religion which is strictly Christian; without believing of which, and practising upon it, we cannot be truly said to lead a Christian life, how well soever we may live. For there is no doubt, but upon the motives and principles of natural religion, a man, to whom Christianity was never sufficiently proposed, may, upon due consideration and a hearty endeavour, reclaim himself to a very pious and virtuous life, as it is apparent many of the heathen philosophers did; but no man can be pious and virtuous in a Christian sense, who is not so upon the Christian obligations; for the principles from and by which we act are the very life and soul of our religion; and therefore, as it is the rational soul that specifies the man a rational animal, so it is our Christian principles that specify our religion Christian religion. Wherefore, though the piety and virtue of a heathen may be materially the same with that of a Christian; yet it is impossible it should be formally Christian, unless it be animated and acted with the belief of

Christianity. So that if we leave out this, and practise only upon the above-named principles, we are at best but wise and honest heathens, and there is nothing in all our religion but the simple dictates of mere natural reason","-nothing salvifical3, or, mighty to save. "It is true, to live according to mere natural

2 See Scott's Christian Life, Works, vol. ii., p. 226, 8vo. Of "Christ the only Mediator."

3 This powerful word is from that deep thinker, Sir Thomas Browne.

reason, is all that God expects from those to whom Christianity hath never been proposed; for how can he expect that they should live by principles, which they either never heard of, or have not sufficient reason to believe? But, where Christianity hath been made known, and sufficiently proposed, we cannot be good men unless we believe it; and if we believe it, we cannot be good Christians unless we practise upon it. And since Christianity hath improved the duties of natural religion upon new principles, and enforced them with new obligations, to render our piety and virtue strictly and properly Christian, it is necessary we should believe these new principles, and act upon these new obligations; otherwise we are at best but mere natural men, in the true sense of the Apostle; i. e. men who are merely conducted by the light of natural reason, and have not received the things of the Spirit of God',' that is, the new principles and obligations which Christianity superadds to natural religion."

The fact, then, being stated, that all who profess and call themselves Christians, are to see and to do every thing through the light of a Mediator, let us next see what a Mediator, or a μeoirns, is; and how the word is used in Scripture, and why. And this knowledge is expedient for us, and the Scripture is its source: "For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding"."

1 Cor. ii. 14.

5 Prov. ii. 6.

Literally, a mediator is one that goes between two others; just as we read of Aaron in the book of Numbers," he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed "." In that sense he was literally a mediator, without taking into consideration his office. But, in fact, we must couple the two. Generally, then, a mediator is one who transacts or manages between two parties, whether to obtain some favour from the one party for the other, or else to reconcile their difference; and of course the term implies three parties,—the two at issue, and the third that makes them at one. Thus much for the literal sense of the word. But in Scripture it bears a sense above all others, and in that sense is only applied twice,-to Moses, and to Christ. The former tells the Israelites, in the book of Deuteronomy, "I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you the word of the Lord ";" at the delivery of the law, that is, when "it was ordained by angels, in the hand of a mediator," as we read in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, when he tells us that "a mediator is not a mediator of one,

8."

but God is one ";" God, that is, was one party, the Israelites the other, and Moses the umpire, "daysman "," or mediator between them, at what time the Lord made those statutes "between him and the

7 Deut. v. 5.

8

Gal. iii. 19, 20.

"Num. xvi. 48. "Neither is there any daysman" (margin, umpire; LXX. μεσίτης) "betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both."

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children of Israel in mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses 1."

But the still stricter application of the word mediator is to our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, -the one Mediator between God and man; "for this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house"." "And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant," but the Lord our Righteousness, the Mediator of the New Covenant, though He emptied Himself of his transcendant glory, and "took upon him the form of a servant," was "God blessed for ever,"-" the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

These several senses explained, it remains to answer the third point proposed, why, that is, Christ is called the "one mediator between God and man.” And here, "holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling," let me especially entreat you to "consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus 4." For it was for your sakes and mine that He took upon Himself this office,-that He was “incarnate of the Holy Ghost by the Virgin Mary, and was made man,"-" the man Christ Jesus." Merely as man, He would have been as far off from God as other men are, conceived and born in sin, and sinners from the womb. But, as "perfect God and

1

1 Lev. xxvi. 46.

3 Ib. 5.

2 Heb. iii. 3.

Ib. 1.

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perfect man," the case is altered. For He was God from everlasting, man in time. He that spake of Himself saying, "I and the Father are one"," was manifest in the flesh "." He that "was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God'. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross 8."

In a word, our "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us "," bowed the heavens and came down, "for us, frail dust, emptied his glory e'en to nakedness'." For as "He could not mediate with God, except He was God, so, except He was man, He could not have mediated for men; there being many things to be done in order to the perfecting of this mediation, which none could do but he who was truly man himself. And therefore, in the text, the Apostle calls Him ‘the man,' or, as the Greek word (av0pwTOS) without an article may be rendered, Man Christ Jesus; man in general, another Adam, sustaining

6 1 Tim. iii. 16.

5 John x. 30. "Who being very good, and knowing it to be no presumption in him to equalize himself to God the Father."—Bp. Hall. The other interpretation of οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο is, “he caught not at it as a prize, he was not ostentatious of his equality with God." It was embraced by the lamented Dr. Burton.

Phil. ii. 6—8.

Matt. i. 23; Isa. vii. 14.

1 Milton's Ode on the Circumcision. See Beveridge's Sermon on this text, Works, vol. iii. p. 59, ed. 8vo.