[1.] For wisdom and understanding. It is in Christ twofold — divine and human ; for each nature hath its particular and proper wisdom belonging to it. As God, it is infinite : Ps. cxlvii. 15, * His understanding is infinite.' And so by one infinite view, or by one act of understandino^, he knoweth all thin2:s that are, have been, or shall be, yea, or may be, by his divine power and all-sufficiency. They are all before his eyes, as if naked and cut down by the chine-bone. We know things successively, as a manreadeth a book, line after line, and page after page ; but God at one view. Now his human wisdom cannot be equal to this. A finite nature cannot be capable of an infinite understanding, but yet it is such as it doth far exceed the knowledge of all men and all angels. When Christ was upon earth, though the forms of things could not but successively come into his mind or understanding, because of the limited nature of that mind and understanding, yet then he could know whatever he would, and to whatsoever thing he would apply his mind, he did presently under- stand it ; and in a moment, by the light of the divinity, all things were presented to him ; so that he accurately knew the nature of whatever he had a mind to know. And therefore then he was not ignorant of those things that were in the hearts of men, and were done so secretly as they were thought only to be known to God himself. Thus he knew the secret touch of the woman, when the multitude thronged upon him, Luke viii. 45, 46. So Mat. ix. 3, 4, ' When certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth : Jesus knowing their thoughts, said, Why think ye evil in your hearts ? ' He discerneth
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the inward thoughts, and turneth out the inside of the scribes' minds. So Mat. xii. 24, 25, Jesus knew their thoughts when they imagined that ' by Beelzebub the prince of the devils he cast out devils.' But most fully, see John ii. 24, 25, ' He committed not himself to them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man ; for he knew what was in man.' It may be they knew not them- selves, but he knew what kind of belief it was, such as would not hold out in time of temptation. We cannot infallibly discern professors before they discover themselves ; yet all hypocrites are seen and known of him, even long before they show their hypocrisy, not by a conjectural, but a certain knowledge, as being from and by himself, as God. He doth infallibly know what is most secret and hidden in man. Now, if he were endowed with such an admirable understanding even in the days of his flesh, while he grew in wisdom and stature, Luke ii., and his human capacity enlarged by degrees, what shall we think of him in that state in which he is now glorious in heaven ? Therefore, to exercise this judgment, he shall bring incomparable knowledge, so far exceeding the manner and measure of all creatures, even as he is man ; but his infinite knowledge as God shall chiefly shine forth in this work. Therefore he is a fit judge, able to bring forth the secret things of darkness and counsels of the heart into open and manifest light, 1 Cor. iv, 5, and disprove sinners in their pretences and excuses, and pluck off their disguises from them.
[2.] For justice and righteousness. An incorrupt judge, that neither doth nor can err in judgment, must be our judge. As there is a double knowledge in Christ, so there is a double righteousness ; one that belongeth to him as God, the other as man ; and both are exact and immutably perfect. His divine nature is holiness itself : ' In him is light, and no darkness at all.' The least shadow of injustice cannot be imagined there. All virtues in God are his being, not superadded qualities. God's holiness may be resembled to a vessel of pure gold, where the substance and lustre is the same ; but ours is like a vessel of wood or earth gilded, where the substance and gilding is not the same. Our holiness is a superadded quality. We cannot call a wise man, Wisdom ; or a righteous man, Kighteousness. We use the concrete of man, but the abstract of God. He is love, he is light, he is holiness itself ; which noteth the inseparability of the attribute from God. It is himself ; God cannot deny himself : his act is his rule. Take Peter Martyr's similitude : A carpenter chopping a piece of wood by a line or square, may sometimes chop right and sometimes wrong ; he cannot carry his hand so evenly ; but if we could suppose that a carpenter's hand were his rule, he could not chop amiss. Christ's human nature was so sanctified, that upon earth he could not sin, much more now glorified in heaven. And there will be use of both righteousnesses in the last judgment ; but chiefly of the righteous- ness that belongeth to the divine nature ; for all the operations of Christ are theandrical ; neither nature ceaseth to work in them. As in all the works of men, the body and the soul do both conspire and concur in that w\ay which is proper to either ; only, as in the works of liis humiliation his human nature did more appear, so in the works that belong to his exaltation and glorified estate, his divine nature