Farther: that faith, hope, and love, acting themselves in
all manner of obedience and appointed worship, are peculiarly due from the
saints,
Ps. ii. 7,
12; Dan. iii.
25; Matt. iii.
17, xvii. 5, xxii. 45; John iii.
36, v. 19–26, viii. 36; 1 Cor. i.
9; Gal. i. 6, iv. 6;
1 John ii. 22–24, v.
10–13; Heb. i. 6; Phil. ii.
10; John v. 23. and distinctly
directed unto the Son, is abundantly manifest from that solemn doxology,
Rev. i. 5, 6, “Unto him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen.” Which yet is set forth with more glory, chap. v. 8, “The four living creatures,
and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one
of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of
saints:” and verses 13,
14, “Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
heard I saying, blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him
that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” The
Father and the Son (he that sits upon the throne, and the Lamb) are held
out jointly, yet distinctly, as the adequate object of all divine worship
and honour, for ever and ever. And therefore Stephen, in his solemn dying
invocation, fixeth his faith and hope distinctly on him, Acts vii. 59, 60, “Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit;” and, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge;” — for he
knew that the Son of man had power to forgive sins also. And this worship
of the Lord Jesus, the apostle makes the discriminating character of the
saints, 1 Cor. i. 2, “With all,” saith he,
“that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both
theirs and ours;” that is, with all the saints of God. And invocation
generally comprises the whole worship of God. Isa. lvi.
7; Rom.
x. 12–14. This, then, is the due of our Mediator,
though as God, as the Son, — not as Mediator.