Watts - BX5200 .W3 1813 v.2

in his grandeur and majesty, as well as his mercy. -But in this last dispensation, he appears visibly and plainlyas the one Medi- ator between God and man, when he discovers himself as the Son of God, and as the mart Christ Jesus; John ìii. 16. And so St. Paul more expressly speaks in 1 Tirn. ii. 5... The Lord Jesus in the course of his ministry, and.èsjrecially at the end of it, gave some notices that he was our Mediator with God, and that he carne to give his life as a ransom for sinners, and to make peacewith his blood : Beforehe died and rose again, and ascend- ed, he gave us a pattern of his pleading with the Father, in the: seventeenth chapter of the gospel of Join ; and he appears pow as St. Paul represents him, as our Mediator and Intercessor in- his human nature, before the throne of God. Moses the mediator of the Jewish covenant, with all his virtues and graces withalt the sacred intimacy to which God admitted him, and with allthe shining bonours with which God invested and surrounded him,. was notcomparable to the Mediator of the new covenant, the Son of God himself, the brightness of his Father's glory, the express image of his person, who lay in the bosom of the Father before thefoundation of the world, but seventeen hundred years ago, was madeflesh and dwelt among us; John i. 14, 18. And let it further be observed here, that every thingwhich we have to do with Godby a Mediator, is much more clearly and expressly set before us in the New Testament, than in all former: dispensations. Though Jesus was always the Mediator of the covenant of grace, yet the ancients knew so little of him under this expresscharacter, that you find neither Abraham; nor David, nor Isaiah, nor those which were most enlightened in divine things, make much use of his name in their addresses to tlx: Father, nor make plain mention of drawing near to God by a Mediator. But if we Christians call upon God, and draw near, to him, we have the prevailingname of Christ given us to plead at the throne; if we apply to the mercy of God, it is by Jesus Christ, the great Reconciler ; if we offer our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to the Father,they willbe well received through Christ, his first beloved Son. We must do all and every thing. in the Christian life through Jesus Christ, and there weare secure of finding acceptance with God ; Col. iii. 17. Whatever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. V. " This dispensation of the gospel is not confined to one family or to one nation, or to a few ages of men, but it spreads through all the nations of the earth, and reaches to the end of time." That of Moses was confined to one nation only; that of Abraham to one family, and chiefly limited tohis son Isaac. The dispensations of Adam and Noah are more general indeed, and

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=