them, and to them in him, as considered in him, their head and representative for when these grants were made, and blessings bestowed, they were not in actual being, only had a representative one in Christ their head; hence grace is said to be given them in Christ Jesus, before the world began; and they to be blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, as they were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, 2 Tim. i. 9. Eph. i. 3, 4.

5. Christ, in the everlasting covenant, engaged in the name of his people, to obey and suffer in their stead; and accordingly he did both in time, as their Head and representative. He obeyed the law, and fulfilled all righteous ness, not as a single individual of human nature, and for himself, but as the federal Head of his people, as representing them; That so the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, says the apostle, Rom. viii. 4. that is, in the elect of God, they being considered in Christ their Head, when he became the fulfilling End of the law for righteousness unto them; and so they were made, or accounted, the righteousness of God in him their Head, Rom. x. 4. 2 Cor. v. 21. in like manner as he in their name engaged to suffer for them; so in time he suffered in their room and stead, as their head and representative; insomuch that they may be truly said to suffer with him; they were all gathered together, recollected in one Head, in Christ, and sustained and represented by him when he hung upon the cross, and are said to be crucified with him, Eph. i. 10. Col. ii. 12. 6. in consequence of Christ's covenant engagements and performances, when he rose from the dead, he rose not as a pri vate Person, but as a public Person, as the head and representative of all those for whom he obeyed and suffered; and therefore they are said to be quickened and raised together with him, as they were then also justified in him, when he himself, as their Head and Surety was, Eph. ii. 5, 6. Col. iii. 1. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Yea, Christ is also gone to heaven, not only as the Forerunner of his people, but as their Head and Representative; he has taken possession of heaven in their name, appears in the presence of God for them, and personates them, as the high-priest did the children of Israel, in the holy of holies; and hence they are said to be made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Eph. ii. 6.-7. The federal headship of Christ, may be argued and concluded from Adam being a federal head and representative of all his natural offspring; in which he was the figure of him that was to come, that is, Christ; for it was in that chiefly, if not solely, that he was a figure of Christ; at least that is the chief, if not the only thing the apostle has in view, Rom. v. 14. as appears by his running the parrallel between them, as heads and representatives of their respective offspring: Adam, through his fall, conveying sin and death to all his natural descendants; and Christ through the free gift of himself, communicating grace, righteousness, and life to all his spiritual seed, the elect, the children his Father gave him: and hence these two are spoken of as the first and last Adam, and the first and second man; as if they were the only two men

in the world, being the representatives of their several seeds, which are includ ed in them, I Cor. xv. 45. 47.

Now, as Christ stands in the relation of an head to the elect, he has all things delivered into his hands; in honour to him, and in love both to him and them, and for their good; God has given him to be Head over all things to the church, Matt. xi. 27. John iii. 35. Eph. i. 22. all persons and things are under his command, and at his disposal, to subserve his interest as Head of the church; even angels and men, good and bad, and all things in heaven and in earth; all power therein to protect and defend his people, and to provide for them; all fulness of grace, and the blessings of it to supply them; the government of the church, and of the world, is on his shoulders, who represents them; and therefore their persons, grace and glory, must be safe in him; the covenant, and all its blessings and promises, are sure in him, the Head and Representative of his people in it.

OF CHRIST, AS THE MEDIATOR OF THE COVENANT. ANOTHER relation, or office, which Christ bears in the covenant, is that of Mediator; three times in the epistle to the Hebrews is he called the Mediator of the new, or better covenant or testament, chap. viii. 6. and ix. 15. and xii. 24. the same with the everlasting covenant, only so called in reference to a former administration of it. The apostle Paul asserts, that there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. ii. 5. Both Jews and Gentiles have a notion of a Mediator; the Jews call the Messiah yoN, the Mediator, or middle one; and so Philo the Jew, speaks of the most ancient Word of God, as μeros, a middle Person between God and men, not unbe gotten as God, nor begotten as man, but the middle of the extremes, one between both. The Persians call their God Mithras, poing, a Mediator; and the Dæmons, with the heathens, seem to be, according to them mediators between the superior gods and men; but we have a more sure word of prophecy to direct us in this matter; Christ is the one and only Mediator. It will be proper to enquire,

I. In what sense Christ is the mediator of the covenant; not as Moses who stood between God and the people of Israel, to shew them the word of the Lord, Deut. v. 5. to receive the law, the lively oracles, and deliver them to them, said to be ordained, or disposed by angels, in the hand of a mediator, supposed to be Moses, Gal. iii. 19. Christ indeed is the revealer and declarer of his Father's mind and will, and the dispenser of the covenant of grace in the different administrations of it, in the several periods of time; but this more properly belongs to him as the angel or messenger of the covenant, as he is called in Mal. ii. 2. than

i R. Joseph Albo, Ikkarim, Orat. 2. c. 28. * Quis Rer. Divin. Hæres, p. 509. Vid. ibid. de Cherubim, p. 112. ! Plutarch. de Isid. & Osir.

the mediator of it. Christ is a mediator of reconciliation; such an one as interposes between two parties at variance, in order to bring them together, and in some way or other reconcile them to each other. A mediator is not of one, of one party; for where there is but one party there can be no difference, and so no need of a mediator; but God is one, he is one party, the offended party, and man is the other, the offending party; and Christ is the mediator between them both to bring them together, who are through sin at as great distance as earth and heaven; and he is the antitype of Jacob's ladder, that reaches both and joins them together; the days-man between them, who lays his hand on them both, and makes peace between them; and so Suidas a learned Grecian interprets the word for mediator by pnvo Tolos, a peace-maker; and this work he performs not merely by way of intreaty, as one man may intreat another to to lay aside his resentment against an offender, and not pursue him to his destruction, which lies in his power; or as Moses intreated God with great vehemence and importunity to forgive the Israelites, or blot him out of his book; for however commendable this may be for one man to intercede with another, or with God for an offender, in such a manner; yet it seems too low and mean an office for Christ the Son of God, barely to intreat his Father to lay aside the marks of his displeasure against a sinner, and not so honourable for God to grant it, without satisfaction; wherefore Christ acts the part of a mediator, by proposing to his Father to make satisfaction for the offence committed, and so appease injured justice. Christ is a mediator of reconciliation in a way of satisfaction; reconciliation in this way is Christ's great work as mediator; this is what was proposed in covenant, and what he therein agreed to do, and therefore is called the mediator of the covenant.

Reconciliation supposes a former state of friendship, a breach of that friendship, and a renewal of it; or a bringing into open friendship again. Man in a state of innocence was in a state of friendship with God, had many high honours and special favours conferred upon him; being made after the image and likeness of God, had all the creatures put in subjection to him, was placed in a delightful garden, had a right to eat of the fruit of all the trees in it but one; to him the creatures were brought to give them names, and an help meet was provided for him; but man being in this honour abode not long, sin soon sepa. rated chief friends, and he was drove out of his paradisaical Eden; and appeared to be, as all his posterity are, not only at a distance from God, and alienation to him, but enmity against him, as the carnal mind of man is; and in this state the elect of God were considered, when Christ undertook in covenant to be the mediator of reconciliation for them; and in this condition he found them when he came to make actual reconciliation for them; you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, Col. i. 21. and hereby has brought them into an open state of grace and favour

with God; into greater nearness to him, and into a more exalted state of friendship with him than was lost by the fall.

It should be observed. that the elect of God are considered in the covenant of grace as fallen creatures; and that Christ being a mediator of reconciliation and satisfaction for them, supposes them such. In the covenant of works there was no mediator; whilst that covenant remained unbroken, and man continued in a state of integrity, he needed none; he could correspond and converse with God without one; though he might have knowledge of Christ as the Son of God, and second person in the Trinity, which was necessary to his worhip of him, yet he knew nothing of him as mediator, nor needed him as such; he could hear the voice of God, and abide in his presence without fear or shame; it was after he had sinned, and not before, that he hid himself among the trees, on hearing the voice of God: nor is there any mediator for angels, none was provided, nor admitted, for the fallen angels, they were not spared; and the good angels needed not any, having never sinned; they are admitted into the divine presence without a mediator to introduce them; they stand before God, and behold his face continually. Some have thought that Christ is the medium of union of angels with God, and of elect men, chosen in Christ, and considered as unfallen, which I will not object to; but a mediator of reconciliation and satisfaction, Christ is only to fallen men, and they needed one; a reconciliation was necessary, and without such a mediator the purposes of God concerning elect men, the covenant of grace made on their account, the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the salvation of men, could not have been accomplished; nor the perfections of God, particularly his justice and holiness, glorified in it.

Sin has been committed, which is offensive to God, provoking to the eyes of glory and deserving of his wrath, even of eternal death; the law broken, which reflects dishonour on the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; justice injured and affronted, and which insisted on making a satisfaction, and that nothing less than perfect obedience to the law, and a bearing the penalty of it; fallen man could not make his peace with God, nor reconcile himself to him on such terms; Christ, as mediator of the covenant, undertook to make reconciliation for elect men; and God set him and sent him forth to be, and he is become the propitiation for their sins; and God is pacified towards them for all that they have done, and has taken away all his wrath, and turned himself from the fierceness of his anger, and removed all the visible marks and effects of his displeasure.

Nor is this reconciliation Christ is the Mediator of, as thus stated, any contradiction to the everlasting love of God, to his elect in Christ; where there is the strongest love amongst men, when an offence is committed, there is need of reconciliation to be made. David had the strongest affection for his son Absalom as can well be imagined; Absalom committed a very heinous offence,

murdered his brother Amnon, David's first-born, and heir to his crown; he fled from justice, and from his father's wrath and vengeance he might justly fear; Joab became a mediator between them, first more secretly, by means of the woman of Tekoah, and then more openly in his own person, and succeeded so far as to obtain leave that the young man be called from his exile; nevertheless, when returned, David would not admit him into his presence until two years after, when, and not before, a full and open reconciliation was made and declared; and yet all this while the heart of David was towards his son, and continued, even notwithstanding his unnatural rebellion against him. And so the love of God to his people is from everlasting to everlasting, invariably the same with him there is no shadow of turning; there is no change in God, as not from love to hatred, so not from hatred to love; he is in one mind, and none can turn him, no, not Christ himself; nor was it the work of Christ's mediation, nor the design of it, to turn the heart of God; for that proceeded according to the unalterable and unchangeable will of God; nor did the mediation of Christ procure, nor was it intended to procure the love and favour of God to his elect; so far from it, that itself is the fruit, and effect of that love, John iii. 16. Rom. v. 8. 1 John iv. 10. It was love that set forth and sent forth Christ to be the propitiation for sin; it was owing to the good will and free favour of God, that a Mediator was admitted for sinful men; and it ap→ peared still greater, in providing one to be a Mediator of reconciliaton for them; and the reconciliation the scriptures speak of, as made by the blood, sufferings, and death of Christ, is not a reconciliation of God to them, as to his love, but justice; but a reconciliation of them to God; and that not so much of their persons, which are always acceptable and well-pleasing to God, as considered in Christ, in whom they were chosen, as for their sins, Rom. v. 10. 2 Cor. v. 19. Col. i. 20, 21. Heb. ii. 17. and which is no other than a satisfaction for them to divine justice; for the reconciliation of their persons in that way, is not to the love and affections of God, from which they were never separated, but to the justice of God, offended by their sins; and the whole is a reconciliation of the divine perfections to each other in the business of salvation; for though these agree among themselves, yet with respect to that, had different claims to make; the love and grace of God pleaded for mercy, and mercy pleaded for itself, that it might be shewn to the objects of love; but justice insisted on it, that satisfaction be made for the offences committed; the difficulty was how to answer these several pleas; Christ interposed, and offered himself in the covenant, to be a mediator of reconciliation, or to make satisfaction for sin; and so mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and peace have kissed cach other. Reconciliation then is the principal branch of Christ's office in the covenant as Mediator. Another follows, namely.

His intercession, or advocacy, which proceeds upon reconciliation or satisfac tion made; If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins, 1 John ii. 1, 2. and it is