Now because this is a weighty point, and the joy of our faith, and the strength of our confidence, and the readiness of our obedience, and our thankfulness to God for the mystery of our redemption, and our victory over the world, and our eternal happiness and felicity doth much depend upon Christ's being the eternal Son of God, I shall do two things — (1.) I shall show you what the scripture saith concerning his being from the beginning ; (2.) The benefit of such a meditation.
(1.) What the scripture saith concerning Christ's existence, or per- sonal subsistence, before he was conceived in the virgin's womb.
(1st.) Some places express that existence without any notation of time, but only that he had a being before his incarnation : John vi. 33, ' The bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world ; ' ver. 38, ' For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me ; ' ver. 62, ' What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before ? ' These and many other places prove that Christ was in heaven before he was upon earth. How long, it is not said ; but there he was in a state of glory, which he enjoyed before he came down and was made flesh. The Jews, that understood the meaning of these expressions,
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took them in this sense ; for it is said, John vi. 41, 42, ' The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know ? how is it then that he saith, I come down from heaven ? ' They knew his meaning, but his words were a riddle to them, because they looked only to his human nature ; but they suffice to prove to christians that he had a being before he was incarnate.
(2d.) There are other scriptures which assign a time, but do not go so high as the creation : John viii. 58, ' Before Abraham was, I am.' To say nothing of that form of speech, ' I am,' which is God-like, Exod. iii. 14, that which I now plead for is, that Christ was before Abraham was. So 1 Cor. x. 9, ' They tempted Christ in the wilderness ; ' called ' the angel of God's presence ; ' and Moses ' esteeming the re- proach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt,' Heb. xl 26. These places prove that he was long before he was incarnate.
(3d) Some scriptures show that Christ was as soon as the world was, as the text ; and Prov. viii. 22, ' The Lord possessed me in the begin- ning of his way, before his works of old.' So from the 22d to the end of the 31st verse, wisdom is brought in describing her antiquity in many words ; that she was present in creating of the world ; that wisdom was Christ, who is often called ' the Wisdom of the Father ; ' and here all along speaketh as a person, and as a person distinct from the Father. So John LI, 2, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.' Christ is called ' the Word,' as being the interpreter of his Father's mind ; and he is said to be 'with God,' as a person distinct from God ; and he is said to be ' in the beginning,' when all created things got a being and beginning ; as Gen. i. 1 , 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ; ' and in many other places. God made the world by him, Heb. i. 2 ; and there- fore he had a being when the world was made. Because our shallow conceptions can follow eternity no further, but only over the border of time, therefore it is said, 'in the beginning,' and 'from the be- ginning.'
(4th.) That Christ was before the world was : John xvii. 5, ' And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was ; ' Heb. i. 10, ' And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.' And the apostle proveth that this is spoken of the Son, ver. 8, ' But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.'
(5th.) That Christ was from all eternity : Micah v. 2, ' But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.' That this is spoken of Christ cannot be denied by the citation, Mat. ii. 6, 'And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah ; for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel.'