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I am fenfible, there is lately introduced a diftinction among Chriftians, viz. those who are for, and those who are against the mediatorial scheme, as it is called. This gives me an occafion to obferve, that I readily acknowledge our Lord Jefus Chrift to be a mediator ftrictly and properly fo called. That is, as a middle or an indifferent perfon, and not being either of the parties concerned, he has stood in the breach, and made up the difference, or has endeavoured to make it up, betwixt an offended God, and his offending creatures men; by ftipulating or propounding the terms and conditions of agreement and reconciliation betwixt them; by propofing to men those motives or arguments of perfuafion which are proper to engage them to accept of God's mercy and favour upon the terms propounded; and by representing to them what will be the fad confequences of their refufal; this being all as a mediator, or middle perfon, he could do, or that it behoved him to do in the prefent cafe. For, had he went farther, and put himself in the place, and acted the part of either of the parties concerned; then he would have acted out of character as a mediator, and would have perfonated a principal, or one of the parties interested in the cafe. As thus, fuppofing he had perfonated the offenders, and had fuffered in their place and ftead, (admitting fuch a thing could be) in fuch a cafe, he would have acted quite out of character as an indifferent, or middle perfon, or mediator, and would

have

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have behaved as a principal, or party concerned in that quarrel or difpute he was to be a mediator in, and which, by his mediation, he was to put an end to. I fhall not proceed farther, in expofing a pretended mediatorial scheme of Christianity, which fome of our dignified Clergy contend for, the grand characteristicks of which are abfurdity and confufion.

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I am likewise fenfible, that our Lord Jefus Christ faithfully executed the office, difcharged the truft, and finished the work which he was appointed to, by his Father; for which faithful obedience he has his reward; God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, viz. that at the name of Jefus every knee should bow, and every tongue fhould confefs that Jefus Chrift is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. But then, the queftion is, what is this to Dr Stebbing or me? Is he, or am I, more or less valuable on account of any thing of this? Or is either of us more, or lefs the proper object of God's mercy. and favour with refpect to it? Surely, Dr Stebbing cannot but know that we are not. And if fo, then what colour of reafon can be affigned why any thing of this fhould be placed either to his, or my account? And this leads me to put those questions, viz. can a man of understanding, who carefully confiders, and duly attends to the fubject, think, that God will act fo very prepofterously, fo contrary to nature, as to love and approve of one agent, for what is lovely and approvable in the perfon

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of another? Or that he will hate and deteft one agent, for what was hateful and deteftable in the perfon of another? This, furely, is hard.

to conceive.

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And as Dr Stebbing, and the reft of the. Clergy have taken upon them to be guides to the people, in the affair of falvation; fo, furely, it becomes them to take great heed to their miniftry, left they fhould prove the betrayers. of mens fouls, which, I think, all thofe are who teach fuch doctrines as lead men to hope for the obtaining of God's mercy and favour, in any other way, or upon any other grounds, than the rendering themselves the fuitable and proper objects of both; because this is pointing out to men fuch grounds of reliance, as will moft certainly difappoint their truft. It is not enough to say in the prefent cafe, that those who teach men to rely on the merits and interceffion of Chrift for mercy and falvation at the hands of God, do alfo teach that men must also repent and live well, or else they. will have no share in that mercy and falvation; I fay, it is not fufficient to urge this, because, notwithstanding this, experience fhews that men are too apt to rely upon the former, without the latter. Like as in the Church of Rome, though repentance is made the express condition of abfolution; yet men reft fatisfied in having the latter, without the former. These are therefore dangerous doctrines, and may prove fatal to mens fouls. I will therefore take the liberty to remind the teachers U among

among Christians, of what denomination foever they be, that if the Gospel of Chrift be according to truth, and the word of God, (which Gospel they confider themselves to be preachers of) then, we are affured by it, not only that God will judge the world, and that he will do it by Jefus Chrift, but also that he will judge it in righteousness, and that he will render to every man, not according to the rectitude, or erroneousness of his judgment in matters of fpeculation, nor according to the merits or interceffion that is made to him by another; but only according as every man's own works shall be, whether they be good, or whether they be evil. Now, if this be the truth of the cafe, which it must be if the Gospel be true; then nothing can be more evident than this, namely, that personal valuableness is the only ground of our acceptance with God. I fay, nothing can be more apparent. However, I am fenfible, that education, and old rooted prejudices have a very great byafs on the underftandings and judgments of men, and that thefe are a strong bar against a careful, and free examination of any fubject that is contrary to them. But then these are not the only things that bar up the way to truth; for, according to an old proverb, there are none fo blind as those who will not fee. Mens vitiated affections, and particularly a vicious felf-love, lead them to wish and hope that they shall find mercy and favour at the hands of their Maker, through fomething that is external to them

felves,

felves, through fomething that they have not, because they have nothing valuable in themfelves to recommend them; and this difpofes them to embrace the moft palpable errors, and to close their eyes that they cannot, or will not, fee the most obvious truths. I fhall conclude this discourse with a very melancholy reflexion, namely, that as the Christian Religion is too much become a mere faction, the votaries to which have a party and an intereft to fupport; fo this becomes a powerful, and, it is to be feared, that fometimes it proves a prevailing temptation, to some of them, to turn the truth of God into a lie.

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