Chapter III
Of the three persons in the Godhead, the Son is the fittest to be mediator.
What are the reasons of it.
We have seen it was meet our redeemer should be God, and the God head itself cannot become a redeemer but as subsisting in a person, one of
three. Now which of the three so fit as is the Son ? The oath and decree of God makes the Son to be appointed to this office. Arid the reasons of the fitness and meetness of this second person are :
First, If we consider the relations of the three persons among themselves, he is of all the fittest to undertake this work.
1. It was meet the jftiupara, or the proper titles by which the persons of the Trinity are distinguished, should be kept and preserved distinct, and no way confounded. He that was to be mediator it was meet he should be the Son of man, the son of a woman as his mother, as I shall shew anon ; and
this title and appellation will fitliest become him that is a Son (though of
God) already ; and it was not fit there should be two sons, or two persons in the Trinity to bear the relation or title of sons. For instance, that the Father should in any respect be said to be a Son, or to have a mother, or call David or Abraham father, was most improper ; so as this would not become him. And so in like manner it was as unfit for the Holy Ghost, who himself was to have the hand in his conception, to be called a Son ; but that the Son of God should is not improper, for he is a Son already.
2. It was meet that the Son of God should be this mediator, that the due order that is between these three persons be also kept. The Father is the
first, the Son the second, the Holy Ghost the third ; and he that is to be * Qu. 33d ? ED.
42 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK EL.
mediator must be called to it, and sent by another person, therefore the Father is not to be mediator ; for both the Son and the Holy Ghost being from the Father in subsisting, are not to send the Father, who is the first. And as the order of their subsisting, so of their working ; and therefore the Holy Ghost, he likewise being the third person, cannot so fitly be mediator; for though he might be sent from the Father and the Son, as he proceeds from both, yet his work and task is to work from the Son, and to take off
his work wrought first, as the Son is to take from the Father : John
v. 19, 20, Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do : for what things soever he doth, these also doth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doth : and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. And
as in order of subsisting, the person of the Spirit proceeds from him, so in order of working, his work is from the Son s work; He shall take of mine,
* and shew it to you; John xvi. 13-15, Howbeit when he, the
says Christ,
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth : for he shall not
speak of himself : but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak
: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me : for he shall
receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew
it unto you. And therefore he that is to be mediator to redeem must be the Son, who may send the Holy Ghost to apply his work, who, being the last person, is to appear last in the world, and take the last work, which redemption is not, but the application of it. And therefore, 3. The Father is the person to whom the redemption is to be paid in the name of the persons ; to whom the reconciliation is made by the re deemer ; and the Holy Ghost is he that most fitly should apply that redemp tion unto us the redeemed. Therefore the redemption itself fitly falls to the Son s share.
And secondly, As thus to preserve the due decorum among the persons, so also in respect of the work itself, it was most proper to him.
1. He being the middle person of the three, bears the best resemblance of the work, to be a mediator, to come between for us, to the other two. Herein the work and the person suit. He was from the Father, and the Holy Ghost from him, and it is he in whom, as it were, the other two are
united, and are one, and so he is not* able to lay hands on both. As the nature of man is a middle nature between the whole creation, earthly and
heavenly ; and as for one and the same person to be both God and man was a middle rank between God and us men ; so is the Son of God a middle person between the persons themselves.
2. It best suited all the particular benefits of redemption, and the ends
thereof. Many divines, for the demonstration of this, allege that the second
person being that Word by whom all things were made, as Heb. i. 2 and John i. 3, that therefore it was fit for him to restore all ; and it is Certain
that in those places his working all things is alleged on purpose to shew it was meet he should be the restorer of them. It becomes him who hath such an interest in the first building, that he should found them anew and
repair them. It is alleged also that he was the life of man in innocency : John i. 4, In him was life, and the life was the light of men ; and there
fore he was fittest to restore that new life. Eph. ii. 1, And you hath he
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Ver. 5, Even when we * Qu. he is ? ED.
CHAP. III.] OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOR. 43
were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are
saved). Also that he being the image of God, therefore to restore it in man when it was lost, the best way was to set forth the original image, and
to bring our decayed image to this to be conformed. But I allege not these
to this purpose, as not being certain whether these things are spoken of
him, considered simply as second person, or as foreseen and decreed to be God-man (as I have elsewhereshewn), which design, besides the work of
redemption, served to all these ends and purposes. But I shall mention
one, which is the main end of his being mediator, and for the bestowing which redemption maketh way ; that is, adoption, and making us sons, which is made one of the greatest benefits of all other, Eph. i. 5. Now it
is certain that to convey this to us, of all persons the Son was the fittest ;
Gal. iv. 4, 5, God sent forth his Son, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Where there is a double antithesis or opposition
: (1.) Christ a Son, to make us sons ; (2.) Christ made under the law, to redeem us that were
tinder the law. We were slaves under the law ; who then was so fit to redeem us as the King s Son ? We were servants ; who then so fit to con
vey sonship as the eldest Son ? And to sinners convey sonship he could
not, till they were redeemed, as that place shews. God was to be a Father
to us, and in whom or for whose sake so fitly as for his Son s, through our
union and marriage with him ? Heaven and the glory of it is called adop tion : Rom. viii. 23,
* And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the
first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body ; and to bestow this on us by a right of inheritance, for whom was it so proper as for God s own
Son, the heir of all things ? This is manifest further by these scriptures
: John xx. 17, I go to my Father and to your Father; and
* In my Father s house are many mansions, John xiv. 2. As if he should have said, I am
his eldest Son, I can bid you welcome thither. And so in Rom. viii. 17,
4 Ye are heirs and co-heirs with Christ ; and in many the like places. Some divines say that no person else could have been mediator, because
sonship was to be derived to us ; for nothing, say they, is communicated
by grace to us but is first in the Godhead, or in some person in the God
head, who is made ours, and so it is derived through fellowship with him. Thus we are made wise because God is wise, holy because God is holy, and we made partakers of the divine nature, which is the image of what is in God. Now therefore, in like manner, if we be sons, it must be through a,
sonship found in one of the persons, and our communication with that
person, and so we are made sons because he is. I will not say it could
not have been otherwise ; sure I am it was fittest and comeliest it should be so.
And also that we should be accepted graciously, and beloved of God, which of ourselves, without a mediator, we could not be ; who so fit as the Son to make us thus accepted, who is the first beloved, the Son of his love, as he is called, Col. i. 13,
* Who hath delivered us from the power of dark
ness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. But the
Holy Ghost proceeds from both per modnm amoris, and so is rather the re-
iiection of love of both, wherewith God loves his Son and himself also.
Then the Son was fittest to be the mediator in respect of all those offices
that belong to the performance of this great work.
* In the Discourse of the Knowledge of God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ.
In 2d Vol. of his Works. [In Vol. IV. of this Series. ED.]
44 OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOE. [BOOK II.
As First, If we regard the office of high priest, who so fit as the Son, the
eldest Son, to be so ? it being the birthright of the eldest in the family, by the law of nature, to be the priest. Therefore, Heb. v., to prove that he was a priest, the apostle presently cites that saying out of the second Psalm,
4 Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, as being all one with
that other which follows, quoted out of Ps. ex., Thou art a priest for ever. And especially when the work of our salvation and his mediation was to be
transacted by intercession ; none so fit to be an advocate with the Father
* My little children, these
(as John speaks) as Jesus the Son. 1 John ii. 1,
things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Secondly, If we consider the office of being a prophet, none so fit for this
as the Word and Wisdom of the Father ; therefore, Heb. i. 1, it is said that
in the last days God hath spoken by his Son. Who so fit to break up God s counsels as the mighty Counsellor, and next in counsel to himself? None hath seen God at any time ; but it follows, The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, John i. 18. And so, thirdly, for the kingly office, none so fit as the heir, as sons use
to be ; none so fit to have all judgment and the kingdom committed to him
as God s Son.
And last of all, if we consider the inauguration into these offices and work of mediation, it was by an anointing, as all those offices of old were. He was to be the Messiah, and God s Anointed ; now the Father (as was
* For of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together ; and the Holy Ghost was to be the oil with which he was to be anointed above
meet) was to be the Anointer : so Acts iv. 27,
his fellows ; as it is expressly, Acts x. 38, How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power
: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil ; for God was with him. So as in this respect none but the Son was capable of these offices, and to be Messiah or the Anointed one ; and so accordingly he was conse
crated a priest for ever.