The Christian Life Part 2 Volume 2, Section 1

The Christian Life Part 2 Volume 2 · Section 1

p. 4SECT. I. What it is that we are to believe in general concerning the Person and Office of this Mediator.

THE Greek word foreign, 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 p. 5before 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, p. 6may, 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 p. 7God, 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 p. 8being 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 p. 9voice 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 p. 10than 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 p. 11accordingly 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 p. 12more 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 p. 13to (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 p. 14and 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 p. 15himself 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 p. 16God'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 p. 17is 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 p. 18of 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, p. 19that 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 p. 20valuable 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 p. 21that 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 p. 22undertaken 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 p. 23upon 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, p. 24the 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 p. 25this 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 p. 26communicated 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 p. 27gives 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 p. 28blend 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 p. 29meet 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 foreign 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 p. 30to 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 p. 31in 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 p. 32united 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 p. 33our 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 p. 34all 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 p. 35something 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, foreign, 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, aaVide Note ad finem.by whom the Ancient Jews understood the Messias, bbVide 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.ccVide Note ad finem.

p. 36Now 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 p. 37could 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 p. 38that 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 p. 39the 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 p. 40his 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 p. 41and 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 p. 42may 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 p. 43confidence 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 p. 44become 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, p. 45at 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 p. 46to 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 p. 47for 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 p. 48death 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 p. 49eternal, 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 p. 50for 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 p. 51in 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. p. 52The 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 p. 53not 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 p. 54therefore 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 p. 55us 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 p. 56to 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 p. 57Persons 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 p. 58also 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 p. 59is 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 p. 60men'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 p. 61Prophesied 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 p. 62Heaven 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 p. 63him 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 p. 64is; 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; p. 65so 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 p. 66shining 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 p. 67heard 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 p. 68a 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 p. 69the 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.

p. 70Thirdly, 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 p. 71promised 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 p. 72to 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. p. 73Besides 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 foreign, or Episcopal Office wherewith he was invested, was given him by Prophecy, i. e. by the immediate direction of the Holy Ghost; and p. 74S. Clemens, who was a Disciple of the Apostles, tells us, that in those times they ordained Bishops, foreign, discerning by the Spirit who should be ordained; and again, that they did it, foreign, 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 p. 75own 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 p. 76extraordinary 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 p. 77is 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, p. 78whereof 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, foreign, 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 p. 79make it out, foreign, 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 p. 80thirsty 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 p. 81own 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 p. 82hence 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 p. 83a 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. p. 84the 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 p. 85minds 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; p. 86and 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 p. 87into 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 p. 88urge 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 p. 89no 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.

p. 90Fourthly, 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 p. 91the 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 p. 92exquisite 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 p. 93for 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 p. 94as 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 p. 95of 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 p. 96and 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 p. 97reverse 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.