he is treating of, finds an easy and natural tran- sition to Christ, and especially when speaking upon any thing connected with Christian love, of which the love of Christ to us is the great exemplar. This is discovered chiefly in his mediation between God and man : and of that mediation we are led to speak,
I. As ordained of God —
" There is one God," the Creator and Governor of all—
[Amongst the heathen " there were gods many, and lords many ; but there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things3." " He is the God of the Jews, and the God also of the Gentilesb;" and both the one and the other he will justify in the same way c, " having no respect of persons." " In every nation under heaven, he that feareth God, and worketh right- eousness, shall be accepted of him'1."]
He has also given one Mediator for all —
[He is justly offended with his creatures of mankind, because they have sinned against him. In respect of trans- gression they are altogether on a par with the fallen angels ; and might well have been left, like them, to perish in their sins. But God provided a Mediator for them, that through him reconciliation might be effected with them in perfect con- sistency with his own perfections. This Mediator is his only- begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who being in the form of God, and accounting it no robbery to be equal with God, was found in fashion as a man, and took upon him the form of a servant. This " man, Christ Jesus," is the " one Mediator" between God and men. There is no other; there needs to be no other; seeing that he is equally the Mediator of all, and equally ready to effect reconciliation for every sinner under heaven. The typical mediators, Moses and Aaron, and the high-priests in all successive ages, executed their office for the Jews only : but Christ, whom they typified, is the Advocate of all, and " a propitiation equally for the sins of the whole world."
Seeing then that God is alike the Father of all, distributing blessings to all with an indiscriminating hand; and that he has given his own co-equal co-eternal Son to be alike the Mediator for all, it becomes us to testify our common concern for all, and to promote by every possible means their eternal welfare.]
a 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6. b Rom. iii. 29.
c Rom. iii. 30. * Acts x, 35.