4, The whole revelation and dispensation of the will of God in and by the word is, as was said, eminently appropriated unto the Father. Eternal life (the counsel, the purpose, ways, means, and procurer of it) was with the Father, and was manifested to us by the word of truth, 1 John i.1, 2. And it is the Father,—that is, his will, mind, purpose, grace, love-—that the Son declares, John i. 18; in which work he speaks nothing but what he heard from and was taught by the Father, John viii. 28. And hence he says, “My doctrine is not mine” (that is, principally and originally), “but his that sent me,” John vii. 16. And the gospel is called “The gospel of the glory of the blessed-Ged,” 1 Tim. i. 11; which is a periphrasis for the person of the Father, who is “the Father of glory,” Eph.i.17. And we might also declare, that the great work of making this gospel effectual on the minds of men doth peculiarly belong unte the Father, which he accomplisheth by his Spirit, 2 Cor. iil. 18, iv.6; but that is not our present business. Thus the revela- tion of events that should befall the chureh to the end of the world, that Christ signified by his angel unto John, was first given him of the Father, Rev. i. 1. And therefore, though all declarations of God and his will, from the foundation of the world, were made by the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and his Spirit speaking ia the prophets, 1 Pet. i. 11, 12, yet as it was not by him immediately, no more was it absolutely so, but as the great angel and mes- senger of the covenant, by the will and appointment of the Father. And therefore the very dispensers of the gospel are said wpeoCedew ivtp Xpiorov, to treat as ambassadors about the business of Christ with men, in the name of God the Father. ‘Os roi Oot rapaxa- rodvrog Ou judy, saith the apostle;—*“ As if God” (the Father) “ ex- horted in and by us,” 2 Cor. v. 20; for to him doth this whole work principally relate.
VER. 1, 2.| EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 37
And from the appropriating of this work originally and princi: pally to the Father, there are three things that are particularly in- timated unto us :—
1. The authority is to: be considered in it. The Father is the original of all power and authority; of him: “the whole family in heaven and earth is named,” Eph; iii 15: He is the Father of the whole family, from whom Christ himself receives all his power and authority as mediator, Matt. xxvii. 18; which;.when his work ~ is accomplished, he shall give up agam into his hand, 1 Cor. xv. 28. He sent him into the world, set him over his house, gave him com- mand unto his work. The very name and title of Father carries authority along with it, Mal. i. 6& And im the disposal of the church, in respect of this paternal power, doth the Son affirm that the Father is greater than he, John xiv..28; and he runs up the con- tempt of the word, in the preaching of it by his messengers, into a contempt of this-authority of the Father: “ He that refuseth you refuseth me: he that refuseth me refuseth him that sent me.”
The revelation, then, and dispensation of the mind and will of God in the word, are to-be considered as an act of supreme, sovereign authority, requiring all subjection of soul and: conseience: in the receiving of it. It is the Father of the family that speaks in this word ; he that hath all powerand authority essentially in: him over the souls and eternal conditions of them to whom he speaks. And what holy reverence, humility, and universal subjection of soul to the word, this in a particular manner requires, is easy to be apprehended.
_ 2. There is also love. In the economy of the blessed Trinity about the work of our salvation, that which is eminently and in an especial manner ascribed unte the Father is love, as hath been at large elsewhere showed, 1 John iv. 8, 10,16. “God,” that is the Father, saith John, “is love.” And how he exerts that property of his nature in the work of our salvation by Christ he there shows at large. So John iit 16; Rom. v. 7, 8. To be love, full of love, to be the especial spring of all fruits of love,.is peculiar to him as the Father. And from love it is that he makes the revelation of his will whereof we speak, Deut. vii. 8, xxxill. 3; Ps. exlvii. 19, 20; 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. It was out of infinite love, mercy, and compassion, that God would at all reveal his mind and will unto sinners. He might for ever have locked up the treasures of his wisdom and pru- dence, wherein he abounds towards us in his word, in: his own eternal breast. He’ might have left all the sons of men unto that woful darkness whereinto by sin they had cast themselves, and kept them under the chains and power of it, with the angels that sinned before them, unto the judgment of the great day. But it was from infinite love that he made this condescension, to reveal himself and his will unto us, This mixture of authority and love, which is the spring of