2. There is an external economy and dispensation of the persons in reference to the work of our salvation, and what we draw nigh to them for. So the Father is considered as the foundation of all mercy, grace, glory, every thing that is dispensed in the covenant or revealed in the gospel, the Son receiving all from him, and the Spirit [being] sent by the Son to effect and complete the whole good pleasure of God in us and towards us. And in and under the con- sideration of this economy is God of us to be worshipped.
" All things," saith Christ, " are delivered unto me of my Father," Matt. xi. 27 (that is, to me as mediator) ; therefore " come unto me." And in his prayer, John xvii. 8, " I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou
or CHRIST S KINGLY OFFICE. 393
didst send me." So most fully John iii. 34, 35. He is sent of God ; and from the love of the Fathei- to him as mediator are all thino-s given him. " It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell," Col. i. 19; John i. 16. John v. 26, " He hath given him to have life," — that is, as he is mediator, appointed him to be the fountain of spiritual life to his elect. And Rev. i. 1, the revelation of the will of God is given imto Christ by the Father, as to this end of discovering it to the chui'ch.
Hence ariseth the second way of faith's acting itself towards God in our worship of him. It eyes the Father as the fountain of this dispensation, and the Son as the mediator, as the storehouse, and the Spirit as immediate communicator thereof Here also it considers the Son under these two distinct notions: — first, as the ordinance and servant of the Father in the great work of mediation. So it loves him, delights in him, and rejoiceth in the wisdom of God in finding out and giving such a means of life, salvation, and union with himself; and so by Christ believes in God, even the Father. It considers him, secondly, as the way of going to the Father; and there it rests, as the ultimate object of all the religious actings of the soul. So we are very often said through and by Christ to be- lieve in God, and by him to have an access to God and an entrance to the throne of grace. In this sense, I say, when we draw nigh to God in any religious worship, yea, in all the first actings and movings of our souls towards him in faith and love, the Lord Christ is con- sidered as mediator, as clothed with his offices, as doing the will of the Father, as serving the design of his love; and so the soul is im- mediately fixed on God through Christ, being strengthened, sup- ported, and sustained, by the consideration of Christ as the only procuring cause of all the good things we seek from God, and of our interest in those excellencies which are in him, which make him excellent to us.
And this is the general consideration that faith hath of Christ in all our dealings with God. We " ask in his name," " for his sake," go to God " on his account," " through him," and the like ; are strengthened and emboldened upon the interest of him as our high priest and intercessor; God the Father being yet always immedi- ately in our eye as the primary object of our worship. But yet now again, this Christ as mediator, so sent and intrusted by the Father, as above, is also one with the Father, God, to be blessed for ever- more. Faith also takes in this consideration ; and so he who before was the means of fixing our faith on God is thereupon become the proper object of our faith himself We believe in him, invocate, call upon him, worship him, put our trust in him, and live unto him. Over and above, then, the distinction that the eternal persons have in the manner of in-being in the same essence, which also is the ob-
39 -i VINDICI^ EVANGELICiE.
ject of our faith, that distinction which they have in the external economy is to be considered in our rehgious worship of God; — and herein is Christ partly eyed as the Father's servant, the means and cause of all our communion with God, and so is the medium of our worship, not the object; partly as God and man vested with that office, and so he is the primary and ultimate object of it also. And this may give us, I say, some assistance to order our thoughts aright to- wards God, and some light into that variety of expressions which we have in Scripture about worshipping of God in Christ, and worship- ping of Christ also. So is it in respect of the Spirit.
Having cleared the whole matter under consideration, it may be worth the while a little to consider the condition of our adversaries in reference to this business, wherein, of all other things, as I said before, they are most entangled. Of the contests and disputes of Socinus with Franciscus David iibout this business, I have given the reader an account formerly, and of the little success he had therein. The man would fain have stood when he had kicked away the ground from under his feet, but was not able. And never was he more shamefully gravelled in any dispute than in that which he had with Christianus Franken about this business, whereof I shall give the reader a brief account.