which is then should not bee God If you say with Arius that hee was created you deny that the beginning of all creation is truely described by Moses when he saith g Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created heauen and earth For if that you say bee true the most excellent part of the creation was already past namely the making of him by whom all these things afterward were created Who taught this strange Diuinity Where is any such thing recorded in any part of Scripture Who is so shamelesse as to say he hath it by reuelation Who so senselesse as to beleeue him that will say so This is our wisedome to know what it hath pleased God to reueale to vs in the Scripture either expresly or by consequence and to accompt nothing else a matter necessary to bee beleeued So then when we read or heare that our Sauiour was with God wee learne thereby that hee is himselfe God For what can be bee but God that had his being before and without all creation The word perhaps troubles thee because he is said to haue beene with God and therefore as it may seeme not God but an other An other Thou saiest well h Tertullian contra PraxeaÌ„ cap. 8. For hee is indeede in person as I aunswered once before another But where thou saiest not God thou â—rt deceiued vnlesse by God thou vnderstand the person of the Father VVith God signifies distinction of person not diuersitie of Nature Therefore i some learned Diuines by with thinke the holy Ghost meant to note his coniunction with Hilar. de Triit lib. 2. God the Father whereby they are one in vnitie of the same Diuine substance To which also they apply that which followeth in this Chapter where k Iohn 1. 18. The onely begotten Sonne is said to bee in the bosome of the Father and that l Ioh. 14. 10. 11 Chapter 14. I am in the Father and the Father in me yea m Epiphan â—aeres 93. saith one He is so with God that hee is in the substance of God and his very nature Wherfore if at any time thou beest disquieted by the word with as if it â—mplied some difference betwixt God and the Word remember that God signifies the person of the Father â—rom whom the Sonne is truly and really distinguisht â—et not by the nature of his Godhead which is one in both but by the property of his being the Sonne in which the Father and hee are alwayes not one but two â—he one the Father the other the Sonne And this last point concerning our Sauiour Christs person n Tertullian contra PraxeaÌ„ cap. 12. is manifestly vndoubtedly prooued by this part of the verse For it cannot bee imagined that any thing beeing in all respects one and the same should bee saide to bee with it selfe or in it selfe The word was with God If there be no distinction betwixt the word God how can it be conceiued that the word was with God I shall neede to spend the lesse time and paines in this matter because none but o August de haer cap. 4. the Sabellians euer made question of it They deceiued themselues and other men with an vnlikely fancy against euidence of Scripture that God was but one person called in diuers respects sometimes the Father sometimes the Sonne sometimes the holy Ghost But what respect can make this speech reasonable if there be but one person in the Godhead Let vs consider the point a little better Dauid was in regard of his gouernment a king in respect of his sonne Salomon a father in relation to his wife Bersheba an husband for his generall nature a man May I say of him because of these diuers respects that the father of Saelomon was with Dauid or with the man meaning Dauid Would not a man laugh at the absurditie of such a speech It cannot be then but that hee which was with God was really distinct or was truely and indeed another from him with whom hee was No respect will free the speech from a iust imputation of absurditie if the partie spoken of bee one and the same as well for person as for nature I reserue the farder handling of this matter till I come to the end of the verse following where I purpose if it please God to deliuer the doctrine of the holy Trinitie It may also farder be gathered that the Euangelist in saying The word was with God would haue vs to vnderstand that he p Gal. 4. 4. which in the fulnesse of time appointed by God tooke flesh of the Virgin Mary was till that time with God though vnseene and vnknowen to the world not as if he were not there still for euen while he was here vpon the earth he was also at the same time continually in heauen q Ioh. 3. 13. 17. 23. The Sonne of man which is in heauen and I will that they be where I am but because he came into the world where before he had not beene in the nature of man Heereto belongeth that which is other-where written by the r 1. Iohn 1. 2. 3. same Saint Iohn VVee declare vnto you the eternall life which was with Father and was made manifest to vs. Hee was with the Father from euerlasting he appeared in the world at the appointed time So is he now againe with God because he is no longer visible on earth as sometimes he was We may also adde hereunto that Å¿ Ambros de incarna domini Greg. Nysten de fide ad Simplic Rupertus aâ— hunc locum Cyril Hieorosol Cateches 11. this being with the Father implies the glory he had and hath with him as if he should haue said The word which was in the beginning was at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father equall to the Father Why seeke you the Creator amongst the Creatures If you desire to know where the VVord was consider that he was at the right hand of God the Father partaker of that glory which the Lord neither will nor can giue to any which is not the same God with him But of this enough Let vs come to the last part of the verse And the VVord was God or as the Greeke words lie God was the VVord but our tongue will hardly beare that kind of speech vnlesse the sense be altred For if you say God was the VVord an English man will conceiue that you tell him what God was and not what the Word was The Greeke and Latine may well beare such placing of the words the English will not yet perhaps it had beene plainer euen in the Greeke to haue set the words in order as the sense of them was intended and to haue said The word was God But the Euangelist as I noted once before vpon occasion followed an elegancie of speech which had bin lost if he had kept the naturall order of the words In the beginning was the
were moued by the holy Ghost So God is said to bee hee d Act. 2. 24. 25. 1. 16 that spake by the mouth of Dauid and the same God it tearmed the holy Ghost in an other place It is welknown that euerie where in the olde Testament the Iewes are accused resisting God That e Act. 7. 51. Stephen expoundeth of the holy Ghost O yee of vncircumcised harts and eares ye haue alwaies resisted the holy ghost as your fathers so you If then there bee but one God and â—et three distinct one from another be euerie one of them God how can it be denied that there are three persons f Mat. 28. 19. the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost To this the beginning as it were of our Profession leades vs when wee are baptised in or into the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost Now for the better conceiuing of this great mysterie touching the three persons it is necessarie for vs to vnderstand what a person is And then wee shall the more easily perceiue that euerie one of the three is a person And here if I should stand curiously to deliuer an exact definition of the thing and tell you that a Person is an indiuiduall â—ubsistence in an intellectuall nature or a seuerall or singular thing that subsisteth by it selfe in a nature indued with vnderstanding I should either leaue you more vncertaine then I found you or bestowe more time in expounding the wordes then shall neede I hope to make you discerne of the matter it selfe Wherefore to speake plainely rather then artificially it may please you first to bee perswaded that although the word person bee not in the Scripture applyed to the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost yet euerie one of them is so described therein that wee may and must needes conceiue him to bee a person according as wee vnderstand the word First who knowes not that there is no person but where there is a nature that hath reason and vnderstanding For no man euer calles any creature that is not indued with reason by the name of a person Who will or may say of tenne or twentie Lions Horses Oxen Apes or any creatures of the like kinde that there are tenne or twentie persons For example if wee haue a denne or a stall that will receiue tenne Lions or tenne Oxen no man will say such a denne or stall will holde tenne persons But if there bee a Table whereat tenne men may sit it is an vsuall speech to say it will holde tenne persons So that first to the being of a Person it is necessary that the thing which wee call a Person bee by nature indued with reason otherwise it cannot by any meanes be a person Secondly wee are farther to vnderstand that the word person notes vnto vs some one of that kinde and not many considered together For it were absurd to say of those tenne men before mentioned though necessarily they haue euerie one of them the vse of reason that they are a Person Thereâ—ore by Person wee meane any one of such a kinde Euery man euery woman euery childe is a person because euery one of them hath vnderstanding by nature and is seuerall or distinct by himselfe from al other so that no other man woman or child in the world in heauen or in earth is or can be the same person Some man perhaps will imagin that those qualities or vertues which are no where to bee found but where first there is reason as iustice wisedome temperance fortitude and such like may bee tearmed Persons especially since euerie one of these is seuerall from other But that cannot bee because whatsoeuer is a Person must depend on nothing as a part or property therof but must be intire of it selfe None of these qualities are such but all of them haue their being in some one person or other Salomons wisedom and Samsons strengtâ— haue no being but in Salomon and Samson with them they are if they cease to bee they are not The case is farre otherwise with Salomon and Samson themselues Let the wisedome of the one and the fortitude of the other be turned into folly and Cowardise yet shal each of them be still a person as before he was yea if there were no more Men Women nor Children in the world but they two or either of them yet should they both if both continued or the one of them if the one continued bee two persons or one person So then to the being of a Person it is required for the generall that the thing bee of such a kinde as hath natuâ—ally reason or vnderstanding more parrticularly that it be one singular thing of that kind and that it be such a thing as hath a subsistence by it self and depend not vpon any other as a part or property thereof whersoeuer we find such a thing we haue a Person yea so many Persons as wee haue such things Now let vs apply this to the blessed Trinity And first concerning the nature of God it neither is nor can be doubted but that he is the very fountain spring of all vnderstanding FroÌ„ which the smal streams continually do flowe which wee see in the shallowe channelles of the creatures g Psal 94. 9. Hee that planted the eare shall hee not heare Hee that formed the eye shall hee not see h Rom. 16. 27. To God only wise be prayse through Iesus Christ foreuer Amen Secondly it is apparaÌ„t in the Scripture that the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are distinct each from the two other so that there is i Athanal Creed ver 24. But one Father one Sonne one holy Ghost and neither the Father is the Sonne or the holy Ghost nor the Sonne the Father or the holy Ghost nor the holy Ghost the Father or the Sonne Which proueth manifestly that euerie one of these three hath his subsistence by himselfe and so is a person Looke not that I should repeate that which before I deliuered take that one place for all Baptise them in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost These three names Father Sonne and holy Ghost doe not signifie three vertues or qualities of one person but three distinct persons Therfore are they also alleag'd by the Apostle as three witnesses k I. Iohn 5. 7. There are three that beare record in heauen the Father the Word and the holy Ghost But this mater belongs rather to the second part of this discourse wherin I am to shew how they are distinguisht one from an other But ere I come to that point and yet I will hasten to it all I can I must needes forewarne you that none of vs for ought that hath beene or shall bee sayde conceiue of God as of the creatures There is one generall nature common to all men whereby they are men and so men as that euerie seueral person is a
father There was a man of Beniamin The new Testament is full of the like examples some of them wee heard before a few more will suffice There Ioh. 5. 5. 2. 1. was a mâ—â— there saith our Euangelist speaking of the poole at â—ethesda There was a man one of the Phaâ—ises Aâ—â— 5. 1. 10. 1. A certaine man named Ananias There was a certaine man in Caesarea I mâ—ght rehearse many more of the same kinde but these are more then enow and by this I thinke wee haue sufficient warrant to conclude that the holy Ghost in this History of Iohn speakes as hee doth ordinarily in other places of the like kinde without any intent to signifie his nature of whom he speakes and this is the simplest and Plainest interpretation of these former words The later Sent from God offer these two things to our consideration who sent what this sending was What needs any question of the former may some man say Doth not the Euangelist speake plaine enough and tell vs that God was the sender Hee was sent from God But we learned in the beginning of this Gospell that the worde God somtimes signified the diuine nature which is but one and the same in all three persons sometimes some one of them And we haue here the more reason to make this inquirie because one of the persons namely the second is he of whome Iohn was to witnes Not to vse more words then neede wee are directed by Iohn himselfe to vnderstand this of GOD the Father This I prooue by this our Euangelist in this present chapter where he reports part of the Baprists tesimonie touching our Sauiour in this sort He that sent mee to baptize with water he said vnto me vpon whom thou Ioh. 1. 33. shalt see the spirit come downe and tarry still on him that is hee which baptizeth with the holy Ghost Who is this that sent Iohn to baptize Not the diuine nature For he is distinguisht from the Sonne and the holy Ghost who can it be then but the Father God the father gaue Iohn a token whereby he should know the Sonne that was the Messiah the comming downe of the holy Ghost and his abiding on him S. Mathew sets out the point as distinctly The second Person is in the water newly baptized the third sits vpon him in the likenes of a Doue the first proclaimes him from heauen This is that my Sonne Mat. 3. 17. that beloued one in whome I am well pleased As if hee should in plaine tearmes haue said to Iohn This is hee of whome I sent thee to beare witness The like distinction for the Father and the Sonne wee haue in Saint Luke where Zachary the father of Iohn prophecying Luke 1. 76. of his sonne sayeth that hee shall be called the Prophet of the most high namely of God the Father as it appeares by the speech of the Angell Gabriell to the virgin Mary Hee shall be called the Sonne of the most verse 32. high Then followes Iohns office Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord namely the Lord Iesus for whome Iohn prepared the way But how did God the Father send him Surely hee may well bee said to haue bin sent in regard both of his person and of his office His person as it is wel knowne I will but point at the particulars was after an extraordinarie manner from GOD as I saac was giuen to Gen. 18. 10. Abraham and Sarah by him His father and mother were both striken image and she also barren insomuch Luke 1. 7. that when shee was conceiued with childe contrarie to her expectation and beyond all likelihood and naturall possibilitie shee hid her selfe fiue monethes till shee might bee more sure of that which to Ver. 24. 36. many would seeme vnpossible and to take away too much occasion of speech from the common sort For his office it was assigned him by GOD and notice also of that Assigâ—ment giuen to his father before the child was conceiued Hee shall goe before him saith the Angell in the spirit and power of Elias Neither was he only thus foreappointed for this excelâ—ent office but when the time came that hee should enter vpon it he receiued a speciall commission and warrant from God for the execution thereof The worde Luke 3. 1. 2. of God came to Iohn the sonne of Zacharias in the wildernesse It is to no purpose to spend time in seeking how this worde came whether by any inward motion of the spirit onely or by some outward vision also wee may safely be ignorant of such matters hath not pleased the holy Ghost to reueale in the scriptures yet if wee may lawfully ghesse it seemes most likely that it was without any such outward shew because the Euangelist makes no mention of it in setting downe the History This last sending onely is thought by some to bee signified in this place If they had said no more but chiefly I should ensily haue assented to them Now they say onely I doubt whether they haue any sufficient warrant so to restraine the holy Ghosts words or no and therefore thinke it most conuenient to allow them as large an extent as they will reasonably beare You looke perhaps that I should now proceede to deliuer the Enangelists meaning and accordingly to adde such proofe and exhortation as may helpe vs forward in the embracing of the Gospell But I thinke it fittest to forbeare that for a time till I haue expounded the other part of the verse that I may take all together It followeth then to speake of the name and why the Euangelst records it The name as it soundeth in our language hath little resemblance of the originall whence it commeth Which if any man thinke a fault let him take heede that he doe not rashly condemne the holy Ghost who in the Greeke hath had small care to expresse the Hebrew sounds following continually the custome howsoeuer not answering the originall tongue Shall I need to bring any particulars for proofe of that I say Looke ouer the new Testament and wheresoeuer you finde the name of any Prophet where the Greeke differs from the Hebrew you haue an example of that which I affirme Begin with Moses if you will and so goe forward to Malachy You shall finde that the holy Ghost keepes one and the same course in naming of them without respect of their significations or sounds The reason of this is that the parties were wel known to the Iewes by those names according as the 72. Interpreters had translated them after the manner of the Greeke tongue Other languages Except perhaps the Flemâ—sh by the same warrant haue iustly taken the same liberty and not doubted as they needed not to fit the He. brew and Greeke names to the fashion of their seuerall tongues So that if any man shall either curiously affect or superstitiously obserue the nature and sound of those names which
verse he is said to be the light of men In the 7. verse that Iohn came to beare witnesse of the light of whom did Iohn beare witness but of the Messiah Iesus Christ Iohn seeth Iesus Verse 29. comming to him and saith Behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinne of the world And a little after he Verse 33. professeth that it was reuealed to him by God which sent him to baptise that hee vpon whom Iohn should see the spirit come downe and tarry still on him was he which baptiseth with the holy Ghost Now vpon Iesus Verse 34. did Iohn see the holy Ghost light and settle and thereupon confidently affirmeth that he is the Son of God I might add hereunto that he is the Word by beliefe in whom we haue the prerogatiue to bee the Sons of God Verse 12. And who knows not that he is Christ l Gal. 3. 26. we are al the Sons of God by faith in Christ Iesus That m Ioh. 1. 14 the word which was made flesh dwelt among vs was no other but Iesus of whom Iohn bare witnes But what should I stand heaping vp needless proofes in a matter that is out of question The conclusion of the first point is this that the Word of which our Euangelist speaketh is Iesus Christ It followeth that we should inquire how this name The word belongeth to our Sauiour In which inquiry if I should but euen recite the conceits and subtilties of diuers writers I should spend all the rest of this hower in that only and weary my selfe and you to smal purpose Therfore to make short I will commend to your farder meditation some few reasons of this name which to me seeme the most likely These reasons coÌ„cern our Sauior eitheras he is the Son of God or as he is the mediator betwixt God man For the former the n Nazian lib. 2â— de filio Athana sius Hilarius Ambrosius Augustinus Cyrillus c. ancient later Diuines that haue labored to shadow out that vnspeakable mysterie of the holy Trinitie haue thought it fit to giue vs a little glimse of this dazling light by comparing God the Father to our vnderstanding God the Sonne to that which inwardly our vnderstanding conceiueth I will endeauour to speake as plaine as possibly I can to the capacitie of the simplest When a man inwardly discourseth and reasoneth with himselfe it is sure and cuident that he frameth in his mind a certaine kind of speech or sentence and as it were a word without sound which is called the conception of the mind If he desire to communicate this conceit of his to other men hee formeth some outward speech and words either vttering them with his mouth or writing them with his pen. Thus doth he delâ—uer out a Copie of that the Originall wherof he reserueth still within where it was first bred Let vs according to the weakenes of humane capacity apply this to the vnsearchable mystery of the Sonne of God Confider them reuâ—rently and humbly that God being from all eternitie infinite in wisedome hath alwayes had some conception in him as a man hath when he discourseth in his vnderstanding This conception in man though it remaine in the soule yet is not of the substance of the soule But in God that is most simple and without all manner of composition there can bee nothing that is not of his Diuine substance This conception of God is the second person in Trinitie the Sonne of God Would any know why the like conception in man is not the Sonne of man Let him remember that the Sonne must be of the same nature with the Father as our conception is not without vnderstanding but Gods is of necessitie because as I said ere while there can bee no composition I adde nor imperfection in the diuine Nature The first reason then why the Sonne of God is named the Word is this that he is begotten by his father in such manner as our inwarde word or conception is framed in vs. These things I confesse seeme to mee somewhat curious and subtill that I can hardly perswade my selfe they were intended by the Euangelist neither would I haue aduentured to propound them to you but for reuerence of o Dionys Roma apud Athanas Athanas de de finit Euseb de praepar Euang. lib. 7. cap. 4. Hilar lib 2. de Trinitate c. very many learned Diuines who from time to time haue continued this exposition But there is more likelihood that the holy Euangelist in giuing our Sauiour this name had respect to his mediatorship p Origen lib. 1. in Ioan Clem. Epiphan haer 73 Chrysost hom 2. in Ioan. Euthymius ad hunc locum either because it is he that reuealeth the knowledge of the father vnto vs or for that he was promised to be the Messiah That the former is a part of our Sauiour Christs office and hath bene performed by him from time to time it hath bin held time out of mind and may be prooued for these later times out of the Scripture Who almost is ignorant that q Tertul. contr Iudae cap. 9. the ancient writers were of opinion and the later haue receiued it as it were from hand to hand that the second person in Trinitie appeared oftentimes to the Fathers in the olde Testament euen as often as he that appeared is specified by the holy Ghost to be Iehouah I shall not need to quote the seuerall places Begin at Gen. 12. 7. and so goe forward and where you find that the Lord appeared to Abraham Lot Isaac Iacob or any other of the Fathers in the old Testament there make account you see heare the Sonne of God declaring some part of his fathers will to them to whom he speaketh If wee come to the New Testament whom haue wee there preaching but the Sonne of God r Heb. 1. 1. At sundry times and in diuers manners God spake in the old time to the Fathers by the Prophets in the last dayes he hath spoken to vs by his Son whom also he hath commanded vs to heare Å¿ Mat. 3. 17 This is my beloued Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare him And indeed whom else should wee heare since t Ioh. 1. 18 No man hath seene God at any time but the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father hee hath declared him Fitly then may hee bee called the VVord who is the Embassador of God his Father to make his will knowen to mankind by word of mouth in his owne person and by the ministery of them whom it pleaseth him to employ to that purpose To make this opinion the more likely u Ioan. Maldon ad hunc locum a popish Interpreter in his Commentarie vpon this place confidently affirmeth that the Chalde Paraphrast translates Iehouah by this word Memar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a word as
often as there is any mention of Gods speaking to man helping man or being conuersant with him but he neither brings example of it nor quotes any place onely hee boldly auoucheth that the learned shall finde it to be so euery where and the vnlearned must take it vpon his word and knowledge They that will may giue credit to his report but I am sure he that will compare the Originall Hebrew and the Chalde Paraphrase together shall not finde one place in 20. so translated if any at all be It is vsuall with the Paraphrast to put w for Iehouah not Memar I thought good to note this by the way that all men may know what credit such authors deserue vpon their word and yet he is otherwise one of the best interpreters that I haue read of the Papists But though the Chalde Paraphrast doe not alwayes nor perhaps often or euer so translate the word Iehouah yet he puts Memar sometime where God perchance the second person is signified x Gene. 22. 16 By my selfe haue I sworne saith God to Abraham The Hebrew is so and so the Apostle expoundeth it y Heb. 6. 13. when God made the promise to Abraham because he had no greater to sweareby hee swore by himselfe Here the Paraphrast hath Binenni by my word In an other place where the Lord assureth Iacob that * Gene. 28. 15 he will be with him and keepe him the Chalde hath My word shall be thy helpe A gaine when Laban pursued Iacob Moses tels vs that a Gene. 31. 24 God came to Laban the Aramite in a dreame by night said The Chalde saith Memar The or rather a word came from the face of God But none of these places vnles perhaps the 2. need to be or may be expounded of the 2. Person in the Trinity our Sauiour Iesus Christ There remaines the last not the most vnlikely reason why our Sauiour should be called the Word namely because he was so often spoken of promised by the Lord. Now a promise as in our ordinary speech so in the Scripture is cōmonly called a word the septuagint translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the name our Euangelist here vseth b Psal 105. 8. He hath remembred his couenant c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his word that he made to a thousand generations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in d Psal 119. 25. 119. Psal often Quicken me according to thy word e Verse 49. Remember the promise or word made to thy seruant f Verse 65. Thou hast dealt gratiously with thy seruant according to thy word g Verse 74. I haue trusted in thy word h Verse 76. According to thy word to thy seruant Where the Chalde hath the very word i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Memar So k psal 130. 5. Ps 130. I haue trusted in thy word The main promise thē being the Messiah that indeed wherupon al other that are truly blessings fauours depend it is no meruaile that the Iewes should speake ordinarily of our Sauiour as of him that was promised by the name word or that the holy Ghost should direct our Euangelist to make choice of that title for him by which the Iews that translated the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke so often expressed the promises of God Hereupon it followes that although diuers l Tertullian de Trinit saepe Cipria ad Quirin lib. 2. cap. 3. 6. Hilar. de Trinit lib. 2. Erasm Caloni Beza c. ancient later Diuines haue translated the Greek by the Latin Sermo speech yet it seemes better to cal it Verbū the word For a mans promise is not tearmed his speech but his word But this reasō of the name is excepted against by m Maldonatus ad hunc locum a learned Papist as well because of the authors therof who in his Pharisaicall censure are heriticks as also for that it hath in it no liklihood of truth if al that he speaks be oracles Let his slander go let vs heare his reason If the Son saith he be called the word because he was promised in the beginning he was not the word because he was not promised As if our Euangelist said He was the word in the beginning not rather The word was in the beginning that is as I will say anon whē I deliuer the sense of the Text He that was promised for the Messiah had already his being when all created things began first to be Therfore wee may boldly cōclude that this respect of the promise is either the true or at least a likely reason of the name whosoeuer mislike or cōdemn it If any mā be of opiniō that the Greek should rather be trāslated Wisdome or Reason thē word as indeed it signifieth the one as well as the other n Michael de Palatio in Ioan. cap. 1. enarrat 1. we may think that S. Iohn in this place alludes to that in the o Prou. 8. 22. Prouerbs where the Sonne of God is brought in vnder the name of wisdom speaking in this sort The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set vp from euerlasting from the beginning before the earth c. This may seeme the more likely because as here so there also after the description of the word wisdome followes a discourse of the creation Here it is said that p Ioh. 1. 3. all things were made by the word q prou 8. 27. There Wisdome affirmes that she was present whē God prepared the heauens set the compasse vpon the deepe Neither only was she with him but as r Verse 30. a nourisher she maintained preserued all things which effect of preseruing nourishing diuers interpreters thinke to be signified in this chap. by those words ſ Iohn 1. 4. In it was life All which notwithstanding I had rather follow the translatiō which is most generally receiued especially since it is grounded vpon such great likelihood of reason that the Son may wel be signified to be the wisdom of God because he is the word of God both conceiued in the Father as the word t Isai 9. 6. reuealing to vs the wisdome of the Father promised u 8. Cor. 1. 30. made to be wisedome to vs. Therefore then is the Messiah fitly called the Word because he is in God as our inward conceptiō in vs because he hath declared vnto vs the wil of his Father and whatsoeuer else it seemeth good to the Lord to acquaint vs withal as it is manifest in this Chapter x Iohn 1. 18. No man hath seene God at any time but the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him And lastly because he is the promised seede of whom as it is also in y Iohn 1. 45 this Chapter Moses and the Prophets
vpon his words doubt of the holy Euangelists credite and doctrine that had been so many hundreds of yeares continued and confirmed by so many glorious Martyrs with their bloud and maintaitained against all the wisdom power of the world before Mahomet was euer heard of And yet what brings he but ignorance and impudency against the eternitie of our blessed Sauiour All he can say is this that if God haue a Son he must needes haue a Wifeto not vnderstanding in his wilful ignorāce that the Lord God hath no more neede of a Wife to the begetting of his Sonne then of hands to the making of this world Yea if comparison might bee made it is easier for God to beget a Sonne like himselfe which is naturall to him then to make the World which dependeth vpon his will and hath no other necessity of being Thus wee are faine to speake according to our poore vnderstanding wee knowe that God hath a Sonne how himselfe knoweth As for the Iewes we will send them to be taught of their owne country-man Iohn the Baptist whome they worthily magnifie as a man sent from God He it is d Ioh. 1. 27 sayth Iohn of our Sauiour that commeth after me which was before me whose shoo-latchet I am not worthy to vnloose But if their owne long continued and greeuous calamity with the destruction of their owne City and Temple in which they trusted be not of force to draw them frō the blasphemous errors of their wicked ancestors surely there is no possibility for any man to perswade them Therefore we will leaue them to the gracious mercie of God to be conuerted to the truth in his good time e Phil. 3. 21. By that mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things vnto himselfe and commend our selues to his fatherly blessing that we may bee strengthened in faith against all the assaults and practises of Satan and his instruments and may neuer doubt of the eternity of our most glorious Sauiour but alwayes ascribe to him with his Father and the holy Spirit one true immortal inuisible and onely wise God all glorie power obedience and thanksgiuing for euer and euer Amen THE SECOND SERmon vpon the first Chapter of IOHN Iohn 1. Verse 1. 2. 1. In the beginning was the VVord and the VVord was with God and the VVord was God 2. The same was in the beginning with God IT is generally thought and I thinke not vntruly that the blasphemous heresies of f Anno 85 Ebion and g Anno 95 Cerinthus who denyed that our Sauiour was God or had anie being before he tooke flesh of the holy Virgine his mother was one especiall occasion of writing this Gospell To root out that impious conceit and to establish the faithful in an assured beliefe of our blessed Sauiours eternall God-head our Euangelist truly and with Apostolicall authority affirmeth that the VVord was in the beginning Neither doth he content himselfe therewithall but for the further instruction of them that belieue hee addes that The VVord was with God and was God yea that The same VVord was in the beginning with GOD. The first point of our Sauiours eternitie was expounded as it pleased God to enhable mee in my former exercise I am now by his gracious assistance to goe forwarde with that which followes The VVord was with God Wherein for the words themselues first wee must enquire what is meant by God then what the Euangelist woulde teach vs when hee sayth The VVord was with God 1. h Orig. in Ioa. lib. 2. Chrysost in Ioan. hom 2 God when the word is properly taken not applied to a creature signifieth either the Diuine nature in all three persons The Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost or only the first of the three The Father Examples of the former are in euerie leafe and page of the Scripture Let vs alleage one or two out of this Gospell i Ioh 4. 24 God is a spirit Not God the Father onely but the Sonne also and the holy Ghost For this spiritualnesse is a propertie of the diuine nature not of anie one person therein else should not the other two bee spirituall The k Ioh. 16. 2. time shall come that whosoeuer killeth you vvill thinke he doth God seruice Surely no man that killeth Christians for beleeuing in CHRIST IESVS can thinke hee doth seruice to the Trinity For our Sauiour CHRIST is one of the three But the idolatrous heathen and the superstitious Iewes make accompt that they performe acceptable seruice to God namely to the diuine nature when they destroy them that acknowledge the three persons to bee one God or deny that there are more Gods then one or worshippe our Sauiour Christ as God Of the later the old Testament affords vs few examples or none the new very many and to make short wheresoeuer God and the Sonne or Iesus Christ are mētioned together there by God the Father is signified l Ioh. 3. 16 So God loued the world that he gaue his only begotten Sonne God what not the diuine nature For that hath no Son to giue else should the second person haue a Sonne and the third to because both the Sonne and the holie Ghost are the diuine nature or God no lesse then the Father But euery mans owne reason teacheth him that the Sonne is the Fathers Sonne So that by God which gaue his Sonne God the Father is vnderstood The same Father is also meant by the name of God when hee is mentioned with Christ m Rom. 1. 8 I thanke my God sayth the Apostle through IESVS CHRIST euen him whom in the next Verse before he had called God our Father Verse 7 Verse 9 and whose Sonne in the ver following he maketh Iesus Christ God is my witnessewhome I serue with my spirit in the Gospell of his Sonne Of the same kinde are all those places where there is any mention of praying to God in or thorough CHRIST For to him hath our Sauiour taught vs to pray n Luke 11. 2 VVhen yee pray saie Our Father vvhich art in heauen o Ioh. 16. 23 VVhatsoeuer yee aske the Father in my name hee will giue it you Now let vs see in whether of these two significations the word God is to bee taken in this place Surelie not in the former because then The VVord should haue beene with himselfe which is no reasonable speech For who vnderstands not that euery thing which is said to be with an other is diuerse from that with which it is sayde to bee Therefore if the VVord vverewith God the VVord was not God But the Euangelist directly auoucheth that the VVord vvas God What remaines then if by God wee will haue the Diuine nature to bee meant but that wee must confesse there are two Gods The VVord and hee vvith vvhom the VVord vvas But it is certaine in Religion and reason that there is but one God And therefore God
may not at any hand bee conceiued in this place to bee put for the Diuine Nature or Godhead If it seeme to any man that the VVord may bee sayd to be with God though it be God as a mans soule is said to be with him whose soule it is p August de Trinit lib. 6. cap 2. I must desire him to consider that the reason is not alike For the soule is part of the man with whome it is sayd to be but the word is not part of the diuine nature which is most simple and free from all kinde of composition It is easie then for any man to conclude that God in this part of the Verse is the first person in the Trinitie God the Father And that it may the rather appeare vnto vs that wee rightly vnderstand and expound the Euangelist we haue his owne warrant where speaking of the same our blessed Sauiour hee sayth of him that q 1. Ioh. 1. 2 Hee was with the Father I forbeare to enlarge the matter Euery man may easily perceiue that our Euange list handles the same point in both places that hee need not doubt but that God r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with whom the Word was is God the Father What shall we say then of that collection that some make vpon the Article which is vsed by the Euangelist in the Greeke He saith not simply God say these men but The God giuing vs thereby to vnderstand that our Sauiour was with the true God not with him who was God but onely by fauour and not also by nature That they say concerning God is true and certaine But we haue learned that the person is there signified and not the nature And therefore it coulde not bee the Euangelists meaning to note vnto vs the truth of the diuine nature by that article Neither I thinke was there euer any heretick found who denied that God with whome the word is said to haue bin was God by nature what thē meaneth the article Doubtless either it is added only according to the custome of the greeke tongue wherof there are infinite examples in all authors and namely in the new Testament or els if any thing were intended by it the Euangelist meant to shew that in this clause of the sentence he put the word God in another sense then hee doth in the clause following where the article is omitted but I rather perswade my selfe that there is nothing intended therin by the holy Ghost but the manner of speech obserued according to the nature of the language Some man perhaps will yet farder demand why the Euangelist did not speak plainly as he meant and call him the Father rather then God To whom I answer that the Euangelist hauing in the former part named The VVord and not The Sonne doth here more fitlie mention God then the Father For so the nature of the things seemes to require The Sonne of the Father the Word of God Besides it helpes that elegancie which the holy Ghost vseth in this place making the last word of the former clause the first of the later In the beginning was the VVord and the VVord was with God and God vvas the VVord For so lie the words in the Greeke whereof anone Now if in the second clause hee had sayde The VVord vvas vvith the Father the grace of the speech had beene lost because he could not haue repeated the word in the beginning of the clause that followes For it cannot be truely said that the Father is the VVord or the VVord the Father but to say God vvas the the VVord is a true and an elegant speech What if we adde hereunto that in the olde Testament where the Messiah is spoken of there ordinarily not the Father but God is named when the first inkling of the promise was giuen who gaue it but God Then f Gen. 3. 14. 15 the Lord God said to the Serpent Come to the expresse making of the promise to which the holy Ghost calls vs t Rom. 4. 13. 16 Ga◠3. 14. 16 when he speaks of the promise by name and which u Gal. 3. 8 the Apostle Paul tearmes the preaching of the Gospell Was it not God that said to Abraham x Gen. 12. 1. 3 In thee shal all the families of the earth be blessed To be short look from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Malachy and see how often you finde any distinct mention of the first person vnder the name of the Father Therefore he that made choise of such a name for our Sauiour CHRIST as hee was well knowen by among the Iewes could not doe better then by the like wisdom so to speak of God the Father as his speech might bee best approued and vnderstood God then in this second part of the verse signifies The Father But what is the Euangelists meaning when hee sayth The VVord was with God What is it to bee with the Father Manie and diuers haue beene the coniectures of the learned concerning this matter That the vnity of nature in the Father and the Sonne was hereby signified But that is sufficiently manifest by the last clause where the Word is affirmed to bee God For seeing there can bee but one God and that the Sonne is auouched to bee God as well as the Father who sees not that they are both one and the same God and so all one in their diuine nature But this and most of the other opinions which I will not trouble you withall in this kinde of exercise are rather consequents that follow vpon that which our Euangelist intended then the verie point it selfe which hee did intende First therefore let vs search out the principall drift of these words and afterwarde as neede shall bee pursue those points that are necessary What may then bee the sense of this word with what shoulde wee seeke farre y Basil homil in haec verba take it as it commonly signifies and it will agree with Saint Iohns occasion and purpose Hee had sayde in the former wordes that The VVord had alreadie his beeing when all things that euer were created began first to bee What would a man reasonably doubt of heereupon Was the Word before the world before the creation before there was anie time or place wherein hee might bee where was he then To this our Euangelist answeres plainly and readily The VVord was with God As if hee should haue saide Doe you doubt whether the VVord were in the beginning or no because you cannot imagine vvhere hee should bee when as yet there was no world to be in Can you conceiue that God was who is the Father of the VVord Looke then vvhere hee vvas and there vvas the VVord For the VVord vvas vvith God Euen as the inwarde conception or word which the vnderstanding of man frameth within him is with the man where hee is so the Word of God is with God This I take to bee the plaine
the Euangelist to tell vs that the VVord was with God if hee were nothing else but God in no respect truely and really distinct from him with whom hee is said to haue beene Had it not bene readier and fitter for him to haue added this last clause to the first and to haue left the middlemost out If you doubt where This VVord was who I say was in the beginning he was God who can looke for any better answere For it were a senselesse blasphemie to aske where God was whom all men graunt to bee infinite But that middle clause The VVord was with God troubles the whole sentence darkens the sense yea to say the truth leaues no sense at all if there be no distinction of Persons For as I shewed erewhile no man can either truely say or reasonably conceiue that any thing because of some diuers accidentall respects is with itselfe Our Euangelist Saint Iohn was an Apostle of our Sauiour Christ the Disciple whom Iesus loued the brother of Iames the sonne of Zebede I might adde many other such differences But might I therefore say of him The Disciple whom Iesus loued was with the Euangelist Iohn and that Disciple was Iohn It is one thing to be the Euangelist Iohn another thing to be with the Euangelist Iohn That agrees to none but to Iohn himselfe this may belong to any but to him Therefore howsoeuer these later words God was the VVord might of their own nature admit such an interpretation yet considering the former clause to which they are ioyned it is absurd so to expound them What if I adde herunto that the holy Ghost himselfe seemes to tell vs that the word God is not to be vnderstood in this last clause as it was in the former because it is put here without the Article Surely the Sabellians shall haue nothing to aunswere but that which will confirme the distinction of the Father and of the Sonne as two persons But of this by and by The order of the words in English shewes the sense in Greeke it doth not so but that word which is first in place oftentimes is last in the meaning of the writer or speaker God was the VVord saith our Euangelist Yet a Basil homil in haec verba Hilar de Trinit lib. 7. the first word God in sense followes the last as if he should haue said The VVord was God How shall that appeare since the wordes will beare aswell the one as the other It shall appeare by these reasons First the question was not of God whether he were before the beginning of the world or no for that was neither denied nor doubted of by Christians or Heretickes But the eternall Beeing of our Sauiour Christ and his Godhead were impugned by Cerinthus and Ebion which gaue our Euangelist some occasion of writing this Gospell It was fit therefore that hee should teach the Church and confound the Heretickes by saying that The VVord was God Secondly we haue direction for the expounding of this clause from both the former wherein The VVord is still the first part of the sentence and looke what is affirmed it is affirmed of the VVord The VVord was in the beginning The VVord was with God In like manner the Euangelist continuing his discourse must needs bee vnderstood to say The VVord was God which indeede was the very thing hee meant to auouch of him This is farder confirmed by that which followes All things were made by it and without it was made noâ—hing Verse 3. 4 that was made In it was life and so foorth Do you not perceiue that all these particulars here spoken are spoken of the word If then both the clauses that goe before and the sentences that follow after belong to the word and not to God what shew of reason is there to take that one peece out of the middest of the rest and apply it to God contrary to the whole course of the matter and intent of the writer I wil not adde farder as I might that not only this beginning of the Gospell but the whole frame of it and the maine scope of it is to teach vs b Iohn 20. 31 That Iesus is the Christ the Sonne of God If any man be so peruerse as that all which hitherto hath bin said will not satisfie him yet let him be perswaded by the Euangelist himself who leauing out the Article before c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and putting it before the Word leades vs to begin at the end for the sense of that hee writes This cannot bee exprest in English nor will be conceiued by them that haue no skill in the originall Greeke but in the text it selfe the difference is very manifest Wee haue then the true meaning of the holy Ghost in these words The VVord was God He that was in the beginning and was with God was also himselfe God Here ariseth a doubt why the Euangelist addeth this clause seeing the Godhead of our Sauiour might be certainly and necessarily concluded out of the two former branches as it hath manifestly appeared in the opening of them He that had a being when as yet there was no creature and was with God when there was nothing that was not God could not possibly be any other then God Why then is it added that The VVord was God Surely as I take it to preuent that obiection which might arise in the conceit of some If he were with God it may seeme that he was not God To which the Euangelist thus answeres in effect Though he were with God in respect of his person yet in regard of his nature hee himselfe was God This I graunt was implied in the former but in a matter of so great moment it pleased the holy spirit of God to haue a gratious regard of our weakenesse and to speake so as the trueâ—l might bee euident to all men and so high a mysterie of Religion haue a cleare and sound demonstration The point then which is here deliuered is this Iesus Christ the promised Messiâ—h is God And because the matter is of especiall importance and no place so fit as this for the handling of it I thinke it best to follow it somewhat largely the rather because I meane to doe it now once for all but as occasion shall be offred for the cleering of some textes here and there in this Gospell The first proofe that our Sauiour Christ is God may be taken from those places of Scripture where the names that are proper to the true only God are giuen to Iesus Christ For it is out of questioÌ„ that howsoeuer some of those titles are now and then ascribed to men with some addition or in some respect yet no creature is absolutely called God Lord the most high or by any other such name Of all these the most common for ordinary vse is God which we find ofteÌ„ in euery leafe of the Scripture where the true God Iehouah is spoken
of reason could neuer be attained to without reuelation from God But this is not the armour a Christian trusts to Thy bulwark must bee the shield of faith borne vp and held out by some strong rest of holy scripture The word was God Saith our Euangelist By it were all things made Let Satan cast his fiery and poysonous darts against vs This shield quencheth the fury and killeth the strength of their fire and poyson As for his distinctions and respects wherby he sweats and tyres himselfe to proue that our Sauiour is but God by fauour not by nature because he is imploied in such an office not because he is eternally begotten of God his father they are sparkles that keepe a cracking with more feare then hurt and venom that raiseth a few Pimples in the outer skin with more trouble then danger Keepe thee close vnder the shield of faith and though Satan make thee stagger yet hee shall neuer ouerthrow thee Being then thus armed at all points with an assured perswasion of our Sauiour Christs diuine nature and hauing beaten the enemy that charged vs with such force and fury let vs peaceably and carefully consider with our selues what vse wee may haue of that fort which wee now possesse in safety Is this Sauiour of ours God eternal infinite in wisedome in power in holinesse in all worth and perfection Surely then may wee truely and bodly say that p Psal 89. 19. God hath layed help vpon one that is mighty more mighty to rescue his people out of the hands of sinne and Satan then Dauid was to free the people of Israell from the Philistines and all other that oppressed them Are they mighty that are against vs Hee that is with vs is more mighty Doe you not heare the Apostle as it were defying all the world in confidence of this assistance r If God saith he be on our Rom. 8. 31. side who can be against vs What though hee speakes of God the Father Is not the Sonne our Sauiour the same God of the same power Me thinkes I am encouraged by this meditation to dare Satan and to bid him battaile to his face Let him not spare to magnify the iustice of God to amplifie the grieuousnesse of my sinne to lay out to the vttermost the furiousnesse of Gods displeasure to set before me the weakenesse of my estate to recken vp as it were on his fingers the huge summes of my debt what is all this If Iesus Christ be God Though the iustice of God will not bee corrupted by feare pity bribery or flattery yet it will bee satisfied If the wrath of God be infinite against my sinne an infinite sacrifice may appease it I haue nothing to pay But he that is God is all-sufficient Å¿ Mic. 67. Will not the Lord bee pleased with thousands os Rams nor with ten thousand riuers of oyle t Heb. 10. 4. â—â— 12. Is it vnpossible that the bloud of Buls and Goates should take away sinne Yet u Act. 20. 28. hath Iesus Christ who is God by his owne blood entred once into the holy place and obtained eternall redemption for vs. God x saith the Apostle hath purchased the Church with his owne blood What though y Mâ—c 6. 7. the Lord will not accept my first borne for my transgression Will he also refuse the sacrifice of his owne first begotten yea * Ioh. 1. 18. of his onely begotten which is in his bosome No no he hath proclaimed him from heauen a Mat. 3. 17. to be his sonne that beloued one in whom he is well pleased Now the sufficiency of this worthy sacrifice ariseth not from the bloud of man though it be more excellent then that of buls or goates but froÌ„ the inualuable worth of the person whose blood is sacrifice Could the bloud of Isaac of Abell or of Adam while he was innocent and holy haue beene a sufficient ransome for sinne committed against the infinite maiestie of God Looke how much it lacks of infinitenesse in valew so much it lacks also of worth to make satisfaction For no finit sum can discharge an infinit debt But as God himselfe so sin against God is infinit Multiply any finit nuÌ„ ber though neuer so great that which proceeds of it wil be but finit And whatsoeuer is finite imagine it as great as you can in number or measure is no neerer infinitnes then the least point or fraction that can bee conceiued For there is no kinde of proportion betwixt them else should finit infinit be al one Because that which hath any part of it finit being compouÌ„ded of finite parts put together must of necessity it selfe be vnderstood to bee finite For the parts make the whole and that taketh it nature from these Now who knows not that the holinesse and nature of man is finit Such therfore would the whole lumpe bee if all that is or can bee in al men were gathered together into one How then can a sacrifice which is but finite make due satisfaction for sin that is infinite And that which I speake of men I would haue vnderstood also of all creatures whatsoeuer Angels or other For since their nature and worth is finit it is as farre from infinitenesse be what it will in comparison of the valew of other finite things as nothing is from all that which is from that which is not There is then nothing at all left wherein wee may haue any trust or hope of hauing satisfaction made to God for vs but onely the inualuable sacrifice of our Sauiour Iesus Christ b Heb. 10. 14 VVho with one offering hath consecrated for euer them that are sanctified c Ioh. 1. 29. Behold saith he that was sent to shew him the lambe of God that taketh awaie the sinnes of the world But whence hath our blessed Sauiour this inestimable valew I know not saith one neither will I trouble my head about it I beleeue his sacrifice was sufficient and that serues my turne without any further adoe Oh my brethren let vs not be so vnkind to our blessed sauiour so vnthankfull to God the father so contemptuous against the holy ghost so retchlesse of our owne saluation Is it not monstrous vnkindnesse to haue so incompatable a fauour done thee and not to labour to know that which is most honorable to him that did it How shalt thou worthily lift vp thy heart to praise and magnifie the Father that sent his sonne for thy redemption if thou neglect to vnderstand how glorious he was whom hee sent At the least despise not the wisedome and prouidence of the holy spirit as if hee had troubled himselfe in vain with setting his Secretaries on worke to pen the particulars of thy saluation for thy full satisfaction and comfort Well let all this goe If thou beest not ashamed of so vnreasonable vnkindnesse vnthankfulnesse contemptuousnesse yet bee afraid least thou lose that which thou thinkest
seueral man Paul Peter Iames and Iohn are foure men aswell as foure persons But the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are onely three persons and not three Gods For the establishing of your faith in this point I pray you remember that I haue made it euident to you out of the scripture both that euerie one of these is a seuerall person and also that they are all three but one God That euery one of them is God it hath been manifestly proued and no lesse that there is but one God Whereupon it must necessarily follow that they are all three not three Gods but one God And this is that which you haue set downe in the Creede named before l Athâ—nas Creed ver 3. That we worshippe one God in Trinitie and Trinitie in Vnitie that is one God and yet three persons Three persons and yet one God If any man for the satisfying of his minde desire farther to vnderstand the reason of this difference betwixt the Creator and the Creatures why euerie seuerall person amongst men should be also a seuerall man and not all one man and yet the three persons but one God he must knowe that this proceedes from the diuersitie of nature in God and man The nature of man being finit may be multiplyed into many seuerall men of the same kindes But the nature of God being infinit cannot possibly admitte any multiplication because there cannot be many infinits or infinit substances as there may be and are verie many finit substances seuerall and differing each from other He that can with iudgement and learning examine those points that concerne the nature of God may conceiue the truth of that I say they that cannot haue sufficient ground for their beliefe in the word of that God who neither can be deceiv'd in discerning his owne nature because he is infinitly wise nor will deceiue any man in speaking of it because hee is infinite in truth and goodnes â—et vs goe forwarde therefore to learne of him the doctrine of the Trinitie The word Trinitie as I sayd ere while of Person is in no place of Scripture but the thing being there we are not to refuse or mislike the word especially since it is of good vse and hath beene of so long continuance in the Chruch It is enough if wee vnderstand that whensoeuer the Trinitie is named all three persons are signified as for example when wee say the Trinitie is holy blessed and glorious wee meane that the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are holy blessed and glorious When wee say the Trinitie of persons it is our purpose to shew the nuÌ„ber of the persons that they are three These two points touching the vnitie of the god head and Trinitie of the persons are set out at large in l â—â—th mas Creed ver 3. 4. 5 c. Ver. 4. the forenamed Creed from the beginning of the third verse to the ende of the twentie one verse The summe of all is this that wee must neither confound the persons nor diuide the substance To confound in that place signifies to mingle together and so to make one of many and that is the verie naturall meaning of the Latine word So that when wee are forbidden to confound the persons wee are taught that wee may not so hold the vnitie of the Godhead that we denie the Trinitie of the persons and in stead of three make but one whereas Ver. 5. according to the next verse There is one person of the Father another of the Sonne and another of the holy Ghost and not one of all three Neither yet may wee diuide the substance as if the diuine nature were multiplied according to the number Ver. 6. 7. of the persons For as it followeth immediately the Godhead of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost is all one the glorie equall the maiestie coaeternall Therefore all the attributes properties and titles which appertaine to God belong equally and in the same respects to all onely they are distinguished by that which is proper to each person The particulars whereby Ve. 8 9. 10 c. this matter is declared in the same Creede are these To be vncreated Incomprehensible Eternall Almightie to be God and Lord. All these and all the rest of this kind which are many are common to all three persons because the nature of all three is one and the same wherefore although wee must acknowledge euerie person by himselfe Ver 19. to bee God and Lord yet wee may not say there are three Gods or three Lords Ver. 20. I haue shewed you that there is but one God which is three persons euerie one of them being alike and equall in all things that belong to the nature of the godhead It remaines that I should speake of the distinction of the three persons onely so farre as to make vs vnderstand wherein that distinction consists For the better conceiuing whereof wee may say in one word that the manner of being which each person hath proper to himselfe is that by which they are distinguished in all other things there is no reall distinction of any one of them from another The very names themselues which are giuen to them seuerally in Scripture point to the distinction that is amongst them The Father as euery man knowes in that hee is a Father or as hee is a Father is conceiv'd to bee of himselfe and to giue being to his Sonne Consider Adam the first man without looking backe to his creation by which he had his being from God but looke onely forward as hee was his Son Abels Father Do you not plainely perceiue that Adam thus considered is author oâ— Abels being Apply this to God the Father Being God hee canne in that regard haue no authour nor beginning of being Consider him as the Father Hee Ver. 21 is of himselfe not made not created not begotten not proceeding It is not possible truly to imagine any thing of his Being but that Hee is May wee reasonably affirme the like of the Sonne Surely as hee is God there can nothing be sayd or conceiv'd of the Father but may truely and must necessarily bee spoken and thought of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost seuerally aswel as of the Father wherin then lies the distinction Euery man can readily answer In his manner of being or in his being the Sonne Take the former example Adam and Abel are both men in respect of their humane nature there is no difference betwixt them What then Is there none at all therefore yes sure Adam hath not his being of any other as hee is a Father Abell hath his as hee is a Sonne of his Father Adam Let it not trouble you that I mention a difference betwixt Adam and Abell and acknowledge no difference but onely a distinction betwixt God the Father and the Sonne the reason is because Adam and Abell are as two persons so two men God
Ver. 22. the Father and God the Sonne are indeede two persons but not two Gods Wee see then that the Father is truely and really a distinct person from the Sonne who though hee be neither made nor created by the Father yet is begotten of him and so hath not his being of himselfe but of his father and therefore in the manner of his being is distinguisht from the Father So is the holy Ghost or spirit from both of them You wil aske me by what he is distinguisht from them I answere Ver. 23. by his proceeding from them First it is manifest he is distinct from the father because he is not of himselfe in regard of his person as the father is Secondly although he agree with the Sonne in that each of them hath his being from a Third namely the Father yet in the particular maner of his being he is distinguisht froÌ„ him For the Sonne is begotten by the Father so hath his being but the holy Ghost is not begotten but proceedeth From whome doth the holy Ghost proceed From the other two persons the Father and the Sonne Of his proceeding froÌ„ the Father our Sauiour m Ioh. 15. 26. speaks distinctly and plainely The comforter shall come whom I will send you from from the Father the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father Therefore also hee is called the spirit of the Father It is not you that speake n Mat. 10. 2â— saith our Sauiour but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you Now that he also proceedeth from the Sonne it may thus appeare All things o Ioh. 16. 15. saith our Sauior that the Father hath are mine And speaking to the Father he p Ioh. 17. 10. saitâ— All thine are mine The later of these two Texts may be vnderstood I grant of those things that are as wee speake without God but because it hath vsually beene applyed to proue this point I thought fit to alleadge it You will reply that all the Fathers is not the Sons That personall property whereby he is the Sonne is not the Fathers but the Sonnes that by which the Father is the Father is not the Sonnes but the Fathers Whatsoeuer else the Father hath the Sonne hath also But that the holy Ghost proceeds from the Father is not the personall property of the Father and therefore the Sonne hath that and so with the Father as it were by breathing produceth the holy Ghost who therfore is called the spirit of the Sonne and of Christ q Gal 46. God hath sent the spirit of his Sonne into your hearts If any man r Rom 89. haue not the spirit of Christ the same is not Christes It is not said indeed that the holy Ghost proceedeth from the Sonne as it is that he proceedeth from the Father but since he is called the spirit of the Sonne as wel as of the Father wee truely gather that hee proceedeth no lesse from the Sonne then from the Father though the one be exprest and the other be not To conclude then we see what the properties are by which the persons are distinguisht among themselues The Father begetteth neither is begotten nor proceedeth the Sonne is begotten but proceedeth not the holy Ghost neither begetteth nor is begotten but proceedeth All these 3. He that begetteth He that is begotten and He that proceedeth are all one and the same God to bee blessed and praised for euer and euer Amen Therefore are all 3 absolutely equall in all matters appertaining to the nature of God only there are 2 things wherein the Father hath as it were some praeeminence among the persons The one I noted by the way before that He is of himselfe so is neither of the other but both are of him The other is that the father is the first in order in these respects he is sometime called by Diuines the fountaine vâ—rse 25. of the Trinitie And whereas it is said in that Creed ofteÌ„ named that None of the 3 persons is afore or after other the meaning is that none of them is in time afore or after Verse 26. other all being eternall as the next verse sheweth saying that All 3 are coeternall that is alike eternall The Sonne also hath the like preaeminence aboue the holy Ghost For both he is in order before him beeing the second and the holy Ghost is of him as well as of the Father But these praeeminences concerne the persons which are distinct not the diuine nature which is wholly absolutely one as by which these 3 persons are one God To whome be all glory c. THE THIRD SERmon vpon the first Chapter of IOHN Verse 3. By it were all things made and without it was nothing made that was made Verse 4. In it was life c. ALL true knowledge of things ariseth either from an vnderstanding of their inward nature or from a consideration of their workes and actions The former teaching vs the hidden causes is the pefecter but the harder the later shewing vs the secret nature by the manifest effects is the lesse perfect but the more easie That nothing might be wanting whereby any man might be drawne or perswaded to the acknowledging of our Sauiour Christs Godhead our Evangelist hath both laid open the mystery of his nature and set out to all mens viewe the wonderfull glory of his workes Hast thou a desire to fill the depth of thy vnderstanding with the profouÌ„d knowledge of his eternall being Behold sufficient matter of continuall meditation and study In the beginning was the word and the word was with God c. Will not thy capacity or leasure serue thee to sound the depth of these bottomelesse mysteries Behold a shorter and easier meanes of knowledge by which thou maist see the glorious Sonne shining in his workes whome in his naturall brightnesse thy dazled eies cannot looke vpon If thou canst not perfectly comprehend the infinitnesse of his light yet thou shalt certainely discerne that it is infinite And with this desire and hope lette vs come to the expounding of this verse Wherein we are first to vnderstand what it is that our Euangelist here teacheth Secondly to see how it proues our Sauiour Christes diuinity In the former part I will speake of the clauses of this verse seuerally then I wil consider the matter of them ioyntly both together By him were al things made that is to speake plainly He made all things I am not ignorant that Å¿ Erasmus ad hunc locum some meÌ„ cast more doubts then need because the word Him in the greeke may bee referred either to God or to the Word and therfore they thinke it meete and needful so to translate it that it may be certainly and necessarily by the very translation restrained to the Word so that in their opinion we must say t Istud not IpsuÌ„ It not Him For mine owne part I will not striue
about a matter of so small importance only I see no necessity of any such curiosity in translating For seeing it is very apparant that the Evangelist intendeth to describe our Sauiour Christ of whome the whole Gospell doth intreate and that al the other verses and clauses of verses are applyed therevnto he must needs be lesse then a reasonable man that would pluck this verse out of the midst of the rest and conceiue that by it which neuer came into the thought of him that pend it But for the translation reade it as you please so you vnderstand the meaning of the Euangelist aright that the Word or Sonne of God our Sauiour Christ made all things This being vnderstood wee are first to enquire what this speech importeth By him then what is said of him namely what this making was and what was made By him or By it By the VVord or by the Sonne why dâ—th the Euangelist make choise of this kind of speech and not rather say plainely as he might He made all things It is and hath bin alwaies commonly held that this maner of speaking doth better set out the worke of the Creation and confirme that former point of doctrine whereby our Sauiour was affirmed to bee the sonne of God If it had bin said that The VVord created all things it might haue bin imagined that the Father had had no hand therein whereas now it is implyed that the Father made all things by the Sonne But surely sauing their better iudgemeÌ„t that thus reasoÌ„ there is no more feare least the father shoulde bee thought not to haue created the world because the sonne did then least the holy Ghost should by the same speech be imagined to haue had nothing to do therein it is as much against the truth of religion to deny or doubt of the Godhead of the holy Ghost as of the fathers being God Yea the daunger was greater concerning the holy Ghost because not only the Scripture doth more often ascribe that worke of creation to the Father then to the holy Ghost but also the generall opinion of al men makes the father a Creator whereas the diuine nature of the holy Ghost is not so commonly knowne or beleeued Neither will this kind of speech which our Euangelist here vseth though you take it neuer so largely preuent or remedy that doubt touching the worke of the holy Ghost in the Creation but that for ought that can possibly be implied in this phrase By him the spirit may be thought to be no creator But that I may omit nothing which may be gathered for our instruction out of any reasonable obseruation let vs a little consider how this manner of speaking may confirme our faith concerning our Sauiour Christs being of his father When we say By him we ofteÌ„ times imply that there was some other beside him of whom we so speak For example if I say By Ioab the Ammonits were subdued I may signifie thereby that Dauid did sub due them by Ioab So By the VVord all things were made I may hereby giue notice that the father made al things by the Word Yet to say the truth neither doth this maner oâ— speech vsually imply any such matter nor the other exclude any that are or may be held to haue bin doers therein And therfore we are faine to adde only or alone when we would haue it conceiu'd that some one was the dooer of this or that But let vs grant that By him signifieth also the working of the Father that wee maye come to the cheefe thing intended by that obseruation What if all thinges be made by the Sonne We must learne thereby that the Sonne hath all that he hath from the Father and not of himselfe The father is said to haue made all things because he is of himselfe All things are said to be made by the sonne for that he is of another I propound these things to your consideration not so much with any opinion that the Euangelist had any such meaning as for the satisfaction of some who think it not lawfull to leaue any thing vntaught which hath beene formerly observ'd and deliuered for truth And I doe it the oftener now in this beginning that I may rather bee excused hereafter for leauing that out of my exposition which hath no certaine euidence of truth nor great likelihood of reason Wherefore I will for the most part content my selfe with the alleaging and refuting of such interpretations onely as the heretikes Papists and other haue made for the avowing of some of their errors For the present to cleare that which I haue begunne to speake of the doctrine of our Sauiours receiuing his being from his Father yea the very power of creating if you consider him as a Sonne is true and souÌ„d For being so coÌ„sidred he is wholly of the Father and hath nothing of himselfe that wee may not continue a needlesse fruitlesse controuersie begune slaunderously by some Papists and ignorantly as I shewed in my last exerciâ—e concerning the Godhead of the Sonne But this Doctrine cannot necessarily be gathered from this kind of phrase But if our Euangelist had intended any such thing hee would haue said that the Father made all things by the Sonne as u Heb. 1. 2. the Apostle speaketh By whome also he made the world and not thus vncertainely and to such a purpose obscurely By him all things were made Especially since the same speech may truely be vttered euen of God the Father or of the Diuine nature in which all three Persons are comprehended I doe therefore rather perswade my selfe that the Euangelist vsed his libertie and whereas hee might say either He made all things or By him all things were made he did make choise of the later both for variety and for elegancy of speech He had spoken of the Word altogether as yet after one maner of phrase The Word was that he now varies saying not He made but By him were made and this suiteth with the next verse very fitly By him were all things made In him was life There is no question but that this making which the Euangelist here noteth was the creating of the world whereof Moses speaketh And how soeuer it is a common opinion that creating signifieth making without any matter whereof the things to bee created should be made whereas making presupposeth matter ready to be framed and formed yet indeed there caÌ„ hardly be any such distinction wrung out of the words themselues For neither hath the Hebrew that Moses vseth to set out the creation any such nature nor the Greeke by which it is translated For the former it appeareth manifestly by the ordinary vse of it in the Scripture and namely by Moses himselfe who applies the word making to that which in in the next verse he cals creating lâ—t vs make man Thus God created the man in his image The words are diuers and yet spokeÌ„ of the same thing or
action But what needes any farther proofe x Gen. 1. 26. 27. then Moses himselfe affords vs in this verse Thus God created the man in his image in the image of God created he him he created them male and female Do you marke the same word thrice vsed concerning the making of man And yet who knowes not that y Gen. 2. 7. The Lord God made the man of the dust of the ground Would Moses haue called that making of man by the name of Creating if to Create were to make of nothing Surely man was not created being made of the dust if there be no creating where there is matter of which he is to bee made So it is also affirmed by Moses * Gen. 21. that God created the great whales what of nothing Nothing lesse It is well knowne and recorded euen there by Moses that the water brought them forth I wil say more There is no one place in the history of the creation where the worde Creating maye be taken I doe not say must bee but may bee taken for making of nothing except perhaps the first verse In the beginuing God created heauen and earth only here may the word be so vnderstood because by heauen earth the first matter of all things may be conceiued which only was created of nothing all things else of it As for the greeke both the vse of it in al kind of writers speaketh for me who can imagin that they who did not beleeue that euer there was any creation shoulde deuise a needlesse word to signifie such a thing as they neuer dreamt of and if at any time they speake of such a question they expresse themselues by adding some worde to make as to make of nothing or without any pre-existent matter or such like What then Doe wee deny the thing because wee say there is no word that necessarily signifieth To make of nothing God forbid We haue taught and can easily proue if neede be that all things besides God haue had a beginning of their being Then were they ether made of nothing which indeed is most true or of God him-himselfe as the matter of them But the later is meerely vnpossible For neither is God of any bodily matter as we see those thinges to be a Iob. 4. 24. God is a spirit and whatsoeuer is of his substance is the same God with him infinit in power and being whereas all creatures are finit in both Therefore when we meditate on the glorious worke of creation wee must drawe our thoughts from the cogitation of these things which we see feel heare smell and tast and conceiue aswell as we can that there is nothing but God How then came all these to be the world and the creatures therein God made them Of what Of that first matter which was without forme couered all ouer with darknesse But whereof was that first matter made Of nothing That is when as yet there was nothing at all but the in comprehensible maiestie of God in his eternall being it pleased him to wil that all these things should be and by this will of his according to this will all and every one of these Creaturs took their being First as God had from all eternity purposed and willed that first matter or lump had its being simply of nothing as all reason shewes vs. For how is it possible to coÌ„ceiue or imagin that that which is the first matter should haue any other matter before it of which it might be made Therefore b Arist Physâ—â— lib. 1. the Philoso phers being ignorant of the creation were inforced to make this first matter eternal and this was the conceipt I. ucret de natura rerum lib. 1. of them all that did not acknowledge God to bee the maker of that matter So then if you aske me what that was which was made of nothing I say the first matter of all things and in which all creatures were contained If any man be afraid least this opinion should deminish the glory of God in creating the particulars hee must be put in mind that both the matter it selfe was made by God of nothing that all the creatures were made of it by no lesse infinit power then the lumpe it selfe was made If Adam in his first estate if all the Angells of God had beene created before this lumpe and that being made by the Almighty power of God had beene brought vnto them c Gen. 2. 19. as the creatures were to Adam it had not bin possible for them I will not say to haue made these other inferior creatures but so much as to haue deuised the forme and workmanship which noâ— they see and wonder at in the meanest creatures But of this point in the second part when I come to shew that the Creation of all things is a certaine proofe of our Sauiours Godhead It remaines that wee expounde the last words All things What need they any exposition may some man say For who is so dull that he vnderstands not what is meant by them what can be meant but absolutely All things without exception Surely it is certaine that the Euangelists meaning is so and a man may well maruell that there should be any question made of it yet such hath bin the malice of Satan and the miserable shifting of Hereticks that I thinke no one text in this whole Gospell hath bin more strangely or diuersly interpreted I will touch some of the errors point at other and stand long vpon none We presse the generalitie of the words All things which comprizeth whatsoeuer hath any being Would you think it possible that these words â—eing so large should bee stretcht too farre Yet haue they bin most absurdly For by them Macedonius who denied the Godhead of the holy Ghost laboured to establish his blasphemous heresy If all things saith hee then the holy Ghost too vnles he be nothing Why dost thou not multiply thy absurdities and say asmuch of the Father and the Sonne himselfe too For if it seeme absurde to thee as it is to containe the Sonne vnder these generall tearmes because hee is the creator or maker how canst thou imagin such a blasphemy of the holye Ghost who is also a Creator with him being one the same God At the least thou canst not exempt the Father of whom there is no more mention in this clause then of the holy spirit But d Ambroâ—â—â— spâ— S. cap 2. â—y ril lib. 1. m I â—â— cap. 5. Chryâ—â—â—â— in Ioa. â—om 4 Groâ—or◠〈◊〉 oraâ— Thcoâ— 5. the Euangelist that I may not spend too much time in these fancies hath answered for himselfe where he restraineth this to the things that were made VVithout him was made nothing that was made Whatsoeuer was made was made by him but the holy Ghost being God as hath bin shewed hath an eternall being and was neuer made though he proceed from the father and the Sonne As Macedonius
He that beleeueth in him that sent me hath euerlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but hath passed from death to life And in the same Chapter afterward hee Ver. 40. reproues the Iewes because they would not come vnto him that they might haue life Whereas the ende of his comming was Å¿ Ioh. 10. 10. That they might haue life and haue it in abundance Therefore doth t Act. 3 15. the Apostle Peter call him the Lord of life But whome shoulde wee rather heare in this case then u 〈◊〉 the Euangelist himselfe expounding his owne meaning The life appeared and wee haue seene it and beare witnesse and shew vnto you that eternall life which was with the father and appeared vnto vs. Can any man doubt but the Euangelist speaketh of the same life in the beginning of his Epistle whereof he intreateth in his Gospell Compare them together and see if you can perswade your selues otherwise Will you heare him speake yet more plaine x 5. 11. This is the recorde that God hath giuen vnto vs eternall life and this life is in his Sonne This later is called Eternall life in the wordes before Then surely the Euangelist speaketh in the Gospell also of eternall life which the Sonne of God bringeth as mediatator not of this transitorie life which hee giueth as Creator Now because this supernaturall life is double either of grace in this world or of glorie in the world to come I should farther inquire whether of these two is here meant or whether both be not meant But of that as also of the reason why our regeneration saluation is tearmed life I wil speake when I come to giue the meaning of the place In the meane while let vs goe forward in examining the words and first let vs see why he vseth this kinde of speech In him Why doth he not rather say as before by him doubtlesse hee might well haue sayde so For it is by him indeede that wee haue life y Rom. 5. 1. 2. By him wee haue peace toward God By him wee haue accesse through Ver. 11. faith vnto this grace wherein wee stand By him wee haue receiued the attonement But this manner of speech though it bee as true as the other yet it is not so fitte in this place nor so significant Not so fitte because the Euangelist would put a difference betwixt the Creator and the Mediator All things were made by him not in him though * Origen hon 2. â—n â—â—uers some would haue without to imply as much whome I aunswered the last day But our spirituall life is as by him so in him The things that are made by him howsoeuer they alwayes depend on him for the continuance of their being yet they are not one with him Is it so with them that receiue the life of grace from him No no They are ioyned close vnto him and the life that they haue is from that spirit by which hee liues Therefore is a Eph. 5. 3â— the Church flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone yea all the faithfull are members of his bodie himselfe being the head This neere coniunâ—ction with him could not bee exprest so significantly if the Euangelist should say By him was life as it is when hee sayth In him was life yet doth not say Hee was life which also is true because heâ— speakes of it not as it rests in him but as it is communicated by him to vs. But why sayes hee was and not rather Is in him Is there no life nowe to bee had Or is there any to bee had nowe but in hiâ— No surely There is no saluation in any other b â—â— 4. 12 For amonge men there is giuen no other name vnder heauen whereby â—ee must bee saued How then sayes the Euangelist that lâ—â—e was in him c Tolet. in â—â—â— innot 13. Wee may not imagine that â—ee meanes to shewe vs anye other way of attayning to life as if was excluded is No more then wee may conceiue that the Word is not GOD nowe because hee sayeth of him The Worde was God What may then bee the reason of this manner of speech It is thought to bee double either in reâ—uard of Gods eternall purpose or in respect of the â—mes before the comming of the Messiah The former wee must thus vnderstand that the Lorde God fore-seeing the fall of his creature man decreed in himselfe to recouer him by sending his Sonne to make satisâ—action for sin by sacrificing of himselfe vpon the altar of the crosse Of this saith d 2. Tim. 1. 9. the Apostle He hath saued vs and called vs with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his owne purpose and grace which was giuen vs through Iesus Christ before the world was Therefore also sayth our Euangelist e 1. Ioh. 1. 2. other where that this life was with the Father and appeared vnto vs. When the fulnesse of time was come sayth Saint Paul God sent his Sonne What fulnesse of time was this but the very hower appointed by God So that Saint Iohn may well say In him was life Because euen before the foundations of the world were layd life was setled and shut vp in the person of the Sonne who was in due time to become the mediator of mankinde by taking the nature of man vpon him If there bee any man whome this aunswere doth not content it may bee the other coniecture will satisfie him Let vs not wearie our selues with looking so far as to the eternall decree of GOD but keepe our sight within the compasse of the worlde within that time also wee shall finde some reason of this speech When was life in him euer since there was any to whome that life might appertaine it was ready for him in the Sonne of GOD the promised Messiah f Gen. 3. 15. Where had our first parents Adam and Eue their spirituall life after the Curse but in him In whom was the couenant established with g Gen. 12. 3. Gal. 3. 8. Abraham but in his seede Iesus Christ What name I some speciall men Did not this life offer it selfe generally vnto all that came of Abraham Brethren I would not that you should bee ignorant sayeth h 1. Cor. 10. 1. 2. 3. 4. the Apostle that all our fathers were vnder the Cloude and all passed through the Sea And were all baptized vnto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea And did all eate the same spirituall meate And did all drinke the same spirituall drinke For they dranke of the same spirituall Rocke that followed them and the Rocke was Christ What though many thousandes dyed before the Sonne of God became men were they therefore without meanes of life and saluation Nothing lesse i Heb. 13. 8. Iesus Christ yester-day and to day and the same for euer They beleeued in Christ to come wee beleeue in him being come
ignoraunce and insufficiency of all men to comprehend that secret mysterie First that wee may knowe what to looke for afterwarde the Prophets foretell vs how the matter would fall out Lord sayeth Isay who hath beleeued our report or to whome is the Arme of the Lorde reuealed Isay 53. 1. And in another place he brings in our Sauiour himselfe complaying of the ill successe of his ministery I haue laboured in vaine I haue spent my strength in vaine 494. and for nothing Yea the builders the great learned men among the Iewes refused the headstone of the corner saith Psal 118. 22. another Prophet As it was prohesied so it came to passe Let themselues giue euidence When the Messiah was come and had prooued his calling by many admirable and glorious miracles and had offred them saluation with all kindness and authoritie what insued Heare them speaking in a Councill Doth any of the Rulers or the Pharises beleeue in him Some of the Ioh. 7. 48. common sort flockt after him but the great men and Rabbins regarded him not or if any of them had any better conceite of him then the rest hee durst not be knowne of it but as it appeared by Nicodemus was 3. 1. 2. glad to steale into his company in the darke night Nay it was not enoughe for them to reiect him but they persecuted him and all that fauoured him accounting 7. 49. 9. 34. 12. 10. 11. 19. 12. of them as of men accrsed casting them out of their Synagogues seeking to make them away and accusing them as enemies to Caesar as they beganne to charge Pilat himselfe for speaking in his behalfe Neither stayed their malice here but proceeded without ende or rest till they had murdered the Lorde of life Aâ—â— 3 14. 15. with all the disgrace that possibly they could do him I doe now but point at these thinges which if it please God shall hereafter bee handled at large This may suffice especially the time being past and occasion of the like discourse offring it selfe often times in this Gospell to shewe with what obstinate blindnesse our Sauiour was withstood and reiected by the Iewes and to teach vs what intertainement wee are like to giue him if wee bee not other wise taught and inclined by his holy spirit To whome with the Father and the Sonne one God bee all glorie c THE SIXT SERmon vpon the first Chapter of IOHN Verse 6. 7. 8. There was a man sent from God whose name was Iohn c. IF there were as much vnderstanding and iudgement in men to conceiue and discerne matters of religion and saluation as euery one of vs would bee thought to haue it were inough for vs to haue the doctrine of euerlasting life by any meanes whatsoeuer propounded vnto vs. For no sooner should any point thereof bee deliuered but wee should be readie to acknowledge and embrace it But alas wee are wonderfully deceiued in this conceit of our naturall capacity Which is so slowe and dull in things of this nature that we can neither find them out of our selues by any discourse of reason nor giue aslent to the truth of them when they are reuealed and manifested by especiall order from God himselfe For proofe of that I say whither should I appeale rather then ro euery mans experience touching the former points both in himselfe and in the whole nation of the Iewes Which of vs would euer haue thought of any one of those mysteries if hee had not read or heard of them extraordinarily Now they are discouered vnto vs where is there any man to bee found that by any naturall skill or help of learning can discerne and yeeld to them as ture and certaine The reasons of this impossibilitie to beleeue shall be shewed if it please God hereafter for the present I doe but giue a touch that wee may all consider of it at better leasure The darknesse did not Ioh. 1. 5. comprehend the light when it shone most brightly Our Sauiour taught them with authoritie not like the Scribes Mat. 7. 29. Pharises Yet did they not regard his doctrine Hee wrought many admirable miracles among them Yet would they not acknowledge that hee came from God At the least they should haue respected the testimonie of Iohn a man of such account worth in their owne iudgement But all was one with them and nothing of force sufficient to bring them to an acknowledgement of the light What remedy then but to leaue them in their blindnes and in theirs to see our owne that we may be so much the more carefull to heed and learne what the Euangelist doth teach vs in this Gospell Where hauing in the fiue former verses described the Messiah of whom hee writes by his diuine nature and his office of mediation hee proceeds to second that hee hath deliuered with the testimonie of Iohn and there vpon takes occasion to inlarge some of the points that before hee had propounded and to amplifie the benifits wee receiue by our Sauiour more fully and plainely In the former part concerning the witnesse of Iohn first wee are to consider the partie as hee is described to vs in the three verses I read Secondly to waigh his testimony which is implyed rather then exprest in the two later Hee came to beare witnesse of the light The description is partly of his person verse 6 partly of his office ver 7. 8. To the knowledge of his person there belong these two thinges his nature and his name By nature hee was a man but yet not after the ordinarie course of mankinde but after an extraordinary sort by a special work of God who sent him as well in reguard of his person as of his office Which office of his is first plainely declared verse 7 then some what amplified verse 7. 8. The declaration is general He came for a witnesse Particular To beare witnesse of the light In the description of the person touching his nature I note two points that He was a man that He was sent from God In the former wee are to examine the wordes whether the former of the two was imply any especial matter or no why the Euangelist mentions that He was a man Then must wee say somewhat of the sense intended by Saint Iohn For the later point of his being sent we will in quire who sent him God the diuine nature or some one of the persons How he was sent by an extraordinarie conception by an especiall appointment either by some vision or by reuelation Touching his name wee are to learne what the signification of it is why the Euangelist doth mention it Other reasons whereby wee proue any matter in question haue their force and power to argue such as it is more or lesse from their owne nature onely a Testimonie fetcheth all the waight it hath from the credite or authoritie of him that giues it So that
can hardly perswade my selfe to thinke so For thought it be true that by flesh and bloud man oftentimes is signified yet the wordes in that sense are neuer so diuided or placed Let vs take the examples which they alleage that so expound these wordes Flesh and bloud hath not revealed these things to thee Flesh and bloud Mat. 16. 17. 1. Cor. 15. 50 cannot inherit the kingdome of God All the rest are like these wherein who doth not easily marke both that Flesh is still set in the first place and Bloud neuer Flesh and Bloud not Bloud and Flesh and also that they are alwaies ioyned together and not seuered the one from the other If our Euangelist had meant to haue spoken of man by that kinde of speech hee woulde haue said which are borne not of flesh and bloud May wee diuide those former places Flesh hath not reuealed Bloud hath not reuealed Flesh caÌ„not inherit Bloud cannot inherit These were marueilous strange kinds of speech not agreeâ—ble to the phrase of the holy Ghost in Scripture Wherefore thoh I acknowledge that interpretatioÌ„ to be true for the generall sense of it yet I see not how I may like of it in the particulars especially seeing the holy Ghost vseth a diuers manner of speech in these 2 later from the former There hee said no more but Not of bloud In the other he denies also the will or desire not of the will of the flesh not of the will of man Let vs then if you please vnderstand by bloud the matter by flesh the man the efficient cause and maker as it were what shall wee say of the will of the flesh and man Surely I will not grratly striue with any man who thinkes it should be taken for concupiscence It is enough that I propounded the reason of my doubt before Giue mee leaue now to deliuer what I conceiue of the matter which is no more but this that I had rather vnderstand by will desire then lust What then shall bee the sense of it This as I take it that the Euangelist giues vs to vnderstand that the Sonnes of whom hee intreates are not borne according to or by any desire of man which might procure or affect or wish that kinde of Son-ship How fitly this will agree with the scope of the place it shall appeare by and by when I haue examined that which remaines All that wee haue said hitherto concerning this birth is to shew whence it is not Not of bloud not of man VVhence is it then Of God God sometimes notes the nature of the God head sometimes some one of the three persons How may wee most fitly expound it in this place What if wee referre it to the Ioh. 3. 5. sanlen in concord Euang. cap. 1. holy Ghost the spirit of whome euery man must bee borne that shall enter into the kingdome of God I doubt mee wee shall hardly finde any one place of Scripture where the worde God signifieth any seuerall person but the Father I deny not that in some place that is said to be don by God which in som other is particularly ascribed to the Sonne or to the holy Ghost but I say that in those places where God is so named the nature is to bee vnderstood nd not any one person The compareing of these places together doth teach vs that the Sonne and the holy Gost are by nature God but it doth not proue that where God is named there either of these two persons is specially signified Neither is it necessary to apply this to God the Father but rather the opposition standeth betwixt the diuine humane nature not of man that is not of man-kind or of the nature of man but of God of the diuine nature which is one and the same in all three persons Thus haue wee the meaning of the Euangelist that the Sonnes hee spake of arise not to that dignity by any power or wisedome of man but meerely and only by the mighty worke of God himselfe who begets them to himselfe by the effectuall working of his spirit and of his owne gratious fauour vouchsafeth to adopt them for his Sonnes I doe the rather make the sense so large because I woulde not willingly omitte any thing which it may bee reasonably presumed the holy Ghost did or might intende For the cleerer vnderstanding whereof let vs cal to minde what was before deliuered at the twelfth verse that there is a double Son-ship in respect of GOD the former is that whereof our LORD disputes with Nicodemus by which wee are borne againe Ioh. 3. 35. c. of the spirit and fitted for the later which is our Adoption by GGD the Father The prerogatiue of being the Sonnes of GOD is our being adopted which is not vouchsaf't vs by GOD at the first while wee are in our corrupt naturall estate but then only bestowed vpon vs when by beleeuing wee are become one with IESVS CHRIST the naturall Sonne of GOD his Father The other Sonne-ship is but a preparing of vs therevnto by which that beleefe is begotten in vs by the powerfull working of the holy Ghost in the ministery of the worde In this sense the thirteenth verse dependes thus vpon the last wordes of the twelfth Saint Iohn had said that they become the Sonnes of GOD which beleeue in the name of the Messiah Hee proceedes to shewe how they attaine to this beleefe By being borne not of bloud c but of God They haue it not by nature in their birth they get it not by any naturall desire or will but they are borne anew of God and haue it by him framed and formed in them The doctrine of both these points is most true the wordes will beare them both they will both stande with the scope of the place and purpose of the Euangelist Chrylost in Io. homil 9. The oph ad hune locum that I am not afraid of doing any wrong to the Text though I make so large an interpretation therof Let vs then in the feare of God handle these things some what particularly but shortly as the time requireth What a prerogatiue it is for men to bee the Sonnes of God wee heard in the last exercise here the Euangelist farder sets foorth the excellency thereof by shewing the basenesse of our naturall birth which for the matter of it is bloud for the making at the best but humane whereas the other is wholly and only from God I will not amplify the former point touching our naturall birth as I might doe but only referre you to the consideration of it by your selues For your better direction wherein I will name two Iob. 10. 9. 10. 11. Ezech. 16. 4. 6. places of Scripture which I commende to your humble and diligent meditation In the former the naturall breeding of man-kind is purposely described in the later his birth is shewed by way of allegory if wee consider the intent of the holy Ghost but
did write Some man perhaps will inquire yet farder why hee is called simply The word and not the word of God To whoÌ„ * Theodorus Mopsuest in Cate. graec we may shortly truly answere that it was meete to leaue out that addition for distinction sake For it is well knowen to all men that by the word of God in the Scripure either some commandement from God or some reuelation or some part of the doctrine of the Scripture or some such thing is signified Therefore that the Messiah might be vnderstood to be here spokeÌ„ of it was conuenient and in a maner necessary to call him the word and not the word of God yet I would be loth to stand too much vpon this reason because our Euangelist a Reuel 19. 13 other where doubts not to call him the word of God But you will aske why the Euangelist would call him the VVord and not rather The Sonne of God or The Sonne was hee affraide b Basilius homil in haec verba Leontius incomment Theop. Euthym. ad hunc locum as some thinke Least if hee had named him Sonne some men as the Arians afterward did would haue conceiued grossely that He must needs haue a mother as well as a father that He was part of his fathers nature and such absurde and blaspemous fancies as the Turkes Alcoran is stuffed withall If hee would not call him the Sonne yet hee needed not haue named him the word seeing hee had such choice of titles to giue him The wisedome of the Father the Light the Brightnesse and many other of the like kind as is plaine in the Scripture It is likely therefore that there was some especiall reason of that choise What might that be Surely it is not vnlike that the Messiah was commonly so tearmed among the Iewes or that the second person in the Trinitie was knowen best to them by that name And this later point may the rather be credited because c Philo. in lib. quod deter infid meliori de opific. mundi Philo a Iew and no Christian who liued within the first hundred yeeres after our Sauiours birth neuer cals the second person by the name of the Sonne but as our Euangelist heere dooth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The VVord Hence also it was perhaps that d Mercur. Trismeg in Pimandro Plato in Timaeo Cicero de vniuersitate rerum the old Philosophers who fetched their knowledge out of Egypt speake of a second nature which they tearme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet I think they rather conceiued him to be Reason or VVisedome then the VVord as a man may see in their writings But the promise of the Messiah being so often renewed his comming according to promise so continually earnestly looked for if I say it be likly that the Iews knew him generally by that name I suppose I shal say nothing which may not reasonably bee coniectured It may bee also thus if the Chalde Paraphrast as some affirm he did vsually translated the word Iehouah where he thought it beloÌ„ged to the second person by Memar a word the Iews learned of him by the direction of their Rabbins to call the Messiah by the name of the VVord But I doe not certainely knowe whether euer hee so translate or no that he doth not alwayes I am very sure and hee that will may see as much in many places of Genesis I sai and Ieremie I forbeare to recite the particulars because it were to small purpose for this Auditorie We see then of whom the Euangelist speakes let vs hearken what he saith of him The Word was where partly ignorance and partly curiositie hath bred a needlesse and fruitlesse question which though I might not well omit yet I will speake as little of it as possibly I can The Euangelist saith Hee was why not Hath beene If the question were of the English euery man could and would readily aunswere that it were no good speech because Hath beene is neuer spoken but of that which hath an end of being vnlesse we adde some limitation of time as when we say He hath bene there these two howers dayes moneths c. But the Greeke admits no occasion of any question in this case For e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Verbe which our Euangelist vseth hath no such difference of tense or time but whether the matter or thing you speake of be as it was or be not the same word may bee vsed I will go no farther then this Gospell for proofe of that I say f Ioh. 1. 44. Philip was of Beth-saida g Iohn â— 1. There was a man of the Pharises named Nicodemus h Ioh. 4. 6. 46 There was Iacobs VVell There was a certaine Ruler i Iohn 5. 35. Iohn was a burning shining Candle But what name I so many Patriarchs Euery Chapter affords proofe sufficient Wherewithall wee may obserue that our English hath also the like libertie in the word VVas as the examples I alleaged euidently shew Indeede the Latine may seeme to giue some warrant for the moouing of this question because there are k Erat suit two diuers wordes of the same verbe vsed by the Translater in this verse of our Sauiour and in the sixt of Iohn Baptist But neither is there any such difference obserued by good Latine Authors in the vse of the words and the translater it should seeme intended no such thing For in another place where the same word is in the Originall and the same matter handled by the Euangelist he puts the word fuit which heere hee vseth of Iohn and not erat which wee haue in thi first verse of our Sauiour Christ l Ioh. 1. 1. That which waâ— from the beginning fuit saith the vulgar Latine Wherefore leauing this conceit as more subtill then true let vs content our selues to vnderstand that the holy Ghost meanes to teach vs by this word that euen then when all creatures began to bee the word was or had his being already Which I so speake as not intending thereby to preiudice m Origen in diuer hom 2. Chrysost in Ioan. hom 3. their iudgement who are of opinion that the worde it selfe may learne vs in this place to consider that the VVoâ—d was eternall Only I take it to be plaine that no such thing can necessarily be drawen out of the nature of the word n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VVas But when was this VVord In the Beginning saith our Euangelist Here groweth a new question what should be meant by The Beginning o Clem. Alexandr in protrept Origen in Ioan. tract 1. Cyril in Ioan. lib 1. cap. 1. Greg. Nystem â—d Simplicium The Father as some think in whom the Son was and is But the word Beginning is neuer so taken and it is not fit except necessity require it to giue a strange sense to a word often vsed And therfore wee may not admit
I was before hee was or before him And I am before him but I am before hee was passeth my vnderstanding Yet by this our Sauiour would teach vs that in respect of his nature he is alwayes one and the same not like vs first Infants then Children afterwardes youthes in the strength of our age and life men in the decay of it old men and at last no men Thy yeeres ô my God f Psal 102. 24 saith the Prophet are from generation to generation Thou hast afore time laide the foundation of the Earth and the Heauens are the workes of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt indure euen they all shall waxe olde as dooth a garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall bee changed But thou art the same and thy yeeres shall not fayle That this is spoken of our Sauiour Christ g Heb. 1. 10 the Apostle sheweth by proouing his God-head from that place To speake truely and properly we can not say of God either that Hee was or that hee is to come but onely that He is Therfore when Moses would needes knowe his name God answered h Exod. 3. 14 So rather then by the future I AM that I AM. Also hee sayd Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israell I AM hath sent mee to you It is hee onely that is as well because hee is of himselfe without dependance vpon anie other as also for that hee is absolutely without any change in himselfe whatsoeuer As for vs wee so are that in a manner wee are not because we neuer continue any time in the same estate without some alteration If we could as plainly see and as certainely iudge of the inward parts of a man as wee can of his outward countenance we should soone perceiue that hee is continually waxing or waning so that hardly can we thinke of any man that He is but while wee are thinking hee is not in the ende of our thought as short a moment as it is altogether the same that he was in the beginning thereof But our most glorious Sauiour IESVS CHRIST being eternall without beginning without middle without end is alwaies most perfectâ—y the same was is and is to come are in him without all kind of difference though to our weake capacitie it hath pleased him to vouchsafe so to speake of himselfe for our better instruction Come now thou that desirest to be for euer ioyne thy selfe to him of whose daies there shall neuer be end They that by faith become one with the Lord Iesus shall be sure to bee one with him in continuance look not back what thou hast not been heretofore but look forward what thou shalt be hereafter Father i Ioh. 17. 24 saith the sameour Sauiour I will that they which thou hast giuen me be with me euen where I am But where was he when he spake this In his humane nature vpon earth And there the Disciples at that time were as well as he But by his God-head he was euen then also in heauen where hee will haue all to be with him who beleeue in him k Ioh. 3. 16 that they may not perish but haue life euerlasting This testimony of the Euangelist concerning our Sauiours eternity was sufficient to stop the mouthes of those first Heretickes and to settle the faithfull in the true beliefe therof But Satan not discouraged by this fayle l Anno. 290 som 200. years after stirred vp the turbulent pestilent spirit of Arius a man of Alexandria in Egypt to call the Godhead of our Sauiour again in question It is Father The Word that became flesh shewed himselfe by his glory to be the Sonne of God Is it not the VVord of whom it followeth The onely begotten Sonne Verse 18. which is in the bosome of the Father hath manifested God Verse 3. vnto vs By the VVord all things were made By the Sonne u Heb. 1. 1. 3 sayth the Apostle He made the world And againe x Col. 1. 16 By him were al things created which are in heauen which are in earth What neede more words Our Euangelist sheweth through the whole Gospel that he speaketh of no other word then the Sonne of God These things are written y Ioh. 20. 31 sayth hee that ye might beleeue that IESVS is the CHRIST the Sonne of God Leaue we therfore these shifting blasphemies let vs labour to settle our harts in the assured belief of our Sauiour Christs diuine eternity To which purpose it shal be sufficient for vs to remeÌ„ber that which we heard ere while out of the * Psal 102. 27 Psalme Thou art the same and thy yeares shall not faile that testimony of Christ himself a Reuelat. 1. 8 I am A Ω the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come euen the Almighty What can the sottish heatheÌ„ the stubborn Iews or the brutish Turks now say Come ye that deride and persecute the true religion of the Lord Iesus you great wisards that despise all men as barbarous in comparison of your selues Are not you they that worship stocks and stones instead of the true God Are not the Parents of your greatest and auntientest gods easily to be knowen named I am ashamed to speak it but your folly wil not suffer it self to be hidden b Tertullian in Apolog. cap. 25 Were not the sepulchers graues of your soueraign god Iupiter the rest to be seene for many years by all men when you sottishly honoured them for gods in heauen whose carcases lay rotting amongst you in the earth But our God is eternall without beginning without middle without ending He became man in time he was God before all time he died was buried But he ouercame death rose again ascended in his body visibly vp to heauen Look not my brethren that I should discourse at large of these matters I haue bin too long already and I shall haue fitter opportunitie hereafter if God wil. Let the Iewes with all their malice the Romans with all their power deuise what vntruths practise whatsoeuer cruelty they are able our God sitteth in heauen and laugheth them to scorne causing his religion to continue in despight of both and thereby assuring vs of his owne eternall being for euer and euer As for the Mahometan though hee be incredibly shamelesse in lyes blasphemies yet hee is driuen to confesse that often in his sensless Alcoran that Iesus our God was holy vertuous wonderful in miracles a great Prophet of the Lord. Would the wretch Mahomet haue yielded so much to our Sauiour if euidence of truth coÌ„tinued so powerfully had not wruÌ„g it out of him But how could he be holy or not most prophane if hee made himselfe the Sonne of God and were not we should be as voide of sense as his absurde Alcoran if wee should
and certaine meaning of the Euangelist and that according to the true iudgement of some auntient and later writers Here Arius bestirres himselfe and hearing that our Sauiour The VVord was with God hee dreames that Hee vvas nothing else but a created Spirit created indeede before the world but yet created as sayth hee it may euidently bee gathered because The VVord being with God was not God with whom he was Who is so blind as hee that wilfully refuseth to see Euery childe can answer Arius that The VVord was not God the Father with whome hee is sayde to haue beene yet was the same God distinct in person all one in nature so then hee was truely with the Father as another Alius nou aliud person not of a diuerse nature from the Father a◠another God Giue mee leaue heere I pray you to beginne a short examination and refutation of our Rhemists annotations vpon their Testament I will take them in my waie as I goe from verse to verse * Genebrard d◠Trinit lib. 1. Lindan dialog 2. Petrus Cams le Ioa. Baptista in praesat Some of the Papists of more reading then iudgement raysed a slaunder of Caluine as a blasphemer because hee denved CHRIST to bee God of God the Father and affirmed that being Iehouah hee was in that respect of himselfe This our Rhemists lay hold on and boldly enough censure him for blasphemy I haue no purpose to dispute the question with them neyther indeede do they so much as offer eyther to refute Caluines opinion or to confirm their own If shal be enough therfore to controll their malapertnesse and to ouer-waigh their presumption that a Bellarm. tom 1 de Chrisio lib. 2. cap. 19. Cardinall Bellarmine where he disputes the point of set purpose after he had considered all that the authours of that slander bring out of Caluin and examined Caluins writings himselfe refuseth to condemne him of anie such heresie as Genebrard Lindan Canisius and these Rhemists charge him withall Yea hee proceedes to alleage proofe out of Caluin that hee conceiued truely and writ accordingly of our Sauiour Christs diuine nature and person The summe of that which Caluine holdes touching this point is thus deliuered by Bellarmine that our Sauiours diuine nature is so of himselfe that if you remoue from the Son all relation to the Father there will remaine nothing but the diuine essence which is of it selfe That is in playne wordes If you consider our Sauiour as GOD onely not as the Sonne hee is not of the Father but of himselfe This is that daungerous heresie for which our iudicious Rhemists haue giuen sentence against Caluine as a blasphemer Bellarmine cleares him of the fault and condemnes onely the tearmes wherein hee deliuers his minde But it were easie to iustifie both the one and the other by the writings of b See Thom. de error Graec. cap. 4. Guliel Occhā Centilog Theolog conclus 62 Holkot in detec q. 5. art 2. ad 6. contra 1. concl q. 10. art 3. the most subtill Schoolemen if it were fit for this place and auditory In priuate I will bee readie to giue anie man satisfaction But to leaue these matters whereinto the peruerseness of men hath drawn vs to return to the Euangelists purpose It is to be held for an vndoubted truth in diuinity that our Sauiour the VVord was with God before the beginning of the world will you heare him say as much of himselfe c prouer 8. 27 Ver. 29. 30 VVhen he prepared the heauens I was there when hee set the compasse vpon the deepe A little after when hee appointed the foundations of the earth then was I with him Not onely reioycing to see the glory of God his Father but beeing himselfe full possesser of that glory which shone so bright that when he came into the world ouer-shadowed with the darkenes of our humane nature yet all the Angels of God discerned it and d Heb. 6. 1. fell downe to worship him The comfort of a poore distressed soule is in e 1. Cor. 2. 2. Iesus Christ crucified But the glory of a Christian is in Iesus Christ reigning with God his Father Therefore when the ende of his life approached f Iohn 17. 24. He prayed that all which his Father had giuen him might be euen where he was that they might behold his glory which God had giuen him But what glory meanes he Any new honour of late vouch saf't him No no. It is the same glory which he alwayes had and shall haue Glorifie me thou Father with Verse 5. thine owne selfe with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Let mee speake now to thee poore soule whosoeuer thou art that findest thy selfe grieuously vexed and daungerously assaulted by Sathan concerning these great mysteries of Religion would hee haue thee doubt whether our blessed Sauiour was before his mother or no The holy Ghost assures thee by the penne of our Euangeiist that The word was in the beginning Doth he presse thee farther to tell him where he was as if he could not be because there was no world for him to be in Herein also the wisedome of God hath preuented him The Word was with God Thou art perswaded assuredly that God was before the world else how should hee haue created the world Canst thou tell me where he was or doest thou thinke hee is any where now where hee was not then This goodly frame of the world which thou beholdest and wonderest at not without great cause is not any new house built for God to dwell in but a faire peece of workemanship that thou mightest see a little shadow of the workemans skill power and glory God is a Spirit infinite in all perfections that cannot remooue from one place to another because hee is euery where If thou canst beleeue these things which the very light of Nature can teach thee thou hast wherewithall readily to answere Satan The Word was with God If thou Satā dar'st not nor canst for very shame deny or doubt that God was before the foundations of the world were layd where thou seest God I see the Word my appointed Sauiour with him This I take to be the true natural sense of the words and the very proper meaning of our holy Euangelist S. Iohn Now let vs adde the other obseruations rather then interpretations which as before I signified are not directly intended but necessarily followe vppon the former doctrine And first we will consider that which shewes our Sauiours Diuine Nature then we will deliuer those poyntes which concerne his person both shortly and plainely as it shall please God to vouchsafe assistance Now the Diuine Nature or Godhead of our Sauiour Christ appeares in this that being with God when as yet there neuer had bin any thing created he culd be no other but God For how is it possible that when there is nothing but God that
much and indeed too much for this sottish heresie It is also gathered from hence by some that the word is coeternall or equal to the Father in eternity A doctrin very true needfull to be knowne but such as was signified before when it was said that The VVord was in the beginning that it was with God Neither doth the beginning in this or the former clause note eternity but the time when all things began to be created Wherfore to shut vp the interpretation of this verse with shewing what I conceiâ—e to be intended in it by the holy ghost I am perswaded that the purpose of the Evangelist was to repeate that which in the former verse he had deliuered For if he had meaÌ„t to add a fourth point of the like kind to the other 3 in all liklyhood he would haue continued the same manner of writing by coupling this to that which went before and haue said And this was in the beginning with God If any man obiect that he doth not so in that which followeth he is already answered that in the next words the Evangelist comes to a new kinde of argument wherby he proues that which before hee had avoucht namely that the word was in the beginning was God At the least he describes the Word by outward effects towards the creatures not by his owne nature or properties Neither is this a bare repetition but a plainer instruction for the simplest that they may â—ssure theÌ„selues that the Word was in the beginning with God I graunt so much was implied before but not exprest to euery mans capacity Here the Evangelist speaketh so that all may vnderstaÌ„d him giues directioÌ„ for the interpreting of that clause The VVord was with God When was the Word with God In the beginning When as yet there was neither time nor place euen then had the Word his being with God I would gladly adde to all this that which is obseru'd by l Toletus in Ioâ—n cap. 1. Annot. 11. some as I perswade my selfe not without great likelihood that the Euangelist by his repetition would farther giue vs to vnderstand that The VVord not only was in the beginning but was then with God a worker in the creation of all things The ground of this interpretation is taken from that place in m Pro. 8. 22. the Prouerbs where this same Word is described by the name of wisdom There first his eternal Being is described Verse 30 The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his waie I was before his works of old I was set-vp from euerlasting c. This description is continued to the end of ver 26. In the 27. the holy Ghost proceeds to shew vs that the same wisdome was with God as a nourisher when hee prepared the heauens when he set the compasse vpon the deep c. Yea it may be somewhat more particularly applyed Salomon sayth when he prepared the heauens I was there To that answereth this of our Euangelist This was in the beginning with God His nourishing as some expound it his creating or ordering of all things the holy Ghost heere expresseth at large in the words following By him were al things made The conference of these two places seemes to warrant this exposition as we haue seene I wil not striue much about it so wee apply this repetition to the strengthening of our fayth Concerning our Sauiour Christs eternall God-head doubtlesse we attaine to the principall thing intended by the holy Ghost And of that point what Christian can doubt though he would neuer so faine Dost thou not perceiue that the holie Euangelist deliuers it with aduise and deliberation It is not a matter that hee hits vpon but a point chosen by him to begin his Gospell withal It slips not from him at vnawares but is repeated vpon good aduisement Certainly this doubling of the point makes it manifest that the holy ghost would haue vs view and consider it throughly on al sides It is neither of small importance that it need not to be learned nor easie to be beleeued that it need not to be taught but once Wherefore is it propounded and repeated but that it might be vnderstood and remembred Vnderstood that no hereticks deceiue vs remembred that our hearts faynt not Hee that is God Almighty hath redeemed vs who shall bee able to hold vs Captiues Let vs not be afraid to defye sin hel death and the deuil himselfe n Rom. 8. 31. God is on our side who can be against vs Hauing thus expounded these two verses and finding in them some poynts which concerne the admirarable Doctrin of the most glorious and holy Trinity so many things also beeing spoken euery where in this gospel of the Father the Son and the holy Spirit I haue thought it necessarie both sor your instruction and the discharge of my dutie to bestow the rest of this hower in opening that blessed mystery Wherein according to the example of our Euangelist the whole course of the scripture I will content my selfe with the Euidence of the word without the curiosity of schoole diuinity It shall be sufficient for vs vnderstand that the scripture affirmeth that there is one God and three persons though we can see no reason how it can be so And farder in shewing that the three persons are indeed distinct one from another and not diuers respects of one and the same I will not stand vpon their nature in themselues so much as vpon those effects which beeing ascrib'd to them in the Scripture cannot as in shall appeare bee performed by anie one person Our Euangelist deliuers the point of our Sauiours diuine nature in a few words here in the beginning of the Gospell Hee proues it at large by many wonderfull works of his through the whole course of his writing This shal be my example and warrant Yet I would not haue any man think that I either condemne their paines and care who haue laboured to explaine these mysteries by the light of reason or affirme that the points themselues cannot stand with reason They are indeed aboue reason but yet not against reason As the light of nature cannot discerne them so it cannot disproue theÌ„ And the chiefe end of them that endeuoured to discusse these maters in some sort by reason was rather to stop their mouths that would not beleeue theÌ„ to inforce theÌ„ to beleeue Now this course in this place and auditorie I trust is needlesse I am sure with the greatest part it would be bootlesse For how many or rather how few are there heere present that are able to examine or conceiue the subtill arguments that haue been deuised and vsed in these questions Neither are wee to settle our faith by the waight of humane reason but to ground it vpon diuine authority Now to the matter Wherein that I may proceede the more orderly and be the more easily vnderstood First I will speake of the vnity of
that there was a thing yea many hundred or thousand things that were not made by him Nothing was made without him That is say the Manichees hee was not the maker of Nothing but that was made without him Could a man deuise to speake more contrary to the holy Ghost if the would set himselfe to it neuer so earnestly But what is this nothing No lesse then the heaueÌ„ the earth the sea and whatsoeuer is contained in al these except spirits They might better call these All things then Nothing Sure it is a farre easier matter to perswade men to be Sadduces and thinke there are no spirits at al then to make them beleeue that all these bodily things are nothing They are nothing say they because they are naught and made by the deuill Away with these horrible blasphemies and absurdities Is the world euill by creation and not rather wholly by corruption Or is there any thing in the worlde so euill that it hath not some good profitable vse Is it possible any thing should haue a being but from Iehouah the author of all being But I knowe not how I am almost slipt into a refutation of that which deserues rather to be reiected with detestation then refuted by reason especially seeing the ground of this their building is so sleight and sandy What colour is there for this interpretation of theyrs If wee take the words in the plaine sense they afford vs they containe neither impietie nor absurdity What then Doth the circumstance of the place require anye such exposition Nay rather ot confutes it as I haue shewed Neither doe they brag of any speciall reuelation for the vnderstanding of it What should then be their reason for it Imagin what you will or can their conceit passeth all absurdity Forsooth the Euangelist hath set nothing in the last place after was made O incredible shall I say ignorance or wilfull blindnesse As if for the sense it were not all one to say without him was made nothing and without him nothing was made In English the later kind of speech is more agreeable to the nature of the toong in greeke it is not so but the sense euen in the English is all one though the words be not so well placed But let vs leaue these absurdities vpon which wee haue dwelt too long a great deale longer then I purposed and betake our selues to the matter Yet perhaps it will not be amisse to adde a worde or two first for the remouing of a doubt that may arise in some mans minde who cannot satisfy himselfe concerning it And surely I am the bolder to spende the more time and labour in expounding the text and making al things as plaine as I can because I knowe that one of Satans meanes to discredit the doctrine and make the exhortation out of any palce of Scripture lesse effectuall is to cast some doubtes into mens heartes about the true sense of the text expounded If hee can shew any likely hood of some other interpretation then was giuen he makes accompt he hath aduantage enough to perswade vs not to regard what was taught vs what we were exhorted to For if the foundation bee weake how should the building be but ruinous So likewise if he cannot reasonably obiect against the expounding of the place yet if hee can raise some doubts which were not satisfied he will imploy men therein and so drawe them away from the meditation and practise of that which was deliuered The doubt vpon this place is in the later part of this clause why the Euangelist should add these words without him was made was it not sufficient to haue said All things were made by him yes surely it was very sufficient both for the truth of the thing and also for the vnderstanding of it What vse is there then of this repetition It helpes the memory and as it were stirs vs vp to greater atttention But the true reason of it as I conceiue is that the Euangelist followeth the Hebrew phrase very commonly in which it is ordinary to double that by a negation or deniall of the contrary which before was affirmed So k I say 39. 4. 2. King 20. 15. speaketh Hezekiah to the Prophet I sai All that is in my house they haue seene there is nothing among my treasures that I haue not shewed them So l Ier. 42. 4. Ieremie to â—ohanan and the people What soeuer thing the Lorde shall aunswere you I will declare it to you I will keepe nothing backe from you Of this kinde there are many speeches of our Sauiour recorded in the Gospell that it may appeare it was ordinarie with him so to set out that hee spake by affirming or denying the contrary m Ioh. 8. 29. Hee that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone n Ioh. 3. 17. God sent not his Sonne into the world that he should condemne the world but that the world through him might be saued This later Clause indeede hath somewhat more in it then the former but it was implyed in it So in the verse going before ver 16. should not perish but haue euerlasting life o Ioh. 10. 18. Ver. 28. No man taketh it from me but I lay it downe of my selfe I giue them eternall life and they shall neuer perish This custome of speech vsed also by his Lord and Master did our Euangelist followe that wee might the rather beleeue and remember that he writ Thus by the examining of the words wee are come at the last to vnderstand the Euangelists meaning which is this that all things whatsoeuer which had any beginning of being as all things had except God onely had that beginning and being of theirs from the word or Sonne of God There is nothing so glorious in heauen aboue nothing so meane on earth belowe nothing so hidden vnknowne in the depth of the Sea but had his whole being from our Sauiour Christ From him they all receiv'd their substance and nature from him they had their qualities and properties by him all things liue that haue life by him all things moue that haue motion by him all things are that haue any being But let vs consider these matters more attentiuely First in generall then particularly And because I haue once or twice already made mention of a place in the Prouerbes where this Sonne of God is brought in by Salomon calling himselfe by the name of wisedome and shewing his admirable wisedom by the workes of the Creation I will begin with his owne report as it is there described VVhen hee that is God the Father prepared the heauens I was there p Pro. 8. 27. sayth this diuine wisedome when he set the compasse vpon the deepe when hee established the Cloudes aboue when he confirmed the Fountaines of the deep Ver 28. When he gaue his decree to the Sea that the waters should not Ver. 29. passe his
be suspected to make God the author of sinne That which was made say those men In him was life who would not conceiue this to bee spoken of that which went next before Let vs make this a little plainer Thus they reade the text without him was made nothing That which was made in him was life Is it not more reasonable to referre these last words That which was made to that nothing which they say was made then to All things in the former part of the verse as I noted before If it had been the holy Ghostes purpose to seuer these middle words in sense where hee speakes of Nothing from the former in the fourth verse to speake againe of those All things he would not haue said That which was made but those things that were made If then we take this Nothing for something which was made without the creator and by Nothing vnderstand sinne wee affirme in the next words that sinne was life in him By Nothing therefore Sinne is not meant but the word must be takē as it properly signifieth and this later part bee vnderstood as a deniall of the contrary to that which was deliuered in the former clause Yet because the question concerning the being of sinne ariseth from the doctrine which the Euangelist here propoundeth It is requisit to say somewhat of it All things were made by him If all things then sinne too vnlesse that be simply nothing or be of it selfe eternall and infinit as nothing is but God only Neither will it serue the turne to say that All things that were made were made by him For by these words that were made nothing is exempted from being made but he only that made al all things God almightie the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost It seemes then that sinne was made maker it could haue none but him that made all things that were made that is all things besides himselfe Ther fore sinne also was made by him O blasphemy God the author of sinne How shall hee then condemne the world for sinne For what is there or can there bee from him that is nothing but goodnesse which is not good And shall men be iudged for that which is good Here what the c Iohn 5. 29. Iudge himselfe saith They shall come forth that haue done good to the resurrection of life and they that haue done euill to the resurrection of condemnation Be it far from the Lord saith d Gen. 18 25. faithfull Abraham to stay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should bee euen as the wicked be it far from him And shall not the Iudge of all the world doe right Therefore this must bee laid as a maine foundation in diuinity that sinne whatsoeuer it bee is no creature of Gods making What if I through ignorance be not able to make the point cleare Shall it therfore be doubted of I haue said enough already to proue the truth of the matter that Sinne is no creature of God I am now only to describe the nature of it to you that you may be the better satisfied If I sayle in this last parte blame my ignorance but doubt not of the truth What is sinne then Our e 1. Iohn 3. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostle answeres that Sin is the transgression of the law For where there is no law f Rom. 4. 15. saith another Apostle there is no transgression The word in S. Iohn is larger then that in S. Paul Because the later ex presseth only those sinns which are committed by doing that which is forbidden but the former condemnes all whatsoeuer is not according to the law Transgression is as much in english and so is g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transgressio the greeke word in S. Paul as going ouer The Apostle compares the law of God to the pales of a parke or to the bounds of a forrest or chase wherein the Deere are to remaine and not to leap ouer them or breake out into anyother ground Let them feed where they wil withing al is wel enough But if they once passe the pale or boundes they haue faulted and if they come short home it is no more then they haue deserued This going beyond their limittes within which they should keepe is a transgression and offence So is sinne according to the Apostles word he there vseth Yet doubtlesse though he meant especially to note that which was best knowne namely the dooing of euill wee may not thinke but it was his purpose also to signifie the leauing vndone of that good which is commanded I will make the matter plaine by the former similitude Lette vs imagin instead of those pales the lists or barrs that are at the end of some race or gole to which all that make triall of themselues in that game or exercise must needes come and beyond which they may not go He that faints ere he haue attained to the marke is faulty for leauing vndone which he ought to doe He that runns out beyond it makes a contrary fault by doing that he should not do Both transgresse that is breake the lawe of the game though the later more properly in respect of the word transgression Our Apostle h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Iohn took a word of larger signification that comprehends whatsoeuer is otherwise then the law requires whether we fall short of the marke that is set before vs or fly beyond it wee are still within the compasse of S. Iohns reproofe and our fact is a straying or aberration from the lawe But whether we offend by too much or too little still the sinne is some act or action and is comprized in that vsuall distribution thought word and deed Thought is an action of the inward parts only the braine the heart or the vnderstanding and the will Word addeth to the former a second part performed by the toong Deed imployeth the whole body or some members or member of it to the doing of some outward euill Al are actions or deeds to speake truly but these later haue appropriated that name to themselues because they haue an effect that is most sensible and knowne by feeling I will keepe my selfe to the point in question and though many things offer themselues to bee spoken of yet I will rest content with that which belongs to my present purpose reseruing all other matters to their seueral places and iust occasions Sin then as we haue hitherto spoken of it is nothing else but an aberration or straying from the law of God by doing that we should not do or not doing that we should do Can there now bee any reasonable cause of doubting whether sinne were created by God or no Who can imagin that it was made by God What being hath it but as other actions of men and Angells which are their actions and performed by them and haue their being in the doing and cease with the
diuine nature that created them or no. First the Euangelists authority is enough to put the matter out of question For hee that being directed by the spirit of God could not erre would neuer haue brought this for a proofe thereof if it coulde iustly be excepted against Yet because as I haue shewed there might bee other reasons of this speech and some doubt therefore whether it were the Euangelists purpose to proue that or no let vs take some other course for our full satisfaction To which end let vs alwaies remember that Moses x Gen. 1. 1. in the beginning of the Scripture laies this as a maine foundation of religion that God created heauen and earth Who can doubt then â—ut it is a sound reason to proue our Sauiour to be God that All things were made by him For if it be truâ— that God was the maker of all things whomsoeuer wee finde to haue made all things him we knowe thereby to be God Therefore the Apostle Paul preaching to the heathen and perswading them to forsake their Idolles and to turne to the liuing God shewes who he is by this effect of creation VVe preach vnto you saith the y Act. 14. 15. Apostle that vee should turne from these vaine Idols vnto the liuing God which made heauen and earth and the sea and all things that in them are Worship him * Reuel 14. 7. saith an Angel from heauen that made heauen and earth and the sea and the fountaines of waters By this doth a 1. Chro. 16. 26 Dauid distinguish the true God froÌ„ Idols All the Gods of the people are Idols but the Lord made the heauens Is not this the proofe of the power of God whereby he magnifieth himselfe and amazeth b Io. 38. 4. 5. c. Iob with the brightnesse of the glory thereof By this doth Ezechiah coÌ„clude that he is the true God Thou art very God alone ouer all the kingdomes of the earth thou hast made the heauens and the earth Will you heare the c Isay 3. 16. 48. 12. 13. Lord himselfe I am I am the first and I am the last Surely my hand hath laâ—d the foundation of the earth my right hand hath spanned the heauens when I call them they stand vp together Let d Heb. 1. 10. the Apostle Paul end this controuersy who to proue our Sauiours Godhead brings the place of the e Pâ—a 102. 25. Psalme Thou Lord in the beginning hast established the earth and the heauens are the workes of thy handes From hence then we may certainly and necessarily conclude that the Word the promised Messiah our Lord Sauiour Iesus Christ is true God For by him were all things made and nothing can be made but by God onely This f August in Ioâ— tract 1. the Arians denied because they sawe themselues driuen to confesse that all things were made by Christ whom they will not ackâ—owledge to bee God equall to the Father Therefore they deuis'd this shift that our Sauiour did indeed creat all things yet not as a principall worker but as an instrument And to this they say the Euangelist directed vs when hee sayd that All things were made g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him For that by which a thing is done is an instrument in the doing of that thing and not the doer of it If these men had not blinded their owne eyes with a preiâ—dicat conceite against Godhead of our Sauiour they might easily haue seene the fondnesse and falsenesse of this blasphemous exception The folly of it I shew'd before when I made it manifest that it is all one to say All things were made by him and Hee made all things The falsenesse of it may appeare thus The scripture sayeth the same of God which is here affirm'd of Christ that this or that was by him and yet I hope they will not dare therefore to conclude that God in those matters was not a principall efficient cause but an instrumentall For example h Rom. 11. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Apostle sayth That all things are by God What As an instrument who is then the principall essicient that imployes God as his instrument i 1. Cor. 1. 1. 2. Cor. 1. 1. Eph. 1. 1. Col. 1. 1. The same Apostle affirmeth of himselfe that hee was called to bee an Apostle of Iesus Christ by the will of God If the will of God bee but an instrument wee are content to require no more honour for our Sauiour so you allowe him to bee one with God in nature as the Will of God is which indeede is God himselfe What say you k Gal. 1. 1. to that place where the Apostle pleades for the authoritie of his Apostleshippe because it is by Iesus Christ and God the Father I doubt mee wee shall hardly finde any principall efficient at all where both the Father and the Sonne are instruments How absurdly then not onely impiously doe the Arians conclude from this word by that our Sauiour Christ is not God But you brethren haue beene better instructed then to giue eare to such blasphemies that I holde it altogether needlesse to bring any father proofe of the matter then I deliuered in my last exercise or to vse any word of exhortation to beleefe in him whom wee cleerly discerne to be God al-sufficient To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost the same God the most mightie and gracious Creator of all thinges let vs alwayes remember to ascribe all glorie power and dominion and to performe all obedience for euer Amen THE FOVRTH SERmon vpon the first Chapter of IOHN Verse 4. In him was life and that life was the light of men 5 And the light shineth in darkenesse and the darkenesse comprehended it not IT is a cleere truth in natural reason and a rul'd case in diuinitie that as all thinges proceede from God as the first cause of their being so they are all referr'd to God as the last ende why they are In him l Acts. 17. 28. sayeth the Apostle wee liue and moue and haue our being And to conuince the Heathen by the light of nature hee addes As also certaine of your owne Poets haue sayd m Aratus in Phaenomen For wee are all his generation To whom then doe wee owe our selues and whatsoeuer wee are or haue but to him onely Witnesse for nature the wisest of all the Philosophers the Stoikes for diuinitie he n 1 King 4. 29. â—0 that was wiser then the wisest of the Heathen o Pro. 1. 12 16. 4. Salomon the preacher King ouer Isreal in Ierusalem The Lord hath made all things for his owne sake yet so for his owne sake that p Psaâ— 8. 34. the Prophet is forced to cry out When I behold the heauens the workes of thy fingers the Moone and the Starres which thou hast crealed what is man say I that thou art mindefull of
death Do you perceiue that the Lord himlelfe hath giuen that condition of ours the name of death The olde Testament furnish â—th vs with many examples to precue the first sinne comâ—itted by vs in Adam cast vs all into the state of death â—ut this death so often there spoken of is partly the mortalitie of the body and partly the eternall punishment of the soule in hell fire the other death of sinnei â—eldome or I thinke neuer mentioned in any of those books The new Testament supplyes vs with very great plentie of example of both kindes Of the one I will say nothing at all because euery man continually obserueâ— them Of the other I must needes speak because perhaps they are not so ordinarily markt of all men q Mat. 8. 22. Let the dead bury their dead saith our Sauiour The dead to be buried are they whose carcases are left without life by the departure of the soules froÌ„ theÌ„ as the historie that place manifestly sheweth But who bee the dead that must bee the buriers of those corpses Who else buâ— they that are dead in sinne dead to righteousnessâ— and so looke after nothing that concernes euerlasting life any more then men naturally dead doe after the things of this present life So saith r Luk. 15. 32. the kind Father of the prodigal Sonne This thy brother was dead Dead The parable had said no such thing of him What theÌ„ was that death the Father speaks of Questionles the death of sin whereby he had liued lewdly wasted his goods with verse 13. riotousnesse and as his brother angerly obiected had deuoured them with harlots This the Apostle expresseth Verse 30. when speaking of vs all in our naturall estate before grace he f Epb. 2. 5. 7. saith that we were dead in sinnes and trespasses This may yet farder be manifested by the title that is giuen to that condition into which wee enter by regeneration First t Ioh. 3. 5. our Sauiour saith we must be borne againe what needs that if we were neuer dead And u Rom. 6. 2. the Apostle S. Paul affirmeth that they which are so borne againe are dead to sinne Then till they were so borne againe they liu'd in sinne The life of the one is alwaies the dea'h of the other If thou liue to sinne thou art dead to righteousnes If thou liue to righteousnes thou art dead to sinne Therefore x 1. Pet. 2. 24. S. Peter ioynes them both together That we being dead to sinne might liue to righteousnesse S. Paul hath the like speech in vnlike tearmes When y Rom. 6. 20. saith he yee were the seruants of sinne yee were freed from righteousnesse But now being freed from sinne Verse 22. made seruants vnto God Marke I pray you how one of these as it were destroies the other A naturall man without grace is free from righteousnesse yea as free as a dead man is from all matters of this worlde A spirituall man indued with grace is free from sinne yea as free as Lazarus was from all the cares of this worlde while he lay in his graue without life or breath But I may not forget my selfe too much The summe of all is this that our Sauiour Christ himselfe and by his example our Euangelist describeth the estate into which we are brought by becomming members of his body by the tearm of life because ourformer estate out of which he deliuered vs was in name nature an estate oâ— death Now hauing examined the words let vs come to the doctrine it selfe In him was life which is all one as if the holy Euangelist should haue said This word or promised Messiah of whom I haue begun to intreat and intend to write this story not only was eternall hauing his being before any thing created ever began to be that with God euen then when there was nothing beside God but was also himselfe very God From him al things that are or euer were had their whole being in him the spirituall life both of grace and glory was so plaÌ„ted that who soeuer desires to be partaker of it must haue it only as in him being come into the world This is that which we are to learne out of this place In the handling whereof I will first deliuer the doctrine that our spirituall life is by Christ then I will speake of the manner how it is by him Concerning the former point first I wil propouÌ„d it in general then I wil shew it in those particulars of holynes happynes The manner also hath 2. things to bee considered That this life was in Christ that it was in him eueÌ„ while he liued here vpoÌ„ the earth Touching the first point that our estate is to be recouered by our Sauiour Christ let me put you in mind of those places which I once before alleag'd which are indeed the very foundation of the Gospell By sinne the diuell got dominion ouer vs God in iustice leauing vs when we had forsaken him Satan iniustly seizing on vs as it were intruding himselfe into a house void of any owner to keepe possession But the Lord God though he would not presently thrust out by the head shoulders or pluck out by the eares that presumptuous intruder yet tels him that he should not imagin he had gotten or should hold quiet possession for euer I will put enmity * Gen. 3. 15. saith the Lord betwixt thee the woman between thy seed her seed What shall be the euent of this long doubtfull contention He shal breake thy head thou shalt bruise his beele Though Satan be strong armed by that meanes may seeme to keepe his palace without disturbance yet there comes a Luk. 11. 11. 22 a stronger then he that ouercomes him takes from him al his armoâ— wherin he trusted diuides his spoils This shews manifestly that the deuill shall lose his possession but perhaps he may reenter or if he do not yet are wee by this meanes rather freed from misery then restored to felicity Let vs go forward therfore and heare the promise that God makes to Abraham the Father of the faithfull b Gen. 12. 3. In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed c Gal 3. 16. S. Paul thus expounds To Abraham and his seedwere the promises made He saith not to the seeds as of many but to thy seed as of one which is Christ And this promise thus made the same Apostle cals the preaching of the Verse 8. Gospell The Scripture saith he foreseeing that God would iustifie the Gentiles by faith preached before the Gospell vnto Abraham saying In thee shall al the Gentils be blessed This belssing our Euangelist describes where setting downe the end of the Gospel he tels vs that d Ioh. 20. 31. by beleeuing we shal haue life through his name What shall I need to
can doubt but life was always in him who only liues of himself giues life both tēporal spiritual to al euē to euery one that hath it But because this maner of giuing life is an effect of Godhead so common to him with the Father and the holy Ghost and not a matter belonging properly to his person nor any worke of his mediatorship I will leaue it as not intended in this place and come to a second consideration of life being in him from all eternity as in the mediator betwixt God and man In what respect then may it be truly and fitly said that life was in him from all eternity In respect of the eternall decree of God whereby he determined to restore to life those whome hee chose therevnto by the mediation of his Sonne the word of whom we speake Of this f Rom. 8. 29. 30 the Apostle speaks Those whom he knewe before he did also predestinate to bee made like to the image of his Sonne that he might bee the first borne among many children Vpon this predestination as the Apostle adds followeth calling iustifying and at the last glorifying which is the highest degree of the life that is in Christ But in g Eph. 1. 3. 4. an other place hee speakes more plainely Blessed be God euen the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ which hath blessed vs with all spirituall blessings in heauenly things in Christ As he hath chosen vs in him be-before the foundation of the world Therefore doth the Apostle Peter ascribe the appointing of the meanes and the execution of it according to the appointment to the foreknowledge of God h Act. 2. 23. Him haue ye taken by the hands of the wicked being deliuered by the determinate counsaile and fore knowledge of God The same is acknowledged by the ioynt confession of the Apostles where they say that Herod Pontius Pilat the Gentiles and the people of Israell gathered them selues together against the holy Sonne of 4. 27. 28. God Iesus whom God had annointed to doe what soeuer the hande and counsaile of the Lorde had determined afore to bee donne VVorthily then doth Saint Iohn avouch that life was in him yea before any time was life was in him i Gal. 4. 4. VVhen the fulnesse of time was come God sent his Sonne Life did not then begin to be in him but to shew it selfe to be in him k Rom 3 25. God set him forth by his incarnation to be apropitiation Life was in him before in regard of Gods eternall counsaile but not discouered nor manifested to the world no nor those works of his which were to bring life performed Yet euen thē was life in him If it seeme to any man somewhat ouermuch to go so far for the Euangelists meaning let him shorten his iorney containe him selfe within the compasse of the world created Shal we not find sufficient reason of this speech In him was life though wee goe not out of the world yes out of doubt very sufficient For seeing many worthy Patriarchs and holy Prophets many true Israelits Sonns of Abraham by faith as well as by nature departed out of this worlde before our Sauiour came into it to performe the foreappointed worke of redemption either these must haue died without life so alwaies continue dead or there was life in him before he was incarnat l Luk. 10. 24. Many Prophets and Kings desired to see and heare him at the Apostles while hee liued heere saw and heard Surely then they were not ignorant of him and that life was in him But did they not see him By one iudge of the rest Your Father Abraham m Ioh. 8. 56. saith Christ reioyced to see my day and hee saw it and was glad And yet what name I one seeing wee haue a cloud of witnesses that compasseth vs round about n Heb. 11. 1. 2. 3. c. sounding out the same assurance of fayth that we now haue and looking for the same promises to bee fulfilled which wee beleeue and knowe to haue beene performed to the vttermost Was not our God o Mat 22. 32. the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Was not our Sauiour their Sauiour p Rom. 4. 11. Gal. 3. 16. Dooth not our interest wee haue in Christ depend vpon our being the children of Abraham q Heb. 13. 8. VVas not Iesus Christ yester-day is hee not to day shall hee not bee the same for euer Then may wee safely and truely conclude that there was life in him before he was in the nature of man But howsoeuer it be true certaine that life was in him both from all eternity in regard of the counsaile of God which is as ancient as himselfe in effect in respect of them that from time to time were partakers of it euen from Adam to Iohn Baptist yet it was then most properly in him when hauing taken our nature vpon him he ouercame death and him that had power ouer it the Deuill This was that which those Kings Prophets desired and longed to see This was that which good olde Simeon so reioyced at that he was ready to depart out of this life with full satisfaction and contentednesse when he had seene the promised Messiah in the nature of man Lord r Luk. 2. 29. 39 saith he now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eies haue seen thy saluation The holy man had a long time beleeu'd by faith that saluation was to come and in hope with patience waited for the comming of it but he neuer saw it til that time Indeed how should he For it was neuer to be seene till then How could it be For it neuer was fully perfitly till then It was not enough for the Son of God that he had infinite power as God to giue life to whom he would to repair the ruins of his image in man by clensing him frō sin cloathing him with righteousnes by raising him frō death as he first breath ed the soule of life into him by vouchsafing him a place in heauen which was at his command that had made it Al this I say would not serue the turne that the Euangelist might say as he doth In him was life For the Lorde God Father Son Holy ghost had appointed another course of giuing life another meanes of saluatiō not to be perform'd by the Son of God sitting in heauē but to be wrought here vpō earth in the same nature that had sind was dead He that made mā holy righteous at his creatiō could by the same powr haue restord to him his original righteousnes in a momēt But it pleas'd him to doe it after an other maner wherof more hereafter in due place To say al at once seing by man cam death God would haue life to come by mā no otherwise Let it be graunted may some man say that
heapes of all sorts of people slocked to him The couetous Luk. 3. 12. 14. Publicans were content to heare him reprooue their greedinesse and extor ion The desperate souldiers trayned vp in violence and insolencie submitted themselues to his instruction and baptisme What should I speake of the proud Pharises who had bewitcht all Mat. 3 7. men with an opinion of their purity and holinesse and none more then themselues yet were they glad to come to Iohn to be washed and purified by his Baptisme The Sadduces were little better theÌ„ professed Atheists Act. 23. 8. saving There is no resurrection neither Angell nor spirit What neede these men care for sinne or damnation And yet the ministerie life doctrine of Iohn the Baptist was such that euen these Miscreants were drawne to seeke to him I say nothing of Herod because I signified before that hee reuerenced Iohn and heard him gladly and followed his doctrine in many things Tell mee Mark 6. 20. now what you could desire more I had almost sayd what you canne imagine more in any man to make him of credite and authoritie that hee may bee beleeued in that hee constantly affirmes If the Lord should haue made a man in Heauen as hee did Adam heere on earth and haue sent him into the world in the sight of all men hee could not haue beene of more estimation then Iohn Baptist was And was not this a meruailous likely meanes to begette faith in the Iewes that such a man so extraordinarily sent so admirable in his bringing vppe so vnblameable in his life so sound in his doctrine and which is all in all to this purpose of such reputation for his sinceritie and precisenesse so plainely and constantly protested that Iesus was the Sauiour of the worlde and himselfe no better then his vnworthie seruant â—oh 1. 27. I am not worthy sayde Iohn to vnloose his shooe latchet Let vs therefore acknowledge the goodnesse of God who voutchsafed to vse such meanes for the teaching and perswading of so vnkinde and vnthankfull a people But the necessitie of sending Iohn and the kindnesse of the LORD in sending him will the more appeare if wee aduisedly consider both the ignoraunce of the Iewes and the meanenesse of our Sauiours estate while hee was in the Worlde It is true that the LORD had from time to time giuen notice and made many promises of the comminge of the Messiah It is as true that the sette time of his comminge was foretoulde and cast vp by Daniell insomuch that olde Symeon and Luk. 2 25. 26. in all likelihood some others vnderstood that the time of his appearance was come and with the good Widowe Anna looked for it euery moment But alasse Ver. 36. 37 how few of these were to bee found The people generally as it is now amongst vs had little knowledge of the Scriptures They heard them read and many times expounded in their Synagogues as wee â—ow doe in our Churehes but they were as farre from the true vnderstanding of them as wee commonly now â—â—e Daniels weekes were as great mysteries to them â—â— the Reuelation of Saint Iohn is to vs so that they â—ereâ—n table to compare his prophecie with the Eâ—ents that had fallen out and to subduct the time â—hat was past that they might see what the rest was And this I speake of the better sort of the common people The worst and greatest part had seldome aâ—y thought of these matters no more then wee now ordinarily haue of the last day of Iudgement Beâ—ides the most part of them that desired his comming â—ookt for another manner of deliuerance by him then our Sauiours estate in the World was likely to afford And this conceite had taken such roote in their hearts that our Sauiour Christs owne Disciples held it fast in them euen till the very time of his Ascension Act. 1. 6. Lord say they wilt thou at this time restore the kingdome to Israell It was an outward freedome and glorious estate in this life which the Iewes promised theÌ„selues by the comming of the Messiah What was there in our Sauiours parentage bringing vp or course of life that could feed this hope His supposed Father Mat. 13. 55. a poore Carpenter vnder whome hee was imployed â—â—mselfe in the same trade and therefore is called a Carpenter Is not this the Carpenter Maries sonne And Mat. 6. 3. what was his life hee wandred from place to place noâ—ieâ— â—ng armâ—es not mustring souldiers not perswading any man to take vppe armes but disclaiming all worldly autority Who made me a Iudge or a diuider ouer you inioyning obedieÌ„ce to Princes rulers Giue vnto Luke 12. 14. Maâ— 22. 21. 20. 28. Caesar the things that are Caesars Yea professing that hee came to serue and not to be serued This being at the time of our Sauiours comming the estate of the lewes they either carelesse of â—is assistance or ignorant of the nature thereof his owne condition also being so meane and contemptible was it not gratiously done of God and in respect of the people necessarily to send one of such credit and autority to assure them that Christ was the Messiah in whom they ought to trust and to teach them what deliuerance they were to looke for by him Christ needed no testimony of any man But the Iewes stood in great need of Iohn to informe them concerning him It were not lost labour to bestow some time in the consideration of the goodnesse of God in yeelding so much to the Iewes weaknesse or râ—ther in striuing with such patience and bounty against their obstinat wilfulnesse I might also take occasion to stirre vp our selues to trust in God of whose kindnesse wee haue so plaine and so great experience But I am willing to forbeare both these points till I come to some other place where they are more directly intended by the purpose of the Euangelist In the meane while let vs go forward with the expounding of this Scripture wherein as we haue heard the office of Iohn is amplified in this verse by the ende of it That all men through or by him might beleeue Whereof that I may speake the more plainely and certainely I will first examin what this ende is To beleeue by him Secondly I will consider the quality of it or who they were that should beleeue The former hath these two doubts what is here meant by belieuing to whom this Him must be reffer'd whether to Iohn the witnesse or to the light of which he bears witnes might beleeue through him Now because Beleeuing is a word of so common great vse in the Scriptures and that this is the first place where it is mentioned in this Gospell I hold it not only requisit but necessary for me to speake of it somwhat more at large To beleeue in matter of religion is commonly taken to signifie 3 things The acknowledging of Gods being Credere Deum
the worde in common speech where the patterne or a thing it selfe that is inutated or counterfetted is called the Truth The truth Vritas vincit iantationem excelleth the imitation So the Lord is named the true God This is euerlasting life to know thee the onely true God Ioh 17. 3. Some thinke that by this truth or trueness the light is signified to bee such by nature and of it selfe not by Ciril in Ioa. lib. 1. cap. 9. grace or participation And so may the Lord bee called the true beeing because he is so naturally and imparts to all things such being as they haue But of this signification I thinke there is no example to bee found in Scripâ—ure The two former agree very well to our Sauiour who is indeede the true light without any darkness of error or falshood in him Hee whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God for God giueth him not the spirit by measure Ioh. 3. 34. And of him were all the ceremonies of the lawe shadowes and figures as the Apostle hath shewed at large in the Epistle to the Hebrewes especially in the ninth and tenth Chapters But the best way to vnderstand the true sense of the worde is to compare it with other of the same kinde in the Scripture For which purpose what shall wee neede to goe any farder then this Gospell Wherein wee haue two like speeches vttered by our Sauiour of himselfe My father saith hee giueth you the true Ioh. 6. 32. bread from Heauen What true bread was this It is euident that hee speaketh it of himselfe whom a little before hee had called the meate that indureth to euerlasting Verse 27. life Heere he compares himselfe with that Manna whereof the Iewes boasted and wherewith they say Moses fed them euen with bread from Heauen To this our Sauiour answereth that Moses gaue them not bread from heauen but my father giueth you saith he the true bread from Heauen They had bread from heauen by the ministerie of Moses as they proued by the place Psal 78. 24. of the Psalme He gaue them bread from heauen How then saith our Sauiour that Moses gaue them not bread from heauen and that his father giues them the true bread Surely that bread which they had by the meanes of Moses was true bread and did truely the office of bread to feed their bodies What then Doth he meane that it was but a figure of the heauenly bread which God was to giue and now in and by him did giue them This was true indeede but not so much to purpose as our Sauiours speech was beeing rightly vnderstood Hee Ver. 27. had perswaded them before to labour for the meat that endureth to euerlasting life They would needes haue Ver. 30. Ver. 31. him shew them some signe that is worke some miracle whereby they might be occasioned to beleeue him that there was better bread then such as their fathers had eaten in the Wildernes To this our Lord answeres that Moses gaue them not bread from heauen namely no such Ver. 32. bread as could endure to life eternall That bread that could so feede them was the true bread and was giuen by his father in comparison whereof the other was not worthy the name of bread The vse of the bread is to nourisn and continue life and that bread which can not worke such an effect in him that eates it is not true bread Your fathers saith he afterward dideate Manna in the Wildernes and are dead How Ver. 49. Ver. 50. then was that true bread This is the bread that came downe from heauen that hee which eateth of it should not die Loe heere we haue the true bread which performes that in truth to the soule that the other doth but as it were offer to the body Therefore also he tells them a little after that his flesh is truely meate and his bloud truly Ver 55. drink A like place we haue in the same Gospell where he tearmes himselfe the true Vine I am the true Vine Why is Ioh. 15. 1. he the true Vine Because hee doth indeede truely and effectually nourish comfort susteine those that cleaue to him by faith whereas the best Vine in the world hath somtimes dead branches and at the last dieth it selfe Now then if any man demaund in what sense Christ is the true light in the very same say I in which hee doth affirme that he is the true bread and the true Vine The Sonne which is the fountaine of this visible light doth not so truely shine and giue light to the eyes of the body as Iesus Christ doth inlighten the vnderstanding which is the eye of the Soule Iesus Christ may Ambros de fide contra Arian cap. 3. some man say Why not rather God the Father or at least the whole Trinitie whose ioint action it is to inlighten and not the Sonnes alone These obiections are easily answered For it is more then plame that our Euangelist speakes only of the Sonne in this whole description What reason is there then to vnderstand this one verse of any other but of him alone How should this point applied either to the Father or to the Trinitie haue any due place in this discourse Is it not also apparent that the light here spoken of is the same whereof Iohn bare witness and which is said in the verses following to haue come vnto his owne and to haue giuen the priuiledge to men of becomming the sonnes of God Consider yet farder how vnfit it had bin for Saint Iohn hauing called the Worde by the name of the light in the former verses here vpon a sodaine to giue the same title to any other of the persons or the Godhead Will any man take the worde in such diuers sort if hee bee not constrained to doe so by cleere euidence of the Text But so to vnderstand it were to couer the place with darknesse not to make the sense of it cleere and euident But the action of inlightening is common to all three Persons So are all actions of any person of the three which concerne any other beside the Persons themselues To choose to iustifie to sanctifie to redeeme to instruct to inspire to comfort c. are all common workes of the Diuine nature Yet are they appropriated in the Scripture seuerally to the seuerall persons as all men know and as I must shew particularly when I come to the 33. verse In the meane while let vs goe forward with the exposition of this verse wherein we are next to consider what the doubling of the article may teach vs. The light the true light was it not enough to haue said The light For surely that implies an especiall excellencie of the light wee meane There bee perhaps many candles torches starres and moones but the sunne onely is the light They are lights but not the light If that would not serue the turne
Rendez-vous as it were is signified This the Lord had in Iudea and therefore I may safely conclude that this verse is particularly to bee interpreted of the Iewes But the time is past that which remaines the next time of this exercise if it please God To whom c. THE EIGHTTH SERmon vpon the first Chapter of IOHN Verse 11. Hee came to his owne and his owne receiued h◠not c. THere is ordinarily in all men a speciall affectiō to their Country Country-men where they were bred among whom they were brought vp Either because it proceeds from nature who takes her aduantage at the first and settles her selfe in our hearts while there is no resistance or for that it pleaseth God that according to true reason we should think our selues most bound to them of whō we receiued most helpe when wee were least able to helpe our selues From hence it comes that there is a mutuall loue betwixt them that are of the same nation So that generally an English man affects an Englishman so a Scot a Spaniard a French man euery one his owne Country-men more then any stranger whatsoeuer Yea the honour that any one getts for vertue learning wisedome or valour redounds to the whole nation insomuch that euery particular man almost thinkes himselfe interessed therein Can it choose then but bee exceeding strange to all men that our Lord should haue so meane intertainement in his owne Country Was it not a matter of greate honour to the Iewes that one of their nation should bee able to doe such admirable things They bragd exceedingly of the Prophets that had liued frō time to time amōgst them VVhat were all they to this one And yet hee came to his owne and his owne receiued him not Neither came hee as an ordinary man that the refusall of him should be no more but a matter of vnkindnesse by neglecting the common bonde of Country-ship but this comming to his owne is of more importance For by His owne as I shewed in my last exercise the place or Country to which he came is signified And not that only as if he had no farder right to it thē the title that euery man hath to the place of his birth and education but by those wordes his owne we vnderstand an especiall interest that he had in that Country To which he came not as a stranger to see and to bee seene nor as an heire to a Lordship of whome the tenants had neuer heard any thing but as one that was famously knowne to be rightfull honour and had long before appointed was lookt for daily to take possession Shall we looke into old Deeds euidences yea better then Deeds euidences auncient records kept most carefully and faithfully in the highest court of Roules where the holy Ghost himselfe is master of the office all the Clarks not only sworne but certainely knowne to be void of ignorance free frō alcorruptiō I will not meddle with the Originall Graunte 〈◊〉 3. 15. from GOD rather signified in a threatning manner against the Deuill then exprest by any way of promise to Adam in Paradise This was too generall and affordes the Iewes no more aduantage of clayme then any other people whatsoeuer because all Chap 9. 26 are Adams posteritie That blessing of Sem is somwhat more particular Restrayning the generall which by reason of Noah the father might seeme to bee common to all three sonnes to one of them onely Blessed bee the Lord God of Sem. But of Sem came diuers not only families but Nations The Assyrians Persians Lydians Chap. 11. 14. 2◠Aramites or Syrians and Hebrewes Which of these hath speciall interest to the promise The Hebrewes by Abraham to whome the promise was directly made that in him all the Families of the earth should bee blessed Abraham also had many Children of whome Ismaell Chap. 12. 3. Chap. 16. 11 was the eldest but the blessing was settled in Isaac In Isaac shall thy seede bee called But wee are not yet certaine Chap. 21. 12. Cha. 25. 2◠23. where to finde this blessing Isaac had two sons by his wife Rebeccah two twinnes Esau and Iacob Of whome God himselfe prophecied to their mother that the eldest should serue the younger And accordingly it came to passe The birthright and the blessing being cōuayed Chap. 27. 3◠from Esau to his brother Iacob We are nowe come where wee may well rest Because the twelue Patriarkes the sonnes of Iacob continued one people without any diuision and except the time of their captiuitie in one Countrey til the time of the Messiahs appearing But for the greater certainty of the truth better directiō for the knowing of him whē he shuld come it pleased God to reueale to Iacob by him to his children that Shiloh he that was to be sent should proceede Chap 49. 10. out of the Loynes of Iudah And as if this had not been enough he leads the Iewes to the house of Dau. in which this deliuerer should be born sit on the throne of his Psal 132. 11. Luk 1. 3◠33. father Dauid for euer Yea the very place of his birth is named by which afterward the wisemen that came from the East were directed Thou Bethelem Ephrata Mi◠5. 2. Mat. 2. 8. saith the Prophet art little to bee among the thousands of Iudah yet out of three shall he come forth to me that shall bee Act. 10. 34. the ruler in Israell Of him all the Prophets beare witnes To him all the shadowes washings and sacrifices of Col. 2. 17. Heb. 9. 10. the law belong as to their body and substance by him the Iewes looke for deliuerance to him they had an especiall title Saluation is of the Iewes saith our Sauiour Ioh. 4. 22. Mat. 15. 24 26. And in an other place more strictly I am not sent but to the lost sheepe of the house of Israell in comparison of whome the Gentiles were as dogges Doth not the Euangelist then truly say that our Lorde came to his owne when he came into that part of the world which he had before prepared for his comming whether hee had sent his Heralds to proclaime the time of his comming as it appeares in Daniell where the place Dan. 9. 27. Mic. 5. 2. 〈◊〉 1. of his birth was appointed by Micah as by an Harbinger where Iohn Baptist as his Gentleman vsher had giuen especiall notice of his approach and stood waiting in the streetes to goe to meete him Thus came hee to his owne not stealing in by night or thrusting into some creeke where hee might least bee seene or hiding himselfe in the fardest partes of the lande that were most vnpeopled but sending his Angels to reueale his birth to Shepheardes who Luk 2. 9. without suspicion of any deuise or complot might spread the report of it abroade as they did Directing Mat. 2. 1. 2. wisemen
whereas lawfully hee might haue done otherwise These are the principall places and in a manner all of them which as farre as I am able to discerne â—aue any reasonable shew of proofe that the word may bee taken for freedome of will As for a fewe other in the former Epistle to the Corinthians it is no hard matter to answere them in a worde First where the Apostle speakes of a mans hauing power ouer his owne 1. Cor. 7. 37. will it is plaine hee meanes not free will but command ouer that freedome by which a man hath liberty to keepe or not to keepe his virgin So that this power determines and as it were ties the will to the one onely as the wordes before declare where he speakes of being firme in his heart that is as it followeth in the later part of the verse hauing decreed in his heart that hee will keepe his virgin In the ninth Chapter there is often mention of power to eate power to leade about a wife power not to labour with hands power to Chap. 9. 4. 5. 6. partake of their goods to whome they preach What is this els but a lawfull Autoritie to doe or not doe these things as in spirituall discretion they shall think most fit for the edifying of their brethren Now all that hath bin said beeing considered I thinke I may safely conclude that the worde which our Rhemists translate power vnderstanding by it free will may well bee expounded Dignitie or Prerogatiue in this Text and is neuer so vsed in any part of the new Testament that it must needs be taken for freewill Of the other worde the translation and signification whereof I am now to search out I can not say so because there are many places where it can not stand for to bee but of necessitie must bee taken for to bee made It is enough to iustifie our translation so farre as concernes the nature of the worde it selfe that it signifyeth and that often in the Scripture yea ordinarily to bee as we in this place translate it I wittingly and willingly forbeare to alledge any proofe of that I say by bringing examples because it is knowne and acknowledged by all that haue any little skill of the Greeke tongue But since both may be what reason can we bring why our to bee should be preferred before the Papists to bee made First it is certaine that all they which expound the former by dignitie excellencie and such like vnderstand by this later a present possession of Son-ship if I may so speake and not a future possibilitie Secondly they also that by it will haue autoritie or right to be meant generally are of opinion that they of whome our Euangelist heere speakes are actually and in their present estate sonnes of God by that grace which is signified in the other word though some thinke it may bee lost afterward Onely Maldonat the Iesuite fearing as it may well be thought least he should be taken for an heritike as he was somtimes accused to bee though he confesse that by the former worde right is signified yet he will not at any hand agree with vs about this latter point but chooseth rather to allow of an other exposition and that none of the best neither To them saith Maldonat that were already truely or indeede Vere us the sonnes of God he gaue right or title that they might also be his heyres Can any man perswade himselfe that the holy Ghost if hee had intended to note a â—arder and greator honour then being a sonne would not haue vsed a word fit for that purpose and namely Heyre but haue coÌ„tented himselfe with the common worde sonneâ— The Apostle Paul when hee had honoured them that Rom. 8. 17. truely beleeue in Christ with the title of sonnes and as iâ— were indued them with the spirit as an assurance of their beeing sonnes addes a farder amplification of their happiness that they were heyres also euen heyres of God and ioint heyres with Iesus Christ. Questionless if the Euangelist had meant to signifie this point of beeing heyres as distinct and superior to that of Sonnes hee would either hauespokeÌ„ as S. Paul had done before him or haue made choise of that worde that is proper to that dignitie and interest But let the Euangelist declare his owne meaning What can bee more plaine then that which followeth in the next verse which are borne not of bloud c. Ver. 13. They that beleeue in the name of Christ are borne of God Therefore are they sonnes not onely haue Power Autoritie or Right to bee as if they were not so vpon their beeleeuing but must procure that afterward in time I know not when by a second grace to bee purchast by the good vse of the former The Scripture deliuereth an other manner of Doctrine teaching vs that all euen as many as beleeue in Christ according to the Gospell are the sonnes of God by faith Yee are all saith the Apostle to the Galathians Gal. 3. 26. the Sonnes of GOD by faith in CHRIST Nay say our Papists not by faith but by charitie Faith indeede giues vs a certaine right that we may become the sonnes of God but it is charitie by which wee attaine to this honour As if our loue to God proceeded not from that spirit of his by which wee receiued faith and which teacheth and stirreth vs vp to call God Father Because ye are sonnes God hath sent forth the Spirit Chap. 4. 6. of his Sonne into your hearts which cryeth Abba Father See I pray you if there bee any difference of times in these matters wee are sonnes ere wee haue this spirit of loue And why or how doe wee or can wee loue God but in respect of his fatherly kindness to vs in Iesus Christ we loue because we are sonnes we are not made sonnes because wee loue first But I may not wade too farre in this matter which appertaines to the Doctrine heere deliuered whereas I am yet but in search for the signification of the words Wherein wee haue found two things that wee lookt for and lighted vpon a third by occasion First the worde vsed by our Euangelist translated by our Rhemists Power doth not signifie free will but dignity or prerogatiue SecoÌ„dly the other word notes our present estate vpon beleefe that we are the Sonnes of God not our possibility that we may be if we vse the grace we haue receiued well In this search the word Sonne offered it selfe to vs in its own proper signification not vsurping the place of his brother heire We are now to go forward in the like examination of two other wordes or rather phrases and to enquire what it is to beleeue in this or that and so To beleeue in Christ Secondly what is meant by Beleeuing in his name whether it bee all one with Beleeuing in him or no. Now of the former I shall need to say the lesse
amplyfied then by propounding the chiefest of all the blessinges whereof wee are made partakers by him And what one is comparable to this The sauing vs from our sinnes to speake properly rather frees vs from miserie then brings vs to happinesse Sanctification doth no more but refresh the image of God in vs which was decayed or restore it being lost which can make vs but good seruants at the best If any man thinke that to bee an heire is a degree aboue being a sonne he must vnderstand that this implyes that Christ makes none sonnes but hee makes them heyres too by the same Kom 8. 17. title And therefore questionlesse there is no blessing obtained by him that may stand in comparison with this To bee the sonnes of God I deny not then but that this might bee respected of our euangelist in his choise of this benefit but I thinke there were also other reasons of it Hee spake immedately before of the Iewes not receiuing of the Messiah Now the Iewes were the men that held themselues onely to be the sonnes of God by reason of Abraham from whom they were descended Therefore the Lord challengeth them by the Prophet Mal. 1. 6. that they did not honour him A sonne honoureth his father If I bee a father where is mine honour Contrarie to this conceite of theirs the holy Ghost giues them to vnderstand that the honour to bee the sonnes of God is not appropriated to the Iewish nation as they falsely imagined but is common to all the Gentiles that will beleeue As for them their refusall to beleeue in him made them wholly destitute of that prerogatiue What other blessing afforded vs by Christ would so fittely haue met with that proud conceite of the vnbeleeuing Iewes Forgiuenesse of sinnes they little or not at all regarded being puft vp with an ouer weening of their owne righteousnesse They lookt for rewarde not Cyril in Ioan lib. 1. cap. 13. for pardon Fitly therefore to abate this pride doth Saint Iohn put them in minde of other sonnes of God Ambros de fide lib. 4. cap. 4 August in tract in Ioa 2. Bed ad huÌ„c loc such as they knew themselues not to bee for all their bragging Another reason is added and may be admitted that this was therefore especially named because it is that which being proper to Christ hee and hee onely could giue that it may appeare hee hath wholly communicated himselfe vnto vs if hee haue imparted that which was so truely and neerely his owne Ought wee not then to bee so much the more carefull both to knowe and obtayne so incomparable a fauour Can we content ourselues to be ignoraÌ„t of it Can wee indure one hower to be without it Had we rather bee seruants then sonnes First let vs vnderstand what it is to bee a sonne of God A matter easily knowne will some man say For what is it else but to haue our beginning and as it were birth from GOD So is Adam sayde to bee the Luk. 2. 10. Mal. 2. 10. sonne of God So speaketh Malachy of the Iewes Haue wee not all one Father hath not one God made vs If this bee all To be a sonne is no more then to be a creature or at the most such a creature as is made after the image and likenesse of God But this wee haue by nature in our creation not by grace in regeneration This they haue that are borne after the ordinary course of men of bloud of the will of the flesh of the will of man So are not they borne of whome our Euangelist heere intreateth Not of bloud sayth hee but of God That manner of birth is common to all men in all times and places this is a priuiledge voutchsaft to some onely The former was already bestowed vpon the Iewes in that they were men The later was to be receiued by the gift of Christ by their becomming faithfull or beleeuing men To conclude if the holy Ghost had meant such kinde of sonnes he would neuer haue required faith in the name of Christ What is it then To be the sonne of God The Euangelist aunsweres in the next verse To bee borne of God And are they to whome our Lord giues this honour of being sonnes Borne of God It should seeme then they are the naturall sonnes of God For what is it to be the naturall sonne of any man but to bee borne of him but this is meerely impossible Because our Sauiour Christ is the onely begotten or borne sonne of GOD and is thereby equall to his father both in time and dignitie whereas these sonnes haue their beginning in time and are no way comparable to God in any degree Therefore wee may not at any hand when wee read or heare of this birth whereof more hereafter in the next verse and especially in the thirde Chapter once imagine that we are properly sayd to be borne of God but that the speech is tropical that is to say turned from the naturall signification and applyed to another by way of similitude or likenesse I wil Mâ—taphora speake no more of the point at this time then is needefull for our vnderstandinge of the matter For the helpe whereof let vs consider how God is our father and wee his sonnes in respect of our naturall being by creation Euery man knowes that he is not properly our father no nor was Adams For then must he needs haue beene God by nature and God hauing begotten him as his naturall sonne must of necessitie haue beene such as Adam was and we all now are How then is God Adams father I confesse he is so though I doe thinke that Saint Luke is not so to bee vnderstood in the place formerly Luk. 3. 38. alleaged where those words the sonne of God seem rather to belong to Iesus then to Adam Well yet is Adam the sonne of God and not the natural sonne What sonne then If I shall aunswere directly to the question I say hee is the Tropicall and in particular the Metaphoricall sonne of God To speake to the capacitie of the meanest and simplest who haue as much interest to this knowledge reuealed by God for our instruction as the noblest and wisest Adam is the sonne of God by a borrowed speech For as men are naturally the fathers of them who haue their being in particular from them so is Adam so are all men the sons of God because they haue their first originall from him Adam also may bee sayde somewhat more particularly to bee the sonne of God because hee was fashioned and formed by him of the dust of the ground without any other meanes then the will and word of God himself And in this respect may an Image cut cast or painted by any man â—e called the sonne of him that was the maker of it So may the bookes that men write be tearmed their children And as all men in this sense are the Sonnes of God touching
their naturall being So are some euen as many as beleeue in Christ his sonnes concerning their spirituall beeing For it is God that creates as it were new hearts in them that restores that image of his which they had lost that giues them spirituall life and motion to all righteous and holy actions I do but name the things according to the present occasion leauing the handling of them to more fit opportunitie in the next verse It is enough that we vnderstand in what meaning wee are the Children of Godâ— because wee are borne of him and yet not his Sonnes by nature But is this that which the holy Ghost intendeth in this place to signifie that Christ is autor of regeneration to all them that beleeue I suppose this is not all For it is easie for euery man to discerne that the Text speaketh of such a being sonnes as followeth faith and beleeuing whereas the birth that is mentioned in the verse following goeth before faith which is one of those â—â—â—ces that are formed in vs and brought forth by that â—irth This is that the Apostle saith other where Ye are Gal. 3. 26. ill the Sonnes of God by faith in Iesus Christ First wee beleeue and then by beleeuing we are the sonnes of God This is as it were the second birth the first is that which necessarily must bee had before a man can haue any â—pirituall life in him For as our Sauiour tells Nicodemus That which is borne of flesh is flesh and that that is Iohn 6. borne of the spirit is spirit No man can possibly haue â—aith of the flesh but the spirit must beget a faithfull man There is no remedy then but wee must seeke for â—ome other being sonnes or that I may speake more â—hortly Sonne-ship Giue mee leaue to vse the worde because it is fit though somwhat harsh till it be worne smooth with often vsing Where shall wee finde that Sonne-ship wee inquire for Let vs examine what and how many kindes of Sonnes wee know amongst men not speaking of these which are made sonnes by alliance who is ignorant that there are two kindes of Sonnes by nature and by adoption The one is borne the other is chosen a Sonne The former kinde is so well knowne that it were idle to say any thing of it Of the later we haue small knowledge amongst vs by experience saue only in them who by their last Will and Testament make them their Heyres that haue no interest to their estate but onely by the fauour and appointment of the Testator Among the old Romans it was very ordinary as their histories lawes in that case prouided euidently pleÌ„tifully shew The scripture affords vs few or none examples of this kinde Wee haue a shadow of it in the course that Iacob tooke with Iosephs two sonnes Manasses Ephraim They were indeede his grand children or nephewes by nature But by fauour hee made theÌ„ equall to the rest of his sons their vncles so that they make two of the 12. Tribes Let my name Gen. 48. 16. saith Iacob be named vpon them that is Let them be accounted my sonnes as if they had bin begotten of my body The like may be said of Moses and Esther who were after a sort the adopted Children of Pharaohs daughter and Mordecai Of him the Text saith that his mother after shee had weaned him brought him to Pharaohs daughter and he was as her Sonne Which Exod. 2. 10. Heb. 11. 24. is farder proued by the Epistle to the Hebrewes that he refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter Of her it is recorded in the history that after the death of her father and her mother Mordecai who was her cosin Germane Est 2. 7. tooke her for his owne daughter By this Son-ship the partie thus adopted obtaines a title and interest to the estate of him that hath adopted him as if hee were his naturall child Of this sonne-ship by Adoption from God there are 〈◊〉 in loa lib 1. cap. 10. two kindes in the scripture the one a figure and resemblance of the other When the Lord sent Moses to Pharaoh for the deliuerance of the children of Israell hee gaue him this instruction for the discharge of his Embassage Thou shall say to Pharaoh Thus sayth the Lord Exod. 4. 22. Israell is my sonne my first borne Would you know what sonneship this was The Apostle wil resolue you where speaking of the prerogatiue that God vouchsaf't the Iewes he reckens among other blessings the Adoption Rom. 9. 4. what was that else but a choosing of that people out of all the nations in the world to be his peculiar vnder his protection The Lord sayth Moses set his delight in thy fathers to loue them and did choose their seede after them euen Deut. 10 15. you aboue all people Therefore did hee bestow vpon them the Land of Canaan a land especially furnisht by him with the blessings of this present life Flowing with milke and honey Glorious was this estate of theirs their Exod 33. 3. adoption full of fauour to the enuie of all the world their owne happy securitie But as glorious and bountifull as it was it was for all that but a shadow of the spirituall sonneship There is another manner of Adoption mentioned in the new Testament and imparted to them that beleeue in Iesus Christ When the fulnesse of time was come sayth Galat. 4. 4. 5. Saint Paule God sent foorth his sonne made of a woman made vnder the law That hee might redeeme them which were vnder the law that wee might receiue the adoption of sonnes According as he had predestinated vâ— saith the same Eph. 1. 5. Apostle to be adopted through Iesus Christ To vs thus adopted he giues the spirit of adoption whereby wee cry Abba Rom. 8. 15. father This is the sonneship the Euangelist speakes of in this place This is that spirituall Adoption by which wee are truely made the sonnes of God I shall not need to adde any farther proof of the matter because it hath appeared already that none of the other Sonneships can agree with that which is here auouched For to none of them is beleeuing required especially beleeuing in Iesus Christ but to this only To that Sonneship which is by creatioÌ„ it is neither lookt for nor possible that wee should bring faith For wee must needes be eâ—e wee can beleeue and our very being is our being sonnes So the Iewes vpon that promise of God to their father Abraham were borne not made sonnes their Adoption consisted not in the seuerall choyse of particular men but in separating the seede of Abraham Isaac and Iacob from all families and nations in the world whatsoeuer Neither is our spirituall sonneship of the former kinde attained to by faith but by it we are made faithfull Therefore to be sonnes is to be adopted by God for his children in Christ I will make
bolde with your good liking I doubt not to declare the point more fully and plainely by the opening of these two things what adoption is how God hath adopted vs. Adoption if wee consider the Adoption word for the nature of it is nothing else but choosing to a mans selfe whatsoeuer it bee that is chosen From this generall signification the word is applyed to note that particular choyse of sonnes or children The Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expresseth the particular and signifieth an appointing of children The word being vnderstood it is no hard matter to knowe the nature of the thing it selfe which not to stand vpon any curious definition is a choosing or taking of them for our Children which by nature are not ours So as wee heard Iacob made choise of Iosephs sons Ephraim and Manasses Pharaohs daughter tooke the childe of an Hebrew whome shee knew not Mordicai chose Esther his Vncles daughter to bee his childe Let vs apply this to our owne Adoption The father that adopteth is God the childrē to be adopted are men and women If they must become the children of God by Adoption it is cleer they are none of his by nature Whose then I am a shamed and affraide to vtter it Our Lord himselfe hath told vs discouering the naturall estate of all men in describing the Iewes Wee Ioh. 8. 41. are not borne of fornicatiō say they to our sauiour We haue one father which is God But what doth he answere them Ver. 44. Ye are of your father the Deuill If the Iewes Gods owne children after an especiall manner yea his first borne were notwithstanding the children of the Diuell surely no man in his naturall estate can be the childe of God Rom. 9. 4. They had the Adoption they had the Couenant Other people had nothing affoorded them by God but those generall helpes which are common to all by nature What becomes of these children of the Diuell As many of them as beleeue in Christ are by Adoption made the sons of God Being sons they haue withal conuaied vnto them not onely an interest and claime to their fathers estate be it neuer so great but also the inheritance of heauen If we be children we are also heyres This passeth the ordinarie course of Adoption A man may adopt many sonnes and yet not make them all heyres I doe but name these things now They shall be amplified if it please God in the next point where the Prerogatiue must be declared In the meane while let vs go forward to shew How we are adopted There are two things that offer themselues to be considered in respect of the party that adopteth The generall motiues why he will adopt The particular reason why he will make choise of this or that person The generall motiues are ordinarily two either simply default of naturall issue or at the least want of such children as are fit for such an estate or inheritance I confesse it was otherwise with Iacob who had sonnes enouw of his own body The case was extraordinarie hee directed by the spirit of prophecie to make choise of them to that dignity But ordinarily the motiues are such as I named and in likelihood were the same or one of thē in Pharaohs daughter Mordecat What place had they in our adoption by God Certainly none at all Touching the former which is the more cōmon of the two was God without issue If he had bin seeing himselfe is eternall as with out beginning so without end he needed not feare the decay of his house for want of Posteritie to succeede him Dauid was to be gathered to Psal 132. 11. his fathers therefore it was a singular fauour to him that he should haue children to sit vpō his throne after him But he that neuer dyeth neuer groweth weake or weary hath no neede of a successor or assistant in his kingdome But he had issue euen a sonne the brightness of the glory the ingrauen forme of the fathers person Milk is not so like to milke as that son is to that father being in nature all one with him differing in nothing but that the one is the father not the sonne the other the sonne not the Father But perhaps he might be vnfit for the managing of such an estate succession to such a father Go to let vs for the better setting out of these points imagin a succession conceiue of God for a while as of a mā The vnfitnes in a son for succession is either from the weaknes of his body that he is not likely to leaue issue behind him or for the badness of his cariage want of capacitie dissoluteness in gouernment or some such matter This son of God that I may not dwell too lōg vpon this point nor speak any thing with out due reuernce of his maiesty was euery way so qualified fitted to his fathers minde that it was impossible I will not say that any adopted sonne should come neere him but that greater fitnes could be desired or imagined This is my beloued sonne saith the father of him Mat. 3. 17. Chap. 17. 5. in whom I am well pleased And he repeats that testimony the second time at his transfiguration It was not for neede then as it is with men that the Lord vouchfaf't to thinke vpon adopting of sonnes But admit the case had so stood with him that it had bin requisite for him to make him sonnes by Adoption What is vsually the reason of mens particular choyse Is it not an affection or liking that the partie hath to some one rather then to another There may sometimes be some other respects but this is the commonest and best setting that of kinred aside Consider a little the dealing of our God in this behalfe Must he choose som creatures to be his sonnes and ioynt heires with his owne naturall son He hath thowsands and ten thowsand Dan 7. 10. thowsands of Angelles round about his throne Glorious in their nature Obedient in their seruice Holy in their desires Neuer a one of these is chosen to this fauour of Adoption It may be the Lord intendes to shew the riches of his mercy by extending compassion to thē that are in miserie Behold the Angels that ly 2. Pet. 2. 4. lud ver 6. in darkenes reserued to the iudgement of the last day Is there any mans estate more desperate Haue any creatures greater need of succor Can there be more pitty shewed to any They are left in that damnable estate The Lord turnes his face away from their misery and casts his eyes of compassion on our wretchednesse So makes he difference betwixt men and Angels Hee will adopt men rather thē Angels because his loue is greater to men then to Angels Our Adoption then proceede◠no◠for the generall motiues or the particular respects from any other spring then the loue of God who adopteth vs making vs
recorded by the holy Ghost Exod. 2. 10. as a certaine proofe of his faith and trust in God that when he came to age he refused to be called the Sonne of Heb. 11. 24. Pharaohs daughter Indeed he was but to be call'd so For Pharaohs daughter had not liberty to adopt whom she list Well might she be at the charge of his nursing and allow him maintenance like a Princess and honour him with her fauour and countenance but shee could not giue him any right to the Crowne of Aegypt If then it were so greate an honour to be called the Sonne of Pharaohs daughter that Moses for refusing of it is registred to all posterity as a man that preferred the seruice of God before the glory of the world what a prerogatiue is it To be the Sonne of God Dauid when he was vrg'd and prest by the continual perswasion of many Courtiers to put himselfe forward and become the kings Sonne in lawe excuseth himselfe by his pouerty the meanness of his reputation Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a kings Sonne in lawe seeing I 1. Sam. 18. 23. am a poore man and of small reputation It is no great matter for a kings Sonne to marry a kings daughter There is no disparagement in the match to the wife no increase of honour to the husband But if a man of meane estate and birth be admitted to such aduancement by marriage how is he preferred how is hee honoured It shall be fit therefore and needfull to the ende wee may the better conceiue the excellency of our prerogatiue in being made the Sonnes of God to consider as the high estate to which we arise so the lowe degree from which we were raised Was it not in euery mans iudgement greater preferment for Ioseph to be made ruler of all Aegypt then for Putiphar to haue beene aduaunced to the same honour and autority Ioseph was taken from prison at the lowest step or rather not neere the stayer-foot Putiphar was already aboue the midst of the grees and could almost reach the top from whence he stood Let vs then cast downe our eies from the glorious estate of the Sonnes of God to the Shall I say meane or base conditiō The words are too light To the wretched fearefull damnation of the Sonnes of the Diuell Oh that I were able to vtter or you to conceiue either the misery in which we were plunged or the maiestie to which we are aduaunced It was cast in Ionathans teeth as a foule reproche by his angry Father that He was the Son of a wicked rebellious woman And cōtrarywise Salomō 1. Sam. 20. 30. rekons it vp amongst his titles of honor that he was the Sonne of Dauid The parables of Salomon the Sonne of Prou 1. 1. Dauid For as the dignity of the master is a credit to the seruant and the ones dishonour the others disgrace so much more as the bond betwixt them is neerer the glory or shame of the Father is the reputation or discredit of the Sonne Who is so vile so wicked so odiour as the Deuill His former happinesse makes his present misery the greater as heate opens the pores of the body and prepares a way for the more cold to enter He is cast out of the presence of God for euer he is vtterly forsaken of all vertue and goodnes Hee hath neither power nor will remaining to doe any good Hee repines against God he enuies the Angells hee seekes continually the destruction of men Such as the Father is such are the Sonnes Haters of God despisers of Angells murderers of men both others and themselues too Are these meete persons to bee made the Sonnes of God Surely as the children of Israell profest of themselues that when the Lord turned the captiuity of Sion they Psal 126. 1. were like them that dreame so is it with mee in the meditation of this incredible alteration Am I that was the child of the Deuill become the Sonne of God Haue I a title to heauen to whō hel had iust intrest Shal I raign in the glory of Christ that seru'd most basely in the bōdage of Satan I am not worthy O Lord to bee called thy Sonne It is more honour then I durst hope for or Luk. 15. 19 almost desire to be made one of thy hired seruants There are a greate many degrees betwixt these two estates It were much that thou shouldst at all receiue mee into seruice Yet if it please thee to vouchsafe mee that fauour the meanest or lowest place or office in thy Palace were to good for mee To bee a door-keeper in thy house It were a seruice sit for thy holy Angells not for mee a prophane man If thou wouldst needes of thy wonderfull bounty preferre me higher thou might'st make mee free at the most and so ridde thy hands of me Will not all this serue but must I haue the prerogatiue to bee thy Sonne too Me thinks I should but dreame of these fauours and not possesse them indeed they are so farre beyond not only expectation but credit too Peter when the Angell came to deliuer him out of prison the night before hee Act. 12. 9. 10. should haue beene executed though hee arose and followed his guide passing the first and second watch going through the iron gate which opened by it owne accord yet still thought that hee had but seene a vision and could not perswade himselfe that he was indeed set at liberty How much more vnlikely is it that poore miserable damned Sonnes of the Diuell should find such fauour as to be made the Sonnes of God Sarah laughed as at a thing vnpossible when the Gen. 18. 12. LORD told Abraham that shee should beare him a Sonne and the worthy matrone of Shunem that entertained 2. King 4. 16. the Prophet Elizah when he promist her the like blessing from the Lord could not be perswaded of the truth thereof Oh my Lord thou man of God saith shee doe not ly vnto thy handmayd Is it as straunge for a woman though shee bee old to haue a Sonne as for a man to become the Sonne of God This is that mystery which the Angels desired to behold As if they coulde 1. Pet. 1. 12. not satisfy themselues with thinking on it This was the Ioh. 8. 44. prerogatiue which some of the Angels could not abide should be vouchsaf't to men but murmured against 2. Pet. 2. 4. God for it rebelled to aduance themselues whereby they lost both their place and their honour It is not so easy a matter my brethren to beleeue this point as it is commonly thought to bee And whereas it is so generally receiued for truth of all that professe themselues to be Christians I am wholly of opinion that it is rather a light perswasion then a grounded beleefe Doost thou beleeue that as many as trust in Christ are thereby the Sonnes of
Naaman the Syrian desiring to be cured 2. King 5. 10. of his Leprosie when he was willd by the Prophet Elisha to goe wash seuen times in Iordan went away in an anger as if some hard matter had bin inioyned him But his seruants wiser in that point then their maister came and spake vnto him and said Father if the Prophet had Verse 11. commanded thee a great thing wouldest thou not haue done it How much rather then when hee saith to thee Verse 13. wash and bee cleane The Noble man considering that his seruants spake reason followed the Prophets direction and was healed Healed of what Of a Leprosie By what meanes By washing seuen times in Iordan What is it that wee desire To bee made the Sonnes of God A farre greater matter then to bee cured of a Leprosie How may wee attaine to this honour Beleeue and thou shalt become the Sonne of God Shall I need to compare these things together Beleeue Wash Which is sooner done Wash seuen times If thou beleeue once it sufficeth Not as if wee might bee the Sonnes of God though wee cease to beleeue but because he that once truely rests on CHRIST can neuer wholly depart from him I see not how wee could deuise to haue so great honour with so little paines vnless perhaps we would attaine to it by dreaming of it Can wee imagine a readier course of preferment or an easier labour in getting it then to be made the sonnes of God by trusting in Christ Doe but cast thy care vpon him thou shalt be sure of that he promiseth thou desirest But it will not be amisse perhaps considering the importance of the matter to examine these things more particularly especially in these two points That beleeving is necessarily required to adoption so that without the one the other is not to be had that the meanes of enioying heauen which all men naturally propound to themselues are of greater paines and lesse yea no certainty what if I say of meere impossibility Suspend your iudgement till you haue heard and vnderstood the case then giue sentence freely and spare not Now for the better conceiuing of the matter I will make bold to shewe the mystery of our redemption so much as is needfull for the knowledge of that wee haue in hande but as shortly as I can with plainness It is not vnknown to any man vnles he be vtterly ignorant of christian Religion that all mankind and euery particular man woman child lost the fauour of God and with it all hope and possibility of happinesse by the transgression of our first parents in whome wee all sinned If any man bee desirous to informe himselfe better of this point the Scripture is open for him I will content my selfe with that one testimony of the Apostle By one man sinne Rom. 5. 12. came into the world and death by sinne and so death went ouer all men by him in whome all men haue sinned For the recouery of this losse it pleased God to appoint a meanes of reconciliation that his anger iustly conceiued against vs might bee appeased and wee receiu'd againe into his former fauour This meanes was his owne Sonne in our nature offered vp by himselfe in sacrifice to God his Father God was in Christ saith the 2. Cor 5 19. Rom 5. 10. Apostle reconciling the world to himselfe And in an other place when wee were enimies wee were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne But the manner of our reconciliation on Christs part doth not so much concerne the matter we are now to handle Let vs see what is required of vs. There are two things necessary to a sound and full reconciliation that the offence which caused the breach bee pardoned that the party offending bee admitted againe into as greate fauour as hee was in before he committed that fault If either of these be wanting the Reconciliation is vnperfect Our Sauiour Christ hath fully performed whatsoeuer was needfull on his part to procure absolute Reconciliation The Lord God is willing and ready to bee reconciled vnto vs. Only the stay is in vs. For the pardon of sinne iustification is offered not imputing of sinne And wheras 2. Cor. 5. 19. wee were before the breach no otherwise in the fauour of God then seruants are that please their master now the Lorde is determined to receiue vs not as seruants but as Sonnes by his free Adoption God sent his Sonne c that we might receiue the Adoption of Gal 4. 4. 5. Sonnes Heere is full and perfite reconciliation prouided Iustification and Adoption But how shall wee bee made partakers of it I will leaue the former point till I haue some fitter opportunity Of the later our Euangelist speakes in this place teaching vs that if wee beleeue in Christ wee haue the prerogatiue to be Sonnes This the Apostle Paul confirmes yee are al Chap. 3 26. the Sons of God by faith in Christ Iesus There is no exception against 2 such witnesses No saith one if they agreed in their depositions No saith one if they agreed in their depositions But there is no small difference betwixt them The one saith wee haue that honor by beleeuing the other affirms that fayth makes vs the Sons of God The Euangelist requires the act the Apostle contents himself with the vertue grace or qualitie S. Paul seemes to looke for no more but that wee haue faith S. Iohn calls precisely for the vse of it Receiuing Beleeuing Is this all the difference that can bee found in their testimonies Then all is nothing First it is apparant to begin withour Euangelist whom we presently expoūd that S. Iohn by enioyning vs To beleeue necessarily requires faith by which we must beleeue so his deposition includes implyes that which S. Paul affirmeth Secondly the Apostle vnder the name of faith cōprehends the act of beleeuing which is neuer any more seuered from it then burning is from fire A greater fire burnes more then a little one doth but the least that can be doth burne as wel as the greatest So the strongest faith trusteth more firmely in Christ but the weakest more or lesse relies truely vpon him But that wee may see the ful agreement of these two witnesses let vs consider how the Apostle declares his owne meaning oftentimes in the like matter The righteousnesse of God vnto Rom. 3. 22. Chap. 4. 3. all and vpon all that beleeue Abraham beleeued God and it was counted to him for righteousnesse That Chapter is full of the like speeches So are his other Epistles where he hath any occasion to speake of Iustification And if that which is former in nature cannot bee had but by beleeuing surely this later is not to be attain'd to by the only hauing of faith Therefore as often as we find in Scripture that Iustification Adoption Sanctification Saluation or any other such fauour blessing is ascribed to
are now possest that Faith Hope Charity so beautify their soules that God cannot but acknowledge them for his children in whome he sees so liuely and perfect an image of himselfe This is the course that Popish religion teacheth all men to follow who are desirous to be made the Sonns of God If wee compare the meanes of attaining to this honor which according to the Euangelists direction wee embrace with that course which they present I doubt not but we may truly say that our faith which is counted for righteousnes is more excellent then their proud supposed righteousnes so highly magnifyed by them For seeing the maine ende of all religion is the glory of God by what shall we valew the excellency of any vertue or vertuous action rather then by the more or lesse aduancing of that glory And by what is or can God be more glorifyed in the saluation of man then by our disclayming and renouncing of all possibibility in our selues and in all creatures and resting vpon him alone as the only hope of al our happinesse By this we acknowledge his sufficiency to bee infinit his kindnesse to be incomparable If we trust to him for succour it is plaine we are throughly perswaded that hee hath power and skill to deliuer vs. Wants he wisdome to discerne by what meanes our deliuerance must bee wrought How should we rely vpon him that knows not whereby to helpe vs Admit his skill were very great in perceiuing what were to bee done for our succour What can that availe vs if hee lack power to doe or procure that to be done which hee sees wee stand in need of Is it not a singular honour to God to haue his wisdome and his power thus highly magnifyed Reason confesseth it is beyond her reach Learning profeseth she can afford vs no instruction for the search therof Experience proclaymeth shee neuer saw any thing that might possibly be obserued to giue vs any direction in the businesse Men and Angells are wholly to seeke All created wisdome fayles vs. God onely as being only infinite makes supply of that to the knowledge whereof it was not possible for any finite wisdome to attaine Neither is the power of any creature greater then his knowledge yea who knows 〈◊〉 more then he can doe What should I multiply words in so plaine a case The Sonne of God must become man and by his bloud powred out in sacrifice appease the wrath of his Father reconcile the world to God by the pardon of Sin adoption into the state of children What power is there in men or Angells to procure this fauour It is vnpossible to inforce him that is almightie And if he do it not willingly as good not do it at all For hee that offers vnwillingly makes his offering of no valew How then May they hire him to do this seruice What needes he that is Lord of heauen and earth hath all in his possession What haue we to giue who our selues are not our owne As if a bond-slaue that hath nothing nostri Iuris but that which is his masters should redeeme himselfe with giuing some treasure which before he giues it is his to whom it must be giuen What remaines then but intreaty To whom shall we sue What colour of reason shal we deuise to ground our petition vpon With what face shall we come into his presence to whom our very comming is odious The neerer wee presse to him the more we sin The greater our sin is the hotter is his wrath The heauier his displeasure is the farder wee are from hope of fauour What shal we but prouok him by praying to him incense him by intreating him As for making of any means to him there is none in any place about him but doth truly worthily hate vs as long as we continue in their Lords displeasure If we might haue accesse durst we trowe you presume to approche vnto him When our first parents had broken that one Commandement afterward heard the voice of the Lord walling Gen. 3. 8. in the garden in the coole of the day they hid themselues saith the Text from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the Garden Why did they not rather shewe themselues and fall downe before the Lord intreat for mercy The same conscience of sin sense of the wrath of God would now also take from vs all heart to appeare before him to make intreatie But suppose we were admitted into his presence to offer vp our petition What should wee say How might wee begin to make so vnreasonable a request Is there any man so voyde of sense as to thinke that hee can perswade a kinde father to send his onely sonne so louing so beloued not onely to bee infinitly abased in his estate but also to bee put to a most cruell and shamefull death that for strangers Strangers sayd I It were too much if wee were no more but strangers What is it then to Rom. 5. 6. send him for the behoofe of enemies of rebels traytors Shall wee try if wee can preuaile so much with the sonne as to become a sacrifice for vs The very vnreasonablenesse of the suit makes me ashamed to think on it and is it possible we should moue it Would you intreat him to dye for you O absurd and ridiculous motion O senselesse and impious supplication But I must remēber that the time passeth stay my self in the midst of my race It is enough for the matter in hand that wee vnderstand what honour wee doo to God by acknowledging his loue his power and his wisedom in resting on him onely for saluation and giuing all the glorie and thankes for it to his maiesty and mercy As for the Papists that follow the other course whereby they looke to make themselues the sonnes of God though they pretend I know not what extraordinarie loue to him yet in trueth either they loue him not at all or if they doe it is because they imagin that hee lets them haue the cheefe glorie of their owne saluation Seeme I to any man to speake hardlier of them then they deserue I appeale to the vnpartiall iudgement of any reasonable man Thus stands the case betwixt God and them Hee of his owne mercy hath prouided meanes by which they may bee saued but he hath taken no order that they shall bee saued If they will make vse of this generall fauour they may if they will not choose them God hath as it were cast his almes amongst them happy man bee his dole that seaseth on them If so well if not so He for his part could be contēted that euery man shuld lay hold on his offer of saluation But hee leaues it to their owne choyse and sittes by looking on to see who will and who will not If any man beleeue and bee saued hee may thanke God that hee might attaine to saluation but that hee
hath attained to it hee may thanke himselfe Vnlesse the meanes had beene prepared by God hee could not possibly haue beene saued Though they were appointed yet hee might haue been damned if he had not helpt himselfe where God faild him God indeed gaue him ability to vse the means and perhaps also perswaded him to the vse thereof but still hee left it wholly to his choyse whether hee would vse them or no. So that if he think to challenge any man of vnthankfulnes he may iustly be aunswered that they doe him no wrong as long as they ascribe to him the possibilty of their being saued There is a general thankfulnes due to him by all men for that he furnisht them with ability to make choyse of saluation But for the particulars euery man is much more beholden to himselfe then to God if he come to saluatioÌ„ That he might be saued for I must repeatit again he may thank God that he is saued hee may thanke himselfe Now on the contrary side all the glorie of our saluatioÌ„ redounds to God We do nothing to saue our selues but commit our selues to God to bee saued by him The faith wherby we rest on him is his meere gift The vse of that gift is onely froÌ„ his grace He Hee makes the difference betwixt beleeuers and vnbeleeuers they that beleeue not follow the choyse of their owne wil. They that beleeue are not only perswaded but inclined thereto by the spirt of God who certainly and in respect of the euent necessarily brings them to beleeue not making them beleeue whether they will or no but making theÌ„ willing to beleeue Thus it comes to passe that the whole glory and thankes for our saluation are giuen to God to whom only they are due that we may not wonder if God vouâ—chsafe the priuiledge of being his sonnes to as many as beleeue in him through Iesus Christ These sonnes of God are farther described vnto vs in the next verse which are borne sayeth the Euangelist Ver. 13. not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man Tertullian de carne Chr. cap. 19. 24. Athanas lib. 2. de vnica deit trinitatis but of God I am not ignorant that this hath beene applyed to him that is the naturall sonne of God Iesus Christ himselfe as if Saint Iohn had intended to sette foorth the excellency of his birth in whose name wee must beleeue But this interpretation though it be very ancient hath found fewe or none to maintaine or approue it but the first author of it and the words wil not beare it in any sort For the Euangelist sayth not which is born as speaking of one but which are born as signifying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many And so do all copies and all translations read the place that we may safely goe forward with the exposition of it as it lies in our English And that wee may doe the more boldly because wee neede not feare any trouble from our Rhemists thereabout who agree with vs both in sense and words But howsoeuer their agreement with vs is so great yet that they may shew their itching desire to disâ—gree and hold their purpose of making the Scriptures vnpleasant in English and vneasie they will not ioyne with vs in the order of the wordes but set that last which wee put in the beginning which are borne say wee not of bloud c. What English man would write or speake otherwise Will you heare the Rhemists Who not of bloud nor of the will of flesh nor of the will of man All this while a man wold wonder what they meant to say Not of bloud nor of the will of flesh c. What is it that they deny we shall know perhaps anone What followes But of God Yet wee are neuer the neerer At the last comes in Are borne Would any man that knowes how to write English translate in this sort if hee were desirous to haue his translation vnderstood and lik't what if the wordes Are borne bee in the last place in the Greeke and Latine Hath not euery tongue his especiall property and grace which may not reasonably be neglected Would you not laugh at or pity him who vndertaking to translate our of French into English should thus write The L'escriture saincte nous disent-â—ls n'est pas suffisante Scripture holy to vs say they not is sufficient yet might such a Translater aunswere for himselfe that hee found the words so placed in his author There is no man almost so ignorant but hee easily perceiues what absurd and senselesse translations might bee iustifyed if it were enough to followe the order of the wordes in translating But the time will not suffer mee to bee any longer in this matter But calles vppon mee to bee as short as I canne in that which is yet behind Therefore I will make but one labour of examining the wordes and deliuering the sense of the place and afterward speake somewhat of the matter The principal scope of the Euangelist as it is easie to discern is to shew that the sonnes of whome hee made mention in the former verse Are borne of God This point hee amplifies by a deniall of the contrary a thing very vsuall with our Sauiour Christ in his manner of teaching as I noted before and shall haue occasion to obserue Ver. 3. 8. ofter hereafter Of God not of man The later point is farther inlarged by denying them to bee bred of such matter as other sonnes ordinarily are made of Not of blood or to haue man any way for the author of their being Not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man Where by the way it will not bee amisse for vs to obserue that the same worde or preposition of is applyed both to the matter and to the maker Not of bloud There is the matter and to that doth the word most properly belong as when wee say a ship is made of timber an house is made of brick or stone In the rest of the sentence of noteth the maker Not of the will of the flesh or man but of God The word that is ioyn'd with it in this place signifieth as well to beget as to beare and is vsed both of the father and of the mother Abraham begat Isaac Isaac begat Iacob Mat. 1. 1. 2. 3. and so often in that one Chapter Shee shall beare thee a sonne sayeth the Angell to Zachary of Luk. 1. 13. his wife Elizabeth and shee bare or brought foorth a Ver. 57. Chap. 23. 29. sonne So in another place of the same Gospell Blessed are the barren and the wombe that neuer bare But this kinde of phrase is ordinarily referred to the woman in the other Euangelists Iacob begat Ioseph the Mat. 1. 16. husband of Marie of whome that is of which Mary Iesus was borne There are some Eunuches which were Cap. 19. 12. Luk. 1. 35. so