To this purpose is that divine testimony, John i. 18, " No man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." It is of all the prophets concerning whom it is affirmed, that no man hath seen God at any time. So is it evident in the antithesis between Moses the principal of them, and the Lord Christ, in the verse foregoing: " For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Wherefore no man, no other man or prophet whatever, hath seen God at any time ; that is, had a perfect comprehension of his counsels, his mmd and will, as they were to be declared unto the church. This is the privilege of the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; not only as being his eternal delight and love, but also as one acquainted with all his secret counsels— as his fellow and participant of all his bosom thoughts.
He says, that " all that ever came before him were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them," John x. 8. This some of old impiously applied unto the prophets of the Old Testament; whereas he intended it only of those false prophets who pretended of themselves that they, any of them, were the Messiah, the great
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Shepherd of the sheep, whom his elect sheep would not attend unto. But it is true that all who went before him, neither separately nor jointly, had the knowledge of God, so as to declare him fully unto the chiurch.
It is the most fond and wicked imagination of the Socinians, invented to countenance their disbelief and hatred of his divine per- son, that during the time of his flesh he was taken up into heaven, and there taught the doctrine of the Gospel, as Mohammed feigned concerning himself and his Alkoran. The reason and foundation of his perfect knowledge of God was, his being the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, and not a fictitious rapture of his human nature.
To this purpose have we his own testimony, John iii. 13, " And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." The matter whereof he treats is the revelation of heavenly things. For, finding Nicodemus slow in the understanding of the doctrine and necessity of regeneration, which yet was plain and evident in com- parison of some other heavenly mysteries, he asks of him, " If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not," (things wrought in the earth and in your own breasts,) " how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things V if I declare unto you the deep counsels of the will of God above, verse 12. But hereon a question might arise, how he should himself come to the knowledge of these heavenly things whereof they had never heard before, and which no other man could tell them of, especially considering what he had said before, verse 11, "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." Hereof he gives an account in these words. Where- fore the ascending into hea,ven, which he denies unto all men what- ever— " No man hath ascended up to heaven " — is an entrance into all the divine, heavenly counsels of God ; no man either hath or ever had a full comprehension of these heavenly things but he himself alone. And unto him it is ascribed on a double account : first. That he came down from heaven ; secondly. That when he did so, he yet still continued in heaven: which two properties give us such a description of the person of Christ as declare him a full possessor of all the counsels of God. He descended from heaven in his incarna- tion, whereby he became the Son of man ; and he is and was then in heaven in the essence and glory of his divine nature. This is the full of what we assert. In the knowledge and revelation of heavenly mysteries, unto the calling, sanctification, and salvation of the church, doth the prophetical office of Christ consist. This he positively affirms could not otherwise be, but that he who came down fi'om heaven was also at the same instant in heaven. This is that glorious
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person whereof we speak. He who, being always in heaven in the glory and essence of his divine nature, came down from heaven, not locally, by a mutation of his residence, but by dispensation in the assumption of our nature into personal union with himself — he alone is meet and able to be the prophet of the church in the revelation of the heavenly mysteries of the counsels of the will of God. In him alone were " hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," Col. ii. 3, because in him alone " dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily," verse 9.
I do not hereby ascribe the infusion of omniscience, of infinite understanding, wisdom, and knowledge, into the human nature of Christ. It was and is a creature, finite and limited, nor is a capable subject of properties absolutely infinite and immense. Filled it was with light and wisdom to the utmost capacity of a creature ; but it was so, not by being changed into a divine nature or essence, but by the communication of the Spirit unto it without measure. The Spirit of the Lord did rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spuit of know- ledge and of the fear of the Lord, and made him of quick under- standing in the fear of the Lord, Isa. xi 2, 3.