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A58800
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The Christian life. Part II wherein that fundamental principle of Christian duty, the doctrine of our Saviours mediation, is explained and proved, volume II / by John Scott ...
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Scott, John, 1639-1695.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing S2053; ESTC R15914
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386,391
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678
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Christians do enjoy in common and without any distinction the same priviledges and immunities they must of necessity be all of the same Community For it is by theiâ— peâ—uliar Faith and Laws and Rights of Worship and Promises and Priviledges that the Christian Society is distinguished from the rest of the World and therefore since these peculiariâ—ies are by the very institution of Christian Society mâ—de common to all Christian People it is non-sense to suppose them distinguished by that institution into separate and independent Communities For how can they be separate Societies which have nothing to separate and distinguish them but enjoy all things in common with one another Secondly The Church is one universal Society of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant For this is that which distinguishes râ—gular Societies from confused multitudes that whâ—reas the latter are only locally united so that as soon as â—ver their parts are dispersed into distant places they cease to be and are utterly dissolved the former are united by Laws and mutâ—al stipulations which are the Political Nerves and Arâ—â—ries by which their several parts how remoteâ—nd â—nd distant soever are united to one another Even as it is in our City Companies which are not only united while their Members are met together in their Common Halls but do also continue united after they are dispersed abroad to their several homes because that which unites them is not their being together in the same place but their being obliged together under the same Laws and stipulations and communicating with one another in the duties and priviledges of one and the same Charter by reason whereof though they suffer a continual defluence of old and access of new parts yet still they remain the same Societies even like natural bodies that are under a perpetual flux of parts because they still retain the same Laws and Charters which are the sâ—atique Principles or Forms that individuate them and keep them still the same And thus it is with the Church which partakes of the common nature of all other formed and regular Societies For hence in Scripture it is called a Kingdom a City or Commonwealth and compared to a natural Organized body to denote that it is a Regular Society all whose parts are united together by legal bonds and ligaments Now the legal bond which unites the Church and renders all its Members one regular Corporation is the New Covenant by which all Christian People are in one body obliged to all the duties it requires and entitled to all the Priviledges it proposes and by being all engaged together in this one Covenant whereby they are all concerned together in the same common duties and priviledges they are all incorporate together into the same Community And thus it was that the Iewish People were all united into one Church by their being all confederated as one party in one and the same Covenant whereby they all engaged themselves as one body to be God's People and God engaged himself to them as to one body to be their God which in Deut. 26.17 18. is thus expressed Thou hast avouched this day the Lord to be thy God and to walk in his ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar People as he hath promised thee This therefore was that which united them into one Religious Society that they were all confederated with God in one and the same Covenant For thus saith God I entered into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine Ezek. 16.8 and hence God is said to be married to thâ—t People Iâ—r 3.14 and to be their Husband Isa. 54.5 because by the Covenant which like a Matrimonial engagement was transacted between God and them they were all united into one Spâ—use and contracted to one Husband And in thâ— same sense the Christian Church is called the Bride and the Spouse of Christ vid. Rev. 22.17 and Christ is called her Husband 2 Cor. 11.2 because we by contracting our selves to him in one and the same Covenant do all become one Party and are incorporate together into one Spouse and he by contracting himself to us in one and the same Counterpart unites us in one common Husband and endows us in common with all his spiritual Goods and Blessings So that by the New Covenant which is the Nuptial Contract between Christ and Christians and in which we are said to be married to Christ Rom. 7.7 we are not only united to one head and Husband but are also incorporated into one body and Spouse And accordingly as the Iews by vertue of their Covenant with God were separated from all Nations and united together into a distinct body upon which account they are called God's peculiar Treasure a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation Exod. 19.5 6. so we Christians by vertue of our Covenant with God in Christ are separated from all other Societies and made a distinct Corporation from the World upon which account we are also called a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood and holy Nation and a peculiar people 1 Pet. 2.9 Thirdly The Church or Kingdom of Christ is the universal Society of all Christian People incorporated by the new Covenant in Baptism For so in humane Contracts it hath been thought meet even by the unanimous consent of all prudent Law-givers that the mutual engagements of the contracting Parties should not be legally Pleadable till they have been first mutually sealed and solemnly confirmed before witness And accordingly God who is wont to proceed with men in humane Methods hath always thought meet to strike and ratifie his Covenants with them by some visible sign or solemnity For thus he struck his Covenant with the Iews in that visible solemnity of Circumcision which was the sign by which God and that People sealed and consigned to each other their respective parts of that Covenant by which he stipulated to be their God and they to be his People And till such time as this outward sign was transacted between God and them the Covenant it sealed was not in force so as to oblige either Party or give them a mutual claim in one another And hence it is called God's Covenant in their flesh for an everlasting Covenant and they who refused to admit this sign unless it were under some great necessity in which case God accepted the sincere desire for the deed were to be cut off from that People i. e. to be treated as Aliens from that Church and that because they had broken or rejected God's Covenant i. e. by refusing that sign which was the Seal and ratification of it Gen. 17.13 14. But this bloudy sign as was shewn before being not so commodious for the state of the Christian Church which was to be diffused over all the World our Saviour abolished it and in its room introduced the sign of Baptism which was before used by the Iews for the initiation of their
bestows upon us he bestows by the hand of Jesus Christ whom upon his first Oblation of his precious Sacrifice in heaven and continual intercession with it he constituted and continues the Royal distributer of all his graces and favours to the World. And therefore since there is no doubt but that that which he obtains by his intercession is the thing which he intercedes for it necessarily follows that the thing which he intercedes for is power to bestow on us the blessings of the New Covenant because he hath actually obtained that power by his Intercession Having thus given as plain and as brief an account as I could of this second Priestly Act of our Saviour viz. his Intercession for us in Heaven by the continual Oblation of his Sacrifice there I proceed in the second place to shew the admirable tendency of this method of God's communicating his Graces and Favours to us through the intercession of our Saviour to reduce and reform Mankind which will plainly appear by considering the following particulars First This method naturally tends to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of God's Majesty Secondly It also tends to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins Thirdly It also tends most effectually to secure us from presuming upon God's mercy while we continue in our sins Fourthly It tends to encourage us to draw near to God with Chearfulness and freedom Fifthly It tends to give us the most ample assurance of his gracious intentions towards us if we repent and return to our duty I. This method of God's communicating his Favours to us through our Saviour's intercession is naturally apt to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of the divine Majesty For in this degenerate condition wherein our Nature is inverted and turned upside down and our sensitive faculties have got the ascendant of our Reason rational Objects have incomparably less force on and prevalence with us than material and sensitive And hence it is that we are so unapt to be affected with the Majesty of God though in it self infinite and incomprehensible because it being purely spiritual is objected only to our Faith and Reason and doth not strike upon our sense with the Rays of a visible glory And hence it was that under the Old Testament God so frequently exhibited himself to mens eyes in sensible appearances as particularly sometimes in a humane shape and sometimes in a body of light or of shining flame that so by making an impression of his great Majesty on their sense he might affect them with a sutable aw and dread of it And for the same reason that he conversed with them in these sensible appearances he also treated with them by a Mediator on Mount Sinai for God commanded that bounds should be set round about the Mountain which the People were forbid upon peril of death to break through unto the Lord to gaze and only Moses their Mediator together with his Brother Aaron were permitted to ascend the Mount and to have immediate access to him and by thus keeping them at a distence from his sacred presence and only suffering them to approach him by their Mediator he took an effectual course to inspire their minds with a reverential aw of his divine Majesty which is in it self so infinitely sacred and August that it seems it would have been an high Prophanation in them to have conversed with it immediately And accordingly God by keeping us at a distance from him and allowing us to have access to him only by our Mediator expresses the greatness of his Majesty which is too sacred to be mingled in conversation with us too sublime to admit of the immediate addresses of poor Mortals yea and which no Mortal must approach without the Mediation of his own Eternal Son for thus Plato in his Sympos gives it as an instance of the Majesty of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God doth not mingle himself with men but all the converse and intercourse between him and us is transacted by the Mediation of Demons And if it were thought so great an instance of God's Majesty that he would not be approached by us without the Mediation of Angels to what an infinite height must he be exalted above us when no less a person than he who is God-man can so much as give us access to him or present our Prayers and Supplications at his feet O! what an awful sense therefore of the Majesty of God should this consideration beget in our minds For how can we think of him without dread and reverence when we consider how he is secluded by the infinite sacredness of his own Majesty from all immediate converse and intercourse with us and how he is exalted so infinitely above us as that we cannot have access to him so much as by our Prayers and Supplications without the interposition of a Mediator who is greater than the greatest of all the Kings on Earth or Angels in Heaven Surely he who can thus think of God without being struck into a profound aw and reverence of his Majesty must have a mind so hardened against all the impressions of Reason as that no wise thought can ever move or affect it II. This method of God's communicating his favours to us through our Saviour's Intercession tends also to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins For doubtless to convince us how deeply he resents our sinful behaviour towards him the most effectual course he could take next to that of banishing us from his presence for ever was to exclude us from all immediate intercourse with him and not to admit of any more addresses or supplications from us but by the hand of some Mediator Hereby he plainly demonstrates how infinitely pure and abhorrent to sin his nature is that he will not suffer a sinful Creature to come near him but by Proxy nor accept of a service from a guilty hand nor listen to a Prayer from a sinful mouth till it is first hallowed and presented to him by a pure and holy Mediator If therefore we are not infinitely conceited of our selves this procedure of his cannot but lay us low in our own eyes and make us deeply sensible of our own vileness and baseness For how infinitely detestable must our sins be in his eyes when notwithstanding all his kindness and benevolence towards us he keeps us at such a distance from him and will not be prevailed with without some powerful intercession so much as to hear our Prayers or to have any kind of communication or intercourse with us And accordingly you find that when the three Friends of Iob had treated him so despitefully and uncharitably God to manifest his displeasure against them commands them to make use of Iob's Mediation Iob 42.7 My wrath saith he to Elephas is kindled against thee and against thy two Friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that