(othly,) The time of death, whether natural, or violent for his sake, is a season of the same nature. So Stephen recommended his departing soul into his hands with solemn prayer. " Lord Jesus," said he, "receive my spirit." To the same purpose have been the prayers of many of his faithful martyrs in the flames, and under the sword. In the same manner doth the faith of innumerable holy souls work in the midst of their death-bed gToans. And the more we have been in the exercise of faith on him in our lives, the more ready will it be in the approaches of death, to make its resort unto him in a peculiar manner.
And it may be other instances of an alike nature may be given unto the same purpose.
An answer unto an inquiry which may possibly arise from what we have insisted on, shall close this discourse. For whereas the
SEASONS OF INVOKING CHRIST. 119
Lord Jesus Christ, as Mediator, dotli intercede with the Father for us, it may be inquired, Whether we may pray unto him, that he would so intercede on our behalf ; whether this be comprised in the duty of invocation or prayer unto him ?
Ans. 1. There is no precedent nor example of any such thing, of any such prayer, in the Scripture ; and it is not safe for us to venture on duties not exemplified therein. Nor can any instance of a necessary duty be given, of whose performance we have not an example in the Scripture. 2. In the invocation of Christ, we " honour the Son, even as we honour the Father." Wherefore his divine person is therein the formal object of our faith. We con- sider him not therein as acting in his mediatory office towards God for us, but as he who hath the absolute power and disposal of all the good things we pray for. And in our invocation of him, our faith is fixed on, and terminated on his person. But — as he is in the discharge of his mediatory office — through him " our faith and hope are in God," 1 Peter i. 21. He who is the Mediator, or Jesus Christ the Mediator— as God and man in one person — is the object of all divine honour and worship. His person, and both his natures in that person, is so the object of religious worship. This is that which we are in the proof and demonstration of Howbeit it is his divine nature, and not his discharge of the office of mediation, that is the formal reason and object of divine worship. For it consists in an ascription of infinitely divine excellencies and properties unto him whom we so worship. And to do this on any account but of the divine nature, is in itself a contradiction, and in them that do it idolatry. Had the Son of God never been incarnate, he had been the object of all divine worship. And could there have been a mediator between God and us who was not God also, he could never have been the object of any divine worship or invocation. Wherefore Christ the Mediator, God and man in one person, is in all things to be honoured, even as we honour the Father ; but it is as he is God, equal with the Father, and not as Mediator — in which respect he is inferior unto him. With respect unto his divine per- son, we ask immediately of himself in our supplications ;— as he is Mediator — we ask of the Father in his name. The different actings of faith on him, under the same distinction, shall be declared in the next chapter.
120 THE PEESON OF CHRIST.
CHAPTER X.
The Principle of the Assignation of Divine Honour unto the Pei-son of Christ, in both the Brandies of it; which is Faith in Him.
The principle and spring of this assignation of divine honour unto Christ, in both the branches of it, is faith in him. And this hath been the foundation of all acceptable religion in the world since the entrance of sin. There are some who deny that faith in Christ was 7'equired frovi the beginning, or was necessary unto the worship of God, or the justification and salvation of them that did obey him. For, whereas it must be granted that " witliout faith it is impossible to please God," which the apostle proves by instances from the foundation of the world, Heb. xi. — they suppose it is faith in God under the general notion of it, mthout any respect unto Christ, that is intended. It is not my design to contend with any, nor expressly to confute such ungrateful opinions — such pernicious errors. Such this is, which — being pursued in its proper tendency — strikes at the very foundation of Christian religion; for it at once deprives us of all contribution of light and truth from the Old Testament. Some- what I have spoken before of the faith of the saints of old concerning him. I shall now, therefore, only confirm the truth, by some prin- cijDles which are fundamental in the faith of the Gospel.
1. The first promise. Gen. iii. 15 — truly called UpojnvayyiXio,/ — was revealed, proposed, and given, as containing and expressing the only means of delivery from that apostasy from God, with all the effects of it, under which our first parents and all their posterity were cast by sin. The destruction of Satan and his work in his introduction of the state of sin, by a Saviour and Deliverer, was prepared and provided for in it. This is the very foundation of the faith of the church ; and if it be denied, nothing of the economy or dispensation of God towards it from the beginning can be understood. The whole doctrine and story of the Old Testament must be rejected as useless, and no foundation be left in the truth of God for the introduction of the New.