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ated all things by Jesus Christ;' and, By him,' saith the Apostle to the Hebrews, God made the worlds;' (or the ages, roùs aiūras, that is, all things which ever at any time did subsist; those very ages, which the same Apostle saith 'we believe to have been framed by the word of God.') By him,' saith St. John in the beginning of his gospel, were all things made, and without him was nothing made that was made ;' Si avrou, that is, by him, not di avròv, for him only: to exclude that ungrammatical misinterpretation, St. Paul joineth both those notions together; τὰ πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ, καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν EKTIOTAL, All things,' saith he, were made by him, and for him as also to prevent any restriction or exception of matters created by him, he particularly reckoneth what things were made by him; By him,' saith St. Paul, were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him, and for him :' he was not only (as some heterodox interpreters would expound it) to create a new moral and figurative world; he should not only restore and reform mankind, but he of old did truly and properly give being to all things; and among those things he even created angels, all things in heaven; beings unto which that metaphorical creation of men here doth not extend or anywise appertain : he therefore consequently, as St. Paul subjoins, èorì npò návτwy, 'doth exist before all things;' as the cause must necessarily in nature precede the effect.

3. He did indeed (to ascend yet higher, even to the top) exist from all eternity: for he is called absolutely apyỳ, the beginning, which excludes all time previous to his existence; he is styled πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, the firstborn of every creature;' (or rather born before all the creation, as πρτós μov v signifies, he was before me,' in St. John.) He is the Word, which was in the beginning; that is, before any time conceivable, and consequently from eternity. He is called the eternal life; The life (saith St. John in his first Epistle; the life, that is, another name frequently attributed to Christ, especially by that Apostle; the life) was manifested, and we did see it; and we bear witness, and show that eternal life, which was with the Father” (ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, “the Word was

1

with God;' and 2wì ñv πpòs ròv πarépa, 'the life was with the Father,' are, as I conceive, the same thing :) and more explicitly in the same Epistle; We are,' saith St. John, in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ; he is the true God, and the eternal life.' Hence is he frequently in the Apocalypse styled the first and the last, the beginning and the end; Alpha and Omega; he that was, and is, and is to come;' which phrases do commonly express the eternity and immortality proper to God; as in that of Isaiah; Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God.' The same is signified by that elogy of the Apostle to the Hebrews; 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to day, and for ever,' (that is, who is eternally immutable;) that Apostle also implies the same, when he saith that Melchizedek represented and resembled the Son of God, as having μήτε ἀρχὴν ἡμερῶν, μήτε 2wns réλos, neither beginning of days nor end of life;' Melchizedek in a typical or mystical way, our Lord in a real and proper sense was such; beginningless and endless in his existence. And the prophet Micah seems to have taught the same, saying of him, (of him that should come out of Bethlehem, to be ruler in Israel,) that his goings forth have been from old, even from everlasting;' (or, from the days of eternity.) His eternity is however necessarily deducible from that, which is by St. John, St. Paul, and the Apostle to the Hebrews so plainly affirmed of him, that he made the world, that he made the ages, that he made all things; for if he made the world, he was before the foundations of the world, which phrase denotes eternity; if he made the ages, he must be before all ages; if all things were made by him, and nothing can make itself, then necessarily he was unmade; and being unmade, h necessarily must be eternal; for what at any time did not exist, can never without being made come to exist. His eternity also may be strongly inferred from his being called the word, the wisdom, and the power of God; for if he were not eternal, ἦν ἄρα καιρὸς, ὅτε χωρὶς τούτων ἦν ὁ Θεὸς, • there was a time when God wanted these; when he was without mental

In decret. Conc. Nic. pag. 276.

speech, or understanding; when he was not wise, when he was not powerful; as St. Athanasius argues. It therefore doth with sufficient evidence appear from Scripture, that our Saviour had a being before his temporal birth, and that before all creatures, yea even from eternity. Farthermore,

4. From what hath been said, it follows that his being was absolutely divine. If he was no creature, if author of all creatures, if eternally subsistent, then assuredly he is God; that state, that action, that property are incommunicably peculiar unto God. Only God is ỏ v, being of himself originally and independently; only God is the creator of all things, (He that made all things is God,' saith the Apostle to the Hebrews;) only God hath immortality,' (or eternity,) saith St. Paul; no epithet or attribute is more proper to God than that, aiúvios Oeòs, God eternal.' Hence is our Lord said by St. Paul, before he did assume the form of a servant, and became like unto men, to have subsisted in the form of God, not deeming it robbery to be equal to God,' (or to have a subsistence in duration and perfection equal to God;) so that as he was after his incarnation truly man, partaker of human nature, affections, and properties; so before it he was truly God, partaking the divine essence and attributes. Thence is he often in the Scriptures absolutely and directly named God; God in the most proper and most high sense; In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,' saith St. John in the beginning of his gospel, (the place where he is most likely to speak with the least ambiguity or darkness ;) the same Word, which was in time made flesh, and dwelt among us,' did before all time exist with God, and was God. God,' saith St. Paul, was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, assumed up into glory:' of which propositions it is evident that Christ is the subject, and by consequence he is there named God. God is also by St. Paul said to have purchased the church with his own blood;' who did that, but he that also was man, even the man Christ Jesus?' St. Thomas on his conviction of our Saviour's resurrection did express his faith on him by crying out, My Lord and my God;' which acknowlegement our Saviour accepted and

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approved as a proper testimony of that faith; (He permits him to say it, or rather he accepts it, not hindering him,' saith St. Athanasius.) St. Paul calls the coming of our Lord at the resurrection' the appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' To the Son (as the Apostle to the Hebrews interpreteth it) it was said in the psalm, (Psal. xlv. 7.) Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.' 'We are,' saith St. John, in the true one, in his son Jesus Christ; this he (ouros) is the true God, and life eternal;' no false, no metaphorical, no temporary God, but the very true God, the supreme eternal God. 'Out of whom,' (saith St. Paul, recounting the privileges of the Jewish nation,) as concerning the flesh,' (or according to his humanity,) Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever;' ò éπì návτwv Ocòs, the God over all; the sovereign God and Lord of all things; the Most High; God blessed for ever; the o evλoynròs, which is a characteristical title or special attribute of God in the style of the Scriptures, and according to the common use of the Jews. Yea even of old, Isaiah foretold ' of the child which should be born, of the son which should be given to us,' that his name should be called (that is, according to the Hebrew manner of speaking, that he should really be, or however that he truly should be called) the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.'

In these places more clearly and immediately, in many other places obliquely and according to fair consequence, in many more probably, our Saviour is called God, God absolutely without any interpretative restriction or diminution. And seeing the holy Scripture is so careful of yielding occasion to conceive more gods than one; seeing it is so strict in exacting the belief, worship, and obedience of one only God, absolutely such; may we not well infer with St. Irenæus, 'Now,' (saith he, speaking indeed concerning the God of the Old Testament, whom the Gnostics did not acknowlege to be the highest and best God, but in words applicable to the God of the New Testament, whom we adore; Now,' saith he) neither the

Iren. iii. 6.

Lord, nor the Holy Ghost, nor the Apostles would ever have called any one definitively, or absolutely God, unless he were truly God:' and,' Never,' saith he again, did the prophets or the Apostles name any other God, or call Lord, beside the true and only God.'

That he is truly God, we might also from other appellations peculiar to God; from divinest attributes and divinest operations ascribed to him; from the worship and honor we are allowed and injoined to yield him, farther show; but these things (in compliance with the time and your patience) I shall omit.

Other appellations also peculiar unto the supreme God are assigned to him, as that most appropriate and incommunicable name Jehovah; (of which in the prophet Isaiah God himself says thus; I am the Lord, and there is none else:' and Moses; Jehovah our God is one Jehovah :' even this is attributed to him; for, 'This,' saith Jeremiah, 'is his name, whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our righteousness:' and of St. John the Baptist it was by Malachi foretold that he should prepare the way of Jehovah.' The name Lord (answering to Jehovah) is both absolutely and with most excellent adjuncts commonly given him; The second man,' saith St. Paul, is the Lord from heaven;' The Lord of all things he is called by the same Apostle; and, the one, or only Lord :' To us,' saith he, there is one Lord, by whom are all things:' and, the Lord of glory, or most glorious Lord; ('If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory :') and, The Lord of lords, and King of kings,' he is called in St. John's Revelation, ('They shall,' saith he, 'war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings:') we are also by precept injoined, and by exemplary practice authorised, to render unto our Saviour that honor and worship, which are proper and due to the only supreme God: for, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve,' is the great law of true religion: It is only belonging to God,' as St. Athanasius +

*Iren. iii. 6.

+ Athan. in Ar. Or. iii, p. 394.