He is anointed to preach good tidings to the meek, and sent to bind up the broken hearted, Isa. lxi. 1. When he came to preach the gospel among the people, then was this scripture fulfilled, Matt. xi. 27. " Yea, all things are delivered him of his Father ; so " as no man knoweth whom the Father is, but the Son, and he to " whom the Son will reveal him." All light is now collected into one body of light, the Sun of righteousness ; and he " en- " lighteneth every man that cometh into the world," John i. 9. And though he dispensed knowledge variously, in times past, speaking in many ways and divers manners, to the fathers ; yet now the method and way of revealing the will of God to us is fixed and settled in Christ : In these last times he hath spoken to us by his Son.
Twice hath the Lord solemnly sealed him to this office, or ap- proved and owned him in it, by a miraculous voice from the most excellent glory, Matth. iii. 17. and Matth. xvii. 5.
In this point there are two things doctrinally to be discussed and opened, viz. What Christ's being a Prophet to the church implies : and how he executes and discharges this his office.
First, What is implied in Christ's being a Prophet to the church : And it necessarily imports these three things.
1. The natural ignorance and blindness of men in the things, of God. This shews us that " vain man is born as the wild ass's colt." — The world is involved in darkness : The people sit as in the re- gion and shadow of death till Christ arise upon their souls, Matt. iv. 15, 16, 17. It is true, in the state of innocency man had a clear apprehension of the will of God, without a Mediator : but now that light is quenched in the corruption of nature, " and the " natural man receiveth not the things of God," 1 Cor. ii. 14. *
* Heavenly things exceed the capacity of reason, for they are above what is call- ed right reason j they contradict the wisdom of the flesh, for they are contrary to
THE FOIJXtAIN OF LIFE. SEHM. IX*.
These things of God are not only contrary to corrupt and carnal reason, but they are also above right reason. Grace indeed useth nature, but nature can do nothing without grace. The mind of a natural man hath not only a native blindness, by reason whereof it cannot discern the things of the Spirit, but also a natural enmity, Rom. viii. 7. and hates the light, 1 John iii. 19, 20. So that until the mind be healed, and enlightened by Jesus Christ, the natural faculty can no more discern the things of the Spirit, than the sen- sitive faculty can discern the things of reason. The mysteries of nature may be discovered by the light of nature ; but when it eomes to supernatural mysteries, there, omnis Platonicorum caligavit siibtilitus, as Cyprian somewhere speaks, the most subtle, search- ing, penetrating wit and reason, is at a loss.
2. It implies the divinity of Christ, and proves him to be true God ; forasmuch as no other can reveal to the world, in all ages, the secrets that lay hid in the heart of God, and that with such convincing evidence and authority. * He brought his doctrine from the bosom of his Father ; John i. 18. " The only begotten " Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him." The same words which his Father gave him he hath given us, John xvii. 8. He spake to us that which he had seen with hi* Father, John viii. 38. What man can tell the bosom-counsels and secrets of God ? Who but he that eternally lay in that bosom can expound them ?
Besides, other prophets had their times assigned them to rise* shine, and set again bv death, Zech. i. 5. " Your fathers, where " are they ? And do the prophets live for ever ?* But Christ is a fixed and perpetual sun, that gives light in all ages of the world : for he is " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8. Yea, and the very beams of his divinity shone with awful ness upon the hearts of them that heard him ; so that his very enemies were forced to acknowledge, that, " never any man spake like " him," John vii. 46,
depraved reason : Nature stands in need of grace, for the right disposing of the mind to receive a supernatural object ; and grace uses nature, that by strength of mind, clearness of judgment, and the light of good education, greater progress may be made in the study of the sacred writings. Reynold. Animulis homo.
* If the doctrine of Christ, and his discourses be examined, it will be as clear as sunshine, that his words are not the words of a man, or some prophet, but of the Father himself, that is, of the true God. For Christ not only brought his gospel and doctrine from the bosom of the Father, but likewise he taught, not as the Pharisees and other mere men, but W£ z^zfiav s^oov, as one having divine authori- ty, Luke iv. 23. which his enemies, the officers sent by the Pharisees, confessed in, these words, " Never man spake like this man:" therefore as his words are the words of the Father, and were not spoken with human, but divine authority, so it is certain, that he must be the true God, since a divine effect argues a divine cause ; and since there is but one only true God, Christ must be one, and, co-essential with the Father. Diettricus Analysis Evang.par. 3. p. 34 i.
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3. It implies Christ to be the original and fountain of all that light which is ministerially diffused up and down the world by men. Ministers are but stars, which shine with a borrowed light from the sun : so speaks the apostle, 2 Cor. iii. 6, 7. " For God, " who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined " into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory " of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." Those that teach men, must be first taught by Christ. All the prophets of the Old, and all the prophets, pastors, and teachers of the New-Testament, have lighted their candles at his torch : it was Christ that " gave them) " a mouth and wisdom," Luke xxi. 15. What Paul received from the Lord, he delivered to the church, 1 Cor. xi. 23. Jesus Christ is the chief Shepherd, 1 Pet. v. 4. and all the under-shepherds re- ceive their gifts and commissions from him. These things are ma- nifestly implied in Christ's prophetical office.
Secondly, We shall next enquire how he executes and discharges this his office, or how he enlightens and teaeheth men the will of God. And this he hath done variously, gradually, plainly, pow- erfully, sweetly, purely, and fully.