304 THE POSITIVE WO Sect. 62. First, Whatever grace God promiseth unto any, bestoweth on them, or worketh in them, it is l all so bestowed and wrought in, by, and through Jesus Christ, as the Mediator or middle personbetween God l and them. This the very notion and nature of his office of Mediator, and his interposition therein between God and us, doth require. To affirm, that any good thing, any grace,, any virtue is given unto, or bestowed on us, or wrought in us by God, and not immediately through Christ; or that we believe in God, yield obedience slnto him, or praise with glory, not directlyby Christ, is ut- terly to overthrow his mediation. Moses, indeed, is called a Mediator between God and thepeople, Gal. iii. 19, as he was an internuntius, a messenger to declare the mind bf God to them, and to return their answers unto God; but, to limit the mediatory work of Christ unto such an interposition only, is to leavehim but one office, that of a prophet, and to destroy the principal uses and effectsofhis mediation towards the church. Its like manner, becauseMoses is called rorçasa, a Saviour or Redeemer, Actsvii. 35. metaphorically, with rèspect unto his use and employment in that mighty workof the deliverance of the people out of Egypt; some will not allow that the Lord Christ is a Redeemer in any other sense, subverting the whole gospel, with the faith and souls of men. But, in particular, what there is of this nature in the mediation of Christ, in his being the mid- dle person between God and us, may be declared in the ensuing assertions. Sect. 63. (I.) God himself is the absolute, infinite fountain, the supremeefficient causeof all grace and ho- liness: for he alone is originally and essentially holy, as RK OF THE SPIRIT or by the way of grace. In our first creation God im> planted his image on us, in uprightness and holiness, in and by the making or creation of our nature: and had we continued in that state, the same image of God should have been communicated by natural propagation. But since the fall and entrance of sin, God no more communicates holiness unto any by way of nature, or natural propagation: for, ifhe did 'so, there would be no necessity, that every one who is born must be born again, before he enter into the kingdom of God, as our Saviour affirmeth there is, John iii. 3. for he might have grace and holiness from his first nativity. Nor could it be said of believers, that they are born not of blood, nor ofthe will ofthe flesh, nor ofthe willofman, but of God, John i. 13. For grace might be propaga- ted unto them by those natural means. It was the old Pelagian figment, that what we have by nature we have by grace, because God is the author of nature, So he was as it was pure, but it is our own as it is corrupt; and what we have thereby, we have of ourselves, in contradiction to the grace of God. That which is born ofthe flesh is flesh; and we have nothingelse by natural propagation. Sect. 65. (3.) God communicates nothing in a way of grace to any, but in and by the person of Christ, as the Mediator and head of the church, John i. 18. In the old creation, all things were made by the eternal Word, the person of the Son, as the wisdom of God, John i. 3. Col. i. 16. There was no immediate emana- tion of divine power from the person of the Father, for the production ofall or any created beings, but in and by the person of the Son, their wisdom and power be- ing one and ,he same as acted in him. And the sup- portation of all things, in the course of divine provi- dence, is his immediate work also; whence he is said to uphold all things by the word of his power, Heb. i. 3. And so it is in the new creation, with respect unto his person as Mediator. Therein was he the" image of the " invisibleGod, the first-born of every creature, having " the pre-eminence in all things; and he is before all ,a things, and by him all things consist," Col. i. 15, 17, 18. In the raising of the whole new creation, which is by a new spiritual life and holiness communicated unto all the parts of it, the work is carried on immediately by the person of Christ, the Mediator, and hone bath any share therein but what is received and derived from he only is good, and so the first cause of holiness and goodness to others. Hence he is called the God of all grace, 1 Pet. v. 10. the author, possessor, and bestower of it. He bath life in himself, and quiekeneth whom he pleaseth, John v. 96. With him is the fountain of life, Psal. xxxvi. 9. as bath been declared before. This, I suppose, needs no further confirmation with them who really acknowledge any such thing as grace and holiness. These things, if any, are among those perfect gifts which are from above, coming downfrom the Fattier oflights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning, James i. 17. Sect. 64. (2.) God, from his own fulness, commu- nicates unto his creatures, either by the way of nature,
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