hand of the Majesty on high. For had our Saviour been God only, he had been incapable of reward, his happiness, as such, being so immense, as that it can admit of no addition: but being man as well as God, he is thereby capacitated for all that vast reward which the possession of his mediatorial kingdom, together with an everlasting heaven, includes: and all this reward is the product of that perfect and profound obedience which he rendered to his Father whilst he was in this world. So that now in him, by whom God hath promised to reward our obedience, we have an illustrious instance of God's liberality in rewarding obedience; by his happy fate, we may be fully assured, that we shall not serve God for nought, but that the reward of our obedience shall ten thousand fold exceed the labour and difficulty of it: for he is a man as well as we, though he be hypostatically united to God; and this man, for some few years' faithful service upon earth, for revealing God's will to men, and exhibiting a perfect example of obedience to it, for exposing himself to some temporal calamities, and finally for offering up himself a spotless victim for the sins of the world, is now advanced to the utmost height of bliss and glory that it is possible for a creature to arrive to; he is set far above all principality and power, he is served and adored as the only potentate under God the Father throughout all the heavenly world; he is worshipped and celebrated by cherubim and seraphim, by archangels and angels; he is extolled in the songs of the patriarchs and prophets, the apostles and evangelists, the confessors and martyrs; and his name is resounded with everlasting praises and thanksgivings throughout all the vast choir of the

spirits of just men made perfect; and, in a word, he hath all power given him both in heaven and earth, and to his all commanding will the whole creation is subjected. In this ever blessed King, therefore, by whom God now rules us, we have for the assurance of our hope of a future reward the most stupendous instance of it that ever was given to the world. And indeed, since the great end of Christ's mediation was to reduce men to their duty, by giving them a sure and certain hope of the remission of their sins at present, and of a glorious reward hereafter, it was highly convenient that itself should be an example of its own design, and that the glorious part of it should be made the reward of the more painful and difficult; that so, having in the mediation itself a signal instance of God's immense liberality in rewarding obedience, we might thereupon the more confidently expect that glorious recompense of reward which God hath promised to those that obey him, and be thereby the more vigorously excited to our duty. And hence our Saviour proposes himself to us as an instance of the reward of obedience, To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I have overcome, and am sat down with my Father on his throne: as much as if he should have said, That upon your overcoming the difficulties of your duty you shall receive a most glorious reward, you need not at all doubt, having so illustrious an example of it in myself, who, having conquered the difficult parts of my mediation, which was to teach you as a Prophet, and to expiate for you as a Priest, am now crowned with the reward of transacting the glorious part of it; i. e. sitting with my Father on his

throne, and there reigning with him in unspeakable glory and beatitude: and accordingly the apostle bids us look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high, Heb. xii. 2.

SECT. XIV.

That Jesus Christ is the Mediator, of whom we have been treating.

HAVING in the foregoing sections explained at large the nature and offices of the Mediator between God and men, all that now remains is to prove that Jesus Christ, the author of our religion, is the person whom God hath ordained and constituted this mediator between him and us. And that he is so, he himself openly averred whilst he was upon earth, and afterwards proclaimed it to the world by the mouth of his apostles. But this singly by itself is no argument at all of the truth of the thing, because a deceiver might have averred the same thing and since there were sundry pretenders to this office as well as he, it was necessary there should be some other evidence of his being invested with it, besides his pretending to it; otherwise it would have been impossible for us to distinguish him from those that falsely pretended to it: and accordingly he himself tells us, John v. 31. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true; i. e. If I can produce no other testimony of my being the Mediator than my own bare word, you have no reason at all to believe me; and therefore he tells us, that he had not only John's witness to it, who was his forerunner,

but also a much greater than John's, even the witness of his Father, ver. 32, 33, 36, 37. Now there are three ways by which his Father testified for him; all which do abundantly evince his being the true Mediator. First, by sundry ancient predictions of him, which were all exactly accomplished in him; for the testimony of Jesus, saith St. John, is the spirit of prophecy, Rev. xix. 10. Secondly, by sundry voices from heaven, by which the Father proclaimed him his well beloved Son. Thirdly, by miracles, which by the power of God he frequently wrought in his own person while he was upon earth, and in the persons of his followers after his ascension into heaven. To treat of all which would require a volume by itself: and therefore, for the first of these ways, I shall refer the English reader to the reverend Mr. Kidder's Demonstration of the Messiah; wherein the testimony of prophecy is handled at large with very great strength and clearness of judgment. And as for the second way of God's bearing witness to Jesus, viz. by voices from heaven, I refer the reader to our learned Dr. Hammond's Reasonableness of the Christian Religion, at the end of his Practical Catechism; it being my intent to insist only upon the third and last way of God's attesting Jesus to be the Mediator, viz. by miracles; for this way our Saviour himself most insists on and appeals to. So in the afore-cited John v. 36. But I have a greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. So also John x. 25. The works which I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. And in John xv. 24.

our Saviour makes the inexcusable aggravation of the Jews' infidelity to be this, that they would not be convinced by all those miraculous works which he had done among them; If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. In these and sundry other places, our Saviour appeals to those miraculous works which he did, as to a certain testimony from God, that he was the only true Messias or Mediator between God and men. And indeed, seeing the great aim and design of our Saviour's mediation is to advance the honour of God and the perfection of souls; and seeing how admirably it is framed and contrived to promote those blessed ends, miracles are a most certain attestation of the truth of it: for though the scripture tells us of false miracles wrought by the power of evil spirits, and history furnishes with innumerable instances of it; yet it is against all reason to imagine that ever evil spirits would exert their power to attest a doctrine so infinitely repugnant to their own temper and interest. Had the design of our Saviour's mediation been to alienate men's minds from God and goodness, we might have justly concluded all his miraculous works to be nothing. but magical tricks performed by confederacy with the Devil. For how could we have imagined either that God or any good spirit would ever have employed his power to propagate a doctrine so infinitely repugnant to his will and nature, seeing it is equally incredible either that a bad religion should be the will of a good God, or that the God of truth should bear false witness to a lie? And therefore we always find, that those false miracles, effected by