Without a respect unto these things, we cannot really be made partakers of the saving benefits and fruits of the prophetical office of Christ. And this we can have only in the exercise of faith on his divine person, which is the eternal spring from whence this office derives all life and efficacy.
The command of God, in respect unto him as the prophet of the church, is, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear him.'' Unless we actually regard him by faith as the only- begotten Son of God, we can perform no duty aright in the hearing of him, nor shall we learn the ti-uth as we ought. Hence it is that those who deny his divine person, though they pretend to attend unto him as the teacher of the church, do yet learn no truth from him, but embrace pernicious errors in the stead thereof. So it is with the Socinians, and all that follow them. For whereas they scarcely own any other office of Christ but his prophetical — looking on him as a man sent to teach the mind of God, and to confirm his doctrine by
96 THE PERSON OF CHRIST.
bis sufferings, whereon he was afterward highly exalted of God — they learn nothing from him in a due manner.
But this respect unto the person of Christ is that which will inge- nerate in us all those holy qualifications that are necessaiy to enable us to know the mind and will of God. For hence do reverence, humility, faith, delight, and assurance, arise and flow ; without whose continual exercise, in vain shall men hope to learn the will of God by the utmost of their endeavours. And the want of these things is the cause of much of that lifeless, unsanctified knowledge of the doctrine of the Gospel which is amongst many. They learn not the truth from Christ, so as to expect all teachings from his divine power. Hence they never come to know it, either in its native beauty draw- ing the soul into the love and delight of what they know, or in its transforming efficacy changing the mind into its own image and likeness.
(2.) The same also is the state of things with respect unto his kingly office and power. But this I have at large treated on else- where, and that much unto the same purpose ; namely, in the expo- sition of the 3d verse of the 1st chapter of the Epistle unto the Hebrews. Wherefore I shall not here enlarge upon it.
Some seem to imagine, that the kingly power of Christ towards the church consists only in external rule by the Gospel and the laws thereof, requiring obedience unto the officers and rulers that he hath appointed therein. It is true, that this also belongs unto his kingly power and rule ; but to suppose that it consisteth solely therein, is an ebullition from the poisonous fountain of the denial of his divine person. For if he be not God over all, whatever in words may be pretended or ascribed unto him, he is capable of no other rule or power. But indeed no one act of his kingly office can be aright conceived or acknowledged, without a respect had unto his divine person. I shall instance only unto this purpose in two things in general.
[1.] The extent of his power and rule gives evidence hereunto. It is over the whole creation of God. " All power is given him in heaven and earth," Matt, xxviii. 18. " All things are put under his feet, he only excepted who put all things under him," 1 Cor. XV. 27; and he is made "head over all things unto the church," Eph. i. 22. Not only those who are above the rule of external law, as the holy angels ; and those who have cast off all such rule, as the devils themselves ; but all things that in their o^vn nature are not capable of obedience to an external law or rule, as the whole inani- mate creation, heaven, and earth, and the sea, with all things in them and under them, (Phil. ii. 10,) with the dead bodies of men, which he shall raise at the last day.
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For this power over the whole creation is not only a moral right to rule and govern it; but it is also accompanied with virtue, force, or almighty power, to act, order, and dispose of it at his pleasure. So is it described by the apostle from the Psalmist, Heb. i. 10-12, " Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth ; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: they shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." That power is required unto his kingly office whereby he created all things in the beginning, and shall change them all, as a man folds up a vesture, in the end. Omnipotency, accompanied with eternity and immuta- bility, are required hereunto.
It is a vain imagination, to suppose that this power can reside in a mere creature, however glorified and exalted. All essential divine properties are concurrent with it, and inseparable from it. And where are the properties of God, there is the nature of God ; for his being and his properties are one and the same.