SERM. ginal and true occafion of the inftitution of I. this Office; which cannot otherwise be known than by taking a brief view of the ftate and condition of human nature, with regard to the favour, or difpleasure, of Almighty God. And here then, if we confider mankind in their prefent corrupt and degenerate condition, as fallen from the divine grace and favour, and ftripped of thofe mighty privileges to which they had been intitled, as polluted with fin, and therefore objects of divine vengeance; as having their understanding darkened, and therefore not able to difcern clearly the will of God; as having their will biaffed and depraved, and therefore utterly averse to obey it; this melancholy reflection fuggefts nothing by itself but horror and defpair, and the fearful forebodings of eternal mifery.

It was beneath the Majefty of God to tranfact immediately with fuch abandoned wretches: A nature fo polluted and defiled with fin, could never be admitted to expoftulate with him, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity*. Or if he had fo far condefcended, yet our infirmity could never have endured the brightness and terror of his presence. When, though veiled with a cloud, he defcended on Mount Sinai, and gave laws to

*Hab. i. 13.

I.

his chofen and peculiar people; they were SERM. fo fhocked, we find, at his appearance, that they intreated that voice might not speak to them any more; nay, and fo terrible was the fight, that even Mofes himself confeffed he exceedingly feared and quaked *. In fhort, it was, on one hand neceflary, we should be recovered from the dominion of our fins, should have our minds enlightened, our wills rectified, and our offences expiated, before we could be qualified to approach our Maker, or be reinftated in his favour; and yet, on the other hand, it was impoffible we should ever in our own perfons pay the debt we owed to the divine Juftice, either for ourselves,or one another; fince no man, we are told, may deliver his brother, or make agreement unto God for him ; but it cofts infinitely more, to redeem our Souls, than we are able to discharge: So that, if no other method could have been found out, this matter must have been let alone for ever; and we, for what appears, had funk and perished in that mifery we had thrown ourselves into.

But, behold an expedient truly just, and wife, and merciful, and every way worthy of God. Becaufe, man was neither able, nor worthy, to appear as advocate in his

*Exod. xx. 19, Deut. v. 24-27. xviii. 16. Heb. xii. 19-21. + Pfal xlix. 7, 8,

SERM. own caufe; therefore, there was one MediaI. tor appointed between God and Man, the Man ~Chrift Jefus, in whom the human Na

ture, by a perfonal myfterious union, was
affumed to the Divine. In him the Father
is well pleafed †, and admits him as our
Sponsor to plead in our behalf: Him there-
fore, God may hear, without dimunition of
his own honour: Him alfo man may truft
with full affurance of fuccefs: He offered
up himself a propitiatory facrifice for the fins
of the whole world: He pleads the fatis-
faction and merits of that facrifice, and
makes for ever interceffion for us ||: He came
to preach the gospel to the poor ** and in-
ftruct mankind in the nature of their duty;
He is laftly made the Head of his body the
Church, and has all power committed
to him both in heaven and in earth ‡‡. In
these instances confift the feveral parts
of his office as Mediator between God and
Man. In fome of which it is obvious at
first fight; he tranfacts from God to Men,
in others for Men with God, but in all, as
a middle perfon, or between both.
to the end these offices might be executed
in his abfence, as far as prefent execution
fhould be requifite; that the Catholick

And

+ Mat. iii. 17. ‡ John ii. 2, **Luke iv, 18. ++ Col. i. 18.

Church

Church diffused throughout the world SERM. might be duly taught and governed, and I. the Body here on earth correfpond with the acts of its Head and High-Prieft now in heaven; we find, that he appointed certain Substitutes to fupply the room of him the only Mediator. He fent his Apostles, as his Father had fent him, to fuftain his offices on earth, and ordain others after them, that might keep up a perpetual fucceffion.

Were this reflection but in any due meafure attended to, the nature of the Priefthood would be much better understood than

ufually it is. It would then
It would then appear, that
when the Ministers of Chrift teach and in-
ftruct the people, they do but difcharge
that prophetic office, begun by their great
Lord and Master, of preaching the Gospel to
the poor: that when they by baptism re-
ceive new members into his Church, when
they remit or retain fins, abfolve or excom-
municate, ordain or deprive, when in fine
they prescribe fit rules of decency and or-
der; these are but the feveral branches of
that power and authority which their fu-
preme Lord and King has delegated to
them as his proper fubftitutes: That laftly,
when they offer up the prayers of the con-
gregation, and make a folemn memorial of
Chrift's facrifice upon the cross, they do
indeed but correfpond with the facerdotal

up

SERM. office of our dear Redeemer, who having I. offered himself a facrifice for fin, now liveth to plead the fatisfaction and merits of that facrifice, and make for ever interceffion for us.

Nor is it of any moment here to object, that there are different orders and degrees of men appointed in the Church; and confequently fince all cannot be invefted with the fame powers (for then they were no longer different) it seems abfurd to speak of the Priesthood in general as intitled thereunto: I fay this objection is of no weight, because although the Bishop only (in whofe order alone the whole Priesthood is contained) be primarily and chiefly the Minister of Chrift; yet he may commit fome part of his authority, to other inferior orders in fubordination to himself : And therefore not the Bishop only, but every inferior Priest and Deacon too, as far as he acts by virtue of that power fo delegated to him, fo far he also represents the common High-Priest of our profeffion.

From the whole, we may collect, that the end of the Levitical and Chriftian Priesthood is the fame; that they point equally to Chrift the only eternal and unchangeable High-Prieft*. Only in the first, this end was clouded and wrapt up in myftick types and ceremonies; whereas in the *Heb. vii. 24.

other,