as our Saviour's agent, whatsoever he doth, that our Saviour doth by him. So that all those operations he performs, in order to the subduing us to the obedience of Christ, and to the governing of us when we are subdued, are truly the operations of Christ himself. It is he that conquers and governs us by his Spirit, our hearts are the territories which Christ invades by him, and his inspirations are the victorious arms by which Christ conquers and subdues them. Our wills are the thrones on which Christ sits, and rules, and governs by him, and his holy suggestions are the awful powers by which Christ himself commands our obedience. But what it is that this blessed Spirit doth and hath done in order to the subduing men to Christ's laws, and governing them by them, hath been already shewn at large: and therefore of this I shall need say no more at present.

III. And lastly; Therefore, another of those regal acts which Christ hath once for all performed in his heavenly kingdom is, his erecting in it an external polity and government. What this polity is, and what are the functions of it, hath been shewn at large, and it is as well by this external government as by the internal ministry of his Spirit, that Christ now rules his kingdom; for in all just and lawful things the lawful governors of his church do act by his commission and authority, as being substituted by him the visible representatives of his person, and the executors and administrators of his power and dominion. Whilst therefore they act within the compass of their commission, they act in his stead, and as his vicegerents; and whatsoever they bind he binds, and whatsoever they loose he looses; their commands are his, their decrees and sentences

are his; and all their authoritative acts carry with them the same force and obligation, as if they had been performed by him in his own person. For it is he that wills, and speaks, and acts by them, because they will, and speak, and act by his authority. For so he himself declares to them, Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me, i. e. because I speak by you; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me ; because my authority is in you even as my Father is in me; and therefore he who despises mine in you, despises my Father's in me, whence mine in you is derived. Your authority is mine, and mine is my Father's; and therefore he who rejects yours doth therein reject both my Father's and mine. And this authority is given them by Christ for the same end that his authority was given him by the Father; for he came into the world to seek and to save lost souls, Luke xix. 10. He came not to judge the world, but to save the world, John xii. 47. and to call sinners to repentance, Mark ii. 17. And upon the very same errand he sent all those whom he appointed to propagate and govern his kingdom in his absence; for he set them up as so many lights to the benighted world, to reduce men from those dangerous paths in which they were wandering to eternal misery, and shew them the way to everlasting happiness; and all the power he devolved upon them was for edification, and not for destruction, 2 Cor. xiii. 10. and to them he hath committed the care and charge of souls, whose blood he will one day require at their hands, if they miscarry through their neglect or default, Heb. xiii. 17. And that he might the better secure these precious beings,

for whom he shed his blood, from miscarrying for ever, he placed this spiritual polity in a subordination of officers, and made the inferior accountable for their charge to the superior officers, as well as both accountable to himself. So that whereas had he placed it in coordinate hands, there had been only one soul accountable to him for each particular cure or charge of souls, because then each single pastor would have been supreme in his particular cure, and consequently no other pastor or pastors would have been accountable for not calling him to account: now each particular cure of souls is under the charge and inspection of several orders and degrees of pastors; who in their several stations are all accountable for it to the tribunal of Christ. For first the inferior pastor, who hath the immediate charge of it, and is obliged by his office to teach and instruct it by good example and doctrine, and to administer to it the holy ordinances of Christianity, stands accountable to Christ for every soul in it that miscarries through his neglect or omission; next, the bishop stands accountable for not correcting the neglects and misdemeanours of the inferior pastor; and then the metropolitan for not taking cognizance of the default of the bishop. Thus in that excellent form of government which Christ hath established in his kingdom, he hath made all possible provision for the safety and welfare of souls; for according to this economy he hath taken no less than a threefold security, every one of which is as much as a soul amounts to, that every soul within every cure shall be plentifully supplied with the means of salvation; that so none of them might miscarry, but such as are incorrigibly obsti

nate. So that now if any soul, within the dominion of our Saviour, perish for want of the means of salvation, there are no less than three souls, one after another, besides itself, accountable to him for its ruin. Having thus shewn what these regal acts are which Christ hath once for all performed in his kingdom, I proceed,

II. To declare what those regal acts are which he hath always performed, and doth always continue to perform and these are reducible to four particulars.

First, His pardoning penitent sinners.

Secondly, His punishing obstinate offenders. Thirdly, His protecting and defending his faithful subjects in this life.

Fourthly, His blessing and rewarding them in the life to come.

I. One of the regal acts which our Saviour always hath, and always continues to perform, is, his pardoning and forgiving penitent sinners; which being one of the articles of our creed, I shall endeavour to give an account of it more at large. The apostle defines sin to be a transgression of the law, 1 John iii. 4. Now the law obliges us under a certain stated penalty to do and forbear what it commands and forbids. Whenever therefore we transgress the law, we are thereby obliged to undergo the penalty it denounces; and this is that which we call the guilt of sin, viz. its obligation to punishment; and it is this guilt which pardon and forgiveness relates to. For to pardon is nothing else but only to release the sinner from the obligation he lies under to suffer the penalty of the law. Now the penalty of the law of God for every known and wilful sin is no less than

everlasting perdition; and therefore from this it is that we are released by that pardon and indemnity which the gospel proposes. So that the pardon or remission of sins, whereof we are now treating, consists in the loosing of sinful men from that obligation to eternal punishment whereunto they have rendered themselves liable by their wilful disobedience to the law of God. Since therefore this pardon consists in the release of offenders from the penal obligation of the law, it must be a regal act; because the obligation of the law can be dispensed with by no other authority but that which made it: and therefore since to make the obligation of the law is an act of regal authority, to release or dispense with it must necessarily be so also; and accordingly forgiveness of sin is in scripture attributed to our Saviour as one of his regal rights, Acts v. 31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. So that now it is by Christ immediately that our sins are pardoned, and our souls released from those obligations to eternal punishment in which they have involved us: For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son, John v. 22. So that now it is by him immediately that the Father judgeth us, i. e. absolves and condemns us; for so, Col. iii. 13. the apostle exhorts them to forbear and forgive one another, even as Christ forgave them. and Col. ii. 13. Christ is said to have forgiven them all trespasses. It is true, forgiveness of sin is in scripture frequently attributed to the Father as well as to the Son: so 1 John i. 9. If we confess our sins, he (i. e. the Father) is faithful and just to