1. Of the object of this creation.
2. Christ's efficiency about it.
1. The object of creation is spoken colleetively and distributively. [1.] Collectively : ' By him were all things created.'
[2.] Distributively : They are many ways distinguished. (1.) By their place : ' Things in heaven, and things in earth.' (2.) By their nature : ' Things visible and invisible.' (3.) By their dignity and office : ' Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers ' — words often used in scripture to signify the angels, Avhether good or bad. The good angels: Eph. i. 21, ' Far above all principality and power, and might and dominion;' Eph. iii. 10, ' That unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.' Sometimes this terra is given to the bad angels : ' We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers,' Eph. vi. 12 ; and Kom. viii. 38, ' Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers.' So that the meaning is, the angelical creatures, together with their degree and dignity, as well among themselves as over the lower world ; of what rank and degree soever they are, they are all created by him. He insisteth more on them than on the other branches, because some cried up the dignity of the angels, to the lessening of the honour and office of Christ, and because they were the noblest and most powerful creatures. And if the most glorious creatures were created by him, surely all others had their being and life from him. Well, then, there is a gradation notable in setting forth the object of the creation. Christ made not only things in earth but things in heaven ; not only the visible things of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, but the invisible, the angels — not the lower sort of angels only, but the most noble and the most potent ■ — thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers.
2. Christ's efficiency about them ; in these words, they were ' created by him, and for him.'
[1.] By Jmn; as an equal co-operating cause, or co-worker witli God the Father: John v. 19, 'Whatsoever things the Father doeth, those doeth the Son likewise.' To bring a thing out of nothing belongeth unto God. The distance of the terms is infinite ; so must the agent be. Creation is an act of divine power.
[2.] They are /or him : they are by Jiim as their first cause ; they are for Mm as their last end. God is often represented in scriptui-e as first and last: Isa. xli. 4, 'I the Lord, the first and the last, I am he ; ' Isa. xliv. 6, ' I am the first and the last ; there is no God besides me ; ' so Isa. xlviii. 2, ' I am the first ; I am also the last.' Now all this is repeated and applied to Christ: Rev. i. 17, ' He said unto me. Fear not ; I am the first and the last ; I have the keys of death and hell;' Rev. ii. 8, ' These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;' Rev. xxii. 13, 'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.' Now these exprcs-
436 CHRIST THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS. [SeR. III.
sions do imply his eternal power and Godhead. He hath been before all thhigs were made, and shall be when all things in the world are ended. He is the first being from whom all things are, and the last end to whom all things are to be referred. He is the efficient and final cause of all the creatures.
Doct. That all creatures, angels not excepted, owe their very being to Christ, the Son of God, our blessed and glorious Redeemer.
I shall take the method offered in the text, and show you : —
First, That all things were created by him.
Secondly, Why the creation of angels is so particularly mentioned and insisted upon.
Tliirdly, That all things were created for him.
First, For creation by him. This is often asserted in scripture: John i. 3, ' All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made/ John begins his Gospel with the dignity of Christ's person ; and how doth he set it forth ? By the creation of the world by the eternal Word. And what he saith is an answer to these questions — When was the Word? ' In the beginning;' Where was the Word? 'With God;' What was the Word? He ' was God ; ' What did he then do ? ' All things were made by him ; ' What ! all without exception ? Yes, ' Without him nothing was made that was made,' be it never so small, never so great. From the highest angel to the smallest worm, they had all their being from him. Two things are to be explained : — •
1. How he made all things.
2. When he made the angels.
1. How he made all things. Freely, and of his own will : Rev. iv. 11, ' Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive honour, and glory, and power : for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.' They use three words to set forth the honour that is due to Christ for creating the world : glory, because of his excel- lencies discovered ; honour, which is the ascription or acknowledg- ment of those excellencies ; and power, because ' the invisible things of his Godhead and power are seen by the things that are made,' Rom. i. 20. For in the creating of the world he exercised his omni- potency. And this they do, not to express their affection, but his own due desert : ' Thou art worthy, 0 Lord.' The reason they give is, because he hath created all things for his own pleasure, or according to his own will — not out of necessity. There was no tie upon him to make them, but only he of his good pleasui'C thought fit to do so. He might have done it ia another manner, or at another time, or in another order. There is nothing in the world that hath a necessary connexion with the divine essence, so as, if God be, that must be ; nothing external Cometh from God by necessity of nature, but all is done according to the counsel of his own will. Some thought all created things did come forth from the Creator by way of emanation, as rivers flow out of their fountain ; but there is no stream floweth out of any fountain but it was before a part of that fountain while it was in it. But that cannot be said of any creature in respect of God, that it was any part of God before it came out from him. Others say the creatures came out from God by way of representation, as an image in the glass from