pose are multiplied in the Scripture, as I have elsewhere shewed at large. Jesus Christ our Mediator, God and man, the builder of the church, is the proper object of our religious faith, love and fear, even as the Father is. In him do we believe, on his name do we call, to him do we subject and commit our souls unto eternity. This glory is due to him because he built the church. 2. The observance of all his commandments, laws, and institutions as the great sovereign Lord over our souls and consciences in all things. "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the liv ing," Rom. xiv. 9. Supreme Lord over us whilst alive, requiring obedience to all his laws as a Son over his own house; and when we are dead to raise us again, and to bring us unto his judgment-seat, as ver. 10, 11. And this obedience he gives in command to all his disciples, Matt. xxviii. 20. And in these things consists that peculiar glory which Christ as this builder of the house hath, or is endowed withal.

Thirdly, Two things may be considered concerning this glory; 1. What it is that is the formal reason of it; that which renders him a meet object of the church's worship, and the church's worship to be truly divine or religious. 2. What is the principal motive prevailing with us to give him this glory and honour. For the first, it is no other but the divine nature. The natural and essential excellencies of the Deity, are the formal reason and proper object of all divine worship. We worship the Lord Christ who is God and man; he is so in one person; and his person who is God and man is the object of that worship. But the formal reason and object of it is the divine nature in that person. Give me leave to say; God himself could not command the Lord Christ to be worshipped with divine religious adoration, were he not God by nature, for the thing itself implieth a contradiction. Religious worship is nothing but an assignation of that honour which is due to divine excellencies; namely, to trust, believe, fear, obey, love, and submit unto, infinite holiness, goodness, righteousness, power, in the first cause, last end, and sovereign Lord of all. Now to assign glory proper to divine excellencies, and which receiveth its nature from its object, where divine excellencies are not, is openly contradictory. Besides, God hath said; "I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give unto another," Isa. xlii. 8. He that hath not the name of God, that is his nature, shall not, nor can have this glory which is to be the object of the worship mentioned. And there are not scarcely more gross idolaters in the world than those who profess to worship Christ, and to believe in him, in a word, to give him all the glory that is due to God, and yet deny him so to be.

Now, in our worship of Christ, which is our assignation of glory to him, he is considered two ways: 1. « Absolutely, as he is over all, God blessed for ever," Rom. ix. 5. 2. As he is the Mediator between the Father and us. In the first respect he is the proper and ultimate object of our worship. We believe in him, pray unto him; as Stephen offered his dying prayer to him in particular. They stoned Stephen praying or invocating, in these words, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," Acts vii. 59. So are we baptized in his name, and thereby initiated into his service, as our Lord and our God; as Thomas expresseth his confession of him, John xx. 28. So may we pray unto him directly and distinctly, making his person the ultimate object of our faith, trust, and subjection of soul therein. See Eph. v. 23-25. 2 Cor. v. 15. Tit. ii. 14. Rom. xiv. 9. 18. 2. Consider him in the latter way, as the Mediator between the Father and us. So he is the immediate, but not the ultimate object of our worship. In this sense," through him we do believe in God, who raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God," 1 Pet. i. 21. He is the means of our faith and hope. By him we have an access by one spirit unto the Father, Eph. ii. 18. And according to his command, we ask of God in his name, and for his sake, John xvi. 23, 24. 26. And in this sense, in all our worship internal and external, in our faith, confidence, obedience, and supplications, the Father is considered, as the ultimate object of our worship, and the Lord Christ the Son, as he who hath procured acceptance for us, who pleads our cause, manageth our affairs, justifies our persons, and prevails for grace and mercy. And this is the most ordinary and standing way of faith in the worship of God. We address ourselves to the Father by Christ the Son as Mediator, considering him as vested with his offices in and over the house of God. This the apostle excellently expresseth, Eph. iii. 14-19. However it is free for us to address our petitions directly unto Christ, as he is God, equal with the Father.

And we may see here the difference that is between our worship of Christ the Mediator, and the worship of saints and angels by the Papists. They go first to their saints, to the blessed Virgin especially; to her they pray-what to do? to give them, grace, mercy, pardon of sins, and salvation. This, indeed, many of them have done, and do, and that in a horribly idolatrous blasphemous manner. But this they commonly plead; that they only pray to saints that they would pray and intercede with God for them; granting that they may be mediators of intercession, though not of oblation. Well then! their praying unto saints is one distinct act of worship, whereof the saints are the only ob ject; which, they being mere creatures, is open and express idol

atry. But now in our worship of God by Christ, it is the same worship whereby we worship the Father and the Son, the Father in and through the Son; with the same actings of faith and confidence, and by the same invocation, the one as the object ultimately of our intercession, the other as the Mediator of our acceptance. But it will be said, May we not then pray to Christ to pray to the Father for us, which would be a distinct act of religious worship? I answer, 1. We have no precedent in Scripture, nor warrant for any such address. 2. It seems not agreea

ble to the analogy of faith, that we should pray unto Christ to discharge his own office faithfully. But this we may do; we may pray unto him distinctly for grace, mercy, pardon, because he is God, and we may pray unto the Father by him, as he is our Mediator, which two modes of divine worship are sufficiently revealed in the Scripture.

Secondly, Having considered the formal reason of the glory insisted on; we are next to inquire after the great motive unto our giving him this glory, that makes him worthy of it, and obligeth us in especial duty to give it unto him. Christ our Mediator, God manifested in the flesh, God and man, whole Christ, his divine and human nature in one person, is the object of our religious adoration and worship; and it is just, righteous, equal that we should constantly and continually worship him, because he hath built the house of God; because of his work of mediation.

As it is in the first command, so it is in this matter, "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: thou shalt have no other Gods before me," Exod. xx. 2, 3. Declaring himself to be the Lord God, he proposeth the formal reason of all religious worship, and that which makes it indispensably necessary. But yet to stir the people up to the actual performance of it, he adds that great motive in what he had done for them," he had brought them out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Had he not done so, all worship and honour divine, was due unto him; but having done so, it is a strong obligation to bind them to diligence in its observance. So I say it is in this matter. Christ is to be worshipped, because he is God, but the great motive hereunto is what he hath done for us in the work of redemption. And unto all that we have said in this matter, we have the joint testimony of all the saints and angels of God. Rev. v. 8-13. "And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures, and four and twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof;

for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." The whole of what we have asserted is here confirmed. For, 1. The Lamb here is Jesus Christ the Mediator, the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world. 2. The worship and honour ascribed unto him, is holy, sacred, and religious, and that from the whole creation. 3. It is but one and the same worship that is given unto the Lamb, and to him that sits upon the throne, even the Father. 4. The reason hereof, and great motive unto it, whence it is said that he is worthy of it, so that it is our continual duty to perform it unto him, is, because of the great things he hath done for us, in our redemption and salvation; that is, his building of the house of God.

From what hath been spoken, it is evident in what sense we worship the man Jesus Christ, with divine honour and worship; even as his human nature, by virtue of personal union, subsisteth in the person of the Son of God, which person is the proper object of our worship.

To close this matter; here lies a great difference between Christ and Moses. That whereas the work of Moses, brought all the honour and glory he had unto his person, and which yet was but an inferior work, the work of a servant or ministerial builder; the person of Christ brought glory and honour unto his work, although it were very excellent and glorious, for he condescended and humbled himself unto it, Phil. ii. 6-8. But yet the work being done, is a cause of giving new honour and glory unto his person.

It remains only, that I briefly give the reasons why this building of the house doth render the Lord Christ so worthy of glory and honour: It doth so;

First, Because the work itself was great and glorious. Great works make the authors of them famous and honourable. Hence have been the endeavours of men to eternize their names, to make themselves famous and renowned by their works and build

ings. This was one end of that stupendous enterprise of the children of men in the building of Babel: they would build a tower to make themselves a name, Gen. xi. 4. to get them renown and glory. And they have been imitated by their posterity, who in all ages have praised their saying. So Nebuchadnezzar testifieth concerning himself, Dan. iv. 30. " Is not this," saith he, "great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" But, alas! what poor perishing heaps have been the products of their endeavours! they have all long ago been made a spoil unto time and confusion. When Solomon went about to build a material typical house for God, he tells Hiram, the king of Tyre, in his message unto him, that the house which he built was very great; for, saith he, great is our God above all gods, 2 Chron. ii. 5. But he adds moreover, "but who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him; who am I then that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him." The use of this house is not for God to dwell in, but for us to worship him in. Do not conceive that I am building a temple with such thoughts and apprehensions, as the nations build theirs unto their false deities; namely, to confine them to a place and keep them in. The immensity of the nature of our God will admit of no such thing. It is only a place for his service that I intend. But now this hath Christ done, he hath built a house for God to dwell in for ever. And this on many accounts was a greater work than that of the creation of all things out of nothing. But if from that ancient work of creation, was to arise all the glory of God according to the law of nature, how excellent is this honour and glory, which ariseth to Jesus Christ, and to God by him, from this new creation; from his forming and creating new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Secondly, It is glorious on all accounts of glory; glorious in itself: who can set forth, who can express the glory and beauty, the order of this work? The tabernacle with the temple of old, and all their furniture, were exceedingly glorious, but yet they and their worship had no glory, in comparison of the more excellent glory of this spiritual house, 2 Cor. iii. 10.

It is glorious in its foundation, which is Christ himself. "Other foundation can no man lay, save that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. iii. 11. This is the rock on which this house is built, Matt. xvi. 18. "He is laid in Sion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation," Isa. xxviii. 16. So glorious, that when he is brought forth, those concerned in the building, shout with crying, "Grace, grace unto it," Zech. iv. 7. And it is glori