[2.] Here is Christ as mediator. We have great advantage by that consideration.
(1.) Hereby w-e see God in our nature, and so near at hand, and I'eady to help us, and more accessible for us to come at, than as God considered in the mere deity : John i. 14, ' The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.' God is come down, and become our neighbour, yea, like one of us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. Though he has removed his dwelling again into heaven, yet it is for our sakes ; our nature is there, though our persons be not. He is sat down as our agent: Heb. viii. 1, 'We have such an high priest, wdio is sat on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens ; ' Heb. iv.
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15, 'For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' God in our flesh will not be strange to us. We are bidden, Isa. Iviii. 7, 'not to hide ourselves from our own flesh;' Gen. xxix. 14, ' And Laban said unto him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh ; and he abode with him.'
(2.) In the mystery of redemption, all the divine persons put them- selves in an order for our faith to take hold of. Faith may close with any one of the persons of the blessed Trinity, provided we divide not the divine essence in our thoughts ; but in the mystery of redemption all is made obvious and handy to our faith ; the Father considered as the fountain of the deity, to whom we come for grace and mercy ; the second person clothed with our flesh, througli whom we come ; being assisted and enabled to come by the Holy Spirit, who is the third person : Eph. ii. 18, 'For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father.' This is that full and satisfying object with which faith closeth when it acteth most distinctly. In the Father, there we see original love or original authority, and infinite free grace : John iii. 16, ' For God so loved the world, that he gave his only- begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.' In the Son, everlasting righteousness and redemption : Heb. ix. 12, ' Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.' In the Spirit, infinite virtue and power, for the applying of Christ's purchase ; for he createth a new .spirit in us, he createth the fruit of the lips, Peace, peace. It is God that must be satisfied, and by God must this satisfaction be made, and by him that is God must this satisfaction be applied, before we can have the comfort of it. You have all in one verse : 1 Peter i. 2, ' Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sancti- fication of the Spii'it, unto obedience, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.' So ver. 21, 22, 'Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and liope might be in God, seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit.' In the Father we see elective love, in the Son there is full redemption, and by the Spirit effectual apjsHca- tion. The Father appoints blessedness to us, the Son purchaseth it for us, and the Holy Ghost carrieth it on powerfully and invincibly. The salvation of poor sinners is a work wherein all the persons of the blessed Trinity are engaged, and do concur therein by a several distinct per- sonal ojieration. Surely that is a noble work wherein such agents are employed ; and our hearts must be raised to give equal glory to all the persons, knowingly, and distinctly, and explicitly ; the Father out of his good pleasure electing sinners to grace and glory ; the Son by his obedience and suffering purchasing the same for them ; the Holy Ghost by his power working grace in them, and preparing them for that blessedness which the Father hath appointed, and Christ hath pur- chased for them.
(3.) In believing in Christ as mediator, our troubles are stopped at the fountain-head. It is not the wrath and fury of the creature, but the wrath of God, which maketh us miserable; and nothing can fully
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comfort us if God be apprehended as an enemy, or not fully reconciled to us. Now ' God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,' 2 Cor. V. 19. There was enmity stopped ; God in our nature suffering for us, dying for us, and paying a full ransom for our sins ; so that now all true believers may draw nigh to him as a reconciled God; for Christ hath merited favour for all those who come to God by him.
(4.) By believing in Christ as mediator we may be assured of his purchase of glory for us, which is the great cordial against all trouble Avhatsoever : 1 Thes. v. 9, 10, ' For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.' Hebiddeth them ' comfort one another with these words,' ver. 18. When a great judg- ment is a-coming upon men because of their sins, a believer is affliction- proof, because he hath secured his eternal interests by Christ. Here our Lord Jesus telleth them he was going to heaven to prepare a place for them. "Whilst we flatter ourselves with temporal hopes, we lie open to a delusion and a disappointment. If we are kept alive, if we si and in the judgment, whether we sleep or wake, day and night, here is our comfort ; other things must be left to God's will.