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Page 17, 1. 7, after only, read,—

160, 1. 12, after pretensions, omit,
179, 1. 6, before were, read they.
200, 1. 36, after to, insert it.
218, 1. 17, for. read;

232, 1. 23, for them, read there.

251, 1. 5, after this, read the.

274, 1. 3, for Father, read Father's. 331, 1. 6 and 30, for has, read hast.

372, 1. 10, for irritative, read irritating. 380, 1. 16, for in, read the.

399, 1. 6, for sweep read sweeps.

421, 1. 7, after well, read as.

423, 1. 17, for succession, read success.

CHRISTIAN MODES.

PART II.

RELATIONS OF THE KINGDOM.

CHAPTER II.

MEDIATE IN UNITY.

SEC. I.

2, GOD THE SON.

1, Doctrine.-2, Evidences.-3, Objections and Errors.

"For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,-This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."-PET. II. i. 17.

UNDERSTANDING, agreeably to the definition before given, by medium generally what comes between the subject and object in any relation, it will readily be conceived that the mediate relations of a kingdom are to be found in such parties or persons as happen to come between the subjective or governor and the objective or governed, and minister somehow to the happiness and prosperity of the kingdom. It may also be conceived how the government would proceed from the subjective or governor by successive mediums, or orders of mediates, to the lowest or nearly objective; every such medium ranking lower and lower continually in succession; also how, proceeding contrariwise from last to first, the highest medium would be similarly

VOL. III.

B

identified with the subjective itself in respect of government, &c., on the one hand; while on the other hand, to be what is understood by a medium, it would as necessarily communicate with or impart itself to the order or orders below. Accordingly the first medium in this highest instance, namely, of the Kingdom of God in Christ, will be that in which the subjective or supreme relation is first revealed, whether by formation, information, inspiration or any other means of communion. We have learned from Scripture to consider the First Medium in the Kingdom, which is called the Godhead, as consisting of only three Members or Correlatives; the said Medium being called therefrom a Trinity, and its three divine Members or Correlatives, Mediates, according to a definition before given; or else, according to common usage, PERSONS, namely, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, which three several Persons, Mediates or Correlatives, may be considered either singly or collectively; and that too,-either exclusively by themselves, or inclusively with lower relations. Exclusively also they may be considered in a relation of either two, or three; that is, of duality or trinity, as well as singly, in a way to be hereafter observed; but at present they are considered singly or in unity; and the First Mediate having been already so considered in the relation of Subjective, the Second now occurs for consideration in the same single or absolute light of unity as far as may be.

It is obvious that the definition of a Mediate of the Kingdom as above, will include every good subject generally, as well as those particularly which are appointed to minister in the same; what is not of this class wholly nor any how being assigned to the objective, or the class that is not good for the Kingdom, but rather opposed to its happiness and prosperity; which supposes a very considerable portion of subjects to intervene, and that both naturally and officially, naturally by superior endowments, officially by different mediatorial offices and other kinds of ministration, first between God and man, and still farther

between him and some of them. These subjects offer not only an interesting, but a more sensible and familiar object of consideration than some of the topics that we have passed; and it cannot be said of either of these sorts of relations, not even of the Mediate now to be considered, as it was of the Subjective, that we have not the means of knowing them; for that we certainly have to a considerable extent, as we have of knowing all mankind, namely, by a participation of common properties; since the very highest Mediates must partake with their inferiors on one side, as well as with the uncompounded and incomprehensible Subjective on the other as aforesaid, in order to communicate with both. So did the Son of God himself in an eminent degree, being "made lower than the angels to be crowned with glory and worship" (Ps. viii. 5), to be, by God's help, the citadel, the heart, the essence of the Kingdom; the Soul or Light, giving life and light to the world by his Apostles, as by so many planets (John viii. 12; Matt. v. 14); the Head of the body, which is the church (Col. i. 18); the Head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and being "knit together increaseth with the increase of God" (Ib. ii. 19); the very kernel, germ or principle of spirit and intellect,-around which all the properties of a human subject are gathered successively; nearest the mind and next the spirit, and outermost the veil of the flesh, and all in perfection, though imperfection itself, compared with the All-glorious within " (Ps. xlv. 14). Wherefore it seems almost like proceeding with a new argument, when one ventures upon this relation-if it be named Second, i. e. Second Mediate; and with an argument requiring the more aid from above, as it is more worthy of human effort and human ambition. Considering also, that different views from this are however entertained on the subject by many, it will require every part of a regular descriptionevidence as well as doctrine, with notices or anticipations

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of objections and errors-an arduous undertaking altogether! For

§1. There are different circumstances that render the Doctrine of this divine subject particularly embarrassing besides its sublimity; among others, for example, may be mentioned the complexity of the Second Mediate's life, nature or substance, by which the very description of his incidentals is affected as well as that of his constituents, making it almost impossible for one to speak of him particularly without giving occasion for cavil in one way or another; so that in this respect too, as well as in some more considerable, he is found "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence" (Pet. I. ii. 8), even by some perhaps who are not of the number of those who stumble at the Word.

1. For if the incidentals of the Subject, so far as they appear, be few and simple compared with the enumeration of those which often befal subjects in his, i. e. in the middling class, the class originally destined to have the honour of his production (Deut. xviii. 15), still there will be found among them some of the highest consideration and importance: such, for example, as occur in two that we generally consider first among incidentals, and accordingly here, as usual.

1: 2, The two first incidentals of Name and Notion will not belie their general description, founded as they are on other incidentals as well as constituents of every kind, and at the same time also equally complex. For there being no name nor notion of the Subject or Second Mediate, but what is relative in the way before mentioned, without excepting the most proper by which he is usually named and considered; and one name with its accompanying notion being but a little less proper or more common than another, when they are all brought into a regular series one hardly knows how to select among them, any more than one does how to distinguish between these two types, v. g. between the name and notion of the Subject.

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