……..nor
the Son” (Mt. 24, 36)
II. “As to the end of the world, do not
enquire when it will come, for it is not a question fit to be asked, for of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man; it
is a thing at a great distance; the exact time is fixed in the counsel of God,
but is not revealed by any word of God, either to men on earth, or to angels in heaven; the angels
shall have timely notice to prepare to attend in that day, and it shall be
published, when it comes to the children of men, with sound of trumpet; but, at
present, men and angels are kept in the dark concerning the
precise time of it, that they may both attend to their proper services in the
present day.” But it follows,neither the Son; but is there any thing
which the Son is ignorant of? We read indeed of a book which was sealed, till
the Lamb opened the seals; but did not he know what was in it, before the seals
were opened? Was not he privy to the writing of it? There were those in the
primitive times, who taught from this text, that there were some things that
Christ, as man, was ignorant of; and from these were called Agnoetae; they said, “It was no
more absurd to say so, than to say that his human soul suffered grief and
fear;” and many of the orthodox fathers approved of this. Some would evade it,
by saying that Christ spoke this in a way of prudential economy, to divert the
disciples from further enquiry: but to this one of the ancients answers, It is not fit to speak too nicely
in this matter—ou dei pany akribologein, so Leontius in Dr.
Hammond, “It is certain (says Archbishop Tillotson) that Christ, as God, could
not be ignorant of any thing; but the divine wisdom which dwelt in our Saviour,
did communicate itself to his human soul, according to the divine pleasure, so
that his human nature might sometimes not know some things; therefore Christ is
said to grow in wisdom (Luke 2:52), which
he could not be said to do, if the human nature of Christ did necessarily know
all things by virtue of its union with the divinity.” Dr. Lightfoot explains it
thus; Christ calls himself the Son, as Messiah. Now the Messiah, as such, was
the father’s servant (Isa. 42:1), sent
and deputed by him, and as such a one he refers himself often to his Father’s
will and command, and owns he did
nothing of himself(John 5:19); in
like manner he might be said to know
nothing of himself. The revelation of Jesus Christ was what God gave unto him, Rev. 1:1. He
thinks, therefore, that we are to distinguish between those excellencies and
perfections of his, which resulted from the personal union between the divine
and human nature, and those which flowed from the anointing of the Spirit; from
the former flowed the infinite dignity of his perfect freedom from all sin; but
from the latter flowed his power of working miracles, and his foreknowledge of
things to come. What therefore (saith he) was to be revealed by him to his
church, he was pleased to take, not from the union of the human nature with the
divine, but from the revelation of the Spirit, by which he yet knew not this,
but the Father only knows it; that is, God only, the
Deity; for (as Archbishop Tillotson explains it) it is not used here personally, in distinction from
the Son and the Holy Ghost, but as the Father is,Fons et Principium Deitatis—The
Fountain of Deity.
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