Imatges de pàgina
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SERMON II.

ONE MEDIATOR,-CHRIST JESUS.

"I acknowledge no master of requests in heaven, but one; CHRIST MY MEDIATOR."—Bp. Hall.

"There are Mediators by way of satisfaction, as sureties are between the creditor and the debtor; and such a Mediator was Christ, not only a Mediator, but also a surety of a better covenant."-Bp. Reynolds.

"It was necessary that our Mediator should be both God and man, that he might take care of the interests both of the Creator and his creatures." -Maxims of Piety. Bp. Wilson.

"All our services need to be commended and completed by the beloved Son's perfectly well-pleasing performances; they need to be cleansed and hallowed, by passing through the hands of our most holy and undefiled High Priest; to become sweet and savoury (or to receive that boμny ɛbwdías, which St. Paul speaks of), from being offered up in his censer. In fine, as all our actions should, in our intention, be works of religion dedicated to God's service and honour, sacrifices, as it were, of gratitude and homage to God, so they ought all to be offered up in the name of Jesus."-Isaac Barrow, ii. 325.

Beus propitius esto mihi peccatori!

1 TIM. ii. 5.

"There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

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THE expectation, then, of the heathen sage hath been realized! To those that sat in darkness, and whose most subtle knowledge was but ignorantly conceived, a divine communication hath been made! that heavenly Messenger hath appeared, compared with whom the wisest of the wise are fools, and the wisdom of the Greek foolishness. That saying of the prophet hath come to pass; "And after many days shall they be visited "," and "the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously 3." "The Lord of Hosts hath visited his flock!" That which was looked for from the East with a constant yearning, though with

'Socrat. apud Plat. 'Aλк‹ß. AɛUT. ii. 150. Steph. § 23. åvayκαῖον οὖν ἐστι περιμένειν ἕως ἂν ΤΙΣ ΜΑΘΗ, ὡς δεῖ πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους διακεῖσθαι. 2 Isai. xxiv. 22.

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3 Ib. 23.

Zech. x. 3.

hope deferred even unto sickness of heart, the desire of all nations, hath come, "God hath visited and redeemed his people"."

And so, the truth we read of in the prophet Zechariah, "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name One ";" is more fully and more particularly set forth in the text, and in the following passages from the Romans and Ephesians. "Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith "." "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." But inasmuch as "in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost "," it is to the great and palmary doctrine of Christ's mediation that the text will now be applied, in the Apostle's elsewhere words, "to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant"."

And here, first of all, the everlasting truth that there is "one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus," contains in it, (I quote at length the words of an eminent divine,) "all that

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