But,—[1.] There was no cause of any such rapture of the human nature of Christ, as we shall evidence in manifesting the way whereby he was taught of the Father, especially after his baptism. [2.] This imaginary rapture is grounded solely on their rparov Y<td0s, that the Lord Christ in his whole person was no more than a mere man. [8.] There is no mention of any such thing in the Scripture, where the Father’s revealing his mind and will to the Son is treated of; which had it been, ought not to have been omitted. [4.] The fancy of it is expressly contrary to Scripture: for,—I1s¢. The Holy Ghost affirms that Christ “entered in once into the holy place,” and that after he had “obtained eternal redemption,” Heb. ix. 12; which would have been his second entrance had he been taken thither before in his human nature. So that coming of his into the world which we look for at the last day is called his second coming, his coming again, because of his first entrance into it at his incarnation, Heb. ix. 28. 2dly. He was to suffer before his entry into heaven and his glory therein, Luke xxiv. 26. And, 3dly. 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 wil- derness amongst the wild beasts, Mark i. 13. So that this figment may have no place in our inquiry into the way of the Father's speaking in the Son.
(2.) Some lay the whole weight of the revelation of the will of God unto Christ upon the endowments of his human nature by vir- tue of its personal union with the eternal Word. But this is wholly inconsistent with the many testimonies, before rehearsed, of the Father’s revealing himself unto him after that union. Where-
30 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [ CHAP. I.
fore, to declare the nature of this revelation, we must observe further,—
4. That Jesus Christ in his divine nature, as he was the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father, not by a voluntary communication, but eternal generation, had an omnisciency of the whole nature and will of God, as the Father himself hath, because the same with that of the Father, their will and wisdom being the same. This is the blessed cuyarepiyzwpnors, or in-being of each person, the one in the other, by virtue of their oneness in the same nature. Thus, as God, he had an absolute omniscience. Moreover, the mystery of the gospel, the eternal counsel and covenant of it concerning the redemption of the elect in his blood, and the worship of God by his redeemed ones, being transacted between Father and Son from all eternity, was known unto him as the Son, by virtue of his own personal transac- tions with the Father in the eternal counsel and covenant of it. See what we have elsewhere delivered concerning that covenant.
5. The Lord Christ discharged his office and work of revealing the will of the Father in and by his human nature, that nature wherein he “dwelt among us,” John i. 14; for although the person of Christ, God and man, was our mediator, Acts xx. 28, John i. 14, 18, yet his human nature was that wherein he discharged the duties of his office, and the “ principium quod” of all his mediatory actings, 1 Tim. ii. 5.
6. This human nature of Christ, as he was in it “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, a “ holy thing,” Luke i. 35, “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners;” and radi- cally filled with all that perfection of habitual grace and wisdom which was or could be necessary to the discharge of that whole duty which, as a man, he owed unto God, Luke ii. 40, 49, 52; John viii, 46; 1 Pet. i. 22. But,—
7. Besides this furniture with habitual grace, for the performance of all holy obedience unto God, as a man made under the law, there was a peculiar endowment with the Spirit, without and beyond the bounds of all comprehensible measures, that he was to receive as the great prophet of the church, in whom the Father would speak and give out the last revelation of himself. This communication of the Spirit unto him was the foundation of his sufficiency for the dis- charge of his prophetical office, Isa. xi. 2, 3, xlviii. 16, lxi 1-3; Dan. ix. 24, As to the reality and being of this gift of the Spirit, he received it from the womb; whence in his infancy he was said to be rAnpobwevos coping, Luke ii. 40, “filled with wisdom;” wherewith he confuted the doctors to amazement, verse 47. And with his years were these gifts increased in him: Tpoénowre copia. nal qrinie nol xépirr—“ He went forward in wisdom and stature and favour,” verse 52. But the full communication of this Spirit, with special
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VER, 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 31
reference unto the discharge of his public office, with the visible pledge of it in the Holy Ghost descending on him in the shape of a dove, he was made partaker of in his baptism, Matt. iii. 16; when also he received his first public testimony from heaven, verse 17; which, when again repeated, received the additional command of hearing him, Matt. xvii. 5,—designing the prophet that was to be heard on pain of utter extermination, Deut. xviii. 18, 19. And therefore he was thereupon said to be Uvévwaros ayiov carpns, Luke iv. 1, “full of the Holy Ghost,” and sealed to this work by the sign foretold of God, John i. 33.