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a considerable difference between the Son of God revealing the Father's will in his Divine person to the prophets, and the same Divine personage as incarnate, revealing it immediately to the church. Under the Old Testament he instructed the prophets, and gave them that Spirit on whose inspiration their infallibility depended, 1 Pet. i, 11; but now under the gospel, taking our nature as hypostatically united to himself, he becomes the immediate teacher, in the room of all the internuncii, or prophetical messengers, he had before employed, whether human or angelic, from the foundation of the world. We come now,

§12. (III.) To obviate the great Jewish prejudice against the gospel, to which end observe, that though the apostle mentions the prophets in general, yet it is Moses whom he principally intends. This is evident from the application of this argument which he urges, chap. iii, 3, where he expressly prefers the Lord Jesus before Moses by name, in this matter of ministring to the church. For, whereas the apostle manages this point with excellent wisdom, and considering the inveterate prejudices of the Hebrews in favor of Moses, he could not mention him in particular, until he had proved Jesus, whom he had preferred above him, to be so excellent and glorious, so far exalted above men and angels, that it was no disparagement to Moses to be esteemed inferior to him. Again, the great reason why the Jews adhered so pertinaciously to Mosaical institutions, was their persuasion of the unparalleled excellency of the revelation made to Moses. This they retreated to, and boasted of, when pressed with the doctrine and miracles of Christ, John ix, 28, 29. And this was the main foundation of all their contests with the apostles, Acts xvi, xxi, 21, 28. The law and all legal observances, according to them, were to be con

tinued for ever, on account of the incomparable excellency of the revelation made to Moses. Not to follow them in their imaginations, the just privileges of Moses above all other prophets lay in these three things: (1.) That he was a lawgiver, or mediator, by whom God gave that law, and revealed that worship, in the observance of which the very beginning of the Jewish church consisted. (2.) That God, in revealing his will to him, dealt in a more familiar and clear manner, than with any other prophet. (3.) In that the revelation made to him, concerned the ordering of the whole house of God, when the other prophets were employed only about some particulars built upon this foundation. Herein consisted the just and free preeminence of Moses; but of no force, when urged against our Divine prophet and his gospel, if we consider the just statement of the gospel revelation by the Son, and particularly his qualifications as a prophet, the incomparable circumstances attending the revelation itself, the concessions of the Jews, and especially the glory and excellency of the revelation of the gospel.

§13. (1.) Let us attend to the just statement of the mind and will of God, revealed to us by the Son. To this end observe, (1.) That the Lord Jesus Christ, by virtue of the personal union, was furnished with all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which the human nature was capable of, both as to principle and exercise. He possessed it by his union, and therefore immediately from the person of the Son, sanctifying by the Holy Ghost that nature which he took into subsistence with himself. But the revelation, by which God spake in him unto us, was ultimately from the Father, Rev. i, 1. So that,

(2.) The mission and furniture of the Son, as the incarnate mediator, for declaring the holy pleasure of God to the church, were peculiarly from the Father. He received command of the Father concerning the whole work of his mediation, John x, 18; and what he should speak, John xii, 4, according to that commandment he wrought and taught, John xiv, 31. Whence that is the common periphrasis whereby he expressed the person of the Father, he that sent him, as also he that sealed and anointed him. And his doctrine on that account, he testified, was not his originally as mediator, but his that sent him, John vii, 16. That blessed tongue of the learned whereby he spake the refreshing word of the gospel to poor weary sinners, was the gift of the Father.

(3.) As to the manner of his receiving the gospel revelation, a popular mistake must be discarded.

The Socinians, to avoid the force of these testimonies which are urged to confirm the deity of Christ, from the assertions in the gospel that he who spake to the disciples on earth was then also in heaven, have broached a Mahometan fancy, that the Lord Christ, before his entrance on his public ministry, was locally taken up into heaven, and there instructed in the ministry of the gospel which he was to reveal.

But this imaginary rapture is grounded solely on their (palov Eudos) fundamental error, that the Lord Christ, in his whole person, was no more than a mere man. There isno mention of any such thing in the scripture; where the Father's revealing his will to the Son is treated of, and the fanciful hypothesis is expressly contrary to the scripture: for the Holy Ghost affirms, that Christ entered once into the holy place, and that after he had obtained eternal redemption for us, Heb. ix, 12. But that should have been his second en

trance, had he been taken thither before, in his human nature. As to the time of his ascension, which these men assign, namely, the forty days after his baptism, it is said expressly, that he was all that time in the wilderness among the wild beasts, Mark i, 13; so that this figment must have no place in our inquiry into the way of the Father speaking in the Son. Wherefore, to declare the nature of this revelation we must observe further,

(4.) That Jesus Christ, as he was the eternal word and wisdom of the Father, had an omnisciency of the whole nature and will of God, as the Father himself hath, their will and wisdom being the same. This is the blessed (UVTepixwpnois) mutual in-being of each person, by virtue of their oneness in the same nature. Moreover,

(5.) The mystery of the gospel, the special counsel and covenant concerning the redemption of the elect in his blood, and the worship of God by his redeemed ones, transacted between the Father and the Son from all eternity, were known to him as the Son. Although the person of Christ, God and man, was our mediator, Acts xx, 8; 2 John i, 14, 18; yet his human nature was that wherein he discharged the duties of his office, and (the principium quod) the immediate or proximate source of all his mediatory actings, 1 Tim. ii, 5.

(6.) This human nature of Christ, in which he was made of a woman, made under the law, Gal. iv, 4; was from the instant of its union with the person of the Son of God, an holy thing, Luke i, 35; holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and radically filled with all that perfection of habitual grace which was necessary to the discharge of that whole duty which, as man, he owed to God. But,

(7.) Besides this furniture with habitual grace for the performance of holy obedience as a man made under the law, he was peculiarly endowed with "the Spirit without measure," which he was to receive as the great prophet of the church; and this communication of the Spirit was the foundation of his sufficiency for the discharge of his prophetical office, Isaiah xi, 2, 3; xlviii, 16; lxi, 1-3; Dan. ix, 24. As to the reality and being of this gift, he received it from the womb; whence in his infancy he was said to be (πληρουμενος σοφιας) filled with wisdom, Luke ii, 40; wherewith, in a very early period, he confuted the doctors to their amazement, ver. 47. And with his years were these gifts increased in him; he went forwards in wisdom, and stature, and favor, ver. 52; but the full communication of this Spirit, with special reference to the discharge of his public office, and the visible pledge of it, he was made partaker of at his baptism, Matt. iii, 16. It remaineth, then, for us to shew, wherein still more especially his pre-eminence above all the ancient prophets did consist, so that the word spoken by him is principally and eminently to be attended to, which is the apostle's argument in this place. To which end observe, that,

§14. (2.) There were sundry excellencies and incomparable circumstances that attended the revelation itself made to Christ as a prophet. For,

(1.) Not receiving the Spirit by measure, John iii, 34; as all other prophets did, he had a perfect comprehension of the whole mind and will of God, as to the mystery of our salvation, and the duty he would require of his church. It pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell, Col. i, 19; a fulness of grace and truth, John i, 17; not a transient irradiation, but a permanent fulness; all treasures of wisdom

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