Mediator

MEDIATOR. In the Covenants between Man and Man, wherein the holy Name of God is made Use of, God is the Witness and Mediator of the reciprocal Promises and Engagements that Men make to one another. Thus Laban and Jacob made a Covenant upon Mount Gilead or Galead; and when the Elders of Gilead Gen. xxxi. 49—54.made a Covenant with Jephthah, and engaged themselves to acknowledge him for their Head, they called upon the Name of the Lord, and mutually bound themselves Judg. xi. 10.by Oath to keep their Promises.

When God thought fit to give his Law to the Hebrews, and to make a Covenant with them at Sinai, there was Need of a Mediator, who should relate the Words of God to the Hebrews, and their Answer to God; to the End that the Articles of the Covenant being agreed on by each Party, they might be ratified and confirmed by the Blood of Beasts, and by Oath. Moses therefore upon this Occasion was the Mediator between God and Man, as St. Paul says, Galat. iii. 19. The Law was added because of Transgressions ——, and ordained by Angels in the Hand of a Mediator. Lastly, in the new Covenant that God has been pleased to make with the Christian Church, Jesus Christ was the Mediator of Redemption between God and Man. He was the Surety, the Sacrifice, the Priest, and the Intercessor of this Covenant¹. He has sealed it with his Blood, has proposed the Terms and Conditions of it in his Gospel, has instituted the Form of it in Baptism, and the continual Ratification of it in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews very much magnifies this Quality or Office of Mediator of the New Testament, which was assumed by Jesus Christ.

Heb. viii. 6. ix. 25. xii. 24.Lastly, we acknowledge as Mediators of Intercession between God and us, the Priests and Ministers of the Lord, who offer up the publick Sacrifices of Prayer in the Name of the whole Church of Jesus Christ. We ascribe the same Quality to holy Persons yet alive, to whose Prayers we recommend our selves; to the Angels, who offer up our 1 Thess. v. 25. 2 Thess. iii. 1. Hebr. xiii. 18. Rev. viii. 3, 4. 2 Macc. x. 11, 14. Ecclus. xxxviii. 1, 2, 3, &c. Ἔτι τε ἰατρικῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ μυστικῶν, &c.Prayers before the Throne of the Glory of the Almighty; and to the Saints in Glory, who intercede Day and Night for us before the Lord.

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