Chapter XVIII: Of Christ's prophetical office.
Of Christ's prophetical office.
The eighth chapter in Mr Biddle is of Christ's prophetical office, or his entrance into a dealing with Christ in respect of his offices, as he hath done with him in respect of his person already.
His first question is, --
Ques. Is not Christ dignified, as with the title of mediator, so also with that of prophet?
Ans. Acts iii. 20, 22.
1. Mr B. tells us, chap. iv., that Christ is dignified with the title of God, though he be not so; and here that he is dignified with the title of a prophet, but leaves it at large whether he were so indeed or no. We are resolved in the case. The first promise made of him by God to Adam was of him generally as a mediator, particularly as a priest, as he was to break the head of Satan by the bruising of his own heel; the next solemn renovation of it to Abraham was of him as king, taking all nations to be his inheritance; and the third by Moses, after the giving of the law, as a prophet to teach and instruct his redeemed people, Gen. iii. 15, xii. 2, 3, Deut. xviii. 18. And a prophet he is, the great prophet of his church; not only dignified with that title, but so he is indeed.
2. But says Mr B., "He is dignified with the title of a prophet as well as of mediator," -- as though his being a prophet were contradistinguished from his being a mediator. Christ's teaching of his people is part of the mediation he hath undertaken. All that he doth on their part in offering gifts and sacrifices to God for them, all that he doth on the part of God towards them by instructing and ruling of them, he doth as he is the mediator between God and man, the surety of the covenant. He is not, then, a mediator and a prophet, but he who is the mediator is the high priest and prophet of his church. Nor are there any acts that he exerciseth on the one or other of these accounts but they are all acts of his mediation, and of him as a mediator. Mr B., indeed, tells us not what he understands by the mediation of Christ. His masters so describe it as to make it all one with his prophetical office, and nothing else; which makes me somewhat to wonder why this man seems to distinguish between them.
3. Many more notions of Mr B.'s masters are here omitted; as, that Christ was not the prophet of his people under the old testament, though by his Spirit he preached even to those that were disobedient in the days of Noah, and it was the Spirit of Christ that was in all the prophets of old, whereby God instructed his church, 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20, i. 11; -- that he is a prophet only because he hath given unto us a new law, though he promise effectually to open blind eyes, and to send his Spirit to teach us and to lead us into all truth, giving us understanding that we may know him that is true, Isa. lxi. 1; Luke iv. 18; John xvi. 7-13; 1 John v. 20. But he lays dirt enough in our way, so that we shall not need farther to rake into the dunghill.
4. I should not have thought that Mr B. could have taken advantage for his end and purpose from the place of Scripture he mentions, Acts iii. 20, 22, "Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me," but that I find him in his next query repeating that expression, "Like unto me," and wresting of it to be the foundation of a conceit plainly jocular. Christ was like to Moses as he was a prophet, and like to Aaron as he was a priest, and like to David as he was a king; that is, he was represented and typified by all these, and had that likeness to them which the antitype (as the thing typified is usually but improperly called) hath to the type: but that therefore he must not only be like them in the general office wherein the correspondency doth Consist, but also in all the particular concernments of the office as by them administered, is to confound the type and the antitype (or rather thing typified.) Nor do the words used, either by Moses, Deut. xviii. 18, or by Peter, Acts iii. 22, intimate any such similitude or likeness between Christ and Moses as should extend to such particulars as are afterward intimated. The words of Peter are, "God shall raise you up a prophet, hos eme," rather "as he raised up me," than "like unto me," not the least similitude being intimated between them but in this, that they were both prophets, and were both to be hearkened unto. And so the word used by God to Moses, kmvk?, "sicut te" ("a prophet as thou art"), doth import, "I will raise up one that shall be a prophet as thou art a prophet." The likeness is only in the office. For such a similitude as should give the least occasion to Mr B.'s following figments there is no colour. And so the whole foundation being rooted up, the tottering superstruction will easily fall to the ground. But then to proceed:--
Q. Forasmuch as Christ was to be a prophet like unto Moses, and Moses had the privilege above other prophets that God made not himself known to him in a vision, nor spake to him in a dream, but face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend, and showed to him the similitude of the Lord, Exod. xxxiii. 11, Num. xii. 6-8, can you tell any passage of Scripture which intimateth that Christ did see God before the discharge of his prophetical office?
A. John vi. 45, 46, "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is from God, he hath seen the Father."
1. This passage is indeed very pretty, whether the principles or the inferences of it are considered.
The principles of it are sundry:-- (1.) That God hath a bodily shape and similitude, face and hands, and the like corporeal properties;
[380] (2.) That Moses saw the face of God as the face of a man; [381] (3.) That Christ was in all things like Moses, so that what Moses did he must do also. Therefore, (1.) Christ did see the face of God as a man; (2.) He did it before he entered on his prophetical office; whereunto add, (3.) The.proof of all, "No man hath seen the Father, save he which is from God." That is, Christ only saw the face of God, and no man else, when the ground of the whole fiction is that Moses saw it before him!
2. Of the bodily shape of God, and of Moses seeing his face, I have already spoken that which Mr B. will not take out of his way. Of Christ's being like Moses something also hath now been delivered.
That which, Exod. xxxiii. 11, in the Hebrew is pnym 'lpnym?, panim el panim, the LXX. have rendered enopios enopio, -- that is, "præsens præsenti," "as one present with him;" and the Chaldee paraphrast, "verbum ad verbum," -- that is, God dealt with him kindly and familiarly, not with astonishing terror, and gave him an intimate acquaintance with his mind and will. And the same expression is used concerning God's speaking to all the people, Deut. v. 4; of whom yet it is expressly said that they saw no likeness at all, chap. iv. 12. [382]
If from the likeness mentioned there must be a sameness asserted unto the particular attendancies of the discharge of that office, then Christ must divide the sea, lift up a brazen serpent, and die in a mountain, and be buried by God where no man could ever know. Moses, indeed, enjoyed an eminency of revelation above other prophets, which is called his conversing with God as a friend, and beholding him face to face, but even in that wherein he is exalted above all others, he is infinitely short of the great Prophet of his church: for Moses, indeed, as a servant was faithful in all the house of God, but this man is over his own house; whose house we are, Heb. iii. 5, 6.
3. This figment is for ever and utterly everted by the Holy Ghost, John i. 17, 18, where he expressly urges a dissimilitude between Moses and the only-begotten Son in that particular wherein this gentleman would have the likeness to consist "Herein," says Mr B., "is Christ like to Moses, that as Moses saw God face to face, so he saw God face to face." "No," saith the Holy Ghost; "the law, indeed, was given by Moses, but no man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." It is true that it is said of Moses that "God spake to him face to face," -- that is, in a more clear and familiar manner than he did to other prophets, -- though he told him plainly that he should not, or could not, see his face, Exod. xxxiii. 18-23, though he gave him some lower manifestations of his glory: so that notwithstanding the revelations made to him, "no man hath seen God at any time, but the only-begotten Son." He who is of the same nature and essence with the Father, and is in his bosom love, he hath seen him, John vi. 46; and in this doth Moses, being a man only, come infinitely short of the only-begotten Son, in that he could never see God, which He did: which is also asserted in the place of Scripture cited by Mr B.
4. To lay this axe, then, also to the root of Mr B.'s tree, to cut it down for the fire: The foundation of Christ's prophetical office, as to his knowledge of the will of his Father, which he was to reveal, doth not consist in his being "taken up into heaven," and there being taught the will of God in his human nature, but in that he was the "only-begotten Son of the Father," who eternally knew him and his whole will and mind, and, in the dispensation which he undertook, revealed him and his mind, according as it was appointed to him. In respect, indeed, of his human nature, wherein he declared and preached the will of God, he was taught of God, being filled with wisdom and understanding by the Spirit, whereby he was anointed for that purpose; but as the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, he always saw him, knew him, and revealed him, Luke iv. 18; Isa. lxi. 1; Heb. i. 9.
I shall only add, that this fancy of Mr B. and the rest of the Socinians (Socinianism being, indeed, a kind of modest and subtile Mohammedanism [383] ), of Christ's seeing God, as did Moses, seems to be taken from, or taken up to comply with, the Alcoran, where the same is affirmed of Mohammed. So Beidavi on these words of, the Alcoran, "Et sunt ex iis quibuscum locutus est ipse Deus." Saith he, "Est hic Moses; aut juxta alios Moses et Mahumed, super quibus Pax; Mosi Deus locutus est ea nocte, qua in exstasi quasi fuit in monte Sinai. Mahumedi vero locutus est illa nocte, qua scalis coelo admotis, angelos vidit ascendere, tunc enim vix jactum duarum sagittarum ab eo fuit." How near Moses came is not expressed, but Mohammed came within two bow-shots of him! How near the Socinian Christ came I know not, nor doth Mr B. inform us.
But yet as Mr B. eats his word as to Moses, and after he had affirmed that he saw the face of God, says he only saw the face of an angel, so do the Mohammedans also as to the vision of their prophet, who tell us that indeed he was not able to see an angel in his own proper shape, as Socinus says we cannot see a spiritual body, though Mr B. thinks that we may see God's right hand and his left. But of this you have a notable story in Kessæus. Saith he, "They report of the prophet that on a certain day, or once upon a time, he said to Gabriel, O Gabriel, I desire to see thee in the form of thy great shape or figure, wherein God created thee. Gabriel said to him, O beloved of God, my shape is very terrible; no man can see it, and so not thou, but he will fall into a swoon. Mohammed answered, Although it be so, yet I would see thee in a bigger shape. Gabriel therefore answered, O beloved of God, where dost thou desire to see me? Mohammed answered, Without the city of Mecca, in the stony village. Says Gabriel, That village will not hold me. Therefore answered Mohammed, Let it be in mount Orphath. That is a larger and fitter place, says Gabriel. Away, therefore, went Mohammed to mount Orphath, and, behold, Gabriel with a great noise covered the whole horizon with his shape; which when the prophet saw, he fell upon the earth in a swoon. When, therefore, Gabriel, on whom be peace, had returned to his former shape, he came to the prophet, and embracing and kissing him, said to him, Fear not, O beloved of God, I am thy brother Gabriel. The prophet answers, Thou speakest truly, O my brother Gabriel; I could never have thought that any creature of God had had such a figure or shape. Gabriel answered, O beloved of God, what wouldst thou say if thou sawest the shape of the angel Europhil?"
[384]
They who know any thing of the Mohammedan forgeries and abominations, in applying things spoken of in the Scripture to their great impostor, will quickly perceive the composition of this fiction from what is spoken of Moses and Daniel. This lying knave, it seems, was of Mr B.'s mind, that it was not God indeed, but an angel, that appeared to Moses on mount Sinai; and thence is this tale, which came to pass "once upon a time." He proceeds:--
Q. From whence doth it appear that Christ, like Moses, heard from God the things that he spake?
A. John viii. 26, 28, 40, xiv. 10.
All the difficulty of this question ariseth from these words, "Like Moses;" and the sense by Mr B. put upon them, -- how falsely, holy inconsistently with himself, with what perverting of the Scripture, -- hath been declared. The scriptures in the answer affirm only that Christ "heard and was taught of the Father;" which is not at all denied, but only the modus that Mr B. would impose upon the words is rejected. Christ "heard of the Father," [385] who taught him, as his servant in the work of mediation, by his Spirit, wherewith he was anointed; but it is his "going into heaven" to hear a lesson with his bodily ears which Mr B. aims at, and labours under the next query to prove, -- how unsuccessfully shall briefly be demonstrated. Saith he, --
Q. Can you farther cite any passage to prove that Christ as a man ascended into heaven, and was there, and came from God out of heaven, before he showed himself to the world and discharged his prophetical office, so that the talking of Moses with God, in the person of an angel bearing the name of God, was but a shadow of Christ's talking with God?
A. John iii. 13, 30-32, vi. 29, 32, 33, 38, 41, 42, 51, 57, 58, 62, viii. 29, 42, xiii. 1, 3, xvi. 27-30, xvii. 8.
We are come now to the head of this affair, to that which has been aimed at all along in the former queries The sum is: "Christ until the time of his baptism was ignorant of the mind and will of God, and knew not what he was to do or to declare to the world, nor what he came into the world for, at least only in general; but then when he was led into the wilderness to be tempted, he was rapt up into heaven, [386] and there God instructed him in his mind and will, made him to know the message that he came to deliver, gave him the law that he was to promulge, and so sent him down again to the earth to preach it." Though the Scripture says that he knew the will of God, by being his "only-begotten Son, full of grace and truth," and that he was "full of the Holy Ghost" when he went to the wilderness, being by him "anointed to preach the gospel;" though at his solemn entrance so to do "the heavens were opened, and the Spirit of God descended on him in the form of a dove," God giving solemn testimony to him and charge to "hear him;" [387] yet, because Mr B.'s masters are not able to answer the testimonies of Scripture for the divine nature of Christ, which affirm that he was in heaven before his incarnation, and came down to his work by incarnation, this figment is set on foot, to the unspeakable dishonour of the Son of God. Before I proceed farther in the examination of this invention and detection of its falsehood, that it may appear that Mr B. made not this discovery himself by his impartial study of the Scripture (as he reports), it may not be amiss to inquire after the mind of them in this business whose assistance Mr B. has in some measure made use of.
The Racovian Catechism gives us almost the very same question and answer:--
Q. Whence is it manifest that Christ revealed the will of God perfectly unto us?
A. Hence, because Jesus himself was in a most perfect manner taught it of God in heaven, and was sent from heaven magnificently for the publishing of it to men, and did perfectly declare it to them.
Q. But where is it written that Christ was in heaven, and was sent from heaven?
A. John vi. 38, -- [388]
-- and so do they proceed with the places of Scripture here cited by Mr
B. The same Smalcius spends one whole chapter in his book of the Divinity of Christ, whose title is, "De Initiatione Christi ad Munus Propheticum," to declare and prove this thing, that Christ was so taken up into heaven, and there taught the mind of God, Smalc. de Divin. Jes. Christ. cap. iv.; only in this he seems to be at variance with Mr B., that he denies that Moses saw the face of God, which this man makes the ground of affirming that Christ did so. But here Mr B. is at variance also with himself in the end of the last question, intimating that Moses saw only the face of an angel that bare the name of God; which now serves his turn as the other did before. Ostorodius, in his Institutions, cap. xvi., pursues the same business with vehemency, as the manner of the man was: but Smalcius is the man who boasts himself to have first made the discovery; and so he did, as far as I can find, or at least he was the first that fixed the time of this rapture to be when he was in the wilderness. And saith he, "Hoc mysterium nobis a Deo per sacras literas revelatum esse plurimum gaudemus," Idem ibid. And, of all his companions, this man lays most weight on this invention. His eighth chapter, in the refutation of Martinus Smiglecius, de Verbi Incarnationis Natura, is spent in the pursuit of it; so also is a good part of his book against Ravenspergerus. Socinus himself ventures at this business, but so faintly and slightly as I suppose in all his writings there is not any thing to be found wherein he is less dogmatical; his discourse of it is in his first answer to the Parænesis of Volanus, pp. 38-40. One while he says the words are to be taken metaphorically; then, that Christ was in heaven in his mind and meditation; and at last, it may be, "was taken into heaven," as Paul was. [389]
To return to our catechists and to the thing itself, the reader may take of it this brief account:--
1. There is, indeed, in the New Testament abundant mention of our Saviour's coming down from heaven, of his coming forth from God, which in what sense it is spoken hath been fully before declared; but of his being taken up into heaven after his incarnation before his death, and being there taught the mind of God and the gospel which he was to preach, there is not one word nor syllable. Can it be supposed that, whereas so many lesser things are not only taken notice of, but also to the full expressed, with all their circumstances, this, which, according to the hypothesis of them with whom we have to do, is of such importance to the confirmation of his doctrine, and, upon a supposition of his being a mere man, eminently suited to the honour of his ministry above all the miracles that he wrought, [should not have been mentioned,] -- that he and all his followers should be utterly silent therein; that when his doctrine was decried for novelty and folly, and whatever is evil and contemptible, that none of the apostles in its vindication, none of the ancients against the Pagans, should once make use of this defensative, that Christ was taken up into heaven, and there instructed in the mind of God? Let one word, testimony, or expression, be produced to this purpose, that Christ was taken up into heaven to be instructed in the mind of God before his entrance upon his office, and let our adversaries take the cause. If not, let this story be kept in the old golden legend, as a match for any it contains.
2. There was no cause of this rapture or taking of Christ into heaven. That which is assigned, that there he might be taught the gospel, helps not in any measure; for the Scripture not only assigns other causes of his acquaintance with the mind and will of God, -- namely, his oneness with the Father, being his only-begotten Son, his Word and Wisdom, as also (in respect of his condescension to the office of mediation) his being anointed with the fulness of the Spirit, as was promised and prophesied of him, -- but also affirms that this was accomplished both on him and towards him before such time as this fiction is pretended to fall out, John i. 1, 18; Prov. viii. 14-16; Col. ii. 3; Heb. i. 9; John iii. 34.
Instantly upon his baptism Luke tells you that he was pleres Pneumatos hagiou, "full of the Holy Ghost," chap. iv. 1; which was all that was required to give him a full furnishment for his office, and all that was promised on that account. This answers what he expresses to be necessary for the discharge of his prophetical office: Pleres Pneumatos agiou is as much as rvch 'dny yhvh ly?, Isa. lxi. 1; and upon that he says, "He hath sent me to preach." God also solemnly bare witness to him from heaven to the same purpose, Matt. iii. 17. And before this John affirmed that he was "the Light of the world, the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," John i. 9; which how he should be, and yet himself be in darkness, not knowing the will of God, is not easily to be apprehended.
3. To what purpose served all that glory at his baptism, that solemn inauguration, when he took upon him the immediate administration of his prophetical office in his own person, if after this he was to be taken up into heaven to be taught the mind of God? To what end were the heavens opened over him? to what end did the Holy Ghost descend upon him in a visible shape, which God had appointed as a sign whereby he should be known to be the great prophet, John i. 32-34? to what end was that voice from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased?" -- I say, to what end were all these, if after all this he was ignorant of the gospel and of the will of God, and was to be taken up into heaven to be instructed?
4. If this must be supposed to be without any mention, yet why is it said always, that Christ came from heaven to the earth? If he was first on the earth, and was taken into heaven, and came again to the earth, he had spoken to the understanding of men if he had said, "I am returned from heaven;" and not, as he doth, "I am come from heaven.". This in lesser matters is observed. Having gone out of Galilee to Jordan, and come again, it is said he "returned from Jordan," Luke iv. 1; [390] and having been with the Gadarenes, upon his coming to the other side, from whence he went, it is said he returned from the Gadarenes back again, Luke viii. 40. [391] But where is it said that he returned from heaven, which, on the supposition that is made, had alone in this ease been proper? which propriety of speech is in all other cases everywhere observed by the holy writers.
5. It is said that Christ "entered once into the holy place," and that "having obtained eternal redemption," Heb. ix. 12; yea, and expressly that he ought to suffer before he so entered, Luke xxiv. 26. But, according to these men, he went twice into heaven, -- once before he suffered and had obtained eternal redemption, and once afterward. It may also be observed, that when they are pressed to tell us some of the circumstances of this great matter, being silent to all others, they only tell us that they conjecture the time to be in the space of that forty days wherein he was in the wilderness; [392] -- on purpose, through the righteous judgment of God, to entangle themselves in their own imaginations, the Holy Ghost affirming expressly that he was the whole "forty days in the wilderness, with the wild beasts," Mark i. 13.
[393]
Enough being said to the disprovement of this fiction, I shall very briefly touch upon the sense of the places that are produced to give countenance thereunto.
1. In most of the places insisted on there is this expression, "He that came down from heaven," or, "I came down from heaven:" so John vi. 32, 33, 38, 41, 42, 51, 57, 58, iii. 30-32. Hence this is the conclusion, "If our Saviour came down from heaven, then, after he had lived some time in the world, he was taken up into heaven, there to be taught the mind of God." He that hath a mind to grant this consequence is willing to be these men's disciple. The Scripture gives us another account of the intendment of this phrase, -- namely, "That the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and his glory was seen, as the glory of the only-begotten of the Father," John i. 1, 2, 14; so that it is not a local descension, but a gracious condescension, that is intimated, with his voluntary humiliation, when he who was "in the form of God humbled himself to take upon him the form of a servant," therein to learn obedience. So that these expressions yield very little relief to our adversary.
2. The second sort are those wherein he is said to "come forth from God," or "from the Father," -- this is expressed, John viii. 42, xiii. 1, 3, xvi. 27-30, xvii. 8, -- from whence an argument of the same importance with the former doth arise: "If Christ came from God, from the Father, then, after he had been many years in the world, he was taken into heaven, and there taught the gospel, and sent again into the world." With such invincible demonstrations do these men contend! That Christ came from God, from the Father, -- that is, had his mission and commission from God, as he was mediator, the great prophet, priest, and king of his church, -- none denies, and this is all that in these places is expressed; of which afterward.
3. Some particular places are yet remaining. The first is John iii. 13, "No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of man, which is in heaven." That "which is" Mr B. renders rather "which was," whether with greater prejudice to his cause or conscience I know not; -- to his cause, in that he manifests that it cannot be defended without corrupting the word of God; to his conscience, by corrupting it to serve his own end and turn accordingly. The words are, ho o en to ourano, which will by no means admit of his corrupting gloss.
I say, then, let the words speak [for] themselves, and you need no other [sword] to cut the throat of the whole cause that this man hath undertaken to manage. He that speaks is the Son of man, and all the time of his speaking he was in heaven. "He," saith he, "is in heaven." In his human nature he was then on the earth, not in heaven; therefore he had another nature, wherein at that time he was in heaven also, he who was so being the Son of man. And what, then, becomes of Mr B.'s Christ? and what need of the rapture whereof he speaks?
[As] for the "ascending into heaven," mentioned in the beginning of the verse, that it cannot be meant of a local ascent of Christ in his human nature antecedent to his resurrection is evident, in that he had not yet "descended into the lower parts of the earth," which he was to do before his local ascent, Eph. iv. 9, 10. The ascent there mentioned answers the discourse that our Saviour was then upon; which was to inform Nicodemus in heavenly things. To this end he tells him (verse
12) that they were so slow of believing that they could not receive the plainest doctrine, nor understand even the visible things of the earth, as the blowing of the wind, nor the causes and issue of it; much less did they understand the heavenly things of the gospel, which none (saith he, verse 13) hath pierced into, is acquainted withal, hath ascended, into heaven, in the knowledge of, but he who is in heaven, and is sent of God into the world to instruct you. He who is in heaven in his divine nature, who is come down from heaven, being sent of God, having taken flesh, that he might reveal and do the will of God, he, and none but he, hath so ascended into heaven as to have the full knowledge of the heavenly things whereof I speak. Of a local ascent, to the end and purpose mentioned, there is not the least syllable.
Thus, I say, the context of the discourse seems to exact a metaphorical interpretation of the words, our Saviour in them informing Nicodemus of his acquaintance with heavenly things, whereof he was ignorant. But yet the propriety of the words may be observed without the least advantage to our adversaries, for it is evident that the words are elliptical: Oudeis anabebeken eis ton ouranon ei me ho huios. "Ascend" must be repeated again to make the sense complete; and why may not mellei anabenai be inserted as well as anabebeke? So are the words rendered by Theophylact; [394] and in that sense [they] relate not to what was before, but what was to be. And an instance of the necessity of an alike supplement is given in Matt. xi. 27. Moreover, some suppose that anabebeken, affirming the want of a potential conjunction, as an, or the like (which the following exceptive ei me require), in the place, is not to be taken for the act done, but for the power of doing it, of which examples may be given: so that the propriety of the words may also be preserved without the least countenance afforded to the figment under consideration.
The remaining place is John vi. 62, "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" Hopou en to proteron That Christ was in heaven before his local ascent thither in his human nature is part of our plea to prove his divine nature, and what will thence be obtained I know not.
And this is the first attempt that these gentlemen make upon the prophetical office of Christ: "He did not know the will of God as the only-begotten Son of the Father in his bosom; he was not furnished for the declaring of it in his own immediate ministry by the unction of the Holy Ghost, and his being filled therewith; he was not solemnly inaugurated thereinto by the glorious presence of the Father and the Holy Ghost with him, one in a voice, and the other in a bodily shape, bearing witness to him to be the prophet sent from God; but being for many years ignorant of the gospel and the will of God, or what he came into the world to do, he was, no man knows where, when, nor how, rapt into heaven, and there taught and instructed in the mind of God (as Mohammed pretended he was also), and so sent into the world, after he had been sent into the world many a year."
Here the Racovians add:--
Q. What is that will of God which by Christ is revealed?
A. It is the new covenant, which Christ, in the name of God, made with human kind; whence also he is called "the mediator of the new covenant." [395]
1. It seems, then, that Christ was taken into heaven to be taught the new covenant, of which before he was ignorant; though the very name that was given him before he was born contained the substance of it, Matt. i. 21. 2. Christ did not make the covenant with us as mediator, but confirmed and ratified it, Heb. ix. 15-17. God gave him in the covenant which he made, and therefore is said to "give him for a covenant," Isa. xlii. 6. 3. The covenant of grace is not made with all mankind, but with the seed of the woman, Gen. iii. 15; Gal. iii. 16; Rom. ix. 7, 8. 4. Christ is not called the mediator of the new covenant because he declared the will of God concerning it, but because he gave his life a ransom for those with whom it is made, 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6; and the promises of it were confirmed in his blood, Heb. ix. 15, x. 16-20.
5. This covenant was not first made and revealed when Christ taught in his own person It was not only made but confirmed to Abraham in Christ four hundred and thirty years before the law, Gal. iii. 17; yea, ever since the entrance of sin, no man hath walked with God but in the same covenant of grace, as elsewhere is declared.
Let us see what follows in Mr B. Says he, --
Q. You have already showed that Christ was like unto Moses in seeing God, and hearing from him the things which he spake: but Moses exceeded all other prophets likewise in that he only was a lawgiver; was Christ therefore like unto Moses in giving of a law also, and is there any mention of this law?
A. Gal. vi. 2, "Fulfil the law of Christ;" Rom. iii. 27, "By the law of faith;" James ii. 12, "By the law of liberty;" James i. 25.
1. That Moses did not see the face of God hath been showed, and Mr B. confesseth the same. That Christ was not rapt into heaven for any such end or purpose as is pretended, that he is not compared to Moses as to his initiation into his prophetical office, that there is not one word in the Scripture giving countenance to any of these figments, hath been evinced; nor hath Mr B. showed any such thing to them who have their senses exercised to discern good and evil, what apprehensions soever his catechumens may have of his skill and proofs.
2. What is added to this question will be of an easy despatch. The word "law' may be considered generally, as to the nature of it, in the sense of Scripture, for a revelation of the mind of God; and so we say Christ did give a law, in that he revealed fully and clearly the whole mind of God as to our salvation and the obedience he requireth of us. And so there is a law of faith, that is, a doctrine of faith, opposite to the law as to its covenant ends, simply so called. And he also instituted some peculiarly significant ceremonies to be used in the worship of God; pressing, in particular, in his teaching and by his example, the duty of love; which thence is peculiarly called "a new commandment," John xiii. 34, and "the law of Christ," Gal. vi. 2, even that which he did so eminently practice. As he was a teacher, a prophet come out from God, he taught the mind, and will, and worship of God, from his own bosom, John i. 18, Heb. i. 1, 2. And as he was and is the king of his church, he hath given precepts, and laws, and ordinances, for the rule and government thereof, to which none can add, nor from them any detract. But take the word "law" strictly in reference to a covenant end, so that he which performs it shall be justified by his performance thereof, so we may say he gave the law originally as God, but as mediator he gave no such law, or no law in that sense, but revealed fully and clearly our justification with God upon another account, and gave no new precepts of obedience but what were before given in the law, written originally in the heart of man by nature, and delivered to the church of the Jews by Moses in the wilderness; of which in the