OF Christ's kingly office. 387
every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue sliall confess to God." To Christ, exalted in his dominion and sovereignty, we live and die; to him do we bow the knee and confess, that is, perform all worship, and stand before him, as at his disposal ; we swear by him ; — as in the place from whence these words are taken.
2. That our religious, divine, and spiritual worship, hath a double or twofold respect unto Jesus Christ:' — (1.) As he is the ultimate formal object of our worship, being God, to be blessed for evermore, as was before declared. (2.) As the way, means, and cause, of all the good we receive from God in our religious approach to him.
In the first sense, we call upon the name of Christ, 1 Cor. i. 2 : in the other, we ask the Father in his name, according to his command, John xvi. 23. In the first, we respect him as one with the Father, as one who thinks it no robbery to be equal with him, Phil. ii. 6 ; the " fellow of the Lord of hosts," Zech. xiii. 7: in the other, as one that doth intercede yet with the Father, Heb. vii. 25, praying him yet to send the Comforter to us, being yet, in that regard, less than the Father; and in which respect as he is our head, so God is his head, as the apostle tells us, 1 Cor. xi. 3, " The head of every man" (that is, every believer) " is Christ, and the head of Christ is God." In this sense is he the way whereby we go to the Father, John xiv. 6; and through him we have an access to the Father, Eph. ii. 18, Aia XpiSTov, rrpog to\i Uarspa. In our worship, with our faith, love, hope, trust, and prayers, we have an access to God. Thus, in our approach to the throne of grace, we look upon Christ as the high priest over the house of God, Heb. iv. 14-16, by whom we have admission, who offers up our prayers and supplications for us. Rev. viii. 8. In this state, as he is the head of angels and of his whole church, so is he in subordination to the Father; and therefore he is said at the same time to receive revelations from the Father, and to send an angel as his servant on his work and employment, Rev. i. 1. And thus is he our advocate with the Father, 1 John ii. 1. In this respect, then, seeing that in our access to God, even the Father, as the Father of him and his, John xx. 17, with our Avorship, homage, service, our faith, love, hope, confidence, and supplications, eyeing Christ as our mediator, advocate, intercessor, upon whose account we are ac- cepted, for whose sake we are pardoned, through whom we have admission to God, and by whom we have help and assistance in all that we have to do with God; it is evident, I say, that in this respect he is not eyed nor addressed to in our worship as the ulti- mate, adequate, formal object of it, but as the meritorious cause of
1 " Unum Dcum, ct unum ejus Filium, et vcrbum, imaginemque, quantum possumus supplicationibus, et honoribus vencreniur, offerentes Deo universorum Domino precos per suum unigenitum : cui prius cas adliibemus rogantes ut ipse, qui est propitiator pro peccatis nostris, dignetur tanquam pontifex preces nostras, et sacrificia et intci'ccs- siones, offerre Deo." — Origen, aJ Celsum, lib. viii.
SS8 VINDICI^ EVANGELICiE.
our approach and acceptance, and so of great consideration therein. And therefore, whereas, Kom. iii. 25, it is said that " God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood," it is not intended that faith fixes on his blood or blood-shedding, or on him as shedding his blood, as the prime object of it, but as the meritori- ous cause of our forgiveness of sin, through the righteousness of God.
And these two distinct respects have we to Jesus Christ, our medi- ator, who is Qidvdpwro?, God and man, in our religious worship, and all acts of communion with him : As one with the Father, we honour him, believe in him, worship him, as we do the Father;"' as media- tor, depending on the Father, in subordination to him, so our faith regards him, we love him and hope in him, as the way, means, and meritorious cause, of our acceptance with the Father. And in both these respects we have distinct communion with him.
S. That Jesus Christ, our mediator, QidvQpwxog, God and man, who is to be worshipped with divine or religious worship, is to be so wor- shipped because he is our mediator. That is, his mediation is the " ratio quia," an unconquerable reason and argument, why we ought to love him, fear him, believe in him, call upon him, and worship him in general. This is the reason still urged by the Hol}^ Ghost Avhy we ought to worship him: Rev. i. 5, 6, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." Who would not love him, who would not ascribe honour to him, who hath so loved us and washed us in his own blood? So Rev. V. 12, there is an acknowledgment of the power, riches, goodness, wisdom, strength, glory, and blessing, that belong to him, because as the Lamb, as Mediator, he hath done so great things for us. And, I dare say, there is none of his redeemed ones who finds not the power of this motive upon his heart. The love of Christ in his mediation, the work he has gone through in it, and that which he continueth in, the benefits we receive thereby, and our everlast- ing misery without it, are all chains upon our souls to bind us to the Lord Christ in faitli, love, and obedience.^ But yet this mediation of Christ is not the form,al and fundamental cause of our worship (as shall be showed), but only a motive thereunto. It is not the " ratio formalis, et fundamentalis cultus," but only the " ratio quia," or an argument thereunto. Thus God dealing with his people, and exhort- ing them of old to worship and obedience, he says, " I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage : thou shalt have no other gods before me," Exod. xx. 2, 3. He makes his benefit of bringing them out of the land of