4. I shall then insist upon the whole of this testimony as the words are placed in the contexture by the Holy Ghost, and vindicate them from what in several places they have excepted against several parcels of them. Thus then from these words (these divine words, whose very reading reclaimed as eminent a scholar as the world enjoyed any in his days, from atheism) we proceed.

1. He that was in the beginning, before the creation of the world, before any thing, of all things that are made, was made, who was then with God, and was God, who made all things, and without whom nothing was made, in whom was life, he is God by nature blessed for ever; nor is there in the whole Scripture a more glorious and eminent description of God, by his attributes, name, and works, than here is given of him concerning whom all these things are spoken; but now all this is expressly affirmed of the Word that was made flesh,' that is confessedly of Jesus Christ; therefore, he is God by nature blessed for ever. Unto the several parts of this plain and evident testimony, in several places they except several things, thinking thereby to evade that strength and light, which each part yields to other, as they lie, and all of them to the whole; I shall consider them in order as they come to hand.

1. Against that expression, in the beginning,' they except in the place mentioned above, that it doth not signify preeternity, which hath no beginning. But,

1. This impedes not at all the existence of Jesus Christ before the creation, although it denies, that his eternity is expressly asserted. Now to affirm that Christ did exist before the whole creation, and made all things, doth no less prove him to be no more a creature, but the eternal God, than the most express testimony of his eternity doth, or can do.

2. Though eternity have no beginning, and the sense of these words cannot be, 'in the beginning of eternity,' yet eternity is before all things, and 'in the beginning' may be the de

n Novum Testamentum divinitus oblatum aperio. Aliud agenti exhibet se mihi asspectu primo augustissimum illud caput Johannis Evangelista et Apostoli. In principio erat verbum. Lego partem capitis, et ita commoveor legens, ut repente divinitatem argumenti, et scripti majestatem, auctoritatemque ; senserim, longo intervallo omnibus eloquentiæ humanæ viribus præeuntem. Horrebat corpus: stupebat animus, et totum illum diem sic afficiebar, ut qui essem, ipse mihi incertus viderer esse. Francisc. Junius.

scription of eternity, as it is plainly; Prov. viii. 23. From everlasting,' and' in the beginning before the earth was,' are of the same import. And the Scripture saying, that ‘in the beginning the Word was,' not, 'was made,' doth as evidently express eternity, as it doth in those other phrases of, ‘before the world was,' or 'before the foundation of the world,' which more than once it insists on.

3. By in the beginning,' is intended before the creation of all things. What will it avail our catechists, if it doth not expressly denote eternity? Why, the word beginning' is to be interpreted variously, according to the subject matter spoken of, as Gen. i. 1. which being here the gospel, it is the beginning of the gospel that is intended. But,

1. Be it agreed that the word 'beginning' is to be understood according to the subject matter, whereunto it is applied; that the apostle doth firstly and nextly treat of the gospel, as to the season of its preaching is most absurd. He treats evidently and professedly of the person of the author of the gospel, of the Word that was God, and was made flesh. And that this cannot be wrested to the sense intended, is clear; for 1. The apostle evidently alludes to the first words of Genesis: In the beginning God created heaven and earth' and the Syriac translation from the Hebrew, here places : so here, in the beginning the Word made all things.' 2. The following words,' the Word was with God,' manifests the intendment of the Holy Ghost to be, to declare what, and where the Word was before the creation of the world, even with God. 3. The testimony that he was God in the beginning, will no way agree with this gloss: take his being God in their sense, yet they deny, that he was God in the beginning of the gospel, or before his suffering, as hath been shewed. 4. The sense given by the Socinians to this place is indeed senseless. In the beginning (say they), that is, when the gospel began to be preached by John Baptist (which is plainly said to be, before the world was made), the Word, or the man Jesus Christ (the Word being afterward said to be made flesh, after this whole description of him, as the Word) was with God, so hidden as that he was known only to God (which is false, for he was known to his mother, to Joseph, to John Baptist, to Simeon, Anna, and to others),

• John xvii. 5.

and the Word was God, that is, God appointed, that he should be so afterward, or made God (though it be said, he was God then, when he was with God) and all things were made by him; the new creature was made by him, or the world by his preaching, and teaching, and working miracles was made, or reformed' (that is, something was mended by him); ; such interpretations we may at any time be supplied withal at an easy rate. 5. To view it a little farther. In the beginning;' that is, when John preached Jesus, and said, Behold the Lamb of God; was the word;' or Jesus was, that is, he was, when John preached that he was: egregiam vero laudem!' He was, when he was. 'The word was in the beginning; that is, Jesus was flesh and blood, and then was afterward made flesh, and dwelt among us, when he had dwelt amongst us. And this is that interpretation which Faustus Socinus receiving from his uncle Lælius first set up upon; in the strength whereof he went forth unto all the abominations which afterward he so studiously vented.

6

Passing by those two weighty and most material passages of this testimony, the Word was God, and the Word was with God,' the one evidencing his oneness of nature with, and the other his distinctness of personality from, his Father; our catechists, after an interposition of near twenty pages, fix upon ver. 3. and attempt to pervert the express words and intendment of it, having cut it off from its dependance on what went before, that evidently gives light into the aim of the Holy Ghost therein: their words concerning this verse

are,

'Q. Declare 'to me with what testimonies they contend to prove that Christ created the heaven and the earth?

P Expone igitur mihi, quibus testimoniis approbare contendunt, Christum cœlum et terram creasse ?-Iis, ubi scriptum extat, quod per eum omnia facta sint, et sine eo factum sit nihil, quod factum sit; John i. 3. et iterum, mundus per ipsum factus est, ver. 10. et rursus, quod in eo omnia sunt condita, &c. Col. i. 16. Et quod Deus per eum sæcula fecerit, Heb. i. 2. denique; et ex eo, tu in principio, &c. ver. 10-12.

Qui vero ad primum testimonium respondes?-Primum, non habetur in primo testimonio creata sunt, verum facta sunt. Deinde, ait Johannes, facta esse per eum ; qui modus loquendi, non eum, qui prima causa sit alicujus rei, verum causam secundam aut mediam exprimit. Denique, vox omnia non pro omnibus prorsus rebus hic sumitur, sed ad subjectam materiam restringitur omnino, quod frequentissimum est in libris divinis, præsertim Novi Testamenti, cujus rei exemplum singulare extat; 2 Cor. v. 17. in quo habetur sermo de re, huic, de qua Johannes tractat, admodum simili, ubi dicitur, omnia nova facta esse; cum certum sit multa extare, quæ nova facta non sunt. Cum vero subjecta apud Joannem materia sit Evange

'A. With those, where it is written, that by him all things, and without him was nothing made that was made, and the world was made by him;' John i. 3. 10. as also Col. i. 16. Heb. i. 2. 10-12,

'Q. But how dost thou answer to the first testimony?

1. It is not in the first testimony, they were created, but they were made. 2. John says 'they were made by him;' which manner of speaking doth not express him who is the first cause of any thing, but the second or mediate cause. Lastly, the word all things,' is not taken for all things universally, but is altogether related to the subject matter, which is most frequent in the Scriptures, especially of the New Testament, whereof there is a signal example, 2 Cor. v. 17. wherein there is a discourse of a thing very like to this, whereof John treats, where it is said, 'all things are made new;' when as it is certain, that there are many things which are not made new. Now whereas the subject matter in John is the gospel, it appeareth that this word all things,' is to be received only of all those things which belong to the gospel.

But why doth John add, that without him nothing was made that was made?

John added these words, that he might the better illustrate those before spoken, All things were made by him ;' which seem to import, that all those things were made by the Word, or Son of God, although some of them, and those of great moment, were of such sort, as were not done by him, but the apostles as the calling of the Gentiles, the abolishing of legal ceremonies. For although these things had their original from the preaching and works of the Lord Jesus, yet they were not perfected by Christ himself, but by his apostles; but yet not without him. For the apostles administered all things in his name and authority,

:

lium, apparet vocem omnia, de iis omnibus, quæ quoque modo ad Evangelium pertinent, accipi debere.

Cur vero addidit Johannes, quod sine eo factum est nihil, quod factum est ?— Addidit hæc Johannes, ut eo melius illustraret illa superiora, omnia per ipsum facta sunt, quæ eam vim habere videntur, per solum Verbum vel Filium Dei omnia illa facta esse, licet ejus generis quædam, et quidem magni momenti, non per ipsum, verum per apostolos facta fuerint: ut est vocatio Gentium, et legalium ceremoniarum abolitio; licet enim hæc originem ab ipsis sermonibus et operibus Domini Jesu traxerint, ad effectum tamen non sunt perducta per ipsum Christum, sed per ipsius apostolos, non tamen sine ipso. Apostoli enim omnia nomine, et authoritate ipsius administrarunt, ut etiam ipse Dominus ait, sine me nihil facere potestis. Joh. xv. 5.

as the Lord himself said, Without me ye can do nothing. John xv. 5.'

Thus to the third verse, of which afterward. We shall quickly see how these men are put to their shifts to escape the sword of this witness, which stands in the way to cut them off in their journeying to curse the church and people of God, by denying the Deity of their blessed Saviour.

1. The connexion of the words is wholly omitted, ‘He was God, and he was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him.' The words are an illustration of his divine nature, by divine power and works. He was God, and he made all things. He that made all things is God; Heb. iii. 4. 'The Word made all things;' John i. 3. therefore he is God. Let us see what is answered.

1. It is not said they were created by him, but made. But the word here used by John is the same that in sundry places the Septuagint (whom the writers of the New Testament followed) used about the creation. As Gen. i. 3. Kai εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς Γενηθήτω φῶς, καὶ ἐγένετο φῶς. and ver. 6. ἐγένετο σTεpéwμa: and if, as it is affirmed, he was in the beginning (before all things) and made them all, he made them out of nothing; that is, he created them. To create is but to produce something out of nothing, nothing supplying the term from whence of their production. But,

2. They are said to be made by him: its di avrov, which denotes not the principal, but mediate, or instrumental cause.'

But it is most evident that these men care not what they say, so they may say something that they think will trouble them whom they oppose.

1. This might help the Arians, who fancied Christ to be created or made before all things; and to have been the instrumental cause, whereby God created all other things; but how this concerns them to insist on, who deny that Christ had any existence at all before the world was some thousands of years old, is not easy to be apprehended.

Here

2. In their own sense this is not to the purpose, but expressly contradictory to what they offer in the last place, by of answer to the latter part of the third verse. ay he is not the principal efficient cause but the second ediate; there, that all things were either done by him,