every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." To Christ, exalted in his dominion and sovereignty, we live and die; to him do we bow the knee and confess, that is, perform all worship, and stand before him, as at his disposal; we swear by him ;-as in the place from whence these words are taken.

2. That our religious, divine, and spiritual worship, hath a double or twofold respect unto Jesus Christ:-(1.) As he is the ultimate formal object of our worship, being God, to be blessed for evermore, as was before declared. (2.) As the way, means, and cause, of all the good we receive from God in our religious approach to him.

In the first sense, we call upon the name of Christ, 1 Cor. i. 2: in the other, we ask the Father in his name, according to his command, John xvi. 23. In the first, we respect him as one with the Father, as one who thinks it no robbery to be equal with him, Phil. ii. 6; the "fellow of the LORD of hosts," Zech. xiii. 7: in the other, as one that doth intercede yet with the Father, Heb. vii. 25, praying him yet to send the Comforter to us, being yet, in that regard, less than the Father; and in which respect as he is our head, so God is his head, as the apostle tells us, 1 Cor. xi. 3, "The head of every man" (that is, every believer) "is Christ, and the head of Christ is God." In this sense is he the way whereby we go to the Father, John xiv. 6; and through him we have an access to the Father, Eph. ii. 18, Arà Xprotoũ, #pòs sòv Пarspa. In our worship, with our faith, love, hope, trust, and prayers, we have an access to God. Thus, in our approach to the throne of grace, we look upon Christ as the high priest over the house of God, Heb. iv. 14-16, by whom we have admission, who offers up our prayers and supplications for us, Rev. viii. 3. In this state, as he is the head of angels and of his whole church, so is he in subordination to the Father; and therefore he is said at the same time to receive revelations from the Father, and to send an angel as his servant on his work and employment, Rev. i. 1. And thus is he our advocate with the Father, 1 John ii. 1. In this respect, then, seeing that in our access to God, even the Father, as the Father of him and his, John xx. 17, with our worship, homage, service, our faith, love, hope, confidence, and supplications, eyeing Christ as our mediator, advocate, intercessor, upon whose account we are accepted, for whose sake we are pardoned, through whom we have admission to God, and by whom we have help and assistance in all that we have to do with God; it is evident, I say, that in this respect he is not eyed nor addressed to in our worship as the ultimate, adequate, formal object of it, but as the meritorious cause of

1 "Unum Deum, et unum ejus Filium, et verbum, imaginemque, quantum possumus. supplicationibus, et honoribus veneremur, offerentes Deo universorum Domino preces per suum unigenitum: cui prius eas adhibemus rogantes ut ipse, qui est propitiator pro peccatis nostris, dignetur tanquam pontifex preces nostras, et sacrificia et intercessiones, offerre Deo."— Origen. ad Celsum, lib. viii,

our approach and acceptance, and so of great consideration therein. And therefore, whereas, Rom. iii. 25, it is said that "God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood," it is not intended that faith fixes on his blood or blood-shedding, or on him as shedding his blood, as the prime object of it, but as the meritorious cause of our forgiveness of sin, through the righteousness of God. And these two distinct respects have we to Jesus Christ, our mediator, who is sávoρwños, God and man, in our religious worship, and all acts of communion with him: As one with the Father, we honour him, believe in him, worship him, as we do the Father;' as mediator, depending on the Father, in subordination to him, so our faith regards him, we love him and hope in him, as the way, means, and meritorious cause, of our acceptance with the Father. And in both these respects we have distinct communion with him.

3. That Jesus Christ, our mediator, sávopwos, God and man, who is to be worshipped with divine or religious worship, is to be so worshipped because he is our mediator. That is, his mediation is the “ratio quia,” an unconquerable reason and argument, why we ought to love him, fear him, believe in him, call upon him, and worship him in general. This is the reason still urged by the Holy Ghost why we ought to worship him: Rev. i. 5, 6, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." Who would not love him, who would not ascribe honour to him, who hath so loved us and washed us in his own blood? So Rev. v. 12, there is an acknowledgment of the power, riches, goodness, wisdom, strength, glory, and blessing, that belong to him, because as the Lamb, as Mediator, he hath done so great things for us. And, I dare say, there is none of his redeemed ones who finds not the power of this motive upon his heart. The love of Christ in his mediation, the work he has gone through in it, and that which he continueth in, the benefits we receive thereby, and our everlasting misery without it, are all chains upon our souls to bind us to the Lord Christ in faith, love, and obedience. But yet this mediation of Christ is not the formal and fundamental cause of our worship (as shall be showed), but only a motive thereunto. It is not the "ratio formalis, et fundamentalis cultus," but only the "ratio quia," or an argument thereunto. Thus God dealing with his people, and exhorting them of old to worship and obedience, he says, "I am the LORD thy God, which have 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. He makes his benefit of bringing them out of the land of

1 Μιᾷ προσκυνήσει, καὶ μίαν αὐτῷ τὴν δοξολογίαν ἀναπέμπων.—Synod. Eph. Anath. vii Cyril. 2 Ἡ γὰρ ἀγάπη τοῦ Χριστοῦ συνέχει ἡμᾶ;. 2 Cor. v. 14.

Egypt the reason of that eternally indispensable moral worship which he requires in the first commandment: not that that was the formal cause of that worship, for God is to be worshipped as the first, sovereign, independent good, as the absolute Lord of all and fountain of all good, whether he gives any such benefits or no; but yet all his mercies, all his benefits, every thing he doth for us in his providence and in his grace, as to the things of this life or of another, are all arguments and motives to press us to the performance of all that worship and service which we owe unto him as our God and Creator. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits," saith David, Ps. ciii. 1, 2. So is it in the case of our mediator. For the work of his mediation we are eternally obliged to render all glory, honour, and thanksgiving to him; but yet his mediation is not the formal cause thereof, but only an invincible motive thereunto. Let this, therefore, be our fourth and last observation:

4. Though Jesus Christ, who is our mediator, God and man, is to be worshipped with divine worship, even as we honour the Father, yet this is not as he is mediator, but as he is God, blessed for evermore. He is not to be worshipped under this reduplication as mediator, though he who is mediator is to be worshipped, and he is to be worshipped because he is mediator. That is, his mediatory office is not the formal cause and reason of yielding divine worship to him, nor under that consideration is that worship ultimately terminated in him. The formal reason of any thing, strictly taken, is but one, and it is that from the concession whereof that thing or effect whereof it is the cause or reason, without any other help, doth arise or result from it. Now, the formal cause or reason of all divine worship is the deity or divine nature;--that being granted, divine worship necessarily follows to be due; that being denied, that worship also is, and is to be for ever, denied. We may not worship them who by nature are not God. If it could be supposed that we might have had a mediator that should not have been God (which was impossible), religious worship would not have been yielded to him; and if the Son of God had never been our mediator, yet he was to be worshipped.

It is the deity of Christ, then, which is the fundamental, formal cause and reason, and the proper object, of our worship:1 for that being granted, though we had no other reason or argument for it, yet we ought to worship him; and that being denied, all other reasons and motives whatever would not be a sufficient cause or warrant for any such proceeding.

It is true, Christ hath a power given him of his Father above all angels, principalities, and powers, called "All power in heaven and

1 Γινωσκέτωσαν ὅτι τὸν κύριον ἐν σαρκὶ προσκυνοῦντες, οὐ κτίσμα τι προσκυνοῦμεν ἀλλὰ τὸν κτίστην ἐνδυσάμενον τὸ κτιστὸν σῶμα. - Athan. Εp. ad Adelph. Episc

in earth," Matt. xxviii. 18, and "a name above every name," Phil. ii. 9, giving him an excellency, an ağía, as he is μsoirns ixérns, as he is the king and head of his church, which is to be acknowledged, owned, ascribed to him; and the consideration whereof, with his ability and willingness therein to succour, relieve, and save us to the uttermost, in a way of mediation, is a powerful, effectual motive (as was said before) to his worship: but yet this is an excellency which is distinct from that which is purely and properly divine, and so cannot be the formal reason of religious worship. Excellency is the cause of honour; every distinct excellency and eminence is the cause of honour; every distinct excellency and eminence is the cause of distinct honour and worship. Now, what excellency or dignity soever is communicated by a way of delegation is distinct and of another kind from that which is original, infinite, and communicating, and therefore cannot be the formal cause of the same honour and worship.

I shall briefly give the reasons of the assertion insisted on, and so pass on to what remains.

1. The first is taken from the nature of divine or religious worship. It is that whereby we ascribe the honour and glory of all infinite perfections to him whom we so worship,-to be the first cause, the fountain of all good, independent, infinitely wise, powerful, all-sufficient, almighty, all-seeing, omnipotent, eternal, the only rewarder; as such we submit ourselves to him religiously, in faith, love, obedience, adoration, and invocation. But now we cannot ascribe these divine excellencies and perfections unto Christ as mediator, for then his mediation should be the reason why he is all this, which it is not; but it is from his divine nature alone that so he is, and therefore thence alone is it that he is so worshipped.

2. Christ under this formal conception, as they speak, as mediator, is not God; but under this, as partaker of the nature of God. Christ as mediator is an expression, as they speak, in the concrete, whose form is its abstract. Now, that is his mediation or mediatory office; and therefore if Christ under this formal conception of a mediator be God, his mediatory office and God must be the same, which is false and absurd: therefore as such, or on that fundamental account, he is not worshipped with divine worship.

3. Christ in respect of his mediation dependeth on God, and hath all his power committed to him from God: Matt. xi. 27, "All things," saith he, "are delivered unto me of my Father;" and chap. xxviii. 18, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;" John xvii. 2, "Thou hast given him power over all flesh;" and in innumerable other places is the same testified. God gives him as mediator his name, that is, his authority. Now, God is worshipped because he is independent: he is, and there is none besides him; he is Alpha and

Omega, the first and the last. And if the reason why we worship God with divine worship be because he is aůrápans and independent, certainly that wherein Christ is dependent and in subordination to him, as receiving it from him, cannot be the formal cause of attributing divine worship to him.

4. Christ in respect of his divine nature is "equal with God," that is, the Father, Phil. ii. 6; but in respect of his mediation he is not equal to him, he is less than he. "My Father," saith he, "is greater than I," John xiv. 28. Now, whatever is less than God, is not equal to him, is infinitely so; for between God and that which is not God there is no proportion, neither in being nor excellency. That Christ in respect of his office is not equal to God is commonly received in that axiom, whereby the arguments thence taken against his deity are answered, "Inæqualitas officii non toilit æqualitatem naturæ." Now, certainly, that which is infinitely unequal to God cannot be the formal cause of that worship which we yield to him as God.

5. That which shall cease and is not absolutely eternal cannot be the formal cause of our worship, for the formal reason of worship can no more cease than God can cease to be God; for when that ceaseth, we cease to worship him, which while he is the Creator and sovereign Lord of his creatures cannot be. Now, that the mediatory office of Christ shall cease the Holy Ghost affirmeth, 1 Cor. xv. 24, "Then cometh the end," etc. He then gives up his kingdom to God. And there is the same reason from the other parts of his mediatory office. It is true, indeed, the efficacy of his office abideth to eternity, whilst the redeemed ones live with God and praise him; but as to the administration of his office, that ceaseth when, at the last day, the whole work of it shall be perfectly consummated, and he hath saved to the uttermost all that come to God by him.

The sum of all is: Jesus Christ, God and man, our mediator, who is to be worshipped in all things and invocated as the Father, and whom we ought night and day to honour, praise, love, and adore, because of his mediation and the office of it, which for our sakes he hath undertaken, is so to be honoured and worshipped, not as mediator, exalted of God, and intrusted with all power and dignity from him, but as being equal with him, God, to be blessed for ever, his divine nature being the fundamental, formal reason of that worship, and proper ultimate object of it. And to close up this digres sion, there is not any thing that more sharply and severely cuts the throat of the whole sophistical plea of the Socinians against the deity of Christ than this one observation. Themselves acknowledge that Christ is to be worshipped with religious worship, and his name to be invocated, denying to account them Christians, whatever they are, who are otherwise minded, as Franciscus David and those before