Owen - Houston-Packer Collection BT300 .O9 1679

) . tl;e Salvation of the Church from l;is PerJon. 85 charge of his Offices to accomplilh thofe Ends which none other though vefted with the fame Offices, could in the ex– ercife of them attain unto, is the fumme and fubfl:ance of the DoElrinal Part of that Difcourfe. Here therefore we muft a little fix our Meditations ; and our Intereft calls us thereunto. For if it be fo, it is evident that we can receive. no good, no benefit by vertue of any Office of Chrifi, nor any fruits of their exercife, without an actual refpect ofFaith unto his Perfon, whence all their Life and Power is de– rived. God gave of old: both Kings, Priefls and Prophets unto· the Church. He both anointed them unto their Offices, directed them in their difcharge, was prefent with them in ·their work, and accepted of their Duties. Yet by none of them, nor by all of them together was the Church fuper'– naturally enlightened, internally ruled, or eternally faved, nor could it fo be. ·Some of them, as Mofes in particular, had as much Power, and as great a Prefence-of God with him,as any meer man could be made partaker of. Yet was he ~ not in his Minifiry theSaviour of theChurch,nor could he be fo any otherwife than ljpical[y and iemporal!J. The Minifiry of them all was fubfervient unto that End, which by its own Power it could not attain. "· It is evident therefore, that the Redemption arid Salva– tion of the Church.do not depend meerly on this, that ·God bath given one to be the King,, Priefl and, Prophet .of the Church, by the actings of which Offices it is redeemed and · faved; but on the Perfon of him who·was fo ·given.unto us, as 1s fully attefied, /fa. 9· 6,7, 8. This muft be declared. Two things were required in general unto the Perfon of Chrifi, that his Offices might be effectual unto the falvation ofthe:Church, and .without them. they could not' fo have bee11..

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