristotle, [...], i. e. he never prophesied of things to come, Rhet. l. 3. c. 17. but was only a Divine, as Plutarch calls him, and [...], i. e. a friend of God, and one that had a deep insight into divine things. By which it is evident that Prophesying doth not ne­cessarily include, in the true acceptation of it, foretelling futurities, but only denotes declaring the Mind and Will of God in any matter by divine inspiration. For so Iustin Mart. in Cohortat. ad [Page 104] Graec. tells us, that the Prophets declared those things to the World, [...], i. e. which the Holy Ghost descending upon them had intended by them to teach those persons who were truly wil­ling to be instructed in the true Worship of God. And accordingly S. Chrysostom, [...], a Prophet is only an Interpreter, but an Interpreter of God. And so also Dionys. the Areop. stiles the Prophets [...], i. e. the Fathers of secret wisdom, Epist. 9. because they discovered those things to the World which were discoverable only by divine inspiration. And in this large sence of the word, Christ's Prophetick Office is to be understood, viz. as a declaring and signifying the Will of God to Mankind, concerning the Way and Method of our reconciliation to God, and eternal salvation by him. But for the fuller ex­plication of this his Mediatorial Office, I shall en­deavour first, to shew how excellently he was fitted and accomplished for it; and secondly, how fully and effectually he hath discharged it. As for the first, how excellently he was fitted and accomplished for this Office will evidently appear by these three considerations:

I. That when he came down to Prophesie to us, he came immediately from the bosom of the Fa­ther. For as he was the Eternal Son of God he was always with him from all Eternity, and al­ways intimate and infinitely dear and famili­ar to him; and therefore as such, must not only be supposed fully to comprehend his Nature, [Page 105] and perfectly to know his Will, but also to be pri­vy to his most secret Thoughts and Councils. And it is upon this account perhaps chiefly that he is called the Logos, or Word of God, because as S. Gregory Nazianzen discoursed, Orat. 36. he hath the same relation to God the Father that a word or inward thought hath to the mind; not on­ly in regard of his generation without any passion, but because of his intimate conjunction with him, by which he perfectly understands him, and so hath full power to declare him. For the Father is known, saith he, by the Son, and the Son is a brief and easie demonstration of the Father, as eve­ry thing that is begotten is [...], the si­lent word of that which begat it. So that as it is the Office of our Speech to declare our Minds to one another, so it is the Office of this Eternal Word of the Father to declare his Mind and Will to the World; and who can be so proper to declare the Father's mind to us as he who from all Eterni­ty hath been so familiar to his inmost thoughts and purposes? Hence S. Iohn, John 1.18. No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him; and indeed his being in the bosom of the Fa­ther, i. e. being most near and intimate to him, did perfectly qualifie him to declare him; for in that nearness and intimacy he could not but have a most perfect knowledge of him, and this not by the Instructions of Angels, nor by Dreams or Vi­sions, as other Prophets had; no nor meerly by the Holy Ghost neither, but by an immediate per­sonal Intuition of his Father's thoughts and purpo­ses which from all Eternity were exposed to his view and prospect.

[Page 106]II. It is also to be considered, that as he came down immediately from God, to Prophesie to us, so he came down into our own nature, which gave a vast advantage to his ministry. For had he preached to us, as he did to the Iews, from Mount Sinai, in his divine person, the Glory and Majesty thereof would have so amazed and con­founded us, that like them we should not have been able to attend to him, and our minds would have been so struck with the terrible manner of his Ministry, that we could never have fixed our thoughts as we ought upon the matter of it. For so the Jews upon God's preaching personally to them, in the proper equipage of his divine Majesty, were struck with such a sacred Horrour, as that they were not able to bear it, but made it their re­quest that they might not hear the voice of the Lord any more, and that for the future he would speak with them by Moses, whose voice they could more easily bear, and better attend to; which request of theirs God thought so reasonable, that he promises to raise up unto them a Prophet of their own Brotherhood, like unto Moses, meaning the Word incarnate, and bids them hear­ken to him, Deut. 18.15, 16. i. e. since you cannot endure to hear me speaking to you in the Maje­sty of my Divinity, I will hereafter allay and qua­lifie it, by assuming one of your own kind and kindred into personal union with it; in and by whom I will vouchsafe to speak to you in such a familiar and condescending manner, as that you shall be able freely to attend without any terrour or di­sturbance. And indeed the most natural way of instructing humane minds is by humane means; [Page 107] as for voices from Heaven, or from bright and glo­rious appearances on earth, they are more apt to confound than to edifie our understandings, and therefore for this reason, among others, Christ thought meet to assume our natures, that so he might treat with us in such a way as is most ac­commodate thereunto, and deliver his divine Do­ctrines to us in a humane form and voice, that so being conveyed to us in the most natural and fa­miliar manner, they might not so alarm our dread as to confound our attention, but might instruct our minds instead of scaring and amusing them. And therefore he did not only qualifie the terrour and dreadfulness of his divine Majesty by putting on our nature, but together with it he put on all the condescensions and sweetnesses of a most familiar and endearing conversation, and con­versed among men in such a generous, friendly, and courteous manner, as charmed and enamoured all ingenuous minds, and thereby attracted their attention to his Doctrine. So that as Christ was the Son of God he perfectly understood his Father's Will, and as he was the Son of Man he was per­fectly fitted to reveal and declare it to Mankind.

And as by being God-man he was most perfectly accomplished to declare God's Will to us, so he was also to give us a perfect Example of Obedi­ence to it; which, as I shall shew hereafter, was a necessary part of his Prophetick Office. For without assuming humane Nature he could never have been an example of humane Vertue, which consists in acting sutably to the nature of a Man, who is a Compound of Spirit and Matter, Rea­son and Sense, Angel and Brute, from which con­trary [Page 108] Principles there arise in him contrary incli­nations and affections, in the good or bad govern­ment whereof all humane Vertue and Vice con­sists. How then could he have practised those vertues which consist in the dominion of spiritual and rational faculties over brutal and sensitive, such as Temperance, Chastity, Equanimity, and the like, had he not assumed that nature which is com­pounded of both? How could he have shewn us by his own example how to govern the Passions, and conduct our selves in the Circumstances of men, had he not communicated with us in the Passions and Circumstances of humane Nature? He might have come down from the Heavens to us inrobed with splendor and light, or have preached his Gospel to the World in the midst of a Choir of Angels from some bright Throne in the Clouds, and it would have been more convenient for him­self to have done so, because more sutable to the natural Dignity and Majesty of his Person; but he consulted not so much his own convenience as ours; he knew well enough that his appearance among us in such an illustrious equipage would have been more apt to astonish than to instruct us, to have amused our thoughts into a profound ad­miration of his glories, than to have directed our steps in the paths of Piety and Vertue, and that it would be much more for our interest that he should conduct us by his example than amaze us by his appearance; and therefore he rather chose to appear to us in our own nature, that so by going before us as a man, he might shew us by his example what became men to do, and trace out to us the way to our happiness with the print [Page 109] of his own footsteps. So that his coming among us in our own nature was of vast moment to his Prophetick Office, both in declaring his Father's Will to us, and setting us an example of obedience to it.

III. And lastly, It is farther to be considered, that as he came down immediately from the Fa­ther to Prophesie to us in our own natures, so while he abode among us he was always endued with the Holy Ghost; the Spirit of the Lord, from whom all Prophetick Inspiration proceeds rested on him, and made its constant residence and abode in his humane nature. So that whereas it de­scended upon other Prophets only at certain times, and upon certain occasions, by reason of which it was not in their power to Prophesie when they pleased, but they were fain to attend the arbi­trary motions of the Holy Ghost, and, like dead Organ Pipes, were mute and silent as oft as he withdrew, and ceased to breath into them his di­vine Enthusiasms; our blessed Saviour had the Prophetick Influx at command, and could Prophe­sie whensoever he pleased. For the Holy Ghost resided in his mind, and like an assisting Form or Genius was always present with his Understand­ing, and being, as was shewed before, subordi­nate to him, both by personal Property and Agree­ment with the Father, it operated in him when­soever, howsoever, and whatsoever he pleased; and was as intirely at his disposal as his own most voluntary motions. So that whensoever he had occasion for a Revelation, he no soon­er willed it, but the Holy Ghost immediate­ly inspired it into him, and whensoever he [Page 110] wanted a Miracle to confirm a Revelation, he no sooner called for it but the Holy Ghost immedi­ately exerted it by him. For, as I shewed be­fore, he did both Prophesie and effect his Mi­racles by the Holy Ghost that was in him, and that was so entirely subject to him through the whole course of his Ministry, that he could Prophesie, and do Miracles by him whensoever he pleased; and hence he is said to be anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power, Acts 10.38▪ that is, to be consecrated to the Prophetick Office by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon him, by whom he was impowered to Prophesie, and to confirm his Prophecy by Miracles; for so it follows, He went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the Devil, for God was with him; and accordingly at his Baptism he was solemnly consecrated the great Prophet of God by a visible Vnction of the Holy Ghost, who, as St. Luke tells us, descended on him in a bodily form or appea­rance, Chap. 3. ver. 22. which St. Matthew thus expresses, the Spirit of God descended like a Dove, and light upon him, Chap. 3. ver. 16. not as if he descended in the form of a Dove, but, as it seems most probable, he assumed a body of light or fire, and therein came down from above, just as a Dove with its Wings spread forth is obser­ved to do, and gathering about our Saviour's head crowned it with a visible Glory. For so in the Nazaren Gospel, as Grotius observes, it is said that upon this descent of the Holy Ghost, [...], i. e. there imme­diately shone a great light round about the place; and Iustin Martyr tells us, that when Christ was [Page 111] Baptized, [...], that there was a fire lighted in the River Iordan, that is, by the reflection of that bright and flaming appearance, in which the Holy Ghost descended, the River seemed to be all on fire. So that as God did sig­nalize his presence in the Old Tabernacle by a visible Light or Glory, so the Holy Ghost by de­scending on our Saviour in this shining appearance, declared him to be the Tabernacle of his divine Presence, wherein he meant from thenceforth to reside and make his constant abode, and from whence and by whom he would for the future com­municate himself to Mankind. And accordingly the sign which God gave to Iohn Baptist, by which he might know the Messias when he saw him, was this, Vpon whom thou shalt see the Spi­rit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost, i. e. who from himself, or from his own fulness shall com­municate the Holy Ghost to the World, Ioh. 1.33. For so full was Jesus of the Holy Ghost, that he not only prophesied himself, and did miracles by it whensoever he pleased, but he also com­municated it to his own immediate Disciples, and impowered them to communicate it to others; and hence it is said, that God gave not the Spirit by measure to him, John 3.34. i. e. with limita­tions, and restrictions to such particular times, or ends and purposes, but in that unlimited manner, as that he could not only act by it himself when­soever or howsoever he pleased, but also commu­nicate it to others in what degree or measure so­ever he pleased. For so Ioh. 20.22. it is said, that he breathed upon his Disciples▪ and bid them [Page 112] receive the Holy Ghost; and Acts 8.17. we are told, that upon their laying their hands upon o­thers they also received the Holy Ghost. And by this unlimited fulness of the Holy Ghost, which our Saviour received at his Baptism, he was per­fectly accomplished for his Prophetick Office. For the Holy Ghost abode in him after that visible glory in which he descended, disappeared, even throughout the whole course of his Ministry; and hence Luke 4.1. we are told, that being full of the Holy Ghost he returned from Iordan; and af­ter he had finished his forty days Fast in the Wil­derness, he returned from thence in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, ver. 14. where in his own City of Nazareth he began to Prophesie, decla­ring and manifesting that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, vers. 18, to 23. and at Cana in Galilee he began to work Miracles, and thereby to manifest forth his Glory, Joh. 2.11. Thus by Prophesying, and confirming his Prophecies by Miracles, he exerted that fulness of the Holy Ghost which was communicated to him at his Baptism. And now, since before he came down to Prophesie to us he was from Eternity in the bosom of the Father, and since when he came down he was clothed in humane nature, and in that nature was inspired with such an unbounded fulness of the Holy Ghost, as that he could not only Prophesie himself, and confirm his Prophe­cy by Miracles, when he pleased, but also com­municate these his Gifts to others in what mea­sures and proportions he thought fit, to enable them to Prophesie for him wheresoever he thought meet to send them, what can we imagine farther [Page 113] necessary to compleat and accomplish him for the Prophetick Office?

I proceed therefore in the next place to shew how throughly and effectually he discharged this Office; which will plainly appear by conside­ring briefly what those things were which as a Prophet he performed; all which are reducible to these six Heads:

First, He made a full Declaration of his Father's Will to the World.

Secondly, He proved and confirmed what he had declared by Miracles.

Thirdly, He gave a perfect Example of Obedi­ence to what he had declared and proved to be his Father's Will.

Fourthly, He sealed his declaration with his own Bloud.

Fifthly, He instituted an Order of men to preach what he had declared to the World.

Sixthly, He sent his Holy Spirit, when he left the World, to recollect and explain to those men what he had declared, and to enable them also to prove and assert it by Miracles.

I. He made a full Declaration of his Father's Will to the World, viz. in those Sermons, Pa­rables, and Discourses of his which we find recor­ded in the four Evangelists, in which the whole Will of God concerning the Way and Method of our Salvation is fully and perfectly revealed. For thus S. Paul declares to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus, that he had kept back nothing that was profitable for them, but had testified both to the Iews and Greeks repentance towards God, and Faith to­wards our Lord Iesus Christ, Acts 20.20, 21. and [Page 114] ver. 27. he tells them, that he had not shunned to declare unto them all the Counsel of God. Now it is certain that this whole Counsel of God, which he had preached, was only that account of our Sa­viour's Discourses and Actions which S. Luke gives us in his Gospel, who, as Irenaeus tells us, was a follower of S. Paul, and did compile into one Book that History of our Saviour's Life and Do­ctrine which S. Paul had taught and delivered; and if so, then the whole Counsel of God must be con­tained in this Gospel; and accordingly S. Luke tells his Theophilus in the beginning of his Gospel, That forasmuch as many had set forth a declaration of those things that were surely believed among Chri­stians, it seemed good unto him also, having had a perfect understanding of all things from the first, to write them down in order, that he might know the certainly of those things wherein he had been in­structed. From whence I infer, that supposing that S. Luke performed what he promised, his Gospel must contain a full declaration of the Chri­stian Religion. For, first, by promising to give an account of those things that were surely belie­ved among Christians, he engaged himself to give an entire account of Christianity, unless we will suppose that there were some parts of Chri­stianity which the Christians of that time did not surely believe. Secondly, In promising to give an account of those things of which he had perfect understanding from the first, and in which his Theo­philus had been instructed, he also engaged himself to give a compleat account of the whole Religion, unless we will suppose that there were some parts of this Religion which S. Luke did not perfectly [Page 115] understand, and in which Theophilus had not been before instructed. And the s [...]me may be said of the three other Evangelists, viz. that their Gos­pels do severally contain all the necessary Articles of Christianity, though the last of them seems to have been wrote upon a more particular design▪ viz. more fully to explain, than any o [...] the former Evangelists had done, the Article of the Divini­ty and eternal generation of Jesus Christ the Son of God. And if the whole of Religion be contained in these Gospels, which are only Histories of our Saviour's Preaching and Actions, then it cannot be denied but that he made a full revelation of God's Will to the World. It is true, there are sundry other divine Writings annexed to these Gospels▪ which together with them compleat the New Te­stament, viz. the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles; but these pretend not to declare any new Religion to the world. For as for the Acts of the Apostles, it is only an Historical account of the Preparations of Christ's Ministers for the preach­ing that Gospel to the World which he had taught them, and of the Way and Method of their pro­cedure in it, in despite of all those oppositions they met with. And as for the Epistles, they are partly Comments and Enlargements on our Savi­our's Actions and Discourses, and partly Decisions of such Controversies as arose among them, ac­cording to the Analogie of that Faith which our Saviour had before declared and revealed; but in all these Writings there is no one Article of Faith but what was before declared and defined in the Sermons and Discourses of our Saviour. And then as for the Primitive Writers, who lived in or near [Page 116] the Apostolical Age, and upon that account had much greater advantages of understanding the truths of Christianity than we who live at this re­mote distance, they are at best but genuine Com­mentators on that Doctrine which our Saviour first taught, and his Apostles afterwards more fully explained to the World; but as for declaring any new Doctrines, or defining new Articles of Faith, that is an upstart invasion of Christ's Prophetick Office, which they never so much as pretended to. So that the Prophecy of our Saviour is the Fountain from whence all Christian truth is deri­ved, as containing in it a compleat and entire Sum of God's Will and Counsel concerning the Salvati­on of Mankind.

II. As he taught the whole Will of God, so he proved that what he taught was the Will of God by sundry miraculous operations, which are the great evidences by which God always demonstra­ted the truth of his divine revelations, and which of all others are the most popular, easie, and con­vincing proofs that can be given of them. For as for the Prophets themselves, they might be very well assured that their Enthusiasms were divine, by the vehement impressions they made on their minds, which were such as did as fully satisfie them that they were from God, as the strokes of the Sun beams on our eyes do us that it is day at Noon; but no other man could be satisfied that what they spoke was by divine inspiration, with­out either being divinely inspired himself, or con­firmed by them in the belief of it by some miracu­lous sign of the Divine Power; which latter was the way by which the Prophets of Old did ordi­narily [Page 117] confirm their Doctrines, when they delive­red any thing new to the World. And according­ly though our Saviour had all along sufficiently confirmed his Doctrines to the Iews by the Autho­rities of the Old Testament, yet this confirmati­on of his Miracles he more particularly insists on, and appeals to; thus Iohn 10.25. The works, saith he, that I do in my Father's name they testifie of me; And again, vers. 37, 38. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not, but if I do, though ye be­lieve not me, believe the works; and herein he pla­ces the inexcusable sin of their unbelief, that they persisted in it notwithstanding he had done among them the works which none other man did, John 15.24. And indeed well he might, considering the miraculous powers he exerted among them; for how often did he even before their eyes subpoena in whatsoever was in Heaven, or Earth, or Sea, to give their testimony to his Doctrine; he made the Angels minister to him, and the Devils tremble and fly before him, and the Plants and Animals, the Winds and Seas obeyed him, and Health and Sickness, and Life and Death and the Grave did by their obedience to his Word bear witness to the truth of his Doctrine. By his powerful voice he shook the Heavens, and sent down the Holy Spirit on his Followers; he tore the Rocks, and opened the Graves, and at his command the bodies of his Saints arose; and, which was more miraculous than all, he raised himself the third day after his Crucifixion, and having finished his Course upon Earth, ascended Triumphantly into Heaven in the view of a numerous assembly of Spectators. All which were such illustrious demonstrations [Page 118] of his being inspired by God, as nothing but an incurable infidelity could ever be able to withstand. But wh [...]t proper arguments these Miracles of his we [...]e to convince men, and what evidence there is o [...] the truth and reality of them, will be shewn at l [...]rge hereafter, and therefore it will be need­l [...]ss at present to insist any farther on this parti­cular.

III. Therefore as a Prophet he gave us a per­fect Example of Obedience to that which he had declared and proved to be his Father's Will. He did not only reveal his Father's Will to mens Ear's in his excellent Sermons and Discourses, but he also set it forth before their Eyes in the glorious Example of his Actions. For what he taught in Words he exemplified in Deeds, and his Conversa­tion was a lively Picture of his Doctrine, wherein all that Humility and Self-denial, that Temperance and Iustice, that Charity and Heavenly-minded­ness, th [...]t invincible Constancy of Mind, and ge­nerous Contempt of the World, which he taught Mankind, were drawn to the life, and expressed in their fairest colours and proportions. So that what he taught in Words he taught over again in Actions, and explained his Rules still by his own Example; for his Conversation was all along a most genuine Comment and Paraphrase on his Re­ligion; by casting their eyes on which those who did not fully understand the sence of his Precepts by his Words, might very easily expound it by his Actions. For there is no doubt but a good Ex­ample doth far more effectually instruct than good Precepts; because it doth not only express the same vertues that the Precepts enjoyn, but also expresses [Page 119] them with much more grace and Emphasis. For whereas Precepts and Discourses of Vertue are on­ly the dead Pictures and artificial Landskips and Descriptions of it, a vertuous Example is Vertue it self, informed and animated, alive and in moti­on, exerting and exhibiting it self in all its natural Charms and Graces. And therefore as we know a man much better when we see himself alive and in action, than when we only see his Picture, so we understand Vertue much better when we see it living and acting in a good Example, than when we only behold it described and pictured in vertu­ous Precepts and Discourse. So that by giving us a compleat and perfect Example of Piety and Ver­tue, the blessed Jesus hath far more effectually in­structed us in our duty than by all those heavenly Sermons which he preached to the World; because his whole life was nothing else but a continued series of living and moving Vertue, or rather it was nothing but Piety and Vertue acting their se­veral parts in their own proper Forms, and exhi­biting themselves to the Eyes of men in all their natural Graces. And as the Holiness of his life did most effectually instruct men in their duty, so it could not but very much confirm them in the truth of his Doctrine; for it is certain if his Do­ctrine were false, it was not a simple Error, but a downright Lye, i. e. a known and wilful false­hood; because it depended, as I shall shew by and by, upon matters of fact, which he could not but know whether they were true or false. So that if these facts were false, he was a wilful De­ceiver in affirming them, and building his Do­ctrines upon them. But how could he be reason­ably [Page 120] suspected of lying whose whole life was such an illustrious example of goodness and unspotted integrity of manners? For it is to serve either their Covetousness or Ambition, their Envy or their Revenge, that men turn wilful Deceivers▪ none of which Vices, nor so much as the least ap­pearance of them are visible in the life of Iesus, but their contraries continually shone through the whole course of his Actions; and if none of those Vices ever appeared in him, that could any way tempt him to lye and deceive, it is not only unjust but unreasonable to suspect him. Thus by the san­ctity of his life he not only instructed men in his Father's Will, but also confirmed them in the be­lief of it.

IV. As a Prophet also he sealed his Doctrine with his bloud; which is the highest pledge that any Mortal can give of his truth and integrity. While he was preaching his Doctrine to the World, he foresaw all along that he must either recant it, or die for it; and therefore it is not imaginable that he would have proceeded to di­vulge it, had he not believed it to be true. For what man in his wits would ever publish a lye to the world, when he knows beforehand he must either recant it with shame, or assert and main­tain it with his bloud? But such was the nature of his Doctrine, that he could not believe it to be true, unless it were so; because the truth or false­hood of it depended upon matters of fact, where­in he could not be deceived; namely, that he was the Son of God, that he came down from him, and had dwelt with him in unspeakable glory and happiness from the foundations of [Page 121] the world, Iohn 17.5. upon the truth of which facts depended the Authority of his whole Do­ctrine; but whether these were true or false he could not be ignorant if he were in his wits, which no body can doubt, that considers the exactness of his Conversation, and the wisdom and depen­dence of his Doctrine. Now if he were first in Heaven, and was sent down from thence to preach to the World, there is no doubt to be made of the truth of his Doctrine; and whether he were or no he could not be ignorant; if he were not there, he not only died with a wilful lye in his mouth, which is not reasonably imaginable of a person of his unspotted Piety and Vertue, but he also pub­lished it to the World in his life, notwithstand­ing he knew it to be a lye, and foresaw he must either dye for it, or shamefully recant it, which is not imaginable of a person of his wisdom and soundness of mind. So that considering that he could not but certainly know whether his Doctrine were true or false, his sealing it with his bloud is an unanswerable attestation of the truth of it; and accordingly his bloud is made a great Testi­mony of the truth of his Gospel, 1 Iohn 5.8. and S. Paul tells us that he witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate, 1 Tim. 6.13. that is, in affirming before Pilate that he was the Son of God, and King of the Iews; even when he certainly foresaw that he should forfeit his life by it, he took it upon his death that he had preached nothing but the truth to the world.

V. As a Prophet he also instituted an Order of men to publish and declare his Doctrine to the World. Whilst the gift of Prophecy conti­nued [Page 122] in the Iewish Church, there were certain Schools called the Schools of the Prophets, in which men were trained up under some great and eminent Prophets, who were the Masters of those Schools, in the knowledge of divine things, and the practice of Piety and Vertue, that so being educated in wisdom and goodness, they might be the better dis­posed and qualified to receive the Prophetick in­flux, and deliver God's Messages to the people. For out of these schools God ordinarily called those persons whom he imployed and sent forth to prophesie to their Kings and People; and accor­dingly our Saviour, when he began to revive the spirit of Prophecy in his own Person, (which from Malachi till then, which was for the space of four hundred years, had been utterly extinct) immediately erected a School of Prophets ▪ con­sisting of his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples, to whom, as it seems, he afterwards added thirty eight more, Vide Acts 1.15. over whom he him­self presided as the great Master Prophet, in order to the instructing their minds in all divine wisdom, and forming their manners by the strictest rules of Piety and Vertue; that so, when ever occasion required, they might be duly qualified to Prophe­sie to the World. And accordingly as those an­cient Masters of the Prophetick Schools had ordi­narily their Scholars personally attending on them, and, upon emergent occasions, did frequently send them forth as their Ministers upon Prophe­tick Messages, Vid. 2 Kings 9.1. and 1 Kings 20▪35. so our blessed Saviour kept his in ordinary at­tendance about him, that so they might hear his Doctrine, and see his Miracles, and observe his [Page 123] Conversation; and, upon particular occasions, he sent them forth as his Ministring Disciples to Prophesie in his name; Vid. Luke 10.1. And out of this Prophetick School of our Saviour the Primi­tive Prophets of our Religion were called and sent forth to preach the Gospel through the World. For that his Gospel might be taught through all succeeding Ages to the end of the World, he first erected this sacred School, and when he was to leave it, he deposited a standing Commission in the hands of his twelve Apostles, whom he ordained to preside in it in his room, by which he impower­ed them not only to ordain and send forth the pre­sent Disciples of it, viz. the Presbyters and Dea­cons, to teach his Gospel to all Nations, but also to derive down the same authority to their Suc­cessors through all Generations to come; For as the Father hath sent me, saith he, so send I you, Iohn 20.21. and as he sent them, so they still sent others, and so in an uninterrupted line of Succession hath this Commission been handed and derived from one Generation to another; the Bishops who next succeeded the Apostles in presiding over the Sacred School, not only still ordaining other Bi­shops to succeed them, but also still admitting other Presbyters and Deacons, who are as the Disciples of that School to Minister under them in the propagation of the Gospel. Thus Christ as the Great Prophet of the Church hath erected a standing Prophetick School or Order of men autho­ritatively to teach and declare his Gospel to all succeeding Ages of the World.

VI. And lastly, As he was a Prophet also he sent his Holy Spirit, when he left the World, to [Page 124] recollect and explain to his Disciples the Doctrine he had taught them, and to enable them also to prove and assert it by Miracles ▪ For as Elias, the Great Prophet of Israel, when he was snatched up into Heaven, let drop his Mantle, and, with that, derived that holy Spirit on his Disciple Elisha, by which he Prophesied and wrought his Miracles, so Iesus, the Great Pro­phet of the World, when he ascended into Hea­ven, derived that divine Spirit upon his Apostles and Disciples, by which he himself Prophesied and confirmed his Prophecies by miraculous Evidences while he was upon Earth; Vid. supra p. 66, 67▪ &c. For in all likelihood the Holy Ghost descen­ded on the day of Pentecost not only on the A­postles, but also upon all the rest of the hundred and twenty Disciples, of whom we read in Acts 1.15. For of these consisted the Prophetick School of our Saviour, who in all probability separated them while he was yet upon Earth from the rest of his Followers to be the Heralds and Preachers of his Gospel to the World; and if so, we may rea­sonably conclude that the Holy Ghost fell on them all as well as on the Apostles, to qualifie them for that work, which together with the Apostles they had been fore-ordained to. Indeed, as the Apostles were placed in a higher station than any of the rest, as being authorized by Christ to superintend and preside over them, so they re­ceived a peculiar Gift of the Holy Ghost, in which none of the rest communicated with them, and that was conferring by imposition of hands the Holy Ghost upon others. For so in Acts 8. we find that when Philip had converted the People [Page 125] of Samaria, he could not confer the Holy Ghost on them, but Peter and Iohn are sent thither for that purpose, who laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost, verse 17. Now by thus deriving his Holy Spirit on his Apostles and Disciples, the blessed Iesus still proceeded by them to Prophesie to the World, till through their Ministry he had fully consummated his Pro­phetick Office, and revealed and explained the whole Doctrine of the Gospel. For till such time as the whole New Testament was compleated, his Ministers generally preached by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, who, as I have shewn at large, p. 67, &c. not only recollected to their memories those Doctrines which Christ him­self had taught them, but also explained them fully to their minds, and thereby enabled them to explain them fully to the World; and when this was once finished, and the whole Doctrine of the Gospel committed to Writing, and col­lected into a Volume, the Spirit of Prophecy was withdrawn from the Ministers of Christianity, who were from thenceforth obliged to supply the want of it by their own study and industry. For now the Gospel being fully revealed, there need­ed no farther Revelation; and for the Holy Spi­rit to reveal over again to mens minds what he had plainly enough revealed already, and set be­fore their eyes, would have been but actum agere, to multiply actions to no purpose. Whilst the Gos­pel lay hid in the Eternal Counsel of God, out of the reach and prospect of humane understand­ings, it was necessary that the Holy Ghost should immediately reveal it to the minds of [Page 126] those who were to declare it to the World; other­wise it is impossible it should ever have been known to Mankind; but when once he had fully revealed it to them, and declared it by them, and transmit­ted their declaration by a standing Scripture to all succeeding Generations; to what end should he still proceed to make new Revelations of it, unless it were to gratifie mens sloth and idleness, and ex­cuse them from the trouble of searching and study­ing that Scripture in which he had taken care to transmit his Gospel to them? But though that blessed Spirit hath never been wanting to Mankind in any necessary assistance, yet when once he hath put things within our own power, he always ex­pects that we should do them, and not sit still with our hands in our Pockets, expecting that he should do them for us. Since therefore by transmitting to us the Scripture, he hath put it within the pow­er of its Ministers to understand and teach the Gos­pel, he expects that they should exercise that power in a diligent study of those things which lead to the true understanding of Religion▪ and not depend upon new Revelations for the under­standing of that which he hath already sufficiently revealed to them. For thus till the whole Old Testament was finished, God continued the Spirit of Prophecy in the Iewish Church, after which he immediately withdrew it, and wholly remitted his People to the conduct of the Priests and Levites, who in their forty eight Cities, which were so many Vniversities for their education in divine Learning, diligently read and studied the Law, and thereby accomplished themselves to preach and explain it to the People. And in like manner [Page 127] God continued the same Spirit of Prophecy in the Christian Church till the whole New Testament was revealed and written, and Copies of it dispersed through all the Churches, and from thenceforth the Spirit of Prophecy ceased, and in the room of its first inspired Ministers there succeeded an ordi­nary standing Ministry, who by their Learning, and Industry, and diligent search of Scripture were to supply the defect of immediate Revelati­on, and to qualifie themselves to teach and instruct the several Flocks that were committed to their Charge. In short therefore, the Spirit of Prophe­cy remained upon the Ministers of Christ till such time as it had fully revealed and clearly explained the Gospel to them, and when this was done, and they had transmitted its Revelations to writing, there could be no farther need of it, unless it be supposed either that he had not sufficiently reveal­ed the Gospel to them, or that he hath some new Gospel to reveal. And thus you see what it is that our Saviour hath done in the discharge of his Prophetick Office. And considering all, I know not what farther he could have added to compleat and perfect it, and to render his Prophecy effectu­al to teach and instruct the World. So that if after all these mighty performances we still remain in darkness and ignorance, the blame of it wholly redounds upon our selves; for he hath in all re­spects abundantly performed his part towards the enlightening of the World, and chalked out to us the way to our happiness with such plain and vi­sible lines, that if we are but willing to walk in it, we cannot mistake or wander from it; but if we will be so supine and negligent as to concern our [Page 128] selves no more about it than if it were only a Fan­ciful description of the Road to Vtopia, or the High-way to the World in the Moon, it is impos­sible we should be throughly acquainted with it how plainly soever it is described. It is true, there are some Doctrines in Christianity which are not so clearly revealed, but that the most ho­nest minds may be mistaken about them; but then these are such as are far remote from the necessary and fundamental Articles, upon which our Salva­tion depends, all which are so clearly and distinct­ly revealed, that there is nothing but a perverse Will, that is either prejudiced against them by some sinful affection, or through a profane disre­gard of God and Religion utterly unconcerned about them, can hinder men from apprehending them; and if when the divine Light shines so clearly round about them, men will be so obsti­nate as to shut their eyes against it, it is at their own eternal peril, and they are as justly accoun­table for their ignorance, as if they had sinned against the clearest knowledge. For this, saith our Saviour, is the condemnation of the World, that light is come into the World, and men love darkness more than light. If therefore through any wicked prejudice against the truth, or through a profane neglect to enquire after it, we continue ignorant of it, this will be no excuse at all for our sinning against it, but we shall be as certainly condemned for our affecting Ignorance, and loving darkness more than light, as if we had sinned against the clearest light and conviction. For what a mon­strous instance is it of stupidity and impiety toge­ther to shut our eyes against that light which is of [Page 129] such infinite moment to us, and which the Son of God thought worth his while to come down from Heaven to reveal to us; what is this, but to tell him to his face, that if he had pleased he might have spared his pains, and not have come so far on such an impertinent Errand as is not worth a man's while to listen to? O prodigious supineness and stupidity! that men who are so inquisitive about the little affairs of this life, as that when they receive but a Letter in which they imagine any of their worldly interests are concerned, they cannot forbear one moment breaking it open and perusing the Contents of it, should yet receive a Message from the God of Heaven by his own Son, in which their everlasting happiness or misery is concerned, and take no notice of it, but let it lie by them day after day without ever enquiring in­to the Contents of it, or taking the least care and pains to inform themselves about it. Good God! what reverence have these wretched Creatures for thee, or what regard for themselves, that can thus receive thy Messages, and with them their own Eternal Fate, with the same unconcern and indifferency, as they would the most impertinent Tales of Bedlam? Wherefore as we regard either God or our own Souls, let us from henceforth be perswaded seriously to attend to this great and momentous Revelation of our Saviour, and throughly to inform our minds with its Doctrines and Precepts; for which end let us avoid, as much as in us lies, busying and entertaining our thoughts with nice and curious Speculations, or remote and disputable Opinions; and be­take our selves to the study of things upon which [Page 130] our Eternal life and happiness depends, viz. of the Duties which the Gospel exacts and requires of us, and of the Motives by which it presses and inforces them; which when once we have digested into a clear and distinct Scheme of practical knowledge, that will be a standing light to our Wills and Affe­ctions, by which we shall always see our way be­fore us, and be secured from wandering into dan­gerous errors, and at length safely conducted to eternal light and happiness.

SECT. III. Of Christ's Priestly Office.

IN treating of which great and momentous Ar­gument, I shall endeavour, first, to shew what the ancient Priesthood was, and in what Acts it consisted. Secondly, To prove that the ancient Priesthood in its proper Acts was a Type and Figure of the Priesthood of our Saviour. Thirdly, To explain the Priesthood, and Priest­ly Acts of our Saviour corresponding to that anci­ent Priesthood, in which they were prefigured.

First, What the ancient Priesthood was, and in what Acts it consisted. In the first Ages of the World it is evident, that in matters which con­cerned himself alone, every man was his own Priest. For thus in sacrificing to God upon their own particular accounts, both Cain and Abel offici­ated for themselves, but in Family-Sacrifices the [Page 131] Father of the Family was the Priest, as is evident by Noah and Iob, Gen. 8.22. Iob. 1.5. And when Families were multiplied into Tribes and greater Societies, the Prince of each Society was also the Supreme Priest of it; and hence before Aaron was consecrated, Moses, who was the Prince of Israel, officiated also as the Priest in that solemn Sacrifice by which the Covenant with Israel was confirmed, Exod. 24.6. And long before Moses, Melchisedeck, King of Salem, was also Priest of the most High God, Gen. 14.18. And it is evident that originally Kings were the High-Priests of their Countries. For so Aristotle ob­serves, that [...], to Rule and Sacrifice were Offices conjoyned in the same Per­son, Polit. l. 3. So also Virgil Aen. 3. ‘Rex Anius, Rex idem hominum Phoebique Sacerdos,’ i. e. Anius in the same Person was King of Men, and Priest of Phoebus; upon which Servius hath this Note, Sane majorum haec erat consuetudo ut Rex esset etiam Sacerdos vel Pontifex; it was a Custom among the Ancients, that the King should be also Priest or High-Priest. Which Custom was continued for a long while in Aegypt, and from thence was derived to the Greeks, and from them to the Romans; for so Plut. Quaest. Rom. p. 279. tells us, [...], i. e. Of old Kings performed the most and greatest [Page 132] parts of the Sacred Rites, and together with the Priests sacrificed the Victims; but upon their exceeding their due bounds, and taking upon them to domineer proudly and unjustly, many of the Greeks took from them all their Civil Pow­er, and only left them their Authority to sacri­fice to the Gods; but the Romans, as he goes on, utterly rejecting their Kings, appointed ano­th [...]r to succeed them in the High Priesthood, whom they wholly debarred from intermedling with secular Affairs. Dionysius Halicarn. speak­ing of the power of Kings, expresly tells us, [...], i. e. That they had the Government of all Sacrifices and Sacred Rites, and whatsoever was to be done to the holy Gods was done by them. And therefore the reason why Melchisedeck here is more particularly taken notice of under the Character of a King and Priest, was, not be­cause there were no other Kings so but he, but perhaps because all other Kings that were Co­temporary with him were revolted to Idolatry, so that he only remained a Priest of the most High God. And in being a King and Priest together, he was a Type of our Saviour, who was a Priest, not after the Order of Aaron, but after the Order of Melchisedeck. Heb. 5.10. For in Aaron the Priestly Office was se­parated from 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 [Page 133] 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 Melchi­sed [...]ch secundum consequentiam hujus sermonis; se­cundum etiam fuit Sacerdotale in Aaron; tertium in [Page 134] 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 [Page 135] 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 [Page 136] 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 [Page 137] 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 so pe­culiar to the Priestly Office, as to present the bloud of the Sacrifice before the Lord by way of Inter­cession, the later of which was so appropriate to the Priesthood, as that it was never allowed upon any occasion whatsoever for any but a Priest to perform it; but as for killing the Sacrifice, it seems that not only the Priests, but sometimes the Levites, vid. 2 Chron. 30.17. yea, and some­times the People themselves were allowed to per­form it, vid. Lev. 4.24, 29, 33. though it is probable that the Levites were allowed it only in cases of necessity, and the People only in pri­vate and particular sacrifice; but in the publick and general Expiation wherein Christ's dying for the sins of the World was more eminently ex­pressed and represented, not only the presenting the bloud of the Sacrifice, but the killing it too, was peculiarly appropriated to the Priesthood. So that though in private and particular Expiations the People had a right to sacrifice, or kill the Victim, yet in all publick ones, such as our Savi­our's was, that right was incommunicably inhe­rent in the Priesthood. Now the killing of those sacrifices which were designed for expiati­ons of sin, was a transferring of punishment from the People to the Victim; for, you must know, the Iews had two sorts of Laws, viz. Civil and Ritual; their Civil Laws were enforced according to their strictest sanction, with the Penalty of death, which Penalty, in many cases, allowed by God, ad­mitted of this mitigation, that the life of a Beast [Page 138] should be accepted in exchange for the forfeited life of the Offender. Their Ritual Laws were in­forced with the Penalty of legal uncleanness, and being separated upon that account from the Con­gregation and Publick Worship; which Penalty al­so was thus far relaxed, that if they offered the life of a Beast in Sacrifice, their uncleanness should be thereby purged, and themselves restored to the benefit of the publick Worship. In both which cases the Sacrifice was evidently substituted to suf­fer for the Offender, and in the first case he was substituted to suffer that very punishment which the Offender had incurred. And therefore you find that the greater Crimes were no otherwise to be expiated, but by the bloud of the Offender him­self, whereas for lesser ones the bloud of a Beast was accepted, which is a plain Argument, that that punishment which in greater sins was exacted of the Criminal himself, was in the case of smaller sins transferred from the Criminal to the Sacrifice, and that the punishment of the Beast was instead of the punishment of the Man. And this is most evident in the case of the Scape-Goat, who upon the High Priest's laying his hands upon his head had the sins of the People transferred on him, and was thereby so polluted, that he defiled the man that led him into the Wilderness, who was therefore obliged before he returned to the Camp to lustrate himself by washing his Cloaths, and bathing his flesh in water, Lev. 16.26. And so also those expiatory Sacrifices, whose bloud was carried into the Holy place, and their bodies burnt without the Camp, had the sins of the People so imputed to them, and were so defiled by that Im­putation, [Page 139] that they were ordered to be carried without the Camp immediately, lest they should defile the whole Congregation, and those who car­ried them out and burnt them, were so far actually defiled by them, that it was unlawful for them to return to the Camp, till they were legally purifi­ed; which is a plain argument, that in these Sa­crificial Expiations the sin and guilt of the People was still transferred upon the Sacrifice, and con­sequently that the death of these Sacrifices was in­stead of the death of those Criminals; and accor­dingly, Lev. 17.11. we are told that it is the bloud, i. e. of the Sacrifice that maketh an atone­ment for the Soul. And indeed this was the sence which all Nations had of Expiatory Sacrifices, viz. that their death was instead of the Punishment due to the Offenders that offered them. For thus the Iews by making Expiation generally understand suffering Punishment for another in order to his be­ing released from suffering it himself. For thus whereever it is said by them, Ecce me in Expiati­onem, the meaning is, En me in ejus locum, ut por­t [...]m iniquitates ejus, i. e. I stand in such a ones place that I may bear his Iniquities; and so, Ecce me in expiationem R. Chijae & filiorum ejus, i. e. castigationes quae obveniunt mihi sint in expiationem R. Chijae & filiorum ejus; Behold I am for an ex­piation of R. Chijah and his Sons, i. e. Let the af­flictions that happen to me be for an expiation of R. Chijah and his Sons. So when all the People were to say to the High Priest, Simus nos expiatio tua, the meaning was, In nobis fiat expiatio tua, nosque subeamus tuo loco quicquid tibi evenire debet: Let us be thy Expiation, that is, let thy Expiation [Page 140] be made upon us, and let us undergo in thy stead whatsoever evil thou hast deserved, of which see more, Buxt. Lexic. Chald. p. 1078. And accordingly in the Form of Prayer they used at the killing the Sacrifice, they plainly expressed the substitution of it in the room of their own for­feited lives, Obsecro Domine, peccavi, rebellis fui, &c. O Lord I obsecrate, I have sinned, I have been rebellious, I have acted perversly, I have done this and that evil, of which I now heartily repent, let this be my Expiation, and let those evils which might justly fall upon my head fall upon the head of my Sacrifice, Outram de sacrif. p. 273. And so also for the Gentiles, Eu­sebius Demonst. l. 1. tells us, that they looked upon their [...] or expiations, as [...], i. e. that their lives were a commutation for the lives of those that offered them, as who should say a life for a life; and accordingly Porphyry tells us, that the first original of the sacrifice of Animals was, [...], i. e. Certain occasi­ons requiring that a life should be offered for a life, Abstin. l. 4. and hence they were wont to curse the Sacrifice, and solemnly to impr [...]cate all those evils on it which themselves had deserved, vid. Herod. Euterp. & Serv. in Aeneid. 3. From all which it is abundantly evident that this Priest­ly Act of sacrificing or killing the expiatory Sacri­fice, was nothing else but a translating the punish­ment that was due to the Offerer from his person to his Victim or Sacrifice. But then

Secondly, Besides this, another Sacerdotal Act was pres [...]nting the bloud of the Sacrifice to [Page 141] God by way of Intercession for the People. For when the Sacrifice was slain, the Priest was to take the bloud, and sprinkle some of it round about the Altar of burnt Offerings; and the rest of it, say the Jews, was poured out by the Priest on the Southside Floor of the Altar, where there were two 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. [Page 142] 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. [Page 143] 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 [Page 144] 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 [Page 145] 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 God by way of Inter­cession for Mankind. And hence his bloud is called the bloud of sprinkling, which speaks better things for us than the bloud of Abel, Heb. 12.24. which is a plain allusion to the High Priest's sprinkling the bloud of the Sacrifice before the Mercy-Seat on the great day of Expiation, by which action, as I shewed before, he interceded with God to be propitious to the People in consideration of that bloud which he there presented in their behalf. And therefore as the Holy of Holies was a Type of Heaven, Heb. 9.24. and the High Priest's entering thereinto after he had slain the Sacrifice, a Type of our Saviour's entring into Heaven after the Sacrifice of himself, Ibid. verse 7, 11, 12. so the High Pries [...]'s sprinkling the bloud before the Mercy-Seat, was also a Type of our Saviour's presenting his bloud to the Father in Heaven, and there pleading it in our behalf; and hence he is said to have entered into the Holy place, that is, into Heaven the Antitype of the Holy of Ho­lies, and to have obtained Eternal Redemption for us neither by the bloud of Bulls and Goats, as [Page 146] the Jewish High Priest did, but by his own bloud, Heb. 9.12. where the High Priest's entering in­to the Holy of Holies with the bloud of Bulls and Goats is plainly opposed, as a Type to its Anti-type, to Christ's entering into Heaven with his own bloud, and therefore the High Priest's interceding for the People in the Holy of Holies in vertue of the bloud of their Sacrifices must necessarily be Typical of Christ's interceding for us in Heaven in the vertue of his. Thus as God cast and con­trived the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Law in general into a prefiguration or visible Pro­phecy of the Mysteries of the Gospel, that so by those Emblematical Predictions he might intimate before-hand those glorious truths to pious and in­quisitive minds, which he intended afterwards more plainly to reveal, (vid. Col. 2.17. and Heb. 10.1.) so particularly in the Jewish Priesthood he drew a rude draught and representation of the future Priesthood of our Saviour, that so by that figurative Sacrifice and Intercession he might vi­sibly foreshew and intimate to the World the Sa­crifice and Intercession of our Saviour. For thus it is evident from Philo that the Jews understood their High Priest to be a Type of the Eternal Word or Messias; for thus in his Allegories he makes the Temple to be an Embl [...]m of the World, [...], in which God's first-born Divine Word is the High Priest; and in several other parts of his Writings he makes the High Priests Crown and Vestments to be Types and Representations of the dignity and perfections of the Eternal Word, by which it is evident, that by their Typical High-Priest­hood [Page 147] the Jews were in some measure instructed in the nature of the Priesthood of our Saviour.

Thirdly, and lastly, I shall now proceed to explain the Priesthood and Priestly Acts of our Sa­viour corresponding to that ancient Priesthood in which they were prefigured. In General there­fore the Priesthood of our Saviour corresponding to that ancient Priesthood consists in offering up himself a Sacrifice for our sins, and in presenting that Sacrifice to God in our behalf, and thereby interceding with him to be merciful and propitious to us. So that the Priesthood of our Saviour con­sists in these two acts:

First, In offering up himself a Sacrifice for our sins.

Secondly, In presenting that Sacrifice to God by way of Intercession for us; of each of which I shall discourse at large.

SECT. IV. Concerning the Sacrifice of our Saviour.

IN handling the first of these, viz. the Sacri­fice of our Saviour, I shall endeavour, first, to shew that the death of Christ had in it all the re­quisite conditions of a most real and compleat Sa­crifice for sin. Secondly, To make appear how effectually God's exacting such a Sacrifice in order to his being reconciled to sinners conduces to their reformation.

[Page 148]First, That the death of Christ had in it all the requisite conditions of a real and most com­pleat Sacrifice for sin. Now to make both a true and perfect expiatory Sacrifice, there are five things indispensibly necessary:

First, That in being sacrificed it should be sub­stituted in the room of an Offender to be punished for him in order to his being released from his own Personal obligation to punishment. For in all those Legal expiations which prefigured this great Expiation of our Saviour, the killing of the Sa­crifice, was, as I shewed before, a real transfer­ring and inflicting upon it the punishment due to the Offender that offered it, in order to his being excused from suffering it in his own person.

Secondly, Another necessary condition of an Expiatory Sacrifice is that it should be pure, sound, and unblemished; and indeed this condi­tion is required in all kinds of Sacrifices, whether Expiatory, or Eucharistical, that they should be pure or Legally clean, and that they should be sound and without blemish. For so Lev. 22.20. But whatsoever hath a blemish that shall ye not offer, for it shall not be acceptable for you; and ver. 21. It shall be perfect, i. e. sound and entire, to be accepted: there shall be no blemish therein; and then he goes on to particulars, it shall not be blind, or broken, or having a W [...]n, or scurvy, or scabbed, verse 22. Now though the legal uncleanness and the natu­ral blemishes here forbidden in Sacrifices had nothing of sin or immorality in them, yet the prohibition of these natural blemishes in Sacrifices that were incapable of moral ones, denotes the [Page 149] necessity of a moral cleanness and unblemished­ness in that great Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the World which they Typified and prefigured; and hence Christ is called, A Lamb without blemish and without spot, 1 Pet. 1.19.

Thirdly, Another necessary condition to a perfect Expiatory Sacrifice is, that it should be of such an intrinsick worth and value as that its death may be, in some measure, an equivalent Commutation for the punishment which the Of­fender deserves. For the end of punishing, whe­ther it be the Offender himself, or another in his stead, is to secure and maintain the Authority of the Law; in order whereunto it is highly requi­site that the punishment should ordinarily be equi­valent to the demerit of the Crime; otherwise it will not be a sufficient motive to warn and de­ter men from committing it. And herein con­sisted the imperfection of the ancient expiatory Sacrifices, that what they suffered was much short of what the Offenders they suffered for deserved; for they only substituted the life of a Brute in the room of the life of a Man, which is of far greater worth and value; and therefore by how much less valuable the life of a Beast is than the life of a Man, by so much less was the punish­ment transferred upon the Sacrifice, than the guilt contracted by the Offender.

Fourthly, Another necessary condition to the making of a true and perfect Sacrifice was that it should be free and unforced on the part of the Offerer. For since he had deserved the punishment in his own Person, it was very fit, both that the Sacrifice that was to undergo it for [Page 150] him should be something that was his own, other­wise he could have no right to substitute it in his own stead, or to offer its life to God in exchange for his own; and that he should freely offer it to be killed in his stead, otherwise he had not been consenting to the exchange, without which it must have been invalid, and consequently the Expiation void; and hence Lev. 1.3. it is requi­red that he should offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation be­fore the Lord.

Fifthly, It is also a necessary condition to a true and perfect Sacrifice for sin that it should be admitted and accepted by God in the room and stead of the punishment that is due to him from the Offender himself. For by violating his Laws we give God a right to exact the Penalty of them at our own hands; so that if he pleases he may refuse to admit of any Substitute to suffer for us, and if he will insist upon his right to pu­nish us in our own persons, and refuse to admit of any exchange; what another suffers for us will signifie nothing to our discharge or acquittal, be­cause it is not our own suffering who stand perso­nally obliged to God to suffer the utmost evil that our sin deserves; and therefore to admit another to suffer for us is an Act of pure Grace and Favour in him, which he may grant or refuse as he pleases. So that the Expiatory vertue of all Sacrifice lies in God's admitting and accepting it in exchange for that personal punishment we owe him; and hence he is said to have given them the bloud upon the Altar to make an atonement for their Souls, Lev. 17.11. that is, to have admitted and accepted that [Page 151] Bloud which was offered on the Altar as an Atone­ment for their lives which were forfeited to him. And thus you see what are the necessary conditi­ons of a real, and perfect, Expiatory Sacrifice; all which, as I shall now shew you, do fully concenter in the Death and Sacrifice of our Saviour. As

I. In dying or being sacrificed he was substituted in the room of sinful men to be punished for them in order to their being released from their personal obligation to punishment. And hence, Tit. 2.14. he is said to have given himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works, that is, he gave his life in exchange for ours, and thereby became our [...]. For by what follows, it is plain that his giving himself for us here is to be under­stood by way of an expiation, for it was, first, to redeem us from all iniquity, which is the very phrase by which the vertue and efficacy of Propi­tiatory Sacrifices is expressed; for so [...], which signifies to redeem in the Greek, is the same with [...] which signifies to expiate by Sacrifice in the Hebrew; and accordingly the Greek word [...], which in the Greek signifies the price of redemption, is frequently used for the Hebrew Copher, which signifies a price to reconcile or propitiate. So that Christ's giving himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity, must signifie, ac­cording to the common acceptation of the Phrase, his laying down his life for us as the price of our propitiation with God. For so among the Jews that common form of speech, Let me be your redemption, was as much as to say, let me bear your Iniquities, and undergo the punishment of them that you [Page 152] may escape, Buxt. Lex. Chald. 10.78. Agree­ably to which in Heb. 9.15. Christ is said to die for the redemption of transgressions, that is, to buy off the punishment of them with his own bloud. For so he is said to have given himself [...], i. e. a ransom or price of Redemption for all, 1 Tim. 2.5, 6. and to have given his life as a [...] or ransom for many, Matth. 20.28. But then secondly, his giving himself for us was to purifie us, which also refers to the purifications which were made by Expiatory Sacrifices. For so the word [...] signifies, to cleanse from guilt by Sacrifice. Thus Lev. 16.30. On that day shall the Priest make Atonement for ye to purifie ye, that ye may be pure from all your sin before the Lord; and so the word is generally taken not only in the Writings of Moses, but also in all other Authors, by whom Expiatory Sacrifices are promiscuously called [...], and [...], i. e. ato­ning, sanctifying, and purifying. Agreeably to which, the bloud of Christ is said to purifie us from all sin, i. e. from the guilt of all sin, 1 Ioh. 1.7. For it was from that that the bloud of Sacrifices did immediately purifie men. And hence he is said to have died for our sins, 1 Cor. 15.3 to have given himself for our sins, Gal. 1.4. and to have once suf­fered for our sins, the just for the unjust, 1 Pet. 3.8. and his Bloud is said to be shed for many for the re­mission of sins, Matth. 26.28. and to be a Propitia­tion for our sins, 1 John 4.10. by which expressions it is evident that our sins were the cause, and the expiation of them the end of Christ's suffering; and it is upon this account that he is said to bear our sins in his own body on the tree, 1 Pet. 2.24. that is, [Page 153] to undergo the punishment of them in those exqui­site torments he endured upon the Cross, and to be made sin for us, 2 Cor. 5.21. even as the Expi­atory Sacrifices were made sin, i. e. Piacula, that underwent the punishment of sin for the Offenders that offered them, Lev. 4.3, 29. and also to be made a curse for us, Gal. 3.13. that is, by having the guilts of our sins transferred on him, even as the Sacrifices were cursed, as was shewed before, by the very translation of the guilts of the people upon them; and accordingly, as by this Transla­tion those Sacrifices were rendered cursed and un­clean, and as such, were to be burnt without the Camp, so our Saviour upon the same account suf­fered without the Gate, Heb. 13.11, 12. And to name no more, in Isa. 53. we are told, That he should bear our griefs, and carry our sorrows, and be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; that the Chastisements of our peace were upon him, and that by his stripes we should be healed; that the Lord hath laid upon him the iniqui­ties of us all, and that for our transgressions he was stricken, that his Soul was made an Offering for sin; that he should bear our iniquities, and be numbred with the transgressors, and bear the 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 [Page 154] 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, [Page 155] 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 [Page 156] 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 [Page 157] 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 sacrificed Beasts, as well as the Iews, yet in great extremities, when they conceived their Gods to be highly displeased with them, even the most civilized of them sacrificed Men; which shews, that they thought the death of Beasts to be an insufficient expiation for the sins of men. And indeed it cannot be denied but that the Sacrifice [Page 158] of a Man, as such, is much more proportionable to the punishment which the sins of men deserve, than the Sacrifice of a Beast; because a Man is a much nobler Creature, as being far advanced above a Beast by the Prerogative of his Reason; and con­sequently his death, considered as a Man, must be a much more valuable exchange for the punish­ment that is due to those he dies for. But herein the Heathen were miserably mistaken, that they did not consider that the men whom they sacrifi­ced, were sinners as well as themselves, and that it is a much greater flaw in an Expiatory Sacrifice to be a Sinner than to be a Brute. For whereas the latter only renders it less effectual and valuable; the former, as was shewn before, renders it ut­terly void and insignificant; and therefore though the death of a Man, considered as such, is of much more value than the death of a Beast, yet to expiate for the sins of men, there is more inter­nal vertue and efficacy in the death of an innocent Beast, than of a sinful Man; because the latter can expiate only for his own sin, whereas the for­mer can have no sin but that of others to expiate. Since therefore men were all spotted and blemished with Sin, there was no life so fit for them to offer to God, in commutation for their forfeited lives, as that of innocent Brutes; so that the best com­mutation they could make was infinitely short of their demerit. And suppose that the men which the Heathen offered had been all pure and innocent, yet their lives would have been only an equivalent commutation for the forfeited lives of an equal number of sinners; unless therefore one half of Mankind had been innocent, and they had been sa­crificed [Page 159] for the other half that was guilty, it had not been an equal Commutation so much as for the temporal punishment which was due to God from the guilty; but then for their eternal punishment a Hecatomb of Angels had been short and insufficient. For what proportion is there between a temporary death and an eternal misery? Since therefore, in great compassion to us, God hath thought meet to accept of a Sacrifice in lieu of that punishment which was due to him from Mankind, and since to secure his own Authority, it was highly requi­site that what this Sacrifice suffered for us, should be in some measure equivalent to what we had de­served, and since we had deserved to suffer for ever, it necessarily follows that this Sacrifice must be something infinitely more precious and valuable than the bloud of Bulls and Goats, yea, than the lives of Men or Angels; and what can that be but the bloud of the Eternal Son of God, the infinite dignity of whose Person rendered his sufferings for us equivalent to the infinite demerit of our sins. For it was the dignity of his Person that gave the value to his sufferings, and inhanced his temporary Death to a full equivalence to those endless miseries which we had deserved. For if the life of a King be (as David's People told him) worth ten thou­sand lives, of what an infinite value must the life of the Lord of glory and of the Prince of life be, who being the Son of God, of the same Nature and Essence with his eternal Father, must from thence necessarily derive upon his Sacrifice an immensity of worth and efficacy. And hence we are said to be purchased with the bloud of God, Acts 20.28. and to have the life of God laid down for us, Iohn [Page 160] 3.16. and to be redeemed not with corruptible things, as Silver and Gold, but with the precious bloud of Christ, 1 Pet. 1.18, 19. and accordingly the Author to the Hebrews makes the vertue and efficacy of Christ's bloud to consist in the worth and value of it; For if the bloud of Bulls and Goats, &c. sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the bloud of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God, Heb. 9.13, 14. By all which it is evident that it was the infinite dignity of Christ's Person which derived that infinite merit on his Sacrifice, whereby it became an equi­valent to the infinite demerit of our sins. Nay, of such an infinite value and worth was his Sa­crifice, that it not only countervailed for the punishment due for our sin, but did abundantly preponderate it; upon which account God inga­ged himself, not only to remit that Punishment, in consideration of it, but also to bestow his Spi­rit and eternal life on us; both which, as hath been shewn before, are as well the purchace of Christ's bloud, as the remission of our sins. For God might have remitted our punishment without superadding the gift of his Spirit and eternal life to it; and therefore since, in consideration of Christ's bloud, he hath superadded these Gifts to the remission of our punishment, it is evident that his bloud was equivalent to both, i. e. that it was not only a valuable consideration for the par­don of our sins, but also for the assistance of his Spirit, and our eternal happiness.

IV. His Death was on his part voluntary and [Page 161] unforced. For since as a Sacrifice he was to be in­nocent, and yet to undergo the punishment of our sin, he could not be the one, and do the other with­out his own free consent and approbation. For no innocent person can be justly made obnoxious to punishment but by his own Act and Choice; be­cause punishment bears a necessary respect to sin, and the desert of suffering evil doth originally spring out of doing evil. So that an innocent per­son, considered as such, cannot deserve to be pu­nished, nor consequently be justly obliged there­unto; but yet, notwithstanding his innocency, he may by his own Will and Consent oblige himself to undergo a punishment which otherwise he did not deserve, and when he hath so obliged him­self, the punishment may be justly exacted of him. For though he hath no sin of his own to be punished for, yet he may by his own act oblige himself to undergo the punishment of another man's. And therefore though merely as an inno­cent person he cannot deserve to be punished, either upon his own account, or any other man's, because having no sin of his own he cannot be guilty of another man's; yet so far as he hath the free dis­posal of himself, he may substitute himself in the room of one that is guilty, and thereby render himself obnoxious to his punishment. As for in­stance, suppose that by some criminal action of his own a man hath forfeited his liberty or life to the Law, it is certain that no innocent man, as such, can be thereupon obliged to suffer death or im­prisonment; but suppose that this innocent man having the free disposal of himself shall volunta­rily offer his own life or liberty to the Magistrate [Page 162] in exchange for the forfeited life or liberty of the Criminal, and the Magistrate shall think meet to accept it, in this case he is justly liable, notwith­standing his innocence, to undergo the punishment that was due to the Offender. For if he may justly offer this exchange, as there is no doubt but he may, supposing that he hath the free disposal of him­self, to be sure the Magistrate may justly accept of it, because the life of the Offender is as much in his disposal as the life that is offered him in ex­change for it, is in the disposal of the Offerer; so that he hath as much right to give the Offerer the Offender's life for his, as the Offerer hath to give his own life for the Offenders; and when both Parties have a right to the goods which they ex­change with each other, and the goods which they receive are on both sides equivalent to the goods which they give, it is impossible the exchange should be injurious to either; the Magistrate can­not be injured, because for the life of the Offen­der which he gives he receives the life of the Of­ferer which is equivalent; the Offerer cannot be injured, because for his own life which he gives he receives the life of the Offender which is dearer to him; and neither Party being injured, the ex­change must be just and equal on both sides. Now that Christ had the free disposal of his own life, he himself tells us, Iohn 10.18. No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of my self; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again, this commandment have I received of my Father; And that the lives of our Souls were in God's free disposal, as being justly forfeited to him by our sins, the Scripture assures us when it [Page 163] tells, that all have sinned, and that the wages of sin is death. Christ's life therefore being in his own free disposal, he had an undoubted right to exchange it with God for the lives of our Souls, and the lives of our souls being in God's free dis­posal, he had as undoubted a right to exchange them with Christ's for his life upon the free Tendry which he made of it. And in this ex­change neither Party could be injured, because they both received an equivalent for what they gave; Christ gave his own life to God, for which God gave him the lives of our Souls in exchange, which were far dearer to him; God gave the lives of our Souls to Christ, for which Christ gave him his own most precious life in exchange, which, considering the infinite dignity of his Person, was at the least tant-amount. It is true indeed, both Parties having a right to the free disposal of the goods which they exchange with each other, to render the exchange just and valid it was ne­cessary that both should be freely consenting to it; now that God was freely consenting I shall shew by and by; and that Christ was so too the Scri­pture expresly testifies; for so we are told, that he gave himself for our sins, Gal. 1.4. and that he gave his life a ransom for many, and gave his flesh for the life of the World, Matt. 21.28. and in a word, that he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, Tit. 2.14. and that he laid down his life for us, 1 John 3.16. all which plainly imply, that by his own voluntary consent he substituted himself to suffer in our stead that we might escape, and freely exchanged his own life with God for the lives of our Souls which were [Page 164] forfeited to him. And if, notwithstanding his innocence, it were just in God to expose him, without any respect to our sins, to all those bitter sufferings he endured, (and that it was so the Socinians themselves must acknowledge, or charge God with injustice) how much more was it just when of his own accord he substituted himself to bear our punishment for us, and freely exchanged his life for our Salvation?

V. And lastly, His Death was admitted and accepted by God in lieu of the punishment which was due to him from Mankind; and it is this that compleats it an Expiatory Sacrifice, and with­out this it had been altogether insignificant to the expiation of sin, notwithstanding all the above-named qualifications. For it is the personal pu­nishment of the Offender which sin gives God a right to, and which the Obligation of his violated Law exacts; since therefore all Mankind had sinned, they all stood bound to God to suffer the desert of their sin in their own persons, and there­fore the suffering of another in our stead can sig­nifie nothing towards the releasing us from this Obligation, unless God in pure Grace and Favour to us shall please to admit and accept it; because anothers suffering is not ours, and it is ours that God hath a right to. Indeed the punishment of the guilty person himself, supposing it to be equal to his fault, doth without any interposal of Grace, extinguish the guilt of it, and by its own force and vertue dissolve his Obligation to punishment; because when a man hath suffered as much as he deserves, he hath suffered as much as the Law can oblige him to, and so consequently cannot [Page 165] be obliged to suffer any more; but should another suffer for me even as much as I deserved to suf­fer my self, it will be altogeth [...]r insignificant to the expiation of my guilt, unless God in meer grace will accept it for my suffering, because it is not anothers suffering but my own that the obli­gation of his Law demands and exacts of me; and although the others suffering for me may as effectu­ally secure the Honour and Authority of God's Law as if I had suffered what I deserved in my own person, yet it is evident that in admitting the others suffering instead of mine, God remits and relaxes the Obligation of his Law, which re­quires that I should suffer in my own person. And therefore notwithstanding that Christ hath suffered for us, and God hath admitted his suffer­ing for ours, yet this being out of meer grace and favour to us, he is still truly said to pardon and forgive us for Christ's sake, Eph. 4.32. be­cause for the sake of Christ's suffering he graciously remits to us the Obligation of his Law which re­quires the punishment of our sin at our own hands; and since his remitting to us the Obligation of his Law for the sake of Christ's suffering was pure grace and favour, he was not at all obliged to remit it unconditionally, but being absolute Ma­ster of his own graces and favours he might remit it upon what terms and conditions he pleased. So that though if we had suffered in our own per­sons the utmost of what our sin doth deserve, he had been obliged in justice to discharge us without any farther condition, yet since out of his own free grace he hath admitted another to suffer for us, he may admit it with what limitations he pleases, [Page 166] and if he shall think meet (as he hath done) to limit it to our repentance and amendment, all that Christ hath suffered for us will be insignificant to our discharge from our obligation to punishment unless we repent and amend. So that the Death of Christ, you see, doth not expiate mens sins as their personal punishments do, by their own na­tural vertue, but by vertue of God's accepting it upon his own terms and conditions. And with­out God's accepting it, it would not have been at all an expiation for the sins of the World, and with­out the conditions upon which he accepteth it, viz. our repentance and amendment, it will not be at all an Expiation for ours. Now God hath so­lemnly declared his acceptance of Christ's Death as an Expiation for our sins; for it was God that laid upon him the iniquities of us all, Isa. 53.6. that gave his only begotten Son, John 3.16. and sent him to be a propitiation for us, 1 Joh. 4.10. which plainly imply his free acceptance of him; And therefore Christ is said to have given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour, Eph. 5.2. i. e. for an Expiation that was highly grateful and acceptable to him. So that now the expiation of our sins by the bloud of Christ wholly depends on our performing the con­dition on which God hath accepted it, and since it is upon condition that we repent and amend, that God hath accepted the bloud of Christ in ex­change for the eternal punishment we owe him, unless we perform this condition, the Bloud of Christ will not at all avail us, but we shall still re­main as much obliged to undergo that punishment, as if he had never died for us at all. God's accep­tance [Page 167] indeed hath made the Death of Christ available for us under those conditions and limita­tions upon which he accepted it, but if when he hath accepted it conditionally, we expect that it should avail us absolutely and unconditionally, we miserably deceive and abuse our own souls. Thus far therefore God's acceptance of Christ's Death instead of the punishment we have deserved hath rendred it an effectual expiation and ransom for sin­ners, that if they repent and amend they shall be released and acquitted from the obligation they lie under to suffer eternal punishment in their own persons, and entitled to everlasting life and hap­piness. And thus the Death of Christ, you see, had in it all the necessary qualifications of a real and compleat propitiatory Sacrifice; I proceed therefore in the second place to shew what a wise and effectual method this of God's admitting Christ's Sacrifice for sinners is to reduce and reform Mankind, which will evidently appear by conside­ring these five things:

First, That the Sacrifice of Christ's Death was a most sensible and affecting acknowledgment of the infinite guilt and demerit of our sin. For thus under the Law the offering of Propitiatory Sa­crifices implied a most solemn and sensible con­fession of the guilt of the Offerer. For his laying his hand upon the head of his Sacrifice, was a Symbolical action by which he solemnly acknow­ledged to God that he had justly deserved to suf­fer that death himself which his Sacrifice was suffering for him; and accordingly the Jews have this Maxim, Vbi non est peccatorum confessio, ibi non est impositio manuum, quia manuum impositio [Page 168] ad confessionem pertinet; where there is no con­fession of sins there is no imposition of hands, because the imposition of hands appertains to Con­fession. For so Lev. 5.5. they are particularly directed to confess their sins upon their bringing their Trespass-Offering before the Lord, and, as hath been shewn before, they had a set Form of Confession in all their expiatory Sacrifices, and particularly in that solemn Propitiation, viz. the dismission of the Scape-Goat, the High Priest is directed to lay both his hands upon the Goat's Head, and to confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, Lev. 16.21. so that as Con­fession is a kind of audible Sacrifice, so Sacrifice was a kind of visible Confession; and the demerit of their sin being thus represented to their Eyes by the death of their Sacrifice, was far more apt to move and affect them with horror and detestation of it, than any audible Confession how severe or pungent soever. And accordingly our Saviour in offering up himself as an expiation for our sin, did as it were, lay his hand upon his own head, and, as our Representative, solemnly acknowledge to God that we had justly deserved to suffer for our sin a punishment equivalent to that which he was undergoing for us. And what a dreadful one must that be which is equivalent to the Death of the Son of God? What less punishment than our everlasting misery can countervail the temporary death of him who was so eminent and innocent, who was God-man united in one person, and the Lamb of God without spot or blemish? If the Iews by sacrificing a Beast did make such a moving ac­knowledgment, that they themselves deserved to [Page 169] die, how much more did Christ by sacrificing himself for us, acknowledge in our stead that we deserved to die eternally? So that whatsoever vertue there is in the most bitter and pathetick con­fession to create in mens minds a horrour and de­testation of their sins, all that and much more there is in the Sacrifice of our Saviour, whose Bloud cried louder against our sins, and made a far more Tragical confession of their demerit than it's possible for the most sorrowful Penitent to do with all the Eloquence of his grief and bitter strains of self-abhorrence. And hence our Saviour is said to have condemned sin in the flesh, Rom. 8.3. i. e. to have solemnly acknowledged by his dying for it, what a dreadful punishment it de­serves.

Secondly, It is to be considered also, that the Sacrifice of Christ's Death was a most ample declaration of God's severity against our sins. All wise Governours ought so to exercise their Mercy, as that it may not be prejudicial to their Authority by giving Offenders encouragement to kick against it; but whilst their mercy is easie, and apt to be moved by slight Reasons and Motives, it will infallibly expose their Authority, and render it cheap and vile in the eyes of bold and insolent Of­fenders; the Reasons therefore which move a Prince to pardon Criminals ought to be such, if pos­sible, as give all manner of discouragement to them from presuming upon impunity for the future. God therefore being inclined by the infinite benignity of his Nature to shew mercy to sinners, was obliged in wisdom to shew it in such a way, and upon such reasons as might sufficiently discourage them [Page 170] from presuming upon his Mercy to the prejudice of his Authority; and there is no reason could be so sufficient to this end, as a valuable Sacrifice to suffer in our stead, and bear the punishment of our sin; which reason carries with it such an awful severity, as must needs dishearten any considering sinner from presuming upon impunity if he go on in his sin. For next to exacting the punishment of the Offender himself, the most dreadful severi­ty he could have expressed was not to remit it up­on any consideration but this, that some other should undergo it in his stead; and by how much greater and more valuable the person is, who un­dergoes it for us, so much greater and more for­midable God's severity appears in remitting it to us. Since therefore in consideration of our Par­don, God would admit no meaner Sacrifice than the precious Bloud of his own Eternal Son, he hath hereby expressed the utmost indignation against our sin, that he could possibly do, unless he had absolutely resolved never to pardon it at all. So that now we have all the reason that Heaven or Earth can afford us, to tremble at his severity, even while we are within the Arms of his mercy. For what man in his Wits would take encourage­ment to sin on from a mercy that cost the Bloud of the Son of God? He that can presume upon such a reason of mercy hath courage enough to out-face the flames of Hell, and if Hell it self had stood open before us, and we had seen the damned Ghosts weltering in the flames of it, it would not have given us such a loud and horrible warning of God's severity against our sin as this tremendous Sacrifice of the Son of God doth. If then a mercy that is [Page 171] so secured from being made an encouragement to sin by the terrible reason and consideration upon which it is founded cannot deter us from sinning on, there is no wise mercy that we are capable of, and consequently no mercy that the great God can in­dulge with safety to his Authority. For what mercy can be safe from our abuse and presumption, if this be not that is thus guarded with thunder, and attended with the utmost severity that mercy could possibly admit of? Wherefore if after I have seen my Saviour in his Agony deprecating with fruitless cries that fearful Cup which I deser­ved; if after I have beheld him hanging on the Cross, covered with Wounds and Bloud, and in the bitter Agony of his Soul heard him crying out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And, in a word, if after I have seen that God, to whom he was infinitely dear and precious, turn a deaf ear to his mournful cries, and utterly refuse to abate him so much as one degree or circumstance of a most shameful and tormenting death in consi­deration of my Pardon; If, I say, after such a horrible spectacle I have heart enough to sin on, I am a couragious sinner indeed, or rather a despe­rate one, not to be affected or restrained by all the terrors of Hell.

Thirdly, This Sacrifice of Christ is also to be considered as a most obliging expression of the love of God and our Saviour to us. For if God had so pleased he might have exacted our punishment at our own hands, and made us smart for ever in our own Persons, and this notwithstanding we had heartily repented. For though to repent is the best thing a sinner can do, yet it doth not alter the na­ture [Page 172] of the sin he repenteth of, so as to render it less evil or less deserving of punishment; nor in­deed is Repentance a sufficient reason to move the all-wise Governour of the World to grant a pub­lick Act of pardon and indulgence to sinners; it be­ing inconsistent with the safety of any Govern­ment, Divine or Humane, so far to encourage Offenders, as to indemnifie them by a publick De­claration meerly upon condition of their future re­pentance and amendment. For all men are naturally apt to presume that God will be better to them than his word, and therefore had he declared that he would pardon them upon their repentance with­out any other reason, this would have encouraged them to hope that he might pardon them, though they repented not at all, or at least though they repented but by halves. Wherefore since our repentance is not a sufficient reason to oblige God to grant a publick Pardon to sinners, and since this was the best reason we could offer in our own be­half to move him thereunto, it hence necessarily follows, that he might have justly exacted the pu­nishment of our sin of us, and made us smart for it for ever, notwithstanding the best reason we could have offered him to the contrary. But such was his goodness towards us, as to admit another to suffer in our stead, that so neither we might be ruined, nor our sins be unpunished. And then that the punishment of our sin might be a sufficient re­paration to his injured Authority, he admitted his own Son upon his voluntary offering himself to un­dergo it for us, who by the dignity and innocence of his Person rendered that temporary Death he un­derwent for us equi [...]alent to that eternal Death [Page 173] which we had deserved. Now what a Prodigy of love was this, that the God of Heaven whom we had so infinitely offended, should part with his own Son for us, and freely consent that he should undergo our punishment! Which while I seriously consider, it puzzles my conceit, and out-reaches my wonder; so that though I have infinite reason to rejoyce in it, yet while I am contemplating it, I seem to be looking down from some stupendious Precipice, whose height fills me with a sacred hor­rour, and almost oversets my Reason. But Oh! the amazing love of the Son of God towards us, that he should put himself in our stead, and inter­pose his own Breast as a living Shield between ours and his Father's Vengeance! which, consi­dering the greatness of his Person, and of our un­worthiness, is such a stupendious expression of Love, as no Romance of Friendship ever thought of! And what is the proper influence of all this love, but to oblige us for ever to God and our Sa­viour, in the bands of a reciprocal affection; to melt down our stubbornness and enmity against them, and draw us on to our duty with the Cords of an invincible indearment? For is it possible my sins should be as dear to me as the Son of God was to his own Father, and yet the Father left him out of love to me, and shall not I leave them out of love to him? And when the Son of God hath been so kind to me as to lay down his life for me, can I be so ingrateful to him as to doat upon those sins which he hated more than all the shame and torment which he endured on their account; those sins that were the cause of all his sufferings, the Thorns that gored his Temples, and the Nails that pierced [Page 174] his hands and feet? Sure if we are not utterly lost to all that is modest and ingenuous, tender or appre­hensive in Humane Nature, it will be impossible for us to resist these endearing instances of the love of God and our Saviour, which carry warmth and fervour enough with them to melt the most obdu­durate natures.

Fourthly, Christ's Death and Sacrifice is also to be considered as a sure and certain ground of our hope of pardon, if we repent and amend. For it was upon the vertue of Expiatory Sacrifices that all Mankind depended for their reconciliation with God; and therefore these Sacrifices were a princi­pal part not only of the Religion of the Iews, but of the Gentiles too, who besides their Eucharisti­cal, had their constant Expiatory Oblations to atone and pacifie their Gods. And this more especially in times of publick Danger and Calamity, when they conceived their Gods to be most offended with them; at which Seasons they were wont to offer up their most costly Sacrifices, and devote not only Hecatombs of Beasts to their Altars, but many times the more precious lives of Men, Women, and Children, imagining that the more valuable the life was, the greater vertue there was in it to appease the angry Deity. And upon this sacred Rite did all the World build their hope of reconci­liation with God, as being conscious that by their sin they had forfeited their own lives to him, and that there was no other way to redeem them, but by making a commutation with him, and offering him another life for their own, which was there­fore called [...], i. e. a life for their life, and [...], i. e. the price of their Redemption. [Page 175] But alas so miserably defective were the very best of their Sacrifices, that they could not rationally depend on them with any confidence or assurance. For as for the Heathen Sacrifices, God had never promised to accept them, and it being an act of pure grace and favour in him to admit of such a commutation, it wholly depended on his own good­will, whether he would admit it or no; and without some express revelation it was impossible for them to know which way his Will was determined in the case. And then even their most precious Sacrifi­ces, which were the lives of Men, were infinitely short in value to redeem the Lives and Souls of those that offered them; those sacrificed men be­ing sinners themselves, and they but a few sinners for many. And as for the Iewish Sacrifices, though God in many cases had promised to accept them in commutation for the lives of their Bodies, yet those being only the lives of Brutes, which were but negatively innocent, as being incapable of Sin or Vertue, could merit nothing of God, and consequently were infinitely short of a valu­able commutation for the forfeited lives of their Souls. All which considered, there was no rely­ing on them for Redemption from the Obligation they lay under to eternal punishment. But now all these defects are abundantly supplied in the Sa­crifie of our blessed Saviour. For his life was not only infinitely valuable by reason of his personal Union to the Godhead, and so in it self an equi­valent Ransom; he was not only no Sinner, which the best of the Heathen Sacrifices were; he was not only Negatively innocent, which was all that the Iewish Sacrifices were; but he was also per­fectly [Page 176] righteous, and by vertue thereof infinitely dear and acceptable to God; and, to crown all, God himself both by express Revelation, and by raising him from the dead, hath openly declared his acceptance of his precious bloud, as a Ransom for the sins of the World. And upon this most sure and certain ground stands our hope of pardon and reconciliation with God. So that in the pre­cious bloud of this our meritorious and accepted Sa­crifice we openly behold the mercy of God invi­ting us into grace and favour, and with out-stretch­ed arms ready to receive and embrace us; which gives us the most effectual encouragement in the World to return to our duty. I confess if we had no such Sacrifice to depend on, the sence of our past guilts might justly discourage us from all thoughts of future repentance; for though the natural goodness and benignity of God might hap­pily give us some small hope, yet on the other hand the consideration of his natural abhorrence of sin, and the mighty Obligations he lies under to punish it, as he is a wise and righteous Governour, would very much dash our hope out of countenance. So that the utmost encouragement we could have had, would be that which the King of Nineveh gave his People, Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? Jonah 3.9. But now we can certainly tell, that if we will turn from our sins, he will turn from his anger; for our hope depends not on a doubtful peradventure, but upon a full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, paid down to, and accepted of God. What then should hinder us from re­turning to him, who are thus firmly assured of his [Page 177] gracious reception, and do certainly know be­fore-hand, that all our past provocations shall be blotted out, and our penitent Souls embraced with the same grace and favour as if we had never of­fended?

Fifthly, and lastly, This Sacrifice of Christ is also to be considered as the Seal and Confirmation of the New Covenant. For thus of old Cove­nants between God and Men were wont to be seal­ed and transacted by Sacrifice. So Gen. 15. Abra­ham, by God's Command, being to strike Cove­nant with him, offered a Sacrifice, which he di­vided in the middle, laying each Moyety one against the other, between which God passed in the likeness of a burning Lamp, and so made a Cove­nant with him, saying, Vnto thy Seed will I give this Land; in which Rite of passing between the parts, God condescended to the manner of Men; for so the Iews, when they struck Covenant with God, were wont to cut the Sacrifice in sunder, and pass between the parts thereof, Ier. 34.18, 19. by which action they made this imprecation on themselves, Thus let me be divided and cut in pieces if I violate the Oath I have now made. And accordingly, the bloud of the Sacrifice is called by Moses, The bloud of the Covenant, Exod. 24.8. and the Iews are said to make a Covenant with God by Sacrifice, Psal. 50.5. For all Expiatory Sacrifices were regularly attended with Peace-offerings, in both which the Priest or the People were God's Guests, and in token of reconciliation did eat and drink with him of the provisions of his Altar or Table. For in the burnt-offerings, the sin-offerings, and the trespass-offerings, the Priests only, [Page 178] as the Proxies and Representatives of the People, were admitted to be God's Guests; but then in the Peace-offerings which followed them, the People themselves were admitted to his Table to partake with him of those sacred Viands. So that in the first the Priests, as the Peoples Representa­tives, struck Covenant with God for them, in the second they struck Covenant with God for them­selves. Thus as it was the Custom of all Nations to solemnize their Covenants with one another, by eating together, so God, in condescension to the manner of men, and to confirm their Faith in his Promises, did by the same Rite engage himself in Covenant with them. And in the same manner the Sacrifice of our blessed Lord was a Seal and Ratification of the New Covenant; upon which account it is called, as the Iewish Sacrifices were, the bloud of the Covenant, Heb. 10.29. Heb. 13.20. For his Sacrifice upon the Cross was the meritorious Sin-offering, in which he, as the High-Priest, the Head and Representative of his Church, did solemnize the New Covenant be­tween God and us, and obtained of his Father an inviolable Ratification of his Promise of Grace and Eternal life. For in that dreadful transaction God did solemnly engage himself to Christ in the behalf of his Church, to perform to her what he had promised, to the utmost, upon the terms spe­cified in the New Covenant. And therefore Christ is said to have made reconciliation in his own body on the Cross, and to have slain the enmity there­on, Eph. 2.16. and to have made peace, that is, a Covenant of peace, through the bloud of the Cross, Col. 1.20. But then to this Sin-offering there [Page 179] follows a Peace-offering, and that is the Lord's Supper, in which the Church, for her self, by eating and drinking at this Table, strikes Cove­nant with God, and upon those holy signs of Christ's Body and Bloud, gives to, and receives from God assurance of mutual Amnesty and Friend­ship; and hence, 1 Cor. 10.16, 20. this holy Sup­per is called, The Communion of the Body and Bloud of Christ, and drinking the Cup of the Lord, and being partakers of the Table of the Lord. For when God in this Supper doth by the hand of his Priest present his Bread and Wine to us, he doth thereby renew his Covenant with us, and when we receive, and eat and drink God's Viands, we thereby renew our Covenant with him. Thus God in great condescension to our desponding minds hath been pleased to ratifie his Covenant with us in our own way and manner; not that this ratification doth render his Covenant surer in it self, for nothing can be surer than his promise; and yet for the confirmation of our diffident minds, he is sometimes pleased to add his Oath to his Pro­mise, and, for the same reason, to his Promise and Oath he hath superadded these federal Ratifi­cations, which being the same with those legal Forms and Rituals by which men were wont to ra­tifie their Covenants and Agreements with one another, are upon that account more apt to assure and confirm our minds. And now what a mighty influence must this solemn confirmation of the New Covenant have upon us, to excite and quicken our Piety and Vertue, and render us actively zealous of good Works? For when God hath not only owned all the promises of the New Covenant to be [Page 180] his, by the many miraculous attestations he hath given them, but hath also vouchsafed by all those federal Rites, that were most sacred among men, to oblige himself to perform them, we have abun­dant reason to believe, not only that it is he that hath promised all the good things of this Cove­nant, but also that he is fully resolved to perform those promises to us, if we perform the conditions of them; since by the Bloud of his own Son he hath engaged himself to him in our behalf, and by the Sacramental signs of the Body and Bloud of his Son he hath engaged himself to us in our own per­sons to perform what he hath promised to the ut­most punctilio. So that now our Faith in the Covenant stands upon a firm and immoveable foun­dation, as having not only the Promise a [...]d the Oath, but also the Seal of God to depend on; and having all the good things of the Covenant thus solemnly consigned to us, what abundant encouragement doth it give us to return to God and our Duty? For now we are not only assured of his pardon and gracious reception, but also of the as­sistance of his blessed Spirit to back and enforce our pious endeavours, and to enable us to conquer all those resistances of flesh and bloud with which we are to contend; and to encourage us to contend with all our might, we have an immortal Crown of Glory proposed to us as the reward of our victory, and are firmly assured, that after we have spent a few moments here in the practice of Piety and Vertue, we shall be removed from hence into that triumphant state of Immortality, there to reign in unspeakable glory and delight among the blessed Conquerors above, and sing Hallelujahs with them [Page 181] for ever. For to all these blessed things we are en­titled by the ratifications of the New Covenant. Having therefore these great and precious Promises sealed to us by the bloud of Iesus, Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord ▪ 2 Cor. 7.1.

And thus you see how effectually the Death of Christ, as it is a Sacrifice for sin, contributes to our reformation. But after all, it must be ac­knowledged that it contributes only as a concur­rent cause with our own endeavours; it doth not work upon us as if we were dead Machines, that have no vital principle of action in us; nor yet as necessary Agents, that have no free-will or prin­ciple of self-determination; it draws us indeed, but it is with the cords of a man, i. e. with a pow­erful grace and perswasion, but doth not drive or hale us with any violent or irresistible Agency. For after all the powerful influence of his Death to re­form and amend us, we are still in our own disposal, and so may resist and baffle the efficacy of his Death, and in despite of it continue in our wickedness if we please. But if we do, it is at our own eternal pe­ril, and we must one day expect to answer, not only for the bloud of our own souls, which in de­spite of the most powerful method of saving them we have wilfully ruined and destroyed, but also for the bloud of our Saviour, which we have not only defeated, but trampled on; and if both these be brought to our account, it had been better for us, not only that we had never been born, but that our Saviour himself had never been born, since all that he hath done to save us will be brought in judgment against us, as an horrid aggravation [Page 182] of our guilt, to inflame the reckoning of our pu­nishment. So that unless we concur with this great design of Christ, by endeavouring our own reformation to the utmost of our power, his Death will not only be as insignificant to our happiness as it is to the redemption of Devils, but even those vocal wounds of his, which were made to plead for, will accuse and condemn us, and that eloquent Bloud, which in its Native Language speaks better things for us than the bloud of Abel, will like the Souls under the Altar, raise a cry of vengeance on us as high as the Tribunal of God. Wherefore as we would not find this blessed Sa­crifice, which was designed for our City of refuge, converted into an avenger of bloud let us dili­gently concur with it to our utmost [...]ower in this n [...]cessary design of our reformation, that so be­ing washed white and clean in the bloud of it, we may appear before God holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight. And thus I have given an account of the first Act of Christ's Priesthood, viz. his Sacrifice.