mised, as that we should make good to him what he requires. So that now we have no longer to do with God immediately as our adverse party, but all our intercourse with him is by a Mediator, who, by his office, is obliged to be on our side as well as God's, and to see that what he hath promised be performed to us, as well as that what he requires be performed by us. And hence our Saviour is called the mediator of the new covenant, and the mediator of a better covenant; which expressions plainly bespeak him to be an authorized security on both sides, for the mutual performance to each other of what they stand respectively obliged to by this covenant: and hence also he is called the sponsor or surety of a better covenant, because he stands engaged for the performance of both parties, so far as it was possible for him to oblige them thereunto: for us, to oblige us by the strongest motives to repent and persevere in well-doing; for God, to oblige him by the most powerful pleas to pardon, and crown us with eternal life; and the latter of which he performs by his intercession, wherein, by continual pleading that precious blood, which God hath long since accepted in consideration of our pardon and eternal life, he continually obtains power and authority from God to bestow on us the blessings he intercedes for. So that now we have not only God's word, but also the suretyship of our Saviour to depend on; who not only stands engaged to us for God, that he shall perform all his promises to us, but hath also right and power upon the just claim of his sacrifice, to oblige him to perform them. So that, as God, in condescension to the pitiable diffidence of guilty minds, hath been graciously pleased to seal his promises

with his oath; so, that he might leave us no umbrage of distrust, he hath superadded to both the collateral security of a Mediator for the performance of them; of a Mediator that hath purchased of him all the blessings he had promised us, and paid for them with his own blood, and so is not only obliged to sue for them at the throne of his grace, but also authorized to claim at the tribunal of his justice; and, in a word, of a Mediator in whose hands he hath actually deposited all the blessings he hath promised us, and made his executor in trust for the performance of his bequests to the heirs of promise. So that now to distrust the performance of his promise to us, is not only to suspect God's word and his oath, which are altogether as sacred and inviolable as his godhead, but also to question the security and arraign the fidelity of a Mediator that died for us; that purchased for us with his own blood all the blessings which God hath promised us; by virtue whereof he not only rightfully claims them of God, but has also actually received them in our behalf. So that now we cannot be defeated of them, unless he will withhold them from us; and he cannot withhold them from us without violating his trust; since it is for us, and in our behalf, that God hath deposited them in his hands and can we imagine that he, who was so true and kind a friend to us, as to lay down his life to purchase them for us, will now be so unkind and unfaithful together, as to detain them from us, when God hath intrusted him with them in our behalf, and fully empowered and authorized him to bestow them on us? Having therefore the security, not only of God's promise and oath, but also of our Saviour's kindness and fidelity, for the performance of

God's part of the new covenant, if we perform ours, what infinite encouragement must it give us to forsake our sins, and return to our duty! For now, if we repent, we have no more reason to question God's pardoning and forgiving us; if we persevere to the end in well-doing, we have no more cause to doubt of his crowning us with eternal happiness, than we have to distrust our present being and existence. If therefore the most ample assurance that God himself can give us of his mercy and our happiness, hath any force in it to oblige us to repent and amend, this our Saviour's intercession you see fairly proposes to us; so that if this proposal doth not effectually influence our hope, and thereby excite and animate our endeavours, it is impossible that any encouragement should ever move or affect us.

And thus you see, in all these several particulars, how effectually this way of God's communicating his favours to us, through the intercession of our Saviour, tends to our reformation and amendment; what a fruitful topic of motives it is to induce us to repentance, and how pathetically it addresses to every affection in us that is capable of persuasion; what awful and reverential thoughts of Almighty God it suggests to our minds, to dispose our stubborn wills to an humble submission to him! What an horrible representation it makes of our sins, and of God's wrath and indignation against them; and what a dreadful alarm it gives to our fear, to rouse and awake us out of our sinful security! And, in a word, how powerfully it encourages us to draw near unto God, and to make our addresses to him with an humble and generous freedom; and what vast assurances it gives our hope of his gracious intentions to

wards us, if we repent and amend! All which considered, one would think it were impossible for any man that believes and understands this wonderful method of mercy, not to be moved and affected by it and certainly that man who hath obstinacy enough to withstand all its persuasions, and finally to defeat and baffle those powerful attempts which it makes to reclaim him, is a creature not to be moved by reason and argument. For in this he has conquered the greatest motives of all sorts that can be urged to persuade men, and when once he is got beyond the reach of persuasion, and no motive of ingenuity, or hope, or fear can affect him, his condition is desperate, and his obstinacy incurable. Wherefore, as we would not finally disappoint this wonderful contrivance of God to reclaim us, and thereby render ourselves for ever desperate, let us at length be persuaded seriously to consider the motives and arguments it proposes to us; and never to cease urging and pressing them upon our own souls, till they have conquered our obstinate wills and prejudiced affections, and finally captivated us into a free compliance with their powerful persuasions. For if, through our wilful neglect and inconsideration, this mighty project of mercy prove utterly unsuccessful with us, it is certain we have sinned ourselves past all hope of recovery, and it will be in vain to make any farther experiment on us. And when we have once baffled this last and most powerful remedy of the divine goodness, what remains but that it should give us up, and utterly abandon us to the just desert and dire effects of our own folly and obstinacy.

SECT. VII.

Of the kingly office of our Saviour.

WHEN I first entered upon this argument of the particular offices of our Mediator, I proposed to handle them in the same order that he performed and executed them; and accordingly, as he began with his prophetic office, of which his whole life was a continued ministry, so I have treated of this office in the first place. And as from his prophetic he proceeded to his priestly office, one part of which he executed on the cross, where he offered himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and the other upon his ascension into heaven, where he presented and still continues to present his sacrifice to the Father by way of intercession for us; so I proceeded, in the next place, to treat of his priesthood, in both the parts of it and now in the last place, in pursuit of the same order, I proceed to his regal or kingly office, which was the last he entered upon; after he had finished his prophecy, offered his sacrifice, and presented it to his Father in heaven. For so in scripture the regality of Christ is always spoken of as successive both to his prophetic and priestly office, and as the fruit and reward of his faithful discharge and execution of them. So Phil. ii. 8, 9, 10. it was because he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross, that God highly exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth. And Rom. xiv. 9. the apostle tells us, that it was for this end that Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he