go about to prove an angel to be God, from this, that he is called holy and wise, which are said to belong to God only; even so in the same manner must they argue, who would prove Jesus Christ to be the supreme God from his knowing men's hearts, because it is said to belong to God only; except they can shew that Jesus Christ knows in the same excellent independent manner and degree as his father, and that he is no more beholden to him for ability and assistance, than he is to his son Jesus Christ. So I might argue from Isa. xlvi. 9, that God only knows futurities, and yet how often have the prophets foretold them from him?

And it is not hard to suppose, that as holiness and wisdom, so to know the thoughts and hearts of men, hath been communicated to Prophets and Apostles. Was there not something of this, if not in the Prophet Elisha's telling the secret counsels of the Syrian king, 2 Kings vi. 12, yet at least in the spirit of discerning mentioned 1 Cor. xii. 10, and in the case of Ananias and Sapphira? Acts v. I grant this was by divine assistance of the Spirit of God, and by Revelation. Neither is our Lord Jesus Christ ashamed to own, that his knowledge is sometimes owing to "revelation from God his Father," Rev. i. 1. If any should ask, how Jesus Christ comes to know all that he reveals in those seven Epistles to the seven Churches, the very first words of that book of the revelations may be an answer; "It was the Revelation which God

gave to Jesus Christ," &c. No wonder, then, that he says, he knows their works, their hearts, and their approaching judgments and trials, when his own vast abilities are assisted by God's revelation.

But it will be said, that his searching the heart imports it to be his own act. Answer. So it may very well be; for whatever a man knows, he knows it by his own act. And why may not the mind search, and yet be under the light of revelation, and the influence of superior assistance? But yet after all, these words of searching the heart are only an expression, that denotes the accuracy of his knowledge, not the manner of attaining to it; for, taken properly, as applied to God, it is dishonourable to say, he is put to make a search, since all things are naked and open to his view. And if they must be taken strictly and properly, as applied to Christ, then they belong not to him in the same sense, as they do to God, and so can be no argument of his being that God. Which leads me to shew,

2. That there is no absurdity in attributing this knowledge of the heart to Jesus Christ, though he be not the most high God. That he knows things with some limitation as to the degree, and in dependence on his Father as to the manner, appears by what has been said already. And, therefore, the knowledge of the heart attributed to him, must be such as is consistent with his subordination to the Father's greater knowledge.

It is pleaded, that it is not possible for a finite being to have such universal knowledge of the hearts and ways of men, as is ascribed to Jesus Christ, and which, as head and ruler of the church and world, he ought to have, and therefore he is infinite God.

Answer. I am pretty sure it can never be demonstrated, that it exceeds a finite capacity to know the concerns of all on this earth, when the enlarged understanding is assisted in the highest manner by divine influence and revelation. The reason is, because the object is finite; and I challenge any man to shew me, how it can be impossible for a finite capacity to comprehend a finite object, as this world is, and would be, though it were ten thousand times greater than it is? I am satisfied this can never be demonstrated to imply any contradiction in it; and that all such imaginations concerning it proceed chiefly from too high a conceit of man, and too low apprehension of the infinite God; as if the distance between these two were so small, that there could not be one made of a capacity so much above men, as to be commensurate to them all, but presently he must be the most high God; as though that supreme Being could not produce one, who should be a thousand times beyond all this earth. and its inhabitants, and yet be infinitely below himself. Methinks, if the sun was but an intelligent creature, and could diffuse his intellectual influences as he does his natural, could but see and understand with his beams and secret influences, it is easy to imagine what

a penetrating and comprehensive knowledge he might have; but we may entertain much greater thoughts of the Sun of Righteousness, Jesus Christ.

22.

And I conceive a strong argument to prove Jesus Christ, as man, capable of such deep and extensive knowledge, may be drawn from the offices of dignity and power conferred on him by God. For God has "given to him to be head over all things." Eph. i. "He has given or committed to him all judgment ;" and that as the "Son of man." Joh. v. 22. 27. In short, his kingly office, by which he rules over all the world, and takes special care of all his members, as it necessarily supposes his knowledge of the whole estate of his church, and every member of it, as far as is necessary for the discharge of that trust; so I think it undeniably proves this large knowledge to be exercised by him as man, however he gains it.

For since this office and power is given, it cannot terminate in the divine nature; for who can give to God any dignity or power, who has all originally in his own being? It must then be given to the man, or human nature only. And if the man Christ Jesus sustains this office, and be invested with this kingly power, even with all power in heaven and earth; then as man we cannot deny him to be suitably qualified for it with all requisite abilities, lest we reproach God, as calling one to an employment, who is not fitted for it, or himself in assuming a trust, which he is not able to discharge. Besides, unless his human nature can

execute this power, it cannot be said to be given to it; for a power, which cannot be exerted, or is impossible to be executed, is not given nor received, any more than a commission, or grant to a stock or a tree, to bear rule, not over the other trees, as in Jotham's apologue, but over a nation, or to command an army. It is no gift at all, if this were the case, that the man Christ Jesus be utterly incapable of the office and government lodged in him.

If it be said, that though the office and delegated authority be committed to the human, yet it is only executed by the divine nature in Christ; I answer, it is most unreasonable to suppose this trust committed to the man Christ, who must at last deliver it up; and yet the management of it belongs only to another being. How can he be commended for being "faithful over the house of God, to him who appointed or constituted him," when it is not expected he should execute his office? I grant, indeed, that his kingly office is executed by the assistance of God, as he exerts his divine power and wisdom through the human nature of Christ, and communicates of them in all fulness to him, in whom it dwells; but to say, that the man Christ does not exercise his kingly universal power, but that his divine nature, (supposing it,) does solely and immediately execute the office given to him as man or mediator, (for to God can nothing be given,) is, in my mind, a most gross absurdity; for it is to say, that God officiates for man, in execution of a de