Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.3

SERVI. IV.] CHRIST EXALTED AND THE SPIRIT GIVEN. 55' pondent power ? It would be but a splendid title, and a. mere shadow of kingship. But Jesus our King has uni- versal royalty, and has power to support it. He must not sit like a shining cypher on the throne ofgovernment, nor on the tribunal of Judgment; Rev. v. 6. " The Lamb who had been slain appears in the midst of the throne, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." Whether this denotes the seven chief angels, which are prime ministers in the court of heaven, employed by our exalted Saviour, or whether the number " seven" signi- fies a perfection of knowledge and power, described by eyes and horns ; still it must imply, either such outward mediums of power and knowledge, or such inward ca- pacities, as the Son of God is furnished with, in order to govern the ends of the earth, and execute his Father's decrees. The sun and moon with all their attendant lights, the earth, air, and sea, with all their millions of living inhabitants; nature= and time, with all their wheels and motions, are put under his controul : all move on- ward in their constant courses by his word; and they "shall stop at his command, and finish their last 'period: Then shall he call to the graves to give up their dead, . the graves shall obey the Son of man, and the dead shall arise in millions at his call ; John v. 25. And indeed, without such all-commanding power, which can subdue all things to himself, how can he execute the office of being " Head over all things for the good ofhis church ?" How can he fulfil his Father's decrees? How is it pos- sible he should transact the important affairs of the last day, that he should judge the intelligent creation, that he should reward his friends and favourites in the hea- vens, and send his implacable enemies to the second death ? I do not presume here to impute or ascribe all these things to thehuman nature-of Christ as the agent * : * Yet if I should have ascribed all this tó the human nature of Christ, considered as united to godhead, that great man Dr. Thomas Goodwin would abundantly support and vindicate me, in his discourse " of the Glories and Royalties of Christ as God-man ;" vol, II. in.fólio,, where he exalts the knowledge and power of the man-Jesus Christ, in many pages together to far higher degrees. Someofhis expressions are such as these s "There is a wisdom in Christ's human nature, which is so high in imita- tion of the attribute.of wisdom in God, as no mere creature could reach to or attain. Christ's human nature now glorified, knows all that God E 4

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=