saw through one only,' Vaiikra Rabba. sec. 1. whereunto they add that his speculum was clear and lucid, theirs spotted.

It must be granted that Moses, being the lawgiver and first revealer of all that worship, in the observance whereof the Judaical church state and privilege of that people did consist, had the pre-eminence above the succeeding prophets, whose ministry chiefly tended to instruct the people in the nature, and keep them to the observance of his institutions. But that all these things by them insisted on, were peculiar to him, it doth not appear, nor if it did so, are the most of them of any great weight or importance.

The first is granted, and a signal privilege it was. God spake to him, face to face,' Exod. xxxiii. 11. and П, mouth to mouth,' Num. xii. 8.; and this is mentioned as that which was peculiar to him above the prophets which should succeed him in the ministry of that church. But that Moses saw the essense of God, which the Jews contend from these words, is expressly denied in the text itself. For even then when it was said, that God spake to him face to face, it is also affirmed that he did not, nor could see the face of God, Exod. xxxiii. 20. See John i. 17, 18. Both these expressions intend only that God revealed himself to him in a more clear and familiar way than he had done to other prophets, or would do while that administration continued. although the things he revealed to and by other prophets, were more clear, evident and open to the understanding of believers, than they were in the revelation made to Moses, (they being intended as expositions of it,) yet in the way of the revelation itself, God dealt more clearly and familiarly with Moses, than with any other prophet of that church whatever.

For

The second difference assigned is vain. Of the times and seasons wherein the prophets received their visions there can be no determinate rule assigned. Many of them were at ordinary seasons, whilst they were waking, and some about the employment of their callings, as Amos vii. 15.

The third also, about that consternation of spirit which befel other prophets, is groundless. Sometimes it was so with them, as the instance of Daniel proves, chap. vii. 28. x. 8. and so it befel Moses himself, Heb. xii. 21. which if we attain to that place we shall prove the Jews themselves to acknowledge. Ordinarily it was otherwise, as with him so with them, as is manifest in the whole story of the prophets.

There is the same mistake in the last difference assigned. Moses did not so receive the spirit of prophecy, as that he could at his own pleasure reveal those things which were not discoverable but by that spirit, or speak out the mind of God infallibly in any thing for the use of the church without actual

inspiration as to that particular; which is evident from the mistake that he was under as to the manner of his government, which he rectified by the advice of Jethro, Exod. xviii. 19. And likewise in other instances did he wait for particular answers from God, Num. xv. 34. To have a comprehension at once of the whole will of God concerning the obedience and salvation of the church, was a privilege reserved for "him who in all things was to have the pre-eminence." And it seems that Maimonides himself in his exaltation of Moses excepted the Messiah. For whereas in the Hebrew and Latin copies of More Nebuch. part 2. cap. 45. there are these words,

by na, which Buxtorf renders, est gradus hic etiam præstantissimorum consiliariorum Israelis, this is the degree (in prophecy) of the counsellors of Israel, the Arabic or original hath, And this also is the degree of the Messiah of Israel, who goeth before, or excelleth all others,' that is in point of prophecy.

Not to follow them in their imaginations, the just privileges of Moses above all other prophets lay in these three things.

1. That he was the lawgiver and mediator by whom God gave that law, and revealed that worship in the observance whereof, the very being of the Judaical church did consist.

2. That God in the revelation made to him, dealt in a more familiar and clear manner, as to the way of his outward dealing, than with any other prophets.

3. In that the revelation made to him, concerned the ordering of the whole house of God, when the other prophets were employed only about particulars built on his foundation.

In these things consisted the just and free pre-eminence of Moses, which, whether it were such as would warrant the Jews in their obstinate adherence to his institutions upon their own principles, shall be inquired into. But before we manifest that indeed it was not, the revelation of the mind of God in and by the Son, which is compared with, and preferred before and above this of Moses, must be unfolded, and this we shall do in the ensuing observations.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ, by virtue of the union of his person, was from the womb filled with a perfection of gracious light and knowledge of God and his will. An actual exercise of that principle of holy wisdom wherewith he was endued, in his infancy, as afterwards, he had not, Luke ii. 52. Nor had he in his human nature an absolutely infinite comprehension of all individual things past, present and to come, which he expressly denies, as to the day of judgment, Mat. xxiv. 36. Mark xiii. 32. But he was furnished with all that wisdom and knowledge which the hunian nature was capable of, both as to principle and exercise, in the condition wherein it was, without destroying VOL. III.

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its finite being, and variety of conditions from the womb. The Papists have made a vain controversy about the knowledge of the human soul of Christ. Those whom they charge with error in this matter, affirm no more than what is expressly asserted in the places of Scripture above mentioned, and by their answers to those places, it is evident how little they care to what scorn they expose the Scripture and all religion, if they may secure their own mistakes. But this wisdom, whatever it were, is not that whereby God so revealed his mind to him, as thereby to be said to speak to us in him. He had it by his union, and therefore immediately from the person of the Son, sanctifying that nature by the Holy Ghost which he took into subsistence with himself. But the revelation, by which God spake in him to us, was in a peculiar manner from the Father, Rev. i. 1. and as we have shewed, it is the person of the Father that is here peculiarly spoken of. And hence the inquiry of some on this place, how the second person revealed himself to the human nature, is not to the purpose of it. For it is the person of the Father that is spoken of. So that,

2. The commission, the mission and the furnishing of the Son as incarnate and as Mediator, with abilities for the declaration of the mind and will of God to the church, were peculiarly from the Father. For the whole work of his mediation, he received command of the Father, John x. 18. and what he should speak, John xii. 49. according to which commandment he wrought and taught, John xiv. 31. Whence that is the common periphrasis whereby he expressed the person of the Father, he that sent him,' as also he that sealed and anointed him.' And on that account he testified, that his doctrine was not his, his own, that is, primarily or originally as Mediator, but his that sent him, John vii. 16. It was from the Father that he heard the word, and learned the doctrine that he declared to the church. And this is asserted wherever there is mention made of the Father's sending, sealing, anointing, commanding, teaching him; of his doing the will, speaking the words, seeking the glory, obeying the commands of him that sent him. See John viii. 26. 28. 40. xiv. 10. xv. 15. Rev. i. 1. and in the Old Testament, Zech. ii. 8. Isa. xlviii. 15-17. ch. 1. 4. That blessed tongue of the learned whereby God spake in and by him, the refreshing word of the gospel, to poor weary sinners, was the gift of the Father.

3. As to the manner of his receiving the revelation of the will of God, a double mistake must be removed, and then the nature of it must be declared.

1. The Socinians, to avoid the force of those testimonies which are urged to confirm the deity of Christ, from the assertions in the gospel that he who spake to the disciples on earth,

was then also in heaven, John iii. 13. vi. 35. 51. vii. 32, 33. 41, 42. 57, 58. viii. 29. have broached a Mahometan fancy, that the Lord Christ, before his entrance on his public ministry, was locally taken up into heaven, and there instructed in the mystery of the gospel, and the mind of God which he was to reveal, Catech. Raccov. cap. 3. de Offic. Ch. Prophet. Quest. 4, 5. Smalcius de Divinitat. Christi, cap. 4. Socin. Respons. ad Paran. Vol. ii. pag. 38, 39.

But, 1. There was no cause of any such rapture of the hu man 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 garov Veudos, that the Lord Christ in his whole person was no more than a mere man. 3. 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, 1. The Holy Ghost affirms, that Christ entered once into the holy place, and that after he had obtained eternal redemption, Heb. ix. 12. which should 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. 2. He was to suffer before his entrance into heaven and his glory therein, Luke xxiv. 26. And 3. 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 wilderness 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 to Christ, upon the endowments of the human nature by virtue 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 to him after that union. Wherefore 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 omniscience 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 cuncis, 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 especial coun

sel 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 to him as the Son, by virtue of his own personal transactions 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, separated from sinners," and radically 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 to God, Luke ii. 40. 49. 52. John viii. 46. 1 Pet. ii. 22. But,

7. Besides this furniture with habitual grace for the performance of all holy obedience to 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 to him, was the foundation of his sufficiency for the discharge 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 wanguμives copias, Luke ii. 40." filled with wisdom," wherewith he confuted the doctors to amazement, ver. 47. And with his years were these gifts increased in him; goxon's core as dixia xai xagiti, he went forwards in wisdom and stature and favour,' ver. 52. But the full communication of this Spirit, with special reference to 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, ver. 17. which when again repeated, received the additional command of hearing him, Mat. 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 πνεύματος άγιο πλήρης, Luke