CHAPTER VIII: As Christ expressed his will and consent in the dedication of himself to the work
men in a special manner above the rest holy, separate, dedicated, and consecrated to God, or men crowned with a peculiar excellency above others. And so the Septuagint sometimes translates it ἃγιοι, sometimes ἀφωρισμένοι, separated, ἐστεφανωμὲνοι, crowned. Now, if they which were his types were called so in all these senses
Nazarites, then he in them was much more styled so, and signified thereby to be the reality, the substance, of what they were shadows.
But still I conclude, as I said before, that I wish and hope that both may stand, aud I would there were a thousand more such, of so great a variety and comprehensiveness.
CHAPTER VIII
That as Christ expressed his will and consent in the dedication of himself to the work, so he shewed his cheerful willingness in all the parts of the performance.
You have had the former part of this great story, his dedication of himself at his conception. The last part follows, to see how he made good his vow from the first to the last act thereof, 'obedient to the death.' I need take no text for it, the New Testament gives everywhere testimony thereof. It were infinite to give you all the passages that argue this his willingness and zeal throughout the whole of his life and at his death. I shall lay afore you but some more eminent and obvious.
It is observable that the very first words you have recorded as uttered by himself, and that when a child, at twelve years old, yea, and that but one speech neither; and this that I am now a-speaking was the sum and eminent import of it: Luke 2:48, his mother seems to chide him, that without their privity he had stayed behind, and put them to that sorrow and trouble in seeking him, and not knowing what was become of him. What is Christ's answer? Ver. 49, 'Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?' As if he had said, It is true you
are my parents, and I have been subject to you hitherto in your particular affairs, but do not you know I have another Father higher than you, who hath commanded me, by virtue of my office of mediatorship, other manner of business to be done by me than to attend on you, and wherein I am not to take counsel or direction from you, or ask leave of you? For I am not an ordinary son: 'Wist ye not I was about my Father's business?' ἑν τοῖς τοῦ πατρὸς, 'in the things or affairs of my Father,' who is my Father after another manner than you are, and therefore my business is another manner of business than of other children. I am the Christ, the Messiah, and at these years do understand myself well enough to be so; and I have a spiritual work to do, enjoined me by my Father, which all other obligations, though at these years, must give way to. And as elsewhere it is, 'As the Father commands me, so do I,' as John 14:31.
His will and law is written in my heart from a child; I am engaged to do his will, to perform the office of a mediator, the Messiah, whereof one part is the prophetic office, to teach and to instruct. And to give a specimen or an evidence of it, I have now by his command (this being my first coming up to the temple, my Father's house, where I am to preach hereafter many a sermon) been among the doctors arguing with them, ver. 46. It would seem the first time he came, according to the law, to the feast; the manner being at twelve years to put a difference between a child and a youth, that the males of that age should go up to the temple. Malachi had told he should, as a messenger of the covenant or prophet, suddenly come to his temple:
Mal. 3:1, 'Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.' And when he comes first, he will come as a messenger or declarer of the covenant, though but at twelve years of age. As God shewed Moses that he himself was that deliverer to his people (long afore he delivered them) by one act of vengeance upon an Egyptian, so God gave demonstration that this was the angel of the covenant in the temple, almost twenty years afore he came to exercise that function ordinarily. But that which I observe out of it is to the point in hand, that at twelve years old, and
long afore, the human nature understood full well his office, and his being the mediator, and did direct his actions to that aim and level.
He acted as the Messiah unto his Father, as his Father in another manner than he is the Father of men or angels, and had the law written in his heart at his conception in his eye. To do his will he was careful of, yea, delighted to do that will: I was about my Father's business: yea, I ought to be (says he). This is the original obligation and undertaking my ear was long since bored through to do, viz., this his will. I am not mine own, nor yours, but his servant; I must be in his business. And though now you have a more eminent instance of it at twelve years, you might have perceived it long ago, if you had observed my carriage, and how I have directed my aims; therefore, you see, he blames them: 'Wist you not that I was in my Father's business?' And the word εἷναι ἐν τοῖς, to be in the things of his
Father, imports his being wholly in them. And though his Father did not ordinarily, or perhaps had not afore this his appearing at the temple, set him about business extraordinary, or other than such as a child subject to parents useth to be (as, ver. 51, it is after this said of him that he was subject to them), yet he had been in all his course in the things of his Father, and had carried himself as one that walked by a higher principle of obedience to God than other men were bound to. And this they might have observed, else he would not have blamed them for not considering it. And the word εἶναι is to be wholly and continually given up to it, as men in an office ought to be.
As Rom. 12:7, 8, 'Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.' 1 Tim. 4:15,
'Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.' That which we translate, and rightly too,
'give thyself wholly to them,' is the like phrase, ἐν τούτοις ἴσθι, 'be in these things.' So then Christ as now, so from his infancy, had been wholly in the things of his Father, and as mediator, directing all obedience as such to him; and not only acting holily, as a child sanctified from the womb, but mediator-like; and he delighted to do it, and shewed so much at his first undertaking. This is the first
speech, and it is an early one you have of him, and it imports it. In a word (Christ says), 'He that sent me is with me,' namely, always; 'and I do always those things that please him,' John 8:29. And he had done so always from his infancy, and directed all to him as a Father that had sent him on that spiritual work. And the Father hath not left me alone, but guided me from the first thus to do (says he); for of his guiding him to do his will he there speaks.
Why should I be large in rehearsing to you all his other speeches which might argue this, how that it was his meat and drink to do the will of God? John 4:34, 'Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.' He was hungry, and yet zeal and desire to do God's will in saving of souls, swallowed up the sense of that hunger and faintness. He delighted to do God's will more than ever hungry man did to eat his meat; and not only at this time, and for this fit, but to do all the rest of the work to the last, to perfect and to complete every part of it. So it follows, 'and to finish or perfect his work.' So then, all his time afore, he had made it his meat and drink, as much as now, and for all years to come, the same zeal was in him, even to the whole, from first to last, as the word perfecting implies. And in all this he still directed his obedience as mediator, looking at all he did, not only as obedience due in common as from other men, but as it was the work designed by him that had sent him, and sealed him to this work: see John 6:38, 'For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.' Still, you see, he fulfils that primitive obligation of his, 'I delight to do thy will, O God.' Yea, it is not only said, as here, that it was more to him than meat to do his will; but further to express his zeal in it, in another place at another time, this his zeal is said to have
'eaten him up,' his strength, and spirits, and all. He was eaten up, and devoured thereby: it swallowed up all his intentions, as the wrath of God is said to have drunk up Job's spirits: John 2:17, 'The zeal of thy house' (and of thy glory concerned in it) 'hath eaten me up,' says Christ.