ficient evidence that God hath accepted his death as our ransom from eternal condemnation? And now having satisfied our faith in these two great points, that he died for our sins, and that God hath accepted his death in lieu of that eternal punishment that was due for them, all the farther satisfaction we can ask or need is, that, as he came down from the Father to mediate personally with us for him, so he should return back again to the Father to mediate personally for us with him, to exhibit and plead his meritorious sacrifice in our behalf, and in virtue thereof to solicit our pardon and acceptation with God. And therefore, to satisfy us in this also, after he had abode some time upon earth after his resurrection; and satisfied his disciples, by frequent converses with them, that he was really risen; and given them all necessary orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his gospel, he carried them out to Bethany, where after he had lifted up his hands and blessed them, he ascended before their eyes into heaven; upon which, it is said, Luke xxiv. 52. that they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them, never in this world to be seen by them more; that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them; but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father, there to intercede in person for them, and for ever to exhibit that wounded and bleeding body of his, by which he had made expiation for the sins of the world, and purchased the promise of the Spirit and of eternal life. Upon this account, indeed, they had great cause to rejoice, because now they knew they had a sure friend in heaven, where their main hope and interest lay, even that very friend, who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death, to rescue them from death eternal; and who, after such an instance of love, they could not but conclude would employ his utmost interest with the Father in their behalf; and, in a word, who being the only begotten of the Father, whose precious blood he had graciously accepted as a ransom for the sins of the world, could not but have an interest with him infinitely sufficient to obtain for them all the graces and favours that were fit either for them to ask, or for his Father to bestow. So that now, if we heartily comply with him as mediating for his Father with us, we have all the encouragement in the world to depend on him as mediating for us with his Father; since he doth not mediate with him by a second hand, or at a distance, but in his own person, in that very person which is not only infinitely dear to the Father, as being his only begotten Son, but hath also infinitely merited of him by offering him his own life at his command, as a sacrifice for the sins of the world: and accordingly upon this consideration the apostle founds the hope of Christians; 1 John ii. 1, 2. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. But if any man sin, let him not presently give up himself as hopeless and irrecoverable, for we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins. VI. And lastly, another thing which the scripture proposes to our belief concerning this Mediator, is, that upon his return from us to heaven, there to mediate personally for men with God, he substituted the divine and omnipresent Spirit personally to promote and effectuate his mediation for God with man. When he went up to heaven, there to mediate for us with God, he did not thereby abandon his mediation for God with us, but immediately substituted a certain mighty spiritual being to act for him, whom he calls the Advocate, or, as we render it, the Comforter and the Holy Ghost, and who was to mediate with men in his behalf, even as he mediated with them in the behalf of his Father, and to advocate for his authority, as he advocated for his Father's: for so he tells his ministers, whom he left behind him to assert and propagate his authority in the world, I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter or Advocate, i. e. to plead for and enforce your ministry in my behalf, whose ministers you are, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, &c. I will not leave you comfortless, or without an advocate. I will come to you, that is, by this Spirit of truth, who is to be my vicegerent, even as I am my Father's, John xiv. 16, 17, 18. But for the fuller explication of this great and necessary article, I shall first shew what this divine Spirit is, which Christ hath substituted to mediate for God with us in his absence. Secondly, I shall explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his mediation. Thirdly, I shall shew what it is that he hath done, and still continues to do, in order to the effecting this mediation. First, What this divine Spirit is, which Christ hath substituted to mediate for God with us in his absence. I answer, It is the third Person in the triune Godhead: for that besides the Father and the Son, there is a third divine Person subsisting in the Godhead, seems to have been a current doctrine among the ancient writers, both Gentile and Jew d For thus Porphyry, as St. Cyril quotes him, Αχρι τριῶν ὑποστάσεων τὴν θειοῦ προελθεῖν οὐσίαν· εἶναι δὲ τὸν μὲν ἀνωτάτω Θεὸν, τὸ ἀγαθὸν, μετ ̓ αὐτὸν δὲ καὶ δεύτερον τὸν δημιουργὸν, τριτὴν δὲ καὶ τὴν τοῦ κόσμου ψυχὴν, ἄχρι γὰρ ψυχῆς τὴν θεότητα προελθεῖν, i. e. The divine essence extends itself to three Persons, whereof the highest God is the good; after him the second is the maker of the world ; and the third is the soul of the world; for to this soul the divine essence extends itself. And of these three divine Persons Plotinus hath treated at large, whom he expressly calls, τρεῖς ἀρχικὰς ὑποστάσεις, three persons that are principles, viz. the good or the one, the mind and the soul; assuring us that these doctrines concerning this divine Trinity, μὴ καινοὺς, μὴ δὲ νῦν, ἀλλὰ πάλαι μὲν εἰρῆσθαι μὴ ἀναπεπταμένως, τοὺς δὲ νῦν λόγους ἐξηγητὰς ἐκείνων γεγονέναι, μαρτυρίας πιστωσαμένοις τὰς δόξας ταύτας πακαιὰς εἶναι τοῖς αὐτοῦ τοῦ Πλάτωνος γράμμασιν. ἥπτετο μὲν οὖν καὶ Παραμενίδης πρότερον τῆς τοιαύτης δόξης, i. e. that they were not new, or of yesterday, but were anciently, though obscurely taught; and that what is now discoursed concerning them is only a farther explication of them; but we have faithful witnesses that these doctrines were taught of old, and particularly in the writings of Plato himself, before whom also Parmenides delivered them. And indeed Plato very frequently mentions these three divine Persons ; particularly, Phi leb. p. 30. Σοφία μὴν καὶ νοῦς ἄνευ ψυχῆς οὐκ ἂν ποτε γενοίσθην. οὐκοῦν ἐν μὲν τῇ τοῦ Διὸς ἐρεῖς φύσει βασιλικὴν μὲν ψυχὴν, βασιλικὸν δὲ νοῦν ἐγγίγνεσθαι, i. e. But wisdom and mind can never be or act without soul, where in the nature of God there is a kingly soul and kingly mind. And indeed so ancient is this doctrine of three divine Persons subsisting in the Godhead, that Proclus calls it ἡ τῶν τριῶν Θεῶντα ράδοσις, the tradition of the three Gods, in Timæ. Plat. p. 93. for so they sometimes call these three Persons three Gods, though, as themselves elsewhere explain it, they are three only subsistences in the same indivisible essence. And the same Proclus calls this doctrine of the Trimity Θεοπαράδοτος θεολογία, which, saith he, φησὶ συμπεπληρῶσθαι τὸν κόσμον ἐκ τῶνδε τῶν τριῶν, i. e. the divinely inspired or delivered theology, which teaches that this world was completed by these three. By these and sundry other testimonies that might be produced, it is evident, that the ancient divines of the Gentiles acknowledged a trinity of Persons in the Godhead, the last of which they called x, or soul; for so the Chaldee oracle quoted by the abovenamed Proclus, Μετὰ δὲ πατρικὰς διανοίας, Ψυχὴ ἐγὼ ναίω· i. e. After the paternal mind, which in our language is God the Son, I Psyche or soul dwell; and this Psyche, or, as our scriptures phrase it, Holy Ghost, they ishe, and is more plainly and expressly asserted in holy scripture; which third Person is known in scripture style x OTάry, the most divine Psyche, o kai er av τις δικαίως οὐ δαίμονα εἴποι, i. e. whom we may truly say is God, and not a demon. Plotin. Enn. iii. 1. 5. c. 2. and the same author tells us of this Psyche, that it is λόγος τοῦ νοῦ καὶ ἡ ἐνέργειά τις, i. e. that it is the word of the Mind, or Son, as proceeding from him, and the energy or active power by which he operates; all which exactly accords with the Catholic doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost. e For so the abovecited Philo, Ηνίκα ὁ Θεὸς δορυφορούμενος ὑπὸ δυεῖν τῶν ἀνωτάτω δυνάμεων, ἀρχῆς τε αὖ καὶ ἀγαθότητος, εἷς ἂν ὁ μέσος, τριττὰς φαντασίας ἐνειργάζετο τῇ ὁρατικῇ ψυχῇ, ὧν ἑκάστη μεμέτρηται μὲν οὐδαμῶς, ἀπερίγραφοι γὰρ αἱ δυνάμεις αὐτοῦ, μεμέτρηκε δὲ τὰ ὅλα, i. e. when God, accompanied with his two highest powers, viz. empire and goodness, the middle being one, he impressed three phantasms on the sensitive or visive soul, viz. of Abraham, each of which exceed all measure; for these his powers are all immense, but themselves measure all things, de Sacrif. Abel et Cain. p. 139. Now that by these powers he means the second and third Person in the triune Godhead is apparent, because he afterwards calls God and these his powers τρία μέτρα, the three measures, and tells us, τὸν Θεὸν ἀνωτάτω εἶναι, ὃς ὑπερκέκυψε τὰς δυνάμεις αὐτοῦ, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτῶν ὁρώμενος, καὶ ἐν ταύταις ἐμpasróμeros, i. e. that the supreme God is superior to these powers of his, and is to be seen without them, and appears in them; which plainly shews, that by these two powers he means some things that are really distinct from that God whose powers they were; and therefore since before he had told us that they were both immense, what else can he mean by them but those two divine Persons, the Son and the Spirit of God? To the same purpose he discourses, lib. de Cherub. p. 112. where, after he had given some uncertain guesses at the mystical sense of those cherubs that guarded paradise, he thus concludes, Ηκουσα δὲ πότε καὶ σπου δαιοτέρου λόγου παρὰ ψυχῆς ἐμῆς, εἰωθυίας τὰ πολλὰ θεοληπτεῖσθαι, καὶ περὶ ὧν οὐκ οἶδε μαντεύεσθαι· ὅν, ἐὰν δύνωμαι, ἀπομνημονεύσας ἐρῶ, i. e. But I remember I have heard something more learned from my own soul, which, being often seized with a divine enthusiasm, prophesies of things which it understands not, which, so far as I can remember, I will here deliver. By which solemn preface he gives us notice that some very great mystery is to follow; and then he goes on, Ἔλεγε δέ μοι, κατὰ τὸν ἕνα ὄντως ὄντα Θεὸν δύο τὰς ἀνωτάτω εἶναι καὶ πρώτας δυνάμεις ἀγαθότητα καὶ ἐξουσίαν· καὶ ἀγαθότητι μὲν τὸ πᾶν γεγεννηκέναι, ἐξουσίᾳ δὲ, τοῦ γεννηθένTos apxe, i. e. My soul said to me, With that only true God there are two supreme and first powers, viz. goodness and power, and that by the first all things were made, and by the second |