authorized by God to this great office of mediator, in which all those three offices are included. For so, Acts v. 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 ii. 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And, to name no more, Phil. ii. 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 Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus 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 chouse men of their sins, and to train and delude them into piety and virtue. 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 same respect and reverence to his religion, as if God himself had proclaimed it to us in an audible 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, as God's mouth, hath delivered to us, than it would have been for a Jew to have laughed at the Ten Command

ments, 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, whenever 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 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 authorized 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 mutual accord and agreement; and if he act only for one party, he is not a mediator, but an attorney; and accordingly the apostle tells us, that a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one, Gal. iii. 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 accordingly as Moses, who was the mediator of the Jewish covenant, acted for and between God and the people; so Jesus Christ, who is mediator of the Christian covenant, is styled the one mediator between God and men, 1 Tim. ii. 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 inducing 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. vii. 25. Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost those that 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 him, or to mediate with God in their behalf.

The belief of which carries with it the most indispensable obligations to Christian piety and virtue; but while we look upon Christ as acting only for one party, whether it be for God or ourselves, 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 more to do with us or our concerns, but even leave us to shift for ourselves, 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 ourselves 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 propitiator 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 score of our síns with his blood, 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 justify and set us right in the court of heaven: but as for reducing us under his Father's authority, and subduing our will 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 to (supposing that he hath effectually discharged it) is to rest and rely upon it for our pardon and justification 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,