First, For government : to attend all cases, to hear all prayers, to supply all wants, defend us against all enemies, to require an abso- lute and total submission to his laws, ordinances, and institutions, so as we may venture our eternal interests upon his word : Ps. xlv. 11, ' He is thy God, worship thou him.'
Secondly, For influence : none else hath power to convey the Spirit, and to become a vital principle to us, for that is proper to God to have life in himself, and to communicate it to others : 1 Tim. vi. 13, ' I charge thee in the sight of God, who quickeueth all things,' &c. Whatever men may think of the life of grace, yet surely as to the life of glory he is the only life-making Spirit, 1 Cor. xv. 45. Now this honour is not given to the angels, much less is it due to any man, nor can it be imagined by him, for none can influence the heart of man but God.
3. The reasons why this body must have such a head.
[1.] Every society must be under some government, without which they would soon dissolve and come to nothing. Much more the church, which, because of its manifold necessities, and the high ends unto which it is designed, more needs it than any other society.
[2.] The privileges are so great, which are these : pardon of sins, and sanctifying grace, and at length eternal glory.
(1.) Pardon of sins. By this union with him, ' he is made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,' 2 Cor. v. 21. A sacrifice for sin, that we might be justified and accepted with God.
(2.) Sanctifying grace by the communication of his Spirit. We not only agree with him in the same common human nature, but the same holy nature may be in us that was in Christ, Heb. ii. 11. We are doubly akin, ratione incarnationis suce, et regenerationis nostrce.
(3.) At length eternal glory followeth. For what is the condition of the head, that is also the condition of the members. First Christ, then they that are Christ's. And also Christ is set up as a pattern, to which the church must be conformed, Kom. viii. 29. Bating the pre- eminence due to the head, we are to be glorious as he is glorious.
[3.] The duties are far above bare human power and strength ; therefore we need the influence of our head, John xv. 5. To obey God, to believe in his name, to deny ourselves in what is most dear and precious to us in the world, to be fortified against all temptations, are duties not so easily done as said.
[4.] We have so foully miscarried already that he will no more trust his honour in our hands, but hath put the whole treasure of grace into the hands of Christ for our use, John i. 16. So John iii. 35, 36, ' The Father hath put all things into his hands. He that believes on the Son hath everlasting life : and he that believes not the Son hath not seen life.' God would not leave us to ourselves to live apart from him, but hath put all things that belong to our happiness into his hands, that, being united to him, virtue might be communi-
462 CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. [SeR. V.
cated to us, even all the gifts and graces of the Spirit. They are not intrusted with us, but with him ; and we shall have no more of pardon, grace, and glory, but what we have in and from the Son of God.
Use 1. Is information, to show how much we are bound to God for putting this honour upon us, that Christ should be our head. Christ is over the angels in point of superiority and government, but not properly said to be an head to them, in that strict notion which implies relation to the church. As to influence, he is not a head to them. You will say they are confirmed by him ; but the mediation of Christ presupposes the fall of Adam, for Christ had not been mediator if Adam had never fallen. Now, if Christ should come to confirm angels, if this had not been, is groundless ; besides, Christ merited for those that have benefit by him, and the consummate act of his merit is his death. But where is it said that he died for angels ?
Use 2. It informs us of the shameless usurpation abetted by the papists, who call the pope head of the church. None can be a head of the church to whom the church is not a body ; but it would be strange to say the church is the pope's body. None can be a governing head of the church but he who is a mediatorial head of vital influence. The papists, indeed, distinguish these things — ascribe the one to the pope, the other to Christ ; but the scripture allows not this writ of partition. None can be the one but he must also be the other. But they say he is a ministerial head ; but a ministerial universal head that shall give law to other churches and Christian societies, and if they depend not on him, shall be excluded from the privileges of a Christian church. This is, as to matter of right, sacrilege ; for this honour is too great for any man, and Christ hath appointed no such head, and therefore it is a manifest usurpation of his royal prerogative without his leave and consent. And, as to matter of fact, it is impos- sible— the church being scattered throughout all parts of the world, which can have no commerce with such an head in matters essential to its government and edification. They that first instituted such an universal head, besides that they had no authority or commission so to do, were extremely imprudent, and perverters of Christianity. Therefore let us consider how it came up at first, and how it hath been exercised. It came up at first for the prevention of schisms and divisions among Christians. They thought fit the church should be divided into certain dioceses, according to the secular divisions of the empire, which at first were thirteen in number, under the names of patriarchs and bishops of the first see, who should join in common care and counsel for the good of the Christian commonwealth. Among these, some who, in regard of the cities wherein they resided, were more eminent than the rest, and began to encroach upon the others' jurisdiction, till at length they were reduced to four. The bishop of Kome, being the imperial city, had the precedency, not of authority super reliquos, but of place and order inter reliquos. It was jpotestas honoraria, a difi'erence or authority by courtesy, afterwards ordinaria, an ordinary power ; then what was de facto given was afterwards chal- lenged dejure.