it is impossible it should be formally Christian, unless it be animated and acted with the belief of Christianity. So that if we leave out this, and practise only upon the abovenamed principles, we are at best but wise and honest heathens, and there is nothing in all our religion but the simple dictates of mere natural reason. It is true, to live according to mere natural reason is all that God expects from those to whom Christianity hath never been proposed; for how can he expect that they should live by principles which they either never heard of, or have not sufficient reason to believe? But where Christianity hath been made known, and sufficiently proposed, we cannot be good men unless we believe it; and if we believe it, we cannot be good Christians unless we practise upon it. And since Christianity hath improved the duties of natural religion upon new principles, and enforced them with new obligations, to render our piety and virtue strictly and properly Christian, it is necessary we should believe these new principles, and act upon these new obligations; otherwise we are at best but mere natural men, in the true sense of the apostle; i. e. men who are merely conducted by the light of natural reason, and have not received the things of the Spirit of God, that is, the new principles and obligations which Christianity superadds to natural religion, 1 Cor. ii. 14.

In handling therefore of this great and necessary principle of Christian life, viz. the belief and acknowledgment of Christ's being the one and only mediator, I shall endeavour these three things:

First, To shew what it is we are to believe in general, concerning the person and office of this Mediator.

Secondly, What are the particular parts and offices of his mediation.

Thirdly, What evidence there is to induce us to believe him to be this one and only mediator.

SECT. I.

What it is that we are to believe in general, concerning the person and office of this Mediator.

THE Greek word μeoírns, 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 mere orator, and can only persuade and entreat 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 be

fore him, is in effect the act of both parties, who, having both submitted their wills to his, and voluntarily empowered 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 sense a mediator is the same with that which we in English call an umpire, 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 superior party, who hath a just authority and dominion over the inferior. For when a mediator acts the part of two unequal parties, whereof the one is superior, and hath a just dominion over the other, it is sufficient that he be authorized by the appointment of the superior; and the subject or inferior party will be as much obliged by his determination, as if he had voluntarily referred himself to him. For a mediator between a superior, as such, and a subject, is one who is authorized to act on the part of the superior, in requiring the subject's duty and obedience, and to act on the part of the subject in impetrating the superior's favour and protection; and there can be no doubt but every absolute superior 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 a 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, 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 on 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 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 unfit 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 terror and anxiety, as freely draw near unto him but, by virtue 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 Disposer of all our blessings. And accordingly he hath constituted the holy and blessed Jesus 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 oil being anciently the visible sign by which the regal, priestly, and prophetic offices were conferred. This title of Lord's anointed, therefore, being applied to Jésus, denotes his being designed, appointed, and