SiS VINDICT^ EVANGELIC.E.
such an end and purpose as the carrying on of the work of mediation, committed to him ; and so it is given him in commission from the Father, who sent him into the world to do his will ; and in this sense had he, the Son of man, power to forgive sins whilst he was on the earth. And to Mr B.'s ninth chapter this may suffice.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Of Christ's prophetical office.
The eighth chapter in Mr Biddle is of Christ's prophetical ofSce, or his entrance into a dealing with Christ in respect of his offices, as he hath done with him in respect of his person already.
His first question is, —
Ques. Is not Ch'ist dignified, as with the title of mediator, so also with that of prophet?
Ans. Acts iii. 20, 22.
1. Mr B. tells us, chap, iv., that Christ is dignified with the title of God, though he be not so ; and here that he is dignified with the title of a prophet, but leaves it at large whether he were so indeed or no. We are resolved in the case. The first promise made of him by God to Adam was of him generally as a mediator, particularly as a priest, as he was to break the head of Satan by the bruising of his own heel ; the next solemn renovation of it to Abraham was of him as king, taking all nations to be his inheritance ; and the third by Moses, after the giving of the law, as a prophet to teach and instruct his redeemed people, Gen. iii, 15, xii. 2, 3, Deut. xviii. 18. And a prophet he is, the great prophet of his church; not only dignified with that title, but so he is indeed.
2. But says Mr B., " He is dignified with the title of a prophet as well as of mediator," — as though his being a prophet were con- tradistinguished from his being a mediator. Christ's teaching of his people is part of the mediation he hath undertaken. All that he doth on their part in offering gifts and sacrifices to God for them, all that he doth on the part of God towards them by instructing and ruling of them, he doth as he is the mediator between God and man, the surety of the covenant. He is not, then, a mediator and a prophet, but he who is the mediator is the high priest and prophet of his church. Nor are there any acts that he exerciseth on the one or other of these accounts but they are all acts of his mediation, and of him as a mediator. Mr B., indeed, tells us not what he under- stands by the mediation of Christ, His masters so describe it as to make it all one with his prophetical office, and nothing else; which makes me somewhat to wonder why this man seems to distinguish between them.
OF Christ's pkophetical office. 349
S. Many more notions of Mr B.'s masters are here omitted; as, that Christ was not the prophet of his people under the old testa- ment, though by his Spirit he preached even to those that were dis- obedient in the days of Noah, and it was the Spirit of Christ that was in all the prophets of old, whereby God instructed his church, 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20, i. 11; — that he is a prophet only because he hath given unto us a new law, though he promise effectually to open blind eyes, and to send his Spirit to teach us and to lead us into all truth, giving us understanding that we may know him that is true, Isa. Ixi. 1 ; Luke iv. 18; John xvi, 7-13 ; 1 John v. 20. But he lays dirt enough in our way, so that we shall not need farther to rake into the dunghill.
4. I should not have thought that Mr B. could have taken ad- vantage for his end and purpose from the place of Scripture he men- tions. Acts iii. 20, 22, "Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me," but that I find him in his next query repeating that expression, " Like unto me," and wresting of it to be the foundation of a con- ceit plainly jocular. Christ was like to Moses as he was a prophet, and like to Aaron as he was a priest, and like to David as he was a king; that is, he was represented and typified by all these, and had that likeness to them which the antitype (as the thing typified is usually but improperly called) hath to the type: but that there- fore he must not only be like them in the general office wherein the correspondency doth consist, but also in all the particular concern- ments of the office as by them administered, is to confound the type and the antitype (or rather thing typified.) Nor do the words used, either by Moses, Deut. xviii. 18, or by Peter, Acts iii. 22, intimate any such similitude or likeness between Christ and Moses as should extend to such particulars as are afterward intimated. The words of Peter are, " God shall raise you up a prophet, ws ?,«,£," rather "as he raised up me," than " like unto me," not the least similitude being intimated between them but in this, that they were both prophets, and were both to be hearkened unto. And so the word used by God to Moses, ^^^1, "sicut te" ("a prophet as thou art"), doth import, " I will raise up one that shall be a prophet as thou art a prophet." The likeness is only in the office. For such a similitude as should give the least occasion to Mr B.'s following figments there is no colour. And so the whole foundation being rooted up, the totter- ing superstruction will easily fall to the ground. But then to pro- ceed:—