From the cloud of witnesses before produced, every one whereof is singly sufficient to evert the Socinian infidelity, I shall in one of them give an instance, both of the clearness of the evidence and the weakness of the exceptions which are wont to be put in against them, as was promised; and this is John i. 1-3, " 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. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
By the Word, here, or 6 Aoyog, on what account soever he be so called, either as being the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father, or as the great Revealer of the will of God unto us, Jesus Christ the Son of God is intended. This is on all hands acknowledged ; and the context will admit of no hesitation about it. For of this Word it is said, that " he came" into the world, verse 10; " was rejected by his own," verse 11; "was made flesh and dwelt among us, whose glory was the glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father," verse 1 4 ; called expressly " Jesus Clnrist," verse 17;" the only begotten Son of the Father," verse 18. The subject, then, treated of, is here agreed upon; and it is no less evident that it is the design of the apostle to declare both who and what he was of whom he treateth. Here, then, if any where, we may learn what we are to believe concerning the person of Christ; which also we may certainly do, if our minds are not perverted through prejudice, " whereby the god of this world
390 THE DOCTRINE OF THE
doth blind the minds of them which beheve not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them," 2 Cor. iv. 4. Of this Word, then, this Son of God, it is affirmed, that he " was in the beginning." And this word, if it doth not absolutely and formally express eternity, yet it doth a j^^e-exist- ence unto the whole creation; which amounts to the same: for nothing can pre-exist unto all creatures, but in the nature of God, which is eternal ; uidess we shall suppose a creature before the crea- tion of any. But what is meant by this expression the Sciipture doth elsewhere declare. Prov. viii. 23, " I was set up from everlast- ing, from the beginning, or ever the earth was." John xvii. 5, " Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Both which places, as they explain this phrase, so also do they undeniably testify uuto the eternal j^re- existence of Christ the Son of God. And in this case we prevail against our adversaries, if we prove any pre-existence of Christ unto his incarnation; which, as they absolutely deny, so to grant it would overthrow their whole heresy in this matter. And therefore they know that the testimony of om* Saviour concerning liimself, if under- stood in a proper, intelligible sense, is perfectly destructive of their pretensions, John viii. 58, " Before Abi'aham luas, I am." For although there be no proper sense in the words, but a gross equivo- cation, if the existence of Christ before Abraham Avas born be not asserted in them (seeing he spake in answer to that objection of the Jews, that he was not yet fifty years old, and so could not have seen Abraham, nor Abraham him; and the Jews that were present, under- stood well enough that he asserted a divine pre-existence unto his being bom, so long ago, as that hereon, after their manner, they took up stones to stone him, as supposing him to have blasphemed in as- serting his Deity, as others now do in the denying of it) ; yet they [Socinians], seeing how fatal this pre-existence, though not here absolutely asserted to be eternal, would be to their cause, contend that the meaning of the words is, that " Christ was to be the light of the world before Abraham was made the father of many nations;" — an interpretation so absurd and sottish, as never any man not infatu- ated by the god of this world could once admit and give counte- nance unto.
But " in the beginning," as absolutely used, is the same with " from everlasting," as it is expounded, Prov. viiL 23, and denoteth an eternal existence; which is here affirmed of the Word, the Son of God. But let the word " beginning," be restrained unto the subject- matter treated of (which is the creation of all things), and the pre- existence of Christ in his divine nature unto the creation of all things is plainly revealed, and inevitably asserted. And indeed, not only
TRINITY VINDICATED.
891
the word but the discourse of these verses, doth plainly relate unto, and is expository of, the first verse in the Bible, Gen. i. 1, " In the be- cvinnino- God created the heaven and the earth." There it is asserted that in^'the beginning God created all things; here, that the Word was in the beo-inning, and made all things. Tliis, then, is the least that we have obtained from this first word of our testimony —namely, that the Word or Son of God had a personal pre-existence unto the whole creation. In what nature this must be, let these men of reason satisfy themselves, who know that Creator and creatures take up the whole nature of beings. One of them he must be; and it may be well supposed that he was not a creature before the creation of any. But secondly. Where, or with whom, was this Word m the begin- ning? ' " It was," saith the Holy Ghost, " with God." There being no Creature then existing, he could be nowhere but with God; that is, the Father, as it is expressed in one of the testimonies before going, p'rov viii 22 " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old;" verse 30, "Then was I by him as one brouoht up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always befor^e him;" that is, in the beginning this Word, or Wisdom of God,