their worldly cares or some other such respects from the due consideration of that whereof there is offer made them But the Hebrewes as Saint Paul there writes had receiued the light that is had giuen assent to the truth of that which was taught them and for the maintaining of it had indured as it is there witnesses greate fight in afflictions If we take the word in the former sense only for shining vpon the things that are needfull to bee seene that they may shew themselues vnto vs it is out of doubt that in respect thereof euery man is inlightned for so much as concernes the office of the light which is to make manifest those things that were not without it to be seene For so our Lord hath revealed the will of his Father concerning the meanes of saluation which Ioh. 1. 18. but by him had neuer beene publisht and proclaimed to al the world But this is rather lightning thē inlightning as he that carries a candle or torch with him inlightens not the party before whom he goes or to whō he comes but only lights him and in this sense our Sauiour doth but shewe men what is to bee beleeued Whereon there growes more question how it may be said that euery man is thus lighted For it is very manifest that there were many thousands in the world euen then when our Sauiour himselfe shone so brightly by his glorious workes and powerfull preaching who neuer heard or saw the one or other nor in any likelyhood of reason possibly could do What say I There were many thousandes I may truly say the thousand man then liuing neuer had nor could haue any sight of the light that then shined among the Iewes Yet I confesse that the light stretcht and spread his beames to the vttermost of his nature and strength Take example of the Sunne which in the height of summer riseth early mounts highe shines gloriously sets late and yet there are diuers nations in the worlde which haue not the least glimse of his light all the while he shewes himselfe to vs in these parts of the Hemisphere most apparant and bright Therefore when we read or heare That our Sauiour the true light lighteth euery man as much as in him lies we must not consider him as God but as the mediator of mankind become man As he was God he could haue giuen euery one then liuing in the worlde certaine knowledge that himselfe was ordained for the Sauiour of the world But he was heere to demeane him selfe as a person who by the diuine power of his Godhead could do al things but by the conditiō of his mediatorship was to doe no more then his humane nature might be known to be imployed in some way or other He taught the admirable secrets of God by his voice he wrought wōderful miracles by his almighty power but still it appeared to all men that by the word and wil of him whom they saw to be a man all those wonders weredon So then if we take this lightning of euery man for affording them the meanes of knowledge to saluation we must thus conceiue the matter that our Sauiour preacht and shew'd his miracles by himselfe and his Apostles and doth daily vouchsafe the knowledge of the truth to euery man without exception not forbidding his ministers to teach any man nor barring any from learning of them Let vs now see how we are to vnderstand the Euangelist that the true light inlightneth euery man Inlightning causeth him to discerne the truth of that which is deliuered so that the doctrine of the Gospell is alwaies effectuall to him that is inlightned The Lord opened the heart of Lydia that shee attended to the things that Paul Act. 16. 14. spake All that heard him were lighted but they only inlightned which beleeued the things hee spake How then may Christ be said to inlighten euery man since it is apparant many yea the greatest part beleeue not Surely the former answer satisfies this doubt very sufficiently Whosoeuer is inlightned hath this inlightning from the true light And this interpretation as I shewed before agreeth very well with the Euangelists words and meaning But let vs apply the common distinction to this purpose Christ inlightneth euery man as much as lies in him If wee vnderstand this of his absolute power wherby he is able as God to do al things it is manifestly false Else should euery man vndoubtedly beleeue For he is able to beget faith in the heart of euery man Therfore the most that can bee truly avoucht in this matter is this that hee is ready to inlightē euery man But this interpretation as far as I can conceiue doth not fully expresse the sense of the place if wee expound it of inlightning For it is one thing to inlighten an other thing to bee ready to inlighten What could the Euangelist say more of them that are actually inlightned I acknowledge the truth of the doctrine that our Lord is ready to refresh all that come vnto him to teach all that vse the meanes to learne but Mat. 11. 28. me thinkes this is not all that the holy Ghost in this place affirmes Therefore I had rather interpret the text either of lightning that the true light shines to all without exception no man being shut out from the hearing and reading of the Scriptures by any commaundement or restraint of the light it selfe or of inlightning that all which are made partakers thereof attaine to it only by this true light and both these expositions are true and may agree with the words meaning of the Euangelist to commend our Sauiour Christ as the true light of all men Now whereas some men herevpon would conclude that because the true light inlightens euery man therefore God hath not made choise of any man more then of all men to be heires of his glory in heauen they gather that which growes not of the text I will make it plaine by a short examination of the matter according to the former interpretations No man is barr'd the ministery of the worde Therefore saluation is intended alike to all If you adde in regard of the ministery thereof yet that you say will hardly proue true For though no man be abbridg'd of liberty to heare by any charge to the contrary from God yet many are not vouchsaf't the possibility of hearing How shall wee affirme then that in respect of the ministery of the worde saluation was intended alike to all I graunt that the meanes is affoorded in generall but I deny that therefore there is no difference in Gods purpose touching lightning of one nation more then of an other It is as free for any restraint made by God for the Turkes to haue the Gospell as for vs For they are Gentiles as well as wee But yet it were too greate vnthankfulnesse and absurdity to say that concerning the ministery of the worde God meant to light them to
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
either were not vnderstood or be not remembred in effect it was this that our Euangelist vndertook the penning of this Gospell partly that hee might finish and perfect the History of our Sauiour Christs dooings sayings and sufferings all the time of his abode heere vpon the earth partlie that hee might confirme the Faithfull in the true Doctrine of his God-head and leaue his Gospell as a preseruatiue against the poyson of blasphemous hereticks So was it intended by him so it is to be vsed by vs that as hee comfortably speaketh x Ioh. 20. 31 1 We may beleeue that Iesus is the Christ the Sonne of God and beleeuing haue life through his Name Novv let vs returne to the diuiding of this Gospell Whereof wee may reasonablie and fitly make these two parts the former Saint Iohns description of â— Ioh. 1. 29 to he end of the Gospell our blessed Sauiour IESVS CHRIST whose Historie hee vndertakes to penne y Ioh. 1. to verse 29 from the beginning of the fift Chapter to the 29. ver of the same the later * The History it selfe in the rest of that Chapter and all the other to the end of the Gospell In the description our Sauiour is set out partly by a Our Sauiour described 1. by â—hings propre to in 2. by the tetimony of Iohn certaine things that properly belong vnto him partly by an outward testimony of Iohn the Baptist The former are b His natures Diuine ver 1. 2 Humane verse 14 either his natures diuine ver 1. 2. humane ver 14. or c His actions of his Godhead His mediatorship 2 his actions His actions proper to his Diuine nature as those of creation ver 3. or common to both as those of mediation verse 4. 5. d Iohns testimony signified ve 6 Exprest ver 15 16. c. Iohn the Baptists testimony is first signified v. 6. Afterwarde exprest verse 15. 16. 19. As for the other verses from the 6. to the 14. and from the 16. to the 29. they containe certaine explications which the Euangelist ads vpon occasions and belong to som one part or other of the former diuisions as in due place shall appeare The History it selfe is partly e The former part of the History from chap 1. 29. to chap. 19. 31. a discourse of such things as IESVS did spake or suffered before his death and to the time of his death from the first Chapter Verse 29. to Chapter 19. Verse thirtie one f The later part from thence to the end and partlie a report of those matters that are to be knowen and beleeued to haue bene done or sayd after his death from Chapter 19. verse 31. to the ende of the Gospell g Irenaeus lib. 2. cap. 39. sed praecipue 1. Chemnitius prolegom in harmon cap. 3. Now the historie it selfe cannot bee better diuided then h Diuision of the history according to the yeres of our Sauiours preaching after his baptisme according to the yeeres of our Sauiour after his baptisme and the beginning of his ministerie Whereunto it may well bee thought the Euangelist himselfe as it were leades vs by the hand because hee dooeth so particularly mention the feast of Passe-ouer from yere to yere The first Passe-ouer after our Sauiors Baptisme is named in i Iohn 2. 13. the second Chapter k Chap. 5. 1. the second in the fift For it shall appeare when I come to expound the place that there is great reason why we should take that feast to bee the Passeouer l Chap. 6. 4. The third we haue in the beginning of the 6. Chap. and that in expresse words m Chap. 13. 1. 2 The fourth and last was as euery man knoweth at the time of his death Chapter 13. So that I thinke it best thus to diuide the whole historie Our Sauiour at his baptisme as we learne out of n Luke 3. 23 Saint Luke was newly entred into the thirtieth yeere of his age and beganne his ministerie with the beginning of that 30. yeere more or lesse o The 30. yere of Christs age the first of his preaâ—hing froÌ„ cha 1. 29. to chap. 4. 1. The first part therfore of this Gospell for the history it selfe begins at the 19. verse of the first Chapter and continues to the beginning of the fourth conteining the 30. yeere of our Sauiours life p The 31 and 2. from thence to chap. 6. 1. There begins the 31. yere and second part of this Gospell which endeth at Chap. 6. q The 32. and 3. to chap. 10. 22 From whence we reckon the third part and 32. yeere to Chap. 10. verse 22. r The 33. and 4. to chap. 19. 31 where the fourth part 33. yere take beginning and end with the life of our Sauiour Chap. 19. 30. But this 33 yere was cut off in the midst according to Å¿ Dan. 9. 27. Daniels prophecie reueald vnto him by the Angel Gabriell that the Messiah in the midst of the 62. week shuld cause the sacrifice the oblation to cease Namely by offring vp the true sacrifice his own body wherof the sacrifices of the law were but shadows could haue no loÌ„ger vse nor place when the body it selfe was sacrificed as the Apostle proueth at large in t Heb. 10. 12. the Epistle to the Hebrewes The things that hapned after our Sauiours death and are to be knowen and beleeued by vs are either his buriall Chap. 19. vers 31. to the end or his Resurrection manifested and prooued diuers wayes Chap. 20. and 21. The particular distributions I reserue to their seuerall places now to the text 1. In the beginning was the word and the word was with Vers 1. 2. God and the word was God The same was in the beginning with God u Cyrill prolog in Ioan. All that come vp out of diuers Shires and Countries to London enter here into one and the same Citie and haue the generall view of it and the places of account therein yet are some more easily and daintily lodg'd and dieted then other admitted to a more particular sight of the principall buildings and goodly ornaments of it yea perhaps made acquainted some what more specially with the estate and gouernement thereof In like manner whosoeuer readeth or hearetlâ— any one of the foure Gospels is vouchsafed the knowledge of the same historie of our Sauiors life death the same doctrine of saluation by him But he that bestowes his time and paines in this Gospell of our Euangelist Saint Iohn is as it were entertained in a more stately and beautifull lodging and admitted to the hearing and vnderstanding of the very secrets both of his nature and office touching his owne Being and our redemption This appeares plainely in the very beginning of the Gospell where the great mysteries of Christian religion are deliuered These two first verses conteine a description of our Sauiours diuine nature propounded
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
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
word and the word was with God and God was the word The like figure also hath Moses t Gene. 1. 1. In the beginning God created heauen and earth and the earth was without forme But our Euangelist affordes vs more examples of it u Iohn 1. 4. 5 In it was life and that life was the light of men And the light shineth in darkenesse and the darkenesse comprehended it not Can any man doubt that the holy Ghost intended to keepe the elegancy of the figure Are not the Sermons of our Sauiour himselfe beautified with flowers of Eloquence Doth not the prophecie of Esaie flowe with streames of Rhetoricke I dare boldly say It is a very hard matter to match the beginning of that booke for varietie and force of Eloquence out of the writings of any of the heathen Orators Greeke or Latine quantitie for quantitie That we may iustly blame the ignorance and boldnesse of them who thinke it a dishonour to the Gospell that the preaching thereof should be graced with humane Eloquence I would know of these men what it is they call humane Eloquence and what Eloquence there is in the Scripture which may not beare that name without any disgrace thereunto Are there not the same tropes and figures both of the word and the sentence in the writings of men yea of heathen men which are in the Scripture Or if the Scripture haue any which men haue not yet obserued may they not learne from thence asto liue holily so to speake eloquently If any man imagine that the holy Ghost hath either appropriated any ornament of speech to himselfe in the Scripture or that he deuised new tropes and figures for his owne Secretaries the holy Prophets and Apostles the writings of the heathen wherein all those elegancies are to bee found will giue euidence against his ignorance I deny not that there is a certaine maiestie shining in the Scripture which no man can worthily expresse by imitation or by meditation conceiue sufficiently But this ariseth partly from the matter it selfe and partly from the skill of vsing those Rhetoricall ornaments wherein as in all things the holy Ghost that taught them is perfect whereas men haue but a shadow as it were of his perfection But I may not spend too much time in this matter onely thus much I will adde that he which in his publike ministrie shall either willingly refraine or carelessely neglect to vse the helpe of humaine learning and namely of Rhetoricke whereof onely wee haue now occasion to speake shall both faile in his duetie to God and come short of that worthy effect of preaching whereby the loue of God to vs is most gloriously set foorth and our loue to God most ardently set on fire It is the spirit of God that begets faith and obedience But not without those meanes by which hee hath enabled his seruants to teach and perswade The principall thing is the matter as it were the dart or arrowe that pierceth the heart of man by the power of the Spirit But speech is as it were the arme and Eloquence the thong or string whereby it is sent with force to the marke it aymes at He that trusts in Eloquence makes flesh his arme Hee that despiseth Eloquence takes strength from his arme It is our duetie to vse the meanes It is Gods blessing that the meanes take effect and of this vpon this occasion enough Now in expounding the words ere I come to the meaning of the place I will first touch a cauill of x August de doctrin Christia lib. 3. cap. 2. the Arians whereby they endeauoured to voyde the euidence that is brought in heere for our Sauiour Christs Godhead What could be spoken more plaine then for the Euangelist to say The VVord was God Yet would they shift off the matter by mangling the sentence in this sort God VVas say the Arians what shall then become of the Word That say they belongs to the next verse which must thus bee read The same word was in the beginning with God I told you before that the order of the words in the text is God was the VVord In our language word may not bee put before this or this same In Greeke it may and so in Latine How then shall wee answere the Arians Plainely and truely that there was no reason why the Euangelist should tell vs that God was For neither did any man doubt of it and hee had said sufficient to that purpose in the former clause when he affirmed that The Word was with God with whom the Word could not be conceiued to be but that the being of God must of necessitie bee presupposed Besides the holy Ghost in the Scripture neuer speakes of God to shewe his being by Was but either by Is the present tense or time as we call it y Exod. 3. 14 I am sent me or by all three times * Reuel 1. 8. Is VVas Shall be which was which is and which is to come yea the very clauses of the verse might haue taught them that the VVord must needes belong to this verse In the beginning was the VVord and the VVord was with God and the VVord was God Cut off the VVord from this last clause and you make it altogether vnlike the former and spoile the grace of the speech Let the Arians goe then with their foolish shift and goe wee forward in our exposition Wherein we are first to learne what the Euangelist meanes by God then to shew how the sentence it selfe is to be vnderstood In the former clause one person of the Trinitie euen the first God the Father was signified by the name of God which is common to all the three Here the same word is taken in the proper sense nothing the Diuine Nature There needs no other proofe of this matter but onely to make you see that if you vnderstādit of any one persō you auouch somwhat which is vntrue For example will you say God the Father is the Word or the Word was the Father By this maner of speech you confound so destroy the persons whose very being necessarily requireth that the one bee not the other Neither may we say that the holy Ghost was the Word or the Word the holy Ghost For the same errors ensue thereupon and the Trinitie of persons is ouerthrowen thereby It cannot be then but that God in this last part of the verse must of necessity be taken for the Godhead or Diuine nature whereupon it followes necessarily that our Sauiour Christ is God Against this the Sabellians who acknowledge no distinction of persons except and labour to perswade vs that the Euangelist is rather thus to bee expounded God was the Word that is say they That God the Father with whom the word was was nothing else but the word it selfe How false foolish this exposition is if any man see not by himselfe he may thus easily discerne To what purpose could it be for
thou hast Art thou so grounded and setled in assurance of sufficient satisfaction made by Christ that it is vnpossible thou shouldst be I will not say cast downe but shaken Take heed this conceit of thine bee not like that of the Pharise d Luke 18. 11. Lord I thanke thee that I am not like other men Looke about thee on euery side and behold the spirituall battaile that is against thee Take a view how thy fellow souldiers are intreated Thou maist see many a one that hath bin as confident as thou art and yet now is to seeke for comfort Belike thou hast had hitherto either no assault at all or but some weake battery against thy soule If thou be once wholly charg'd and hardly pursued thou wilt find thy selfe to stand in need of all the ayde that may possibly bee had Then thou wilt begin to see and feele that if Christ were not God thy trust in him might easily deceiue thee Be wise therefore and while thou hast fayre weather prouide for the storme that eyther is comming or may come least if it fall vpon thee and take thee vnprouided it driue thee on the rocks of despaire to the wracke or hazard of thy pretious soule But I am perswaded better things of you my bretheren that you hunger and thirst after the word of God the food of your soules that you long to vnde stand the mystery of your glorious redemptioÌ„ that you think nothing vnworthy your learning which the H. Ghost hath thought worthy of his teaching Let vs proceede then in the feare of God you with this resolution in your selues I with this perswasion of you Wee see with what excellent wisdome our holy Euangelist hath begunne his Gospell and we find our selues as it were double arm'd by this blessed instruction against heretickes that would corrupt our iudgement and against Satan that would ouerthrow our faith Hearken not to either of these at any hand but rest thy selfe stedfastly vpon the authority of the holy Ghost who telles thee plainly and truly that The word was God Being setled in this beliefe thou art prepared against the assaults of the diuell when hee shall marshall thy sinnes against thee and charge thee with them The greatnesse of sin cannot make any man despaire that knows the price of his redemption to be the bloud of God infinit in valew The more Satan extolleth the iustice of God the more he doth assure vs of saluation For since the satisfaction which was made for vs is so inestimable the iuster God is the more he holdes himselfe satisfied If wee had to deale with an vniust tyran that regarded not iustice equity whatsoeuer our satisfaction were wee could hardly be out of danger But our most iust God that valewes all things aright finding the sacrifice to be sufficient cleerly acquites all them for whom it was offred yea holds himself so fully contented that he will neuer remember their transgressions any more But of this matter and of this verse enough It followeth in the next This was in the beginning with God The knowledge of the words leades directs vs to the vnderstanding of the matter But there is no word of importance in this verse which hath not beene alreadie expounded in the former as I doubt not but euery one of you perceiue at the first sight or hearing of them Yet to make a cleere way to the interpretation of them we must consider to what the first worde This belongeth and also how this verse dependeth on the former The originall Greeke giues vs iust occasion of this in quiry because in it This may be referred either to the word or to God The English affords the like cause of doubting though the Latin do not But this question is easily answered that the Euangelist meanes this word not this God For neither was there any reason to say This God was with God vnderstanding that in the last clause it signified the diuine nature and if it note the person out of doubt the Euangelist would neuer haue chaÌ„ged his former speech being so plaine easie for a doubtfull hard word It is not nothing that in all the 3 clauses The VVord is â—till the partie that is spoken of that the verses following are also of him and not of God This namely this World of which I haue written so excellent things The other question is a great deale harder I will bee as short and plaine as the matter will let me I say then that this second verse maie bee either a repetition and exposition of the pointes all or some formerly deliâ—ered or an addition of some newe matter to the same purpose If we adde that it both expoundeth what was â—aid before declareth also som further matter I think we shall leaue nothing vnsaid that may reasonably be coniectured To repeat that which went immediâ—tly before in so fewe wordes and so plaine without adding somewhat is neither vsual in the Scripture â—or agreeable to the wisedome of our Evangelist Therefore that we maie be sure to omit nothing which the holy Ghost meant to teach vs let vs take it in the â—argest sense it will afford And first for repetition wee â—aue here 2. of the former points namely the first and â—econd that The VVord was in the beginning and that He was with God e Leontius ad hunc loc 〈◊〉 de Trinit lib. 2. Some thinke the last also is implied And so it is in some sort But surely it is not repeated For that only may be truly said to be repeated which is expresly and plainely deliuered as the other 2 points are But why should there be any such repetition Both that the Heretikes might see and acknowledge their error and that the faithfull might the better be confirmed in the truth which they saw doubled and as it were twice confirmed by the holy Ghost But if this repetition bring also an exposition with it who sees not the necessity and profit of it What is there then to be learned by the expositioÌ„ Namely that those words In the beginning which were only in the 1. clause are also to be referred to the second that we may knowe that as the Word was in the beginning so hee was with God in the beginning But this to confesle the truth is necessarily implied and so easily to bee gathered out of the former verse that I can hardly perswade my selfe it should be the meaning of the holy Ghost to put vs in minde of any such obseruation by repetition For when he had said that The VVord was in the beginning and added presently that The worde was with God did he not plainly tell vs That the VVordâ— was in the beginning with God Surely the question was where The VVord remained or had his being before in the creation of the world To which the Euangelisâ— aunswers that He was with God WheÌ„ was he with God In the beginning when all
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
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
not Yet the force of the light appeares in some who by it attaine to knowledge and saluation But this belongs to an other place and discourse let vs go forward in our exposition Wherein we are first to consider the words then to deliuer the sense The words are not so doubtfull in themselues as the varietie of interpretations hath made them which indeede is so great that if I should handle them at large both you and I should be sooner wearied then edified I will therefore content my selfe with some little speech concerning the diuersitie of the expositions And therein first wee must see what light it is the Euangelist speakes of then what hee saies of it that it shineth in darknes By light generallie CHRIST or his doctrine or both are thought to bee signified The variety of opinions principallie consists in the diuers respects in which hee may bee conceiued to bee spoken of All which may bee referred to these two heads his diuine Nature or his Person And so much of these respects in generall the particulars I must needs reserue till I haue shewed what is meant by darknes and not comprehending for without the knowledge of them this cannot be vnderstood In the meane while wee may easily ghesse at the Euangelists meaning if wee assure our selues as there is good cause wee should that the light here is all one with that in the former verse Whereof who can reasonably make any doubt Hath not the Euangelist held the same course before One and the same worde was in the beginning was God was with God By the same word were all things made nothing was made without him In him was life and that life which was in him was the light of men And the light shineth What light but that which he named in the clause before Now that both the person and the doctrine may well bee vnderstood by this light it is cleare by that which our Sauiour often saith of himselfe in this Gospellâ— I am Ioh. 8. 12. 1. 46. the light of the world I am come a light into the world And that this belongs to his person it is manifest because he restraines this light to his continuance in the world While I am in the world I am the light of the world walk while yee haue the light while ye haue the light beleeue in the 9. 5. 12. 35. 36. light But what neede I goe any further then this chapter What was Iohns witnesse but that Iesus was the Lambe of Ioh. 1. 6. 7. Ver. 29. Ver. 33. God that takes away the sinnes of the world That hee was the Messiah whome the father had sent Therefore doth hee as it were point him out Iohn seeth Iesus comming vnto him and saith Behold the Lambe of God And Ver. 29. Ver. 36. he beheld IESVS walking by and said Behold the Lamb of God What should I vse many words It not his person signified when Saint Iohn saith In him was Ver. 4. life It is then truely said of our Sauiours person that hee is light and shineth But how is our Sauiour light Not onely as by his diuine power he giues vs light through the worke of his Spirit in our hearts whereof in this place our Euangelist doth not speake but also in regard of the doctrine of euerlasting life which hee preached in his owne person while hee liued here amongst men and now teacheth dayly by those whome hee hath made his Ambassadors to intreat men on his behalfe and in his name that they 2. Cor. 5. 19. would bee reconciled vnto God Let vs see howe this may bee prooued Light is come into the world saith Ioh. 3. 19. our Sauiour and men loued darknesse more then light What light Namely the true knowledge of saluation whereof our Sauiour had discoursed before to Nicodemus not without his wonder and astonishment How Ver. 4. can a man be borne which is olde sayd Nicodemus when Christ preached to him of regeneration by water and the spirit without which no man can enter into heauen Afterward when he labord to instruct him in the knowledge of his corrupt naturall estate and shewd him that the spirit inlightens whome hee pleaseth as the winde blowes where it list How can these things be sayd Nicodemus Ver. 9. The world can not abide this light which discouers the shame and miserie of her darknes Men had rather continue a good opinion of their owne vertue and holines though with error then forgoe that proud conceit they haue naturally of themselues by seeing their sinnes layde open by the light of truth Thus was Christ the light of the world while he was in the world because Ioh. 9. 5. he preacht the Gospell to as many as would heare it And this was the light which shuld not as he threatens them alwaies be with them So then by light the doctrin of the Gospell and knowledge of euerlasting life is vnderstood and the person of our Sauiour there by signified so farre as concernes his deliuering and teaching of that mystery This being thus conceiued it is no hard matter to knowe what is ment by shining What else shewing and manifesting it selfe so that they which wil may see it and by it see the way to euerlasting life No man lighteth Mat. 5. 15. a candle to put it vnder a bushel but to set it on a Candlesticke that it may giue light to all that are in the house Let your light so shine before men saith our Sauiour applying the former similitude that they may see your good workes 〈◊〉 le si 〈◊〉 Arian â—â— 3. cap. 3. They that would haue the place vnderstood of that inlighting by which Christ makes vs discerne the truth of that which is taught vs doe not put any difference betwixt shining and inlighting whereas it is plaine that the holy Ghost in this place intends not to entreat of the effect in the hearts of men but of the natural property and immediate act of the light Neither doth this sense of word wel agree with that which followeth And the darknesse comprehended it not Is not this contrary to the former If the light shine so that it inlighten the darknesse how can it bee said that the darknesse doth not comprehend it For it will appeare anone that by not comprehending not acknowledging or not receiuing the light is signified But although the darknes bee not cleered and made bright by the light yet the light it self shineth that is casteth and spreadeth abroad his beams Doth not the Sun shine but when it is seene Shines it not vpon the blind Euen so the light of truth glistereth brightly though it be not discernd by theÌ„ on whoÌ„ it fals But this as I noted before is easily acknowledged the greatest doubt is why the euangelist changeth his manner of speech and speakes of the persent time The light shineth We haue had nothing hitherto but of the
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
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
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
bee cut off from beeing a member of IESVS CHRIST but shall haue his measure of Instruction Peace and Comfort according to the trialls that his heauenlie Father hath appointed to make of him The two last Sermons do especially concerne two of the Apostles but were written for our learning and consolation In g Ioh. 20. 26. 27. c. the former our Sauiour instructeth Thomas with a milde reproofe of his not beleeuing and a sensible demonstration of that he doubted of To which he addes to our vnspeakeable comfort that h Verse 29 all they which hauing not seene nor felt as THOMAS then did yet beleeue are trewlie blessed Neyther is i Ioh. 21. 15. 16 the later of the two so appropriated to Saint Peter but that it affordes vs also this excellent lesson that the strongest proofe of euery Ministers loue to his Lord and master Iesus Christ is the faithfull and carefull feeding and directing of the sheepe and lambes committed to his charge And these are the tenne Sermons which none of the Euangelists but Iohn only hath mentioned I deny not that the points of diuinity contained in them may bee gathered more or lesse out of the other three but neither are the Sermons recorded by them nor the matters therein deliuered so plainely and fully handled as in this Gospell Wherefore as if we come to a Faire to buy any commoditie which wee neede or desire wee content not our selues to staie in such a shop or booth as can shew vs only one peece and that made vp so close that wee can hardly looke into it but seeke thither vvhere wee may haue choise and see the wares opened to our full view So let vs make haste to this Gospell in which many and so goodly matters are vnfolded and eueâ—ory bolte and pleight layd open As for the miracles whereof I will say verie little they are such as are not once pointed at nor signified by anie other Euangelist Who besides k Ioh. 2. 3. 4. c. Saint IOHN giues vs anie the least inkling of water turned into wine at a marriage by our Sauiour CHRIST Had not l Ioh. 5. 5. 6. c. that famous miracle by which the man that had lyen bed-rid xxxviij yeares was cured so that he presently rose and carried awaie his bed been altogether vnknowen and vnheard of if our Euangelist had not committed it to writing None but he tells vs of m Ioh. 9. 1. 2. c. the man that beeing borne blinde and hauing continued so manie yeares had sight giuen him by such a meanes as in mans reason was fitter to haue put out his eyes if hee could haue seene But hee that made dust and spittle can by dust and spittle doe whatsoeuer pleaseth him The n Ioh. 11. 38. 35 c. last miracle is the raysing of LAZARVS from the dead not as o Marke 5. 42 IAIRVS daughter was restored to life lying in her bedde after the breath vvas departed from her nor as p Luke 7. 15 the VVidowes sonne had life put into him againe as hee vvas carrying to be buryed but euen then when he had continued till the fourth daie in the graue and in his most kind sisters iudgement could not chuse but stinke Admirable and glorious are these miracles and such as ought to assure vs of his diuine power who was able to do things so vnpossible to men and Angels But as q 1. Cor. 2. 2 the holy Apostle Paul preferred the knowledge of Christ crucified before all other glorious mysteries because therein properly stands the iustification of a sinner so haue we very good cause to valew r Ioh. 17. 1. 2 c. that louing and feruent prayer of our Sauiour aboue all his miracles whatsoeuer For if euer his loue and care of vs appeared in anie thing hee did or spake except his passion in that it shines and shews it selfe most cleerely s Verse 20 With what zeale doth hee commend euery one that at any time beleeues in him to God his Father t Ver 21. 22. 23 How doth he repeate and double his request to God that wee may be made one with God But I may not stand long vpon these points especially since they are to be expounded at large hereafter if it please God Now the summe of all is this that seeing it hath pleased the Lord so graciously and plentifully to vouchsafe vs the certaine knowledge of such excellent mysteries and that by one so highly in the fauour of our Sauiour Iesus Christ and so assuredly directed by the holy Ghost wee in like sort should bestowe all paines and diligence that this knowledge may bee rooted in our hearts and bring forth abundance of fruite in our whole conuersation to the glorie of his Name and our endlesse comfort in the same our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ Neither let it discourage or offend anie man that our Euangelist was no learned Diuine trayned vp in anie Vniuersitie nor fitted for such a peece of work by any extraordinary parts of nature or study Yea rather let it encourage and strengthen him in faith considering how vnpossible it is that a poore Fisherman should haue the head to conceiue and the heart to vtter such mysteries with confidence and assurance against the iudgement liking of almost all the learned and mighty of the world Could these admirable mysteries be of a Fishermans deuising What is there in Aristotle Plato Pythagoras or any of the great learned Philosophers so strange or profound as manie points that are common in this Gospell which of the heathen writers euer spake so boldly or with such authority as our Euangelist how doubtfully and vncertainly doth the u In Apolog. Socrat. Plato in Timaeo passim learnedst of them write when he coms to deliuer matters that concern God religion Surely he that wisely heedfully considers the discourses of the best Philosophers touching these points shal plainly discern that they labored to make other men belieue those things whereof they were not able to perswade themselues rather meant to assay whether they could drawe men to such opinions then to enioy the belief of them as a certaine truth But our Euangelist thunders out most admirable secrets that without all doubting in himself of the truth therof threatens assured damnation to all them who refuse to giue absolute credit to whatsoeuer he hath deliuered What remains then but that with all assurance and reuerence wee addresse our selues to the learning doing of those things which we find to be taught commanded in this Gospell In the expounding whereof that wee may proceede the more orderly wee must diuide the whole Gospell into certaine parts for the helpe both of vnderstanding and memory But may some man say Wil you not first deliuer the generall argument of the booke and purpose of the Writer If that which hitherto hath beene spoken touching these points
in the first verse and repeated in the second In the former he is set out to vs by that which concerneth the nature of his Godhead and his person in the Godhead For his nature he is first said to haue beene eternall In the beginning Secondly to be God And the word was God Touching his person he is cald the Word or Sonne In the beginning was the Word Secondly his distinction from God the Father and yet his equalitie with God the father is signified when it is said that Hee was with God In the second 3. of the fiue points are repeated iointly in one sentence That the word was eternall equall to God and distinct from God O glorious and admirable mysteries Where are they now that lewdly and prophanely scoffe at Christian Religion because forsooth it teacheth nothing but that which is common and ordinarie Common and ordinarie So strange and extraordinarie are the secrets of the Gospell that no man of himselfe is able to deuise them by his wit or to beleeue them with his heart Take the deepest points of naturall Philosophie so they bee indeed true and a man of good capacitie will quickly and easily be brought to giue assent to the truth thereof because hee hath in him the light of naturall reason whereby they may certainely be discerned But the secrets of Christian religion are such and so farre aboue the reach of humane reason that although you make a man vnderstand them neuer so perfectly yet you cannot possibly make him acknowledge them for truth Truth in philosophie is such as that reason if a man suffer himselfe to be directed by it will enforce him to beleeue it Trueth in diuinitie is such as that the more we hearken to our naturall reason the lesse we are perswaded of the mysteries of religion It is for him and for him onely to incline the heart to the beliefe of those secrets who first reuealed them to be beleeued But what doe I While I labour to set out the excellencie of the Gospell by shewing that it conteineth many strange and hidden mysteries it may bee feared that I driue men away from the hearing and reading of it by the darkeness and profoundnesse of these secrets But be not discouraged brethren I beseech you If they were more obscure and deepe then they are yet who could despaire of sounding the depth therof as long as he may haue so skilfull and able a Pilot What though they be mysteries x 1. Cor. 2. 10 Yet hath God reuealed them to vs by his spirit euen by that spirit which searcheth all things yea the deepe things of God Could not hee y Iohn 11. 37 say the faithlesse Iewes that opened the eies of the blind haue caused that Lazarus should not haue died And cannot hee may wee confidently say that * Psal 8. 2 Out of the mouthes of Babes and sucklings hath ordeined strength because of his enemies that he might still the enemie and the auenger subdue the Rebellion of our corrupt reason bring it into obedience to beleeue his holy trueth Wherefore hath hee reuealed it but that it might bee knowen and acknowledged For your farder incouragement let our Euangelist S. Iohn be taken as an example Art thou young a Hieronym Catalog script in Ioann ad Dan. cap. 9 contr Ioui lib. 1. So was our Euangelist when it pleased our Sauiour to call him to the profession of the Gospell Witnesse the continuance of his life sixty eight yeeres after his Lord and Masters passion But thou hast not beene brought vp to learning What teaching and education had hee thinkest thou who b Mark 1. 19 was trained vp vnder his father a poore fisherman to get his liuing in the sweate of his browes by fishing What time could he haue to goe schoole whose maintenaunce depended on his labour and to whom all the paines he could possibly take would hardly afford some small means of a poore liuing You will say This fauour was extraordinarie Yet so that it was common to him with c Matth. 4. 18 his brother Iames and d Iohn 1. 44 with two other brethren his Countrimen Andrew and Peter But what speake I of two or foure Many and many thousands continually from time to time for almost these one thousand and sixe hundreth yeers haue beene brought to the knowledge and beliefe of these mysteries Is the Lords hand now shortened Doth he not still in mercy vouchsafe vs the meanes of knowledge and beleeuing What doe wee then with these doubtfull thoughts and vnthankefull hearts Away with them Away with them let vs desire and and endeuour to learne and e Ioh. 6. 45. wee shall bee all taught of God Yea with such a teaching as shall enlighten our vnderstanding incline our hearts confirme our memory reforme our affections and continually assure vs both of the truth that we beleeue and of the constant loue of God to vs in our perseuerance in beleeuing With this desire and confidence let vs in the feare of God addresse our selues to the hearing vnderstanding and beleeuing of these glorious mysteries The first whereof for I will handle them as they lie in the Text is this that The VVord was in the beginning Wherein for your better vnderstanding and memory f The course that is held in these Sermons I will first giue the sense of the Text 1. by expounding the words and 2. deliuering the meaning of the Euangelist 2. then I will handle the doctrine by 1. proouing the truth of it and 2. adding exhortation accordingly where it shall be needfull And this course if it please God I will follow in all the rest of the Gospell In seeking out the sense of this Scripture wee must enquire 1. who is meant by the VVord then wee must consider 2. what the Euangeliâ—â—â—aith of him In the former we must see how this tearm the VVord belongeth to him of whom it is spoken Secondly why that name is giuen him in this place In the later part these 2. points are to bee deliuered why it is said The VVord was rather then Hath beene 2. What is meant by those wordes In the beginning g The exposition of the words Who is meant by the Word The first point who is meant by the VVord is easie and manifest namely he of whom the whole Gospell is written Iesus Christ h Epiphan haercs 51. August de haeres cap. 8. 10 Theodor. haeret fabul lib. 2. the Sonne of God the promised Messiah Him the Heretickes Cerinthus and Ebion denied to bee God blasphemously auouching that he tooke his first beginning of his Mother the Virgin Mary Against their false and poysonous doctrine the holy Euangelist teacheth the Church that The word was in the beginning But let the Text it selfe speake Is i Ioh. 1. 1. not he called the Word of whom k Verse 7. Verse 4. Verse 7. Iohn came to beare witnesse At the 4.
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
p Orig. in Ioan. lib. 1. Athanas contr Arian quod verbum e◠Deo sit that second interpretation which by the beginning vnderstandeth God who is no where so called in Scripture Both these expositions for the matter of them are true but not warrantable by this place There are two other explications of this word which agree for the sense of the place that our Sauiour eternall being is here signified though they differ much in the meaning of the word it selfe The former will haue the beginning to bee taken for Eternitie the later referres it to the first creation of all thinges Against the former some take exception because they say the Word Beginning is neuer found in that sense in the Scripture But that may well bee doubted of because it is sayd of our Sauiour that q Iohn 6. 64. Hee knew from the beginning who they were that beleeued not and who should betray him Now this he knew from all eternitie For r Hb. 13 nothing is hidde from him who is God euerlasting but all thinges are alwayes open in his sight Therefore the word may sometimes bee taken for eternitie But that will not serue the turne vnlesse wee can shew some place wherein it must necessarily bee so vnderstood Such as that of Iohn is not nay rather wee are directed by the Euangelist himselfe in another place to conceiue that by the beginning the calling of the Apostles is signified ſ Iohn 16. 4 These things sayd I not vnto you from the beginning that is I neuer tolde you of this matter from the first day of my being conuersant with you That place t Colos 1. 18 to the Colossians Hee is the beginning and the first begotten of the dead may also reasonably and more fitly bee referred to our Sauiour as mediator then as God euerlasting So can not that in the Reuelation where it is certaine by the first and last part of the verse that the Lords euerlasting being is described u Reuel 1. 8. I am A and Ω the beginning and the ending saith the Lord which is and which was and which is to come Heere though beginning do not of it self note eternity yet with the ending it doth There is yet a plainer and certainer Text to put the matter out of doubt where x 2. Thess 2. 13 the Apostle saith that God hath from the beginning chosen the Thessalonians to saluation What is from the beginning but as the same Apostle speaketh in the like manner in y Ephes 1. 4 another place Before the foundation of the world It cannot therefore bee doubted but that by The beginning Eternitie is sometimes signified yet it is not plaine or certaine that it must so bee conceiued in this place But wee may reasonably perswade our selues that if our Euangelist had meant to haue the beginning taken for Eternitie hee would haue said as the holy Ghost dooth in the Scripture * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the beginning For indeed it is no fit speech to say of any thing which wee woulde note to be eternall that it is in Eternitie but that it hath beene or was from Eternitie Neither if wee vnderstand Eternitie by the beginning will this speech of Iohn suite so well witl that of Moses a Gen. 1. 1 In the beginning God created heauen and earth To which it is out of question our Euangelist alludes and in which Eternitie cannot by any meanes be signified What else then can be meant by the beginning bu◠the first creation of all things For what can any man more easily and readily vnderstand when hee reades or heares In the beginning then the beginning of time at the creation of the world Which also the rather to direct vs to this interpretation the Euangelist presently addes b Ioh. 1. 3 By him were all things made so shall Moses and Iohn agree and our Sauiour most fitly be kept out of that lumpe in the creation within which the blasphemy of heretickes would include him yea more then that hee shall easily be conceiued to haue beene from all eternity if he bee excepted from the generall creation wherin all things that are not eternall had their first beginning Whereas then our Euangelist sayth In the beginning The sense of the Euangelist was the word it is all one as if hee should thus haue spoken VVhen all things that haue not an euerlasting being of their owne nature began first to be by the almighty power of God the Creator who made them of nothing euen then hee that is the eternall VVord of the Father hee that from time to time hath declared the will of the Father he that was appointed and promised by the Father to be the Messiah bad already an euerlasting being not by the will of a superior power as a thing created but by the necessity of his owne diuine nature through the eternall generation of God his Father This is that which by our Euangelist is implyed in those fewe words This is that which it concernes all the faithfull to beleeue without doubting This is that which blasphemous c Ebiō Cerinthus denied This Epiphan Au◠Theodoret. vbi supra is that wherby their wicked heresie is condēned Thou tellest vs wretched hereticke as thou art that IESVS CHRIST had no Being till he was conceiued in the wombe of his mother the blessed Virgine The holy Ghost sayth He was in the beginning Thou wilt haue him younger then Mary the holy Ghost makes him elder then Adam In a word thou wouldst perswade vs that hee had his first beginning almost 4000. yeares after the world was created the H. Ghost enioyns vs to beleeue that he had neuer had any beginning For euen then already he was in perfect being when all things that had any beginning became something of nothing of not being began to be Shall I neede to note the doctrine of this text Who sees not that it teacheth vs the eternity of our Sauiour Christ Shall wee suite it with other places of Scripture The word of the holy Ghost in any one place is all-sufficient But let vs yeelde somewhat to humane weakenesse that by the mouth of two or three witnesses all excuse of infidelitie may be vtterly cut off Hearken then what he saith in d Reuelat. 1. 8 the Reuelation I am A Ω the beginning and the ending sayth the Lord which is and which was and which is to come Doth it trouble thee that is was is to come note a kind of succession in being If in our weakenesse wee could otherwise haue conceiued of euerlastingnesse the holy Spirit of God would haue spoken otherwise But who then should haue vnderstood him Surely not euery poore soule whome hee purposed to teach by the Scripture But if mysteries delight thee listen to our Sauiour in e Ioh. 8. 58. this Gospell Before Abraham was I am what is this I am before hee was I vnderstand
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
vessell Therefore are they aduised and charged to kisse the Son least he be angry to their destructiō Verse 12. There is good cause then why he should be stiled the Lord of lords and King of kings What though he be the Lambe meeke and tender yea bound and slaine yet * Reuel 17. 14. shall he ouercome the 10. kings that fight against him For he is the Lord of lords and King of kings yea a Reuel 19. 16. he hath that name written vpon his garment vpon his thigh The king of kings and Lord of lords His glory his strength shew him to be no lesse And can we doubt whether hee bee God or no If I should recite the Attributes or Epithets which being proper to God are belonging to our Sauiour Christ If I should but name those admirable effects of his which are aboue the strength of any and all creatures the time would sooner faile me then varietie of matter which doth offer it selfe to me so plentifully that it is harder to find where to make an end thē what to say Do you wonder at the eternity of God as a thing not to bee reacht vnto by the conceit of man Behold him that is b Reuel 1. 8. A Ω the beginning the ending which was which is and which is to come What say I was is is to come Thus indeed hath it pleased our gratious Sauiour to speake of his eternall being to our capacity But let vs heare him speake more like himselfe that is more like God c Iohn 8. 58. Before Abraham was I am This is a speech better beseeming his maiesty For nothing can be properly said of him concerning his being but onely that he is That which was either is not at all or at the least is not in all respects the same that it was That which is to come as yet either hath no being at all or surely no such being as is signified it shall haue in time to come But what stand I repeating that which before I deliuered Let vs passe from this infinitenesse in time which wee call eternitie and come to another like attribute which wants a name but belongs to quantity and might be tearmed Immensitie if our eares and vnderstanding were acquainted with it As eternity signifies the infinitenesse of God in time so doth Immensitie in greatnesse d Isai 61. 8. Thus saith the Lord The heauen is my throne and the earth is my footstoole There is no number of yeeres that can expresse the Lords Eternitie no compasse of place that is able to containe his Immensitie e Psal 139. 7 Verse 8. Whither shall I flee from thy presence saith the king of Israel that had choice enough of roome wherein to hide himselfe If I ascend into heauen thou art there If I he downe in hell thou art there Let me take the wings of Verse 9. Verse 10. the morning and dwell in the vttermost parts of the Sea yet thither shall thy hand leade me and thy right hand shall hold me But what need many particulars Hee that is present in heauen and in earth can be shut out of no place whatsoeuer our Sauiour is ascended into heauen yet is he still present with his children here in earth f Matth. 28. 2◠Behold I am with you till the end of the world By his power you wil say not by his presence Doubtlesse an infinite power such as protecteth the Church of Christ cannot be in a finite nature Let vs heare him speake more plaine g Matth. 18. 20 Whersoeuer two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Or if this also may applied to power yet that place is without exception h Iohn 3. 13. No man ascendeth vp to heauen but he that came downe frō heauen the Son of man which is in heauen He came downe frō heauen because being God he became man he was for all that still in heauen because being man he ceased not to be God Therefore also while he was aliue on earth before his passion he doubted not to auouch that hee was euen then in heauen i Iohn 17. 24 Father I will that they which thou hast giuen me be with me euen where I am that they may behold that my glory Where is that to be seene but in heauen For so hath our Sauiour said himselfe before in that prayer And now glorifie me thou father with thine Verse 5. owne selfe with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Not as if heauen or neuer so many heauens were able to conteine that his infinite glory which can be no way bounded by any meanes but because there i◠shews it self most apparātly Shal I need to add hereunto his power or rather Almightinesse k Reuel 1. 8 I am A Ω the beginning the ending saith the lord which is which was which is to come euen the Almighty And twice afterward in the same booke he is called l Reu. 4. 8. 11. 17. The Lord God Almighty But if the Scripture had not said any such thing of him yet his admirable works sound out his power glory The heauens m Psal 19. 1 sayth the Prophet declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth the worke of his hands Yea the signs which he did in the sight of his friends enemies were so high aboue the power of man that they may assure vs n Ioh. 20. 31 that our Sauiour Iesus Christ was the Sonne of God But of these in the Gospell oftentimes hereafter if it please God euen God the Sonne IESVS CHRIST of whom we speake But ere I proceed any farder I must againe encounter the Arians who bend all their forces to ouerthrowe the God-head of our Sauiour Christ Do you not perceiue say they that although hee be called God yet he is not so indeed by nature but by fauour Haue you not obserued that in the second clause where the true God is spoken of there the article is added in the text o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word was with the God as you would say The true God but here in the third part the same article is omitted as if the holy Ghost would haue vs know thereby that he hath his God-head such as it is onely by grace and that diuers from him that is the true God O that foolish men should take such paines to kick against the prickes and to procure their owne destruction Can there be more force in the omitting of one poore letter to make you denie our Sauiours diuine nature then in so many reasons to wring out of you a confession therof p Origen in Ioa. lib. 2 Too much curiosity in an opinion of this learned obseruation hath deceiued you Is not Iesus Christ the true God because the article is not added Or is the article neuer omitted where
the true God is spoken of I will goe no furder to confute this error then this present Chap. Was it not the true God that sent Iohn Baptist before the Messiah Is not he called the Lord of hosts by q Maâ—ach 3. 1 the Prophet Malachy Behold I will send my messenger Who wil send In the latter end of the ver Behold he shall come sayth the Lord of hosts And yet of him r Ioh. 1. 6 saith our Euangelist There was a man sent s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from God vvhere there is no article Shall we belieue the Prophet of the Lord or this false Prophet Arius The one saith the Lord of hosts sent Iohn the Bap. the other tels vs Hee that sent him was not the true God because the article is not set before God This one place were sufficient to confound that vaine and false exception especially beeing in the same Euangelist and within so few lines after the former But I will briefly note some other to make it more cleere if it may be It cannot bee doubted but that God whom no man hath seene at anie time is the true God t Exo. 34. 20. 23 Thou canst not see my face saith the true God to Moses thou shalt see my back parts but my face shall not be seene Doth not S. Iohn speake of the same true God when he sayth u Ioh. 1. 18 No man hath seen God at any time Is not x 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word in this place also without an article So is it there To them he gaue prerogatiue to be the sons of y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God The like examples are euery where to bee found in this and the other Euangelists in the writings of the Apostles And surely if the addition of the article be sufficient to proue that the true God is signified wheresoeuer that is set before the Arians are manifestly conuinced by that place of * Rom. 9. 5 Chrysost in Ioa. hom 3. Theophil aâ— hunc locum Saint Paul who is God aboue all which is spoken of our Sauiour Christ and yet hath the article though not immediately before it If you enquire more particularly why the article is put in before God in the former clause and left out in the later First I say the Euangelist might vse his liberty as all that write in Greeke doe to take it or leaue it at his good pleasure where the matter did not require the presence of it Secondly it was fit rather to put the word without it then with it because as I signified before God in the former place noteth the person of the Father who is the first of the three in order but in the later the nature of God which is common to all three persons If he should haue left it or vsed it in both the sense would haue bene more darke and the distinction of the persons not so easily obserued Thirdly it could not haue bene so plaine or certaine that the word was to be taken â—or the former part of the speech but it would haue beene much doubted whether the Euangelist meant to tell vs that God was the word as the words lie or that the word was God as some haue vnderstood him Therefore there is neuer a word nor letter in this first verse wherby our Christian faith touching our Sauiours God head can be weakned Nor any thing saith Arius whereby it may be strengthened No Doth not the holy Ghost auouch that â—e is eternall hauing his perfect being already when all things created began first to be Is it not affirmed that He was with God when nothing had any being but God your vaine and friuolous exceprions haue bin prooued void Let all this passe Can any thing be plainer then this direct affirmation that the word was God The word saith Arius was God but no otherwise then some men are called by that name The true God a Exod. 7. 1 sayd to Moâ—es I haue made thee a God to Pharaoh yea to all them to whom the word of God came he saith as much b Psal 82. 6. I haue said yee are Gods A poore shift The very sight of the place affords a sufficient answere c Hilar. de Trinit lib. 7. Moses is made Pharaohs God and those Rulers were said to be Gods Doth the holy Ghost say either of Moses or any other that they were God simplie as our Euangelist doth of the VVord If the VVord had bene made God or if the Lord had onely affirmed of him that he had called him God there might haue bene som occasion of doubting because there are some such like speeches of other men in the Scripture But what wilfull wrangling is it to call so plain a matter into question vpon so vnlike a maner of speech Moses was God to Pharaoh not simply God They were vouchsaf't the name of gods They were not simply gods There was no daunger in either of both those speeches Hee that reades I haue made thee God can readily conceiue that this made God is not the true God And as easie is it for any man to assure himselfe that those rulers are not God indeed aswel because they were many but God is one is also for that they are presently threatned d Psal 82 7 that they shall dye like men But simply to name him God whose eternity was before auouched whose preseÌ„ce with God before the world was affirm'd and to whom afterward the creation of all things is ascribed had been the realy waie to fill the hearts of men with idolary if Iesus had not been indeed very God by nature Therefore it is not possible to perswade any Christian man whose eyes are not blinded with the mist of preiudice and error that the holy Ghost would open such a gate to impiety calling him God without addition limitation or exposition who had affirmed asmuch of himselfe and of whome the whole Christian world was so perswaded when this Gospell was to be written Nay rather he would by all meanes haue refrayned to giue the â—east suspicion of such a conceit by which men might haue beene drawen into so horrible and dangerous an â—eresie But no truth of reason no authority of Scripture could reforme the error or stop the mouth of that wretched hereticke till the Lord Iesus himselfe our God vtterly destroyed him by a most fearefull iudgement For e Ruffin hist eccl lib. 1 cap. 3 at the verie time when hee was ready to goe to the Chruch to maintaine his blasphemous heresie being forced by necessity of nature to goe aside into a coÌ„mon place appointed for that purpose as it might be Queen hithe here in London he voyded with reuerence bee it spoken his very entrails and so ended at once both his life and his blasphemie Doe wee tremble at the horror of this iudgement Oh then let vs take heede my brethren how wee like of his doctrine
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
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
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
make thy darknes light Only be contented to be inlightned But alas we are not so affected We despise the light we delight in darknesse we hate him that should drawe vs out of it Neither can our owne misery driue vs nor his kindnesse allure vs to him O that wee woulde but a little consider how extraodinarily we are beholding to this light that shines in darknes Let vs take some view of it in a like matter Imagine that thou wert wandring thou knowst not whither all alone naked and comfortlesse the darknesse being so great that thou couldst not see thy hand the winde blowing through thee the raine powring downe vpon thee the colde striking to thy very heart the way so slippery that thou couldst not stande vpright so full of deepe holes that euery step thou shouldst bee in daunger of breaking thy leggs or armes at the end of thy trauaile when thou shouldst come to rest suppose there were al kinde of torments and tortures prepared for thee which thou couldst by no meanes escape tel mee now canst thou possibly conceiue how infinitly thou shouldst be bouÌ„d to him that should bring thee a light shewe thee the perils of thy iourney the certaine destruction in the end thereof that should set thee in a plaine easy path should cloth thee comfort thee keep thee company bring thee to a place or palace rather of al pleasure and happines What is that darknes to the blindnes of thy soule What comparison is there betwixt the danger of breaking an arm or a leg the hazard of falling into the pit of hel The glorious brightnes of the Sun doth not so â—xceed the dimme light of a watching rush candle as the knowledge of saluation by Christ excelleth all the â—arning and wisedome of the world And yet do wee â—â—rne away our faces from this brightnesse Doe wee â—hut our eies against this light I would this were the worst though it bee too too bad Nay we thrust it a way â—rom vs we run away from it we disdaine it we hate it we doe all that lies in vs to put it quite out But do what we can the light shines in darknesse As I said once beâ—ore in a former Sermon if wee will not bee inlightned yet shall our blyndnes and darknes bee discoueâ—ed whether wee will or no God his holy Angells and blessed Saintes shall see our shame and reiâ—â—ce at our iust confusion for continuing in wilfull blindnesse I 〈◊〉 slipt I knowe not how into the later part of this verse before I was aware concerning the intertainment that the light found in the worlde The darknesse comprehended it not The light shines and the darknesse wil not bee inlightned It will bee worth the dooing to consider the point more fully Which that we may lee the better somewhat must bee said of the wordes or rather of that one worde Comprehended For where-as some men seeke a new meaning of the worde Darknesse and wil not haue it taken in the sense it had in the former clause there is more curiosity then truth in their speculation VVho can imagine that the Evangelist woulde vse a worde in two diuerse senses without giuing any notice or inkling of such a chaunge Is it not contrary to the rest of his course wherein the same vvorde hath the same signification The VVorde was in the beginning The VVorde vvas vvith GOD The VVorde vvas GOD Still the same VVorde But I shewed this sufficiently before and there is no reason to be alleadged why S. Iohn should differ in this verse from the former al things agreeing so wel if we retaine the sense as it was formerly deliuered and vnderstood Wherefore vnderstanding by Darknesse man in his naturall estate without any supernaturall grace let vs enquire what the Euangelist meanes when he saith that the darknesse did not comprehend the light First what is it to Comprehend Variety of opinions breedes doubtfulnes in resoluing I will draw all to two principall heads and in the handling of them discharge my promise concerning the diuerse interpretations of the light The word that is heere vsed by the Euangelist signifies in the Scripture either an vnderstanding and attaineing to some thing for our owne knowledge or benefit or an apprehending taking of somewhat to the hurt or disgrace thereof Of the former signification is the word in this and such like places Of a truth I Act. 10. 34. vnderstand or perceiue that God is no accepter of persons That yee may be able with all Saints to conceiue or apprehend Eph. 3 18. what is the breadth and length and depth and height c The Gentiles which followed not righteousnes haue attained Rom. 9. 30. vnto righteousnes Of the later these may bee examples Ioh 8. 3. 12. 35. 1. Thesl 5. 4. The Scribes and Pharises brought unto him a woman taken in adultery Walke while yee haue the light least the darknesse come or seise vpon you Yee brethren are not in darknes that that day should come vpon you as it were a theefe According to these 2 significations so are the interpretations of the word in this Text. Some acknowledging the light to Greg. Naziac orat 4. Theol. Oâ—igen in Ioa. l. â— Chrysost in Ioa. hom 4. be in Christ will haue the darknesse to be the Deuill persecutioÌ„ which could not say they ouercome Christ But though they could not vtterly subdue him yet they did seise on him to his disgrace and death in the world which is as much as the signification of the worde wâ—lâ— Apud Theoâ—hilact ad huno ocum beare Other that will haue the light to signifiâ— Christ in respect of his diuine nature by Darknesse vnderstand his manhood which coulde not so obscure the other but that it still shined and shewed it selfe VVhere shall wee finde warrant for this interpretation of Darkenesse And what is this else but that which the Evangelist saith in the fourteenth verse at large The words became flesh and wee saw the glory thereof c. It is vsuall with the spirit of GOD in the Scripture to call man-kinde flesh because the body is one part whereof they consist but Darknesse it is neuer called vnlesse it bee with respect to the corruption thereof which our Sauiour tooke not with our nature FulgeÌ„t ad Tâ—â—asi lib. 2. The same answere may satisfie them who takeing light in the same sense for the diuine nature make all things else darknesse which say they coulde not taint or defile the light But where is the word Comprehended euer vsed so Therefore they also are deceiued Ma. bom 2. de pase hom â— de pentecost that thinke our Euangelist by not beeing Comprehended notes our Sauiours being free from sinne The worde hath no such signification any where Let vs come to the other meaning of it by which it signifies to vnderstand or attaine to somewhat for our knoweledge or benefite The light is Christ
the darknesse in the opinion of most men the nature Tatian orat ontra gentes of man corrupted which saye some doth not so comprehend CHRIST but that still in comparison of him it continues darkenesse But the Euangelist speakes not of comparison neither was it or coulde it bee lookt for that men should become equall in knoweledge to the light that shone vpon them If they had acknowledged it and followed the direction of it to saluation they had don as much as reasonably coulde bee required at their handes That is more likely and yet not the Leontius ad hunc locum true meaning of the Text that the Godhead of our Sauiour Christ shineth in the creatures though men in their blindnesse discerne it not But neither can the knowledge of the creatures teach vs the distinction of the persons but only the being power and wisedome of the diuine nature and if it could yet might wee bee in darkenesse concerning salvation for all that knowledge It remaines then that wee take the worde in the ordinary signification thereof and accordingly vnderstand the Euangelist as if hee had said in plaine tearmes that our Sauiour Christ by the doctrine of the Gospell which hee preached and by the miracles which hee daiely wrought shewed himselfe to bee the light of the world and the true meanes of saluation but men being blind in their iudgement and peruerse in their affections would not acknowledge him for their Sauiour that they might come to life by him And for the meaning of the worde let that which hath bin said suffice If any man be desirous to knowe the reason why the holy Ghost changeth his maner of speech and whereas in the next words hee had sayd Shineth and not Shined he now saith Comprehended and not Comprehendeth hee must remember that in the former clause as wee heard the generall nature of the light is exprest and the particular shineing of this supernaturall light implied therein After this manner the Euangelist hauing told vs that our Sauiour was the light of men proceeds to shewe what hee did for the inlighting of them what they refused to doe that they might bee inlightned as if hee should haue said The light naturally shineth in darknesse and so did that light I speake o' but the darkenesse woulde not receiue it to bee inlightned VVee must farder conceiue that it shineth continually and is ordinarily refused of blinde and ignorant men but it seemes most likely that the EuaÌ„gelist had special respect to them that liued in our Sauiors daies while he was conuersant vpon the earth amongst men who notably bewrayed their blindnesse by not descerning and acknowledging so cleere a light whereof if it please GOD â—eereafter in this Chapter more particularly and largely Now to the doctrine There are 2 things that discouer the blindnesse and folly of mankind vnto vs. The former that hauing so great a conceit of our naturall parts and such especiall helpes of education and instruction wee shoulde notwithstanding be vnable to deuise determin how we might attaine to the cheefe point of happinesse that we are capable of the later and more shamefull of the 2 is this that we are so full of darkenesse and peruersenesse that we neither will nor can learne what belongs to our felicity when it is kindely and plainely taught vs. The lesiod Aâ—st Ethic. heathen were wont to make 2 degrees of wisedome the one was for a man to be able to aduise himselfe what was best and fittest for him the other if he could not attaine to that height yet to follow good counsaile when it was giueÌ„ him If there were any man that came short of this later him they wholly condemn'd of extreame folly And can we thinke our selues wife yea bragge of our learning and knowledge when wee are not able to set one foote vpon this first lowest step to wisdome Doe we thinke much to be charg'd so deepely with ignorance He that knowes vs better then wee doe our selues hath long since giuen this testimony of vs The naturall man perceiueth or rather receiueth not the things 1. Cor. 2. 14. of the spirit of God Dost thou marke what he saith Hee findes not fault with the slowenesse of thy imagination that thou canst not of thy selfe by naturall witte or learning finde out what is true happinesse and how to attaine vnto it but he shewes thy dulnesse blindness that thou knowest it not when it is lay'd before thee I would it were not worse then so Yes yes it is a degree lower Thou canst neither direct thy selfe in the way of life nor if thou be set in it perceiue when thou art right nor by any rea on bee perswaded to acknowledge it though a man should shew thee which it is Nay sayth some man you shall neuer make mee haue so all an opinion of my selfe Perhaps indeede I should hardly hit on that waie without a guide because I haue not gone it at any time heeretofore and therefore I grant also that it is possible I should not knowe it when I were in it but I would not haue you thinke me so vnreasonable that I should refuse to learn that whereof I am ignorant Wel sayd I perceiue thou hast a good conceit of thy selfe and I will not presse thee too far in thine owne particular but rather shewe thee thy case in an other mans example And that I may not seeme to disparage thee in thy wit and iudgement by any base comparison let me offer to thy consideration the whole people of the Iewes not as they are now in the state of bondage and miserie but as they were in that time when the light we speake of shone amongst them I will not stand to magnifie their excellent parts of nature and learning I will say nothing of their Scribes and Pharisies I will not mention their Priests and Leuites what they were for their imagination and vnderstanding the learned know the vnlearned may ghesse by the report of them that haue trade and trafficke with them daily euen now when their wits are dulled and their hearts as it were broken with the continuall sense of their bondage and misery Surely there is no great reason why any man shoulde thinke so highly of himselfe or so meanely of them as to presume of his owne skill where their iudgement hath fayled them Especially in a matter of this nature concerning God and euerlasting life wherein they were extraodinarily instructed by him that only could teach them Match thy selfe with them for sufficiencie of naturall gifts equall them in helps of learning yet certainly thou must needes come â—ehinde them in that supernaturall knowledge which is gotten by reuelatioÌ„ from God bevond the reach of art and nature Let vs then make one labour of two and in shewing the truth of that which our Euangelist sayth particularly touching the Iewes that they acknowledged not the light proue withall the generall
they haue in the originall he shall not follow therin the direction and practise of the holy Ghost but his owne conceit and perswasion Doe I then say it is vnlawfull to note the sounds of such names that their interpretations may be knowne Nothing lesse But as the Iewes in the old Testament haue some thousands of 8000. words which they vse for expounding the other in the text whether by their own direction or by the direction of the spirit of God as some thinke I will not dispute which yet they place in the margin of their bookes So perhaps it were not vnfit to set these Hebrew and Greek names in the side following in the scripture it selfe the ordinarie course which the Lord vseth to frame the words according to the nature of the tongue in which he writes How far then ought we al to be from condemning one another either of ignorance or carelesness for not following the sounds of the originall languages But I will not presse this too much till I haue some farder occasion giuen me in the expounding of this Gospell Yet howsoeuer I see no necessitie nor conuenience for any such strictness in translating proper names I deny not that it is fit and needfull to vnderstand their significations especially in such of them as were purposely giuen by direction from God himselfe For they haue alwaies some instruction ioined with them concerning somwhat that is past as Isack of sarahâ— laughing Gen. 18. 12. 17. 19. or touching some action or office to bee performed or some fauour that hee particularly intends Of the later kinde is this name Iohn whereby the Lord would haue his people the Iewes to know and consider that hee would now visit and redeeme them as Zacharie prophecied at the circumcising of him The name signifieth as it were grace and fauour which God vouchsafed the people by sending first this second Eliah to prepare the way of the Lord and then the Messiah himfelfe to performe the worke of redemption This gracious mercy of God Iohn was appointed to preach and publish extraordinarily called as to that office so by that name the end that men might looke for some extraordinarie matter of fauour by his ministerie This vse both the Iewes then and wee now are to make of the name not as if it had bin appointed vpon any humour but as intending a help to that preparation which was to follow This was one reason why it seemed good to the holy Ghost that our Euangelist should set downe his name that with the report of his being sent from God the nature of his message might in a generall sort be conceiued Especially if we remember withall as we cannot almost chuse but doe that the name was enioined before his conception by order from God himselfe Doth the Euangelist tell me that his name was Iohn Surely though he writ not the historie at large yet he would haue mee consider that his name was of Gods appointing therefore of some extraodinarie signification vse that wee may enter into such a consideration of him as they did that dwelling neer to his father heard how matters had passed at his birth concerning this name They laid vp those things in their hearts saith Saint Luke saying what Luke 1. 66. manner of child shall this bee If the like should be done in this our time it would fill all mens mouthes and eares though they found it did little or nothing coÌ„cerne them And shall we passe ouer without due regard a thing that doth so much import vs Will neither the signification of the worde so sweet and comfortable delight vs nor the manner of imposing the name so extraordinarie and wonderfull stirre vs vp to consider it nor the autoritie of him that appointed it cause vs to aduise better of it Let vs take heed that this carelesnes be not a shreud signe that we little esteeme the grace it selfe which the name shadoweth out vnto vs. The last reason why the name is mentioned is the nature of the writing which beeing an Historie requireth that the names at the least of all principall men in it should bee recorded This course our Euangelist heere followes the rather that all men may certainly know whom hee meanes this description What remaines the words being expounded but to deliuer the meaning of the Euangelist which can not well be done till wee vnderstand what his purpose is in that hee sayth Now of that there are diuers opinions all reasonable and of some likelihood Wee may draw them to these heads the course of the historie and the amplifying of the matter that concernes our Sauiour Christ They that referre it to the course of the Historie say no more of it but that the Euangelist hauing spoken of our Sauiours diuine nature in the former Chrysost in Ioa. hom 4. August in Ioa. tract 2. Theophil in Ioa. verses and beeing to speake of his humane afterward interlaceth this discourse of Iohn who was appointed to bee as it were his vsher and did preach of him before the manifestation of him to the world But this seemes be som what too slight an occasion of this discourse especially seeing the Euangelist speakes so much of Iohn after the report of our Sauiours incarnation 〈◊〉 1. 15. 15. c. 3. 27. 28. c. both in this and the third Chapter and that the other three had deliuered those matters at large that concerne the birth and ministerie of Iohn Neither is that coniecture Masculas ad 〈◊〉 locum more likely which imagins that therefore mention is here made of Iohn because the Messiah began not to bee knowne till the time that Iohn baptized What worde hath the Euangelist of Iohns baptizing It is cleere that hee passed it ouer without any touch till hee came almost to the end of the third Ioh. 3. 23. Chapter Yet if he spake any thing in those verses of our Sauiours beeing famous there might bee some place perhaps for that couecture But since hee doth not I see no great likelihood to approue thereof cheefely when there are other opinions of more probabilitie The former whereof will haue this brought in as a Aegid Henniâ—â—â— bunc locum comparison of the lesse where by the excellencie of our Sauiours person is set out in that hee is preserred before Iohn Baptist For such and so great was the opinion which the Iewes had of Iohn that hee must needs be a man of extraordinarie worth to whom Iohn should Luke 1. 66. be thought inferior Wee heard erewhile that some great matters were lookt for of him when hee was newly borne What manner of child shall this bee When Mat. 3. 5. 6. hee began to exercise his ministerie There went out to him Ierusalem and all Indea and all the region round about Iordan Neither went they out onely but submitted themselues to bee taught and baptized by him Ver. 7. and that not
without consossing their sinnes What speak I of the common sort Many of their great Doctors Pharises Ioh. 1. 19. 20. and Sadduces were glad to receiue baptisme at his hands Yea the rules of the lewes sem an embassage to him of no meane men Priests and Leuites being Pharises as it were being ready and in a manner offring to acknowledge him for the Messiah Iudge then what reconing hee must bee of among the Iewes that was of greater dignitie and excellencie then a man of such estimation as Iohn the Baptist Surely I can not easily discerne what could be written more to the commendation and honor of CHRIST after the former points of his diuine nature and mediatorship then this comparison by which hee is magnified aboue Iohn And there fore wee may well allow this exposition a place amongst them that are best to bee liked Which Iam the willinger to doe because it agreeth also with an other that is of good likelihood I shewed euen Rollochus ad hunc locum now that the Iewes generally rulers and people had no small opinion of Iohn Baptist This perhaps might preiudice our Sauiour CHRIST as wee see it did with the disciples of Iohn who came to their maister and complained of CHRIST that he had tooke Ioh. 3. 26. vpon him to baptize and was followed by all men To take away this doubt it is thought by some that our Euangelist brings in this discourse wherein he makes Iohn inferior to Christ and as it may seeme not without neede because ordinarily he that comes to Chrysost in Ioan. hom 4. beare witnes of any mans credit or autority is of greater or as grear reputation as himselfe These might bee some reasons why our Euangelist makes mention of Iohn but me thinkes it may farder bee added that hee doth apply this testimonie to the confirmation of that he had formerly deliuered concerning our Sauiours being the light Therefore saith he in particular that Iohn came to beare witnes of the light not onely to testifie that our Sauiour was the Messaih Not withstanding I would not haue any man think it is my meaning to restraine the testimony of Iohn to this particular of the light where of hee makes no especiall mention by any record of this or the other Euangelists but this I say that therefore this witnes of Iohn is alledged because the Iewes hauing so high a conceit of Iohn could not reasonably choose but be extraordinarily well perswaded of him for his power to inlighten the world whom Iohn their famous Prophet preferred in all his Sermons so farre before himselfe Iohn was as the day sfarre whose appearance giues notice of the sunnes approach Hee is a light that brings the dawning of the day but hee is not that light which shines to the inlightning of the world as the sunne doth who is truly and properly called the light of the world I had rather therefore take this place as a testimonie of Christ by Iohn then as a comparison betwixt him and Iohn As if our Euangelist should haue said That which I haue auouched of him whome wee set before you to bee beleeued in as the Messiah is no more then was affirmed by no meane man Iohn the Baptist sent from God to beare witnesse of him that from him onely life and light was to bee receiued Hee came to beare witnesse of the light that all men through him might beleeue He was not the light but the forerunner of the light to shew the comming of it Thus then is the Euangelist to be vnderstood that in this verse and the two next he confirmes that which he from the beginning had affirmed that our Sauiour of whom hee writes this Gospell was the Messiah His autoritie was sufficient as being the worde of an Apostle but that all excuse might be taken away from peruerse vnbeleeuing mē he addes the testimonie of one whose memory when Iohn penned this history was fresh and famous yea of such account amongst al that knew him by their owne experience or report of others that hee must needes bee held to bee very vnciuill in the opinion of ordinarie men and impious in the iudgement of as many as were religious that would call the credit of his testimonie into question as if hee would haue spoken either rashly of that hee knew not or deceitfully against his knowledge Hee was sent from GOD. Can you suspect him of falshood whom God imploies in witnessing the truth Can you require more Autoritie in any man then to haue him sent from God With what other commission did euer any of the Prophets come If he send them we are bound to heare them If he giue them instructions they need no farder teaching How can this be saith one that his sending from God should autorize him to speake what he list and enjoyne vs to beleeue whatsoeuer he speakes Are not our ministers now adaies sent from God Are we tyed to like obedience what is this els but to make men Lords of our faith Why haue wee renounced Popery if wee haue changed not our estate but our maisters onely Were we not better to rest vpon the faith of the church in generall then to subiect our selues to euery particular mans autoritie by giuing credit to euery point hee deliuers This complaint will easily bee satisfied if wee rightly informe our selues concerning the difference of sending All true Ministers are sent by or from GOD but not all alike Some imediately without the ordinary ministerie of men MOSES and all the Prophets and Apostles Some by the iudgement and discretion of men according to warrant giuen by GOD in the Scriptures to that purpose The former haue as their calling so their direction from GOD that sends them in such sort that they cannot erre or stray from their commission The later as they get the knowledge of that they are to teach not by reuelation of God to them but by their prayer to God and study in the scriptures So they haue no further assurance of being preserued from errour then as they faithfully indeauour to perfect their knowledge by the same meanes whereby they attained to the beginnings thereof So it comes often to passe by our want of zeale and faith in prayer by our negligence in studie and by our naturall dulness to conceiue that wee mistake the matters whereof wee labour to informe our selues and other I say nothing of our corrupt affections by which wee are somtimes drawne away from seeing that wee see and driuen to speake that wee would haue true not that wee know to be true of which passions in regard of the euent men so especially guided by the spirit of God as the Prophets and Apostles were are wholly freed As for our witnes Iohn Baptist what could there bee extraordinarie in any mans sending that was wanting in his Doe not put me to repeat that I deliuered before of his birth bringing vp and calling Onely take
to him of that honour but Hee sayeth our Euangelist confessed and denied not and sayde Ver. 21. plainely I am not the Christ And when they prest him farther as if they would haue perswaded him that hee did but denie it for modestie hee tolde them Ver. 23. Isay 40. 3. He was the voyce that Isay prophecied of crying in the wildernesse that the way of the Lord might be made straight And as for his baptisme which as the Pharises truely taught and vrged shewed him to bee some extraordinary man hee wild them to consider that hee baptized but with water whereas the Messiah should baptise them with the holy Ghost and with fire Yea so farre doth Luk. 3. 16. hee worthily and truely abase himselfe in comparison of Christ that he assures them he is not worthy to vnty his Ioh. 1. 27. Mat. 3. 11. shooelaetchet or to carrie his shooes after him And this hee spake not once onely but as oft as any iust occasion was offred appealing to his Disciples knowledge that they Ioh. 3. 28. could beare him witnes of his protestation against the Iewes offer to take him for Christ Therefore did he not Luk. 7 19. only patiently beare the departure of his followers to Mat. 11. 2. Christ but also exhorted them to goe and sent them to him Yet all this would not moue the Iewes O men of vncircumcised hearts and eares to acknowledge the Messiah though they thought so reuerently and highly of Iohn Therefore that I may come to the second point it was necessary for our Euangelist after the descriptioÌ„ of Iohn Baptist and his office to adde this prouiso that as great as he was yet no man should take him for the light The Iewes as we know were strongly coÌ„ceited of the matter that which the Euangelist saith here of Iohn may seeme to nourish and strengthen that conceit For it fals Chrysost in Ioa. hom 4. out often times that he whose witnes must procure credit to another man is greater theÌ„ the party that staÌ„ds in need of his testimony Therfore our Sauior tels the Iewes that he regarded not the deposition of Iohn nor of any Ioh. 5. 34. man as if it had beene needfull for him But because they had so high an opinion of Iohn therefore he was conteÌ„ted for their sakes to vse his testimony that they might beleeue Besides it serues to set out the worth and excellencie of our Sauiour to the Iewes that Iohn of whom they were so well perswaded for his greatness and holines was but darknes if he were seuered from Christ or compared with him He was not the light Yet let no man conceiue of Iohn but as of a worthy instrument to bring the Iewes to faith in Christ and as of a holy and admirable person whose whole cariage was such that hee might haue beene taken for the Messiah himselfe as no ordinarie man possibly could bee especially of the learned and wise among the Iewes The people waited sayeth Saint Luke and all men mused Luk. 3. 15. in their hearts of Iohn if hee were not the Christ Insomuch that Priests and Leuites were sent from the Rulers to Ioh. 1. 19. knowe if he were not so Our Euangelist therefore hauing as it was necessarie for him denied him to be the light repeats that which he had formerly deliuered touching his office which was to beare witnesse of the light An office of no mean dignity or vse to be imploied by God in shewing of the Messiah that al might beleeue We are euerie one of vs readie I doubt not to cry out with open mouth against the in fidelitie obstinacy of the Iewes who would not bee brought to faith by so excellent a ministery Let vs take heede that wee condemne not our selues in that for which wee reprooue them Iohn shewed them Christ but in his beginning onely before he had made any proof of his diuine power in teachin and working miracles We haue the knowledge of all those wonders and the distinct vnderstanding of the nature and course of his mediatorship Wee haue beene made acquainted with his sufferings for our sin his triumphant resurrection and glorious ascension And shal we neglect so many and so worthy points Nay rather let vs stirre vp our selues both to learne and beleeue that wee may attaine to the ende of our faith the saluation of our soules through our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ to whome with c. THE SEVENTH SERmon vpon the first Chapter of IOHN Verse 9 10. 11. That was the true light that enlightens euery man c. THe conception and birth of Iohn the Baptist were very extraordinarie and strange his father and mother being growne olde shee all her life time barren And least these circumstances should not worke with the people an Angell was sent from GOD to Zacharias to giue him knowledge of these things before hand Hee beleeues not and thereupon is striken dumbe till the time of circumcising the childe came when his speech is restored to him againe and he inspired by the holy Ghost prophecyeth both of his owne sonne and the Messiah But what stand I reciting all the particulars These matters together with the Conuersation Doctrine and Baptisme of Iohn draue the Iewes into an admiration of him and not into an admiration onely but into a strong conceite that hee should be the Christ the deliuerer for whom they lookt Neither were the common sort onely of this opinion but the Rulers themselues were drawne to the like perswasion insomuch â—hâ—â— they sent Priests and Leuites to inquire whether he were the Messiah or no. These things considered it was not without cause that our Euangelist directly affirmes He was not the light but had an vnder office To beare witnes of the light Who then was the light Euen he of whom hee spake so much before and to the description of whom by way of farder amplification he returnes saying That was the true light This amplificatioÌ„ is continued to the 14 ver and may thus reasonably be applied to the formerpoints deliuered coÌ„cerning the Word In the 5. ver the creation of al things by him was affirmed In the which it is said that Hee was in the world the world was made by him The fourth teacheth vs that he was the light of men To that the ninth answereth That was the true light which inlighteneth euerie man that commeth into the world And whereas the fist verse tells vs that the light shineth in darkness the tenth speaketh of his being in the world and the eleuenth of his comming to his owne The successe is alike in both places The darknesse comprehended it not verse 5. The world knew him not verse 10. His owne receiued him not verse 11. Thus hath our Euangelist laboured to set out to all men the bounty of the Lord in sending so glorious a light to shine in the middest of darknes and the vnkindnes and
that should be written VVhat worlde may bee said to containe or not to containe but the space of heauen and earth Sometimes it is taken more particularly for the earth where men liue and this Mat. 4. 8. is very common The Deuill shewed our Sauiour all the kingdomes of the world As long as I am in the worlde saith our Sauiour I am the light of the worlde Ioh. 9. 5. In what worlde was our Lorde when hee said so Heere on earth amonge men whose light hee vvas Into this worlde hee sent his disciples Goe into all Mat. 28. 15. the worlde that is into all partes and coastes of the earth To this signification of the worde belonges that in the verse next before and such other places Euery man that commeth into the world that is Verse 9. Ioh. 16. 21. borne In an other text it is more plaine A woman when shee is deliuered of child remembreth her anguish no more for ioy that a man is borne into the world These significations are common and well knowne as comming neere to the ordinary and first vse of the worde Besides these it is very often taken more especially or Men who are the principall parts of the world and for whome the whole was made VVhen the worlde 1. Cor. 1 21. in the wisedome of God knewe not God by wisedome Knowledge is proper to men and belongeth not to any other of these visible creatures God was in Christ 2. Cor. 5. 19. reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their sinnes To whome are sinnes forgiuen but to men Who are reconciled vnto God by Christ but men IIee tooke Heb. 2. 16. not the Angells who shall euer remaine vnreconciled But hee tooke the seede of Abraham Thus the world signifieth in generall all kinde of men whatsoeuer But because that naturally men are naught and wickked the worde is sometimes put in particular for the wicked and almost for wickednesse You are of the world saith our Sauiour to the Iewes that woulde Ioh 8. 23. 77. not beleeue I am not of this worlde The worlde cannot hate you saith hee in an other place but mee it hateth They are of the worlde saith Saint Iohn of tâ—e false teachers that denyed Iesus to bee come 1. Ioh. 4. 5 in the flesh Therefore speake they of the vvorlde and the world heareth them In this respect is the Deuill called the Prince of the worlde Yea the world is as it Ioh 12. 31. 1. Ioh. 2. 16. were the fountaine of naughtinesse All that is in the worlde saith Iohn as the lust of the flesh the lust of the eies and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the worlde I may adde in the last place that the riches honours pleasures and such like that the worlde affordes are tearmed sometimes by the name of the worlde though they bee not so much partes as appurtenances thereof VVhat should it profit a man though he should winne the whole worlde if hee lose his owne Mar. 8. 36. soule VVhat is this whole worlde but the honours pleasures and riches of the world But I haue stood too long vpon this matter Let vs now apply it to our present purpose for the vnderstanding of the holy Ghosts meaning But we cannot certainely determine in what sense the world is here spoken of till we knowe of what being in the world the Euangelist is to be vnderstood Now our Lord may be said to haue beene in the worlde in two respects either as he was God or as he was the Messiah In the former sense he was alwaies and is still and euer shall bee after the same sort in the world In the later he was not in the world till he tooke flesh of the Virgin his mother nor since his ascension into heauen As God by his prouidence power and wisdome he maintaines and gouernes al things As the Messiah he taught and informed the world of his Fathers will touching the saluation of mankind His being in the world as God was and is for the preseruation of naturall life His presence as Messiah was to bring supernaturall life by the light of grace Whether of the two is it moâ—e likely the holy Ghost meaneth in this place If we vnderstand it of the former seeing hee speakes not of the nature of the Godhead which is the same in all three persons but of the person of the Sonne how can the world be iustly condemned for not knowing him wheÌ„ he was present For it is a rul'd case in diuinity that the mystery of the Trinity cannot bee discerned by the light of nature or gathered from any contemplation of the creatures It is true indeed that since it pleased God to reueale this incomprehensible secret many men haue labored to set forth the point by similitudes and to apply somethings in the creatures to the manifesting of the trinity in vnity But all the light they bringe to this point is such as rather shewes that themselues were perswaded of that truth then is of force to conuince their Iudgement that will not beleeue In one worde they giue vs to vnderstand that such a thing in likelyhood maye bee they doe not demonstrate that of necessity it must bee As for those shadowes of this mystery which seeme toly hid heere and there in the writinges of some Philosophers neither are they sufficient to argue that the penners of those books acquainted with the doctrine of the Trinitie and they are so sparingly and fearfully deliuered that a man may easily see they were altogether vncertaine of the truth and almost of the meaning of that they writ And in what authors doe wee meete with any shewe of these matters but onely in theÌ„ who profess they receiued their instruction from the Egyptians and Chaldeans who learned those points by Tradition from Noah and so from Adam to whom God reuealed the knowledge thereof or else are knowne to haue beene the Schollers of the Hebrewes from time to time Neither doth it suite well with the course of our Euangelists writing to expound this being in the world of such naturall maintaining thereof For the whole discourse from the beginning of the fourth verse as I haue shewed is a description of the Messiah Such was the life that wee haue in him such the light wee receiue from him wholly supernaturall Of that Iohn beares witnesse not of his creating or preseruing all thinges That was it which he laboured to haue all men beleeue That is the thing which our Euangelist denies of the Baptist Hee was not the light In regard of that is our Sauiour called the true light Who shall perswade mee then to apply this verse to his diuine power of preseruation and not to the gratious worke of his medâ—ation especially considering the next verse is generally for the most part so interpreted and as it is apparant by the verse following ought to be Wherfore I willingly subscribe