conferred on Him, with full command in heaven and on earth above all and over all created things, and because the dignity was conferred on Him of further discharging [the duties of] the sacerdotal office, in that action which was to be performed in heaven by a more sublime High Priest [facto] constituted in

heaven itself.

XII. In relation to the Priesthood, the state of humiliation was necessary; because it was the part of Christ to appear in Heaven before the face of his Father sprinkled with his own blood, and to intercede for believers: It was also necessary in relation to his Regal Office; because, (and in this behold the administration of the Prophetical Office placed in subordination to the Regal!) because [debuit] it was his duty to send the Word and the Spirit from heaven, and to administer from the throne of his majesty all things in the name of his Father, and especially his church, by conferring on those who obey Him the blessings promised in his word and sealed by his Spirit, and by inflicting evils on the disobedient after they have abused the patience of God as long as his justice could bear it. Of this administration the last act will be the universal judgment, for which we are now waiting. "Come, Lord Jesus!"

DISPUTATION XXXIX.

ON THE WILL AND COMMAND OF GOD THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST, BY WHICH THEY WILL AND COMMAND THAT RELIGION BE PERFORMED TO THEM BY SINFUL MAN.

I. IN ADDITION to the things that God has done in Christ, and Christ has done through the command of the Father, for the redemption of mankind who were lost through sin, by which both of them have merited that [religionem] religious homage should be performed to them by sinful man;-and in addition to the fact, that the Father has constituted Christ the Saviour and Head, with full power and capability of saving through the administration of his Priestly and Regal Offices, on account of which power Christ is worthy to be worshipped with religious honours, and able to reward his worshippers, that He may not be worshipped in vain ;-it was requisite that the will of God the Father and of Christ should be subjoined, by which they willed and commanded that religious worship should be offered to them, lest the performance of religion should be "will-worship," or superstition.

II. It was the will of God, that this command should be proposed through the mode of a covenant, that is, through the mutual stipulation and promise of the contracting parties ;-of a covenant indeed which is never to be disannulled or to perish, which is therefore denominated" the new covenant," and is ratified by the blood of Jesus Christ as Mediator.

III. On this account, and because Christ has been constituted by the Father a Prince and Lord, with the full possession of all the blessings necessary to salvation, it is also called "a Testament" or "Will: Therefore He also, as the Testator, is dead; and by his death has confirmed the testamentary promise which had previously been made, concerning the obtaining of the eternal inheritance by the remission of sins.

IV. The stipulation on the part of God and Christ is, that God shall be God and Father in Christ [to a believer] if in the name and by the command of God he acknowledges Christ as his Lord and Saviour; that is, if he believe in God through Christ, and in Christ, and if he yield to both of them love, worship, honour, fear, and [integram] complete obedience as prescribed.

V. The promise on the part of God the Father and of Christ is, that God will be the God and Father, and that Christ will be the Saviour, (through the administration of his Sacerdotal and Regal Offices,) of those who have faith in God the Father, and in Christ, and who through faith yield obedience to them; that is, God the Father and Christ will account the performance of religious duty to be grateful, and will crown it with a reward. VI. On the other hand, the promise of sinful man is, that he will believe in God and in Christ, and through faith will yield compliance or render obedience. But the stipulation is, that God be willing to be mindful of his compact and holy [testimonii] declaration.

VII. Christ intervenes between the two parties: On the part of God, He proposes the stipulation, and confirms the promise with his blood; he likewise works a persuasion in the hearts of believers, and [obsignat] affixes to it his attesting seal, that the promise will be ratified. But, on the part of sinful man, He promises [to the Father] that by the efficacy of his Spirit Leffecturum ut homo præstet] He will cause man to perform the things which he has promised to his God: And, on the other hand, he requires of the Father, that, mindful of his own promise, He will deign to bestow on [talibus] those who answer this description, or believers, the forgiveness of all their sins, and life eternal. He likewise intervenes, by presenting to God the service performed by man,

and by rendering it grateful and acceptable to God through the odour of his own fragrance.

VIII. External [signacula] seals or tokens are also employed, to which the ancient Latin Fathers have given the appellation of "Sacraments," and which, on the part of God, seal the promise that has been made by Himself: But, on the part of men, they are "the hand-writing," or bond of that obligation by which they had bound themselves;-that nothing may in any respect be wanting which seems to be at all capable of contributing to the nature and relation of the covenant and compact into which the parties have mutually entered.

IX. From all these things are apparent the most sufficient perfection of the Christian religion, and its unparalleled excellence above all other religions, though they also be supposed to be true. Its Sufficiency consists in this,-both that it demonstrates the necessity of that duty which is to be performed by sinful man, to be completely absolute and on no account to be remissible, by which the way is closed against carnal security;-and that it most strongly fortifies against despair, not only sinners that they may be led to repentance, but also those who perform the duty that they may, through the certain hope of future blessings, persevere in the course of faith and of good works upon which they have entered. These two [despair and carnal security] are the greatest evils which are to be avoided in the whole of religion.

X. This is the Excellence of the Christian religion above every other, that all these things are transacted by the intervention of Christ our Mediator, Priest and King: In which, numerous arguments are proposed to us, both for the establishment of the necessity of its performance, and for the confirmation of hope and for the removal of despair, that cannot be shown in any other religion. On this account, therefore, it is not wonderful, that Christ is said to be the Wisdom of God and the Power of God, manifested in the Gospel for the salvation of believers.

COROLLARY.

No prayers and no duty performed by a sinner are grateful to God, except with reference to Christ; and yet people have acted properly in desiring and in beseeching God, that He would be pleased to bless King Messiah and the progress of his kingdom.

DISPUTATION XL.

ON THE PREDESTINATION OF BELIEVERS.

I. As we have hitherto treated on the object of the Christian religion, that is, on Christ and God, and on the formal reasons why religion may be usefully performed to them and ought to be ;— among which reasons, the last is the will of God, and his command that prescribes religion by [pactionem] the conditions of a covenant; and as it will be necessary now to subjoin to this a discourse on the vocation of men to a participation in that covenant; -it will not be improper for us, in this place, to insert one on the Predestination, by which God determined to treat with men according to that prescript, and by which He decreed to administer that Vocation and the means to it. First, concerning the former of these.

II. That predestination is the decree of the good pleasure of God in Christ, by which He determined within himself from all eternity to justify believers, to adopt them, and to endow them with eternal life," to the praise of the glory of his grace," and even for the declaration of his justice.

III. This predestination is evangelical, and therefore peremptory and irrevocable: And as the Gospel is purely gracious, this predestination is also gracious according to the benevolent [affectum] inclination of God in Christ. But that grace excludes every cause which can possibly be imagined to be capable of having proceeded from man, and by which God may be moved to make this decree.

IV. But we place Christ as the foundation of this predestination, and as the meritorious cause of those blessings which have been destined to believers by that decree. For the love with which God loves men absolutely to salvation, and according to which He absolutely intends to bestow on them eternal life,—this love [non est] has no existence except in Jesus Christ, the Son of his love, who, both by his efficacious communication and by his most worthy merits, is the cause of salvation, and not only the Dispenser, of recovered salvation, but likewise the solicitor, obtainer, and bringer-back of that salvation which was lost. Therefore, sufficient is not attributed to Christ, when He is called the executor of the decree which had been previously made, and without the consideration of Him as [the person] on whom that decree is founded.

V. We lay down a two-fold Matter for this predestination,

divine things, and the persons to whom the communication of them has been predestinated. (1.) Those divine things are the spiritual blessings which usually receive the appellations of grace and glory. (2.) The persons are the faithful, or believers; that is, they believe in God who justifies the ungodly, and in Christ raised from the dead. But faith, that is, the faith which is on Christ, the Mediator between God and men, presupposes sin, and likewise the knowledge or acknowledgment of it.

VI. We place the Form of this predestination in the internal act itself of God, who fore-ordains to believers this union with Christ their Head, and [communionem] a participation in his benefits. But we place the End in "the praise of the glory of the grace of God;" and as this grace is the cause of that decree, it is equitable that it should be celebrated by [illa] glory,-though God, by using it, has rendered it illustrious and glorious. In this place too occurs the mention of justice itself, as that by the intervention of which Christ was given as Mediator, and faith in Him was required; because, without this Mediator, God has neither willed to shew mercy, nor to save men without faith in Him.

VII. But as this decree of predestination is according to election, which necessarily includes reprobation, we must likewise advert to it. As opposed to election, therefore, we define reprobation to be the decree of God's anger or of his severe will, by which from all eternity He determined to condemn to eternal death all unbelievers and impenitent persons, for the declaration of his power and anger; yet so, that unbelievers are visited with this punishment, not only on account of unbelief, but likewise on account of other sins from which they might have been delivered through faith in Christ.

VIII. To both these is severally subjoined the execution of each; the acts of which are performed in that order in which they have been ordained by God in the decree itself; and the objects both of the decree and of its execution are completely the same and uniform, or they are invested with the same formal reason:Though they are considered in the decree, as in the mind of God, through the understanding; but in the execution of it, as such actually in existence.

IX. This predestination is the foundation of Christianity, of salvation, and of the certainty of salvation; and St. Paul treats upon it in his epistle to the Romans; (viii, 28-30;) in the ninth and following chapters of the same epistle; and in the first chapter of that to the Ephesians.