and the respect shewn him would bear some proportion to their conviction of the purity of his motives, and ability to interfere; a mediator may also be chosen by consent of parties, where his award will be binding, and considered as their own act and deed; and, lastly, a mediator may be deputed by a magistrate, or one invested with lawful authority, to settle the disputes, in which case his determination must be imperative on the parties.
Now Jesus Christ was mediator in the first and last of these senses: first by his own voluntary choice,—he saw us in our low estate, and had compassion on us, and undertook to mediate between the offended Majesty of Heaven and his erring creatures,—and he was appointed to the office by God himself: "if he should make his soul an offering for sin," the promise was, "that he should see his seed, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hands." The Son's voluntary
