DEITY OF CHRIST PROVED, ETC. 219
something was mended by him). Such interpretations we may at any time be supplied withal at an easy rate. 5. To view it a little farther : " In the beginning, — that is, when John preached Jesus, and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God,' — was the Word, or Jesus was;" that is, he was when John preached that he was. " Egregiam vero lau- dem ! " He was when he was ! " The Word was in the beginning ; " that is, Jesus was flesh and blood, and then was afterward made flesh, and dwelt among us, when he had dwelt amongst us ! And this is that interpretation which Faustus Socinus, receiving from his uncle Laelius, first set up upon, in the strength whereof he went forth unto all the abominations which afterward he so studiously vented.
Passing by these two weighty and most material passages of this testimony, " The Word was God," and " The Word was with God," the one evidencing his oneness of nature with, and the other his dis- tinctness of personality from, his Father, our catechists, after an in- terposition of near twenty pages, fix upon verse 8, and attempt to pervert the express words and intendment of it, having cut it off from its dependence on what went before, that evidently gives light into the aim of the Holy Ghost therein. Their words concerning this verse are, —
Q. Declare to me with what testimonies they contend to prove that Christ cre- ated the heaven and the earth ?
A. With those where it is written, that " by him all things were made, and without him was nothing made that was made," and " the world was made by him," John i. 3, 10; as also Col. i. 16; Heb. i. 2, 10-12.
Q. But how dost thou answer to the first testimony?
^. 1. It is not, in the first testimony, they were created, but they were " made." 2, John says " They were made by him;" which manner of speaking doth not ex- press him who is the first cause of any thing, but the second or mediate cause. Lastly, The word "all things" is not taken for all things universally, but is alto- gether related to the subject-matter; which is most frequent in the Scriptures, especially of the New Testament, whereof there is a signal example, 2 Cor. v. 17, wherein there is a discourse of a thing very like to this whereof John treats, where it is said " All things are made new," whereas it is certain that there are many things which are not made new. Now, whereas the subject-matter in John is the gospel, it appeareth that this word " all things" is to be received only of all those things which belong to the gospel.
Q. But why doth John add, that " without him nothing was made that ivas made?"
A. John added these words that he might the better illustrate those before spoken, "All things were made by him;" which seem to import that all those things were made by the Word or Son of God, although some of them, and those of great moment, were of such sort as were not done by him but the apostles, — as the call- ing of the Gentiles, the abolishing of legal ceremonies : for although these things had their original from the preaching and works of the Lord Jesus, yet they were not perfected by Christ himself, but l)y his apostles; but yet not without him, for the apostles administered all things in his name and authority, as the Lord him- self said, " Without me ye can do nothing," John xv. 5.'
* " Expone igitur mihi quibus testimoniis approbare contendunt Christum ccclum
220 VINDICIiE EVANGELIC.li:.
Thus to the third verse, of which afterward. We shall quickly see how these men are put to their shifts to escape the sword of this witness, which stands in the Avay to cut them off in their journeying to curse the church and people of God by denying the deity of their blessed Saviour.
The connection of the words is wholly omitted, " He was God, and he was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by him." The words are an illustration of his divine nature by divine power and works. He was God, and he made all things. " He that made all things is God," Heb. iii. 4; " The Word made all things," John i. 3: therefore he is God. Let us see what is answered.
1. " It is not said they were created by him, but ' made.' " But the word here used by John is the same that in sundry places the LXX. (whom the writers of the New Testament followed) used about the creation ; as Gen. i. 3, Kal u'ttsv 6 Qshg, Tivri&ri~o} (pug, xai lyhiTO <puc, and verse 6, 'Eyivsro ffrBpsu/xa. And if, as it is affirmed, he was in the beginning (before all things), and made them all, he made them out of nothing; that is, he created them. To create is but to produce something out of nothing, " nothing " supplying the term from whence of their production. But, —
2. " They are said to be made ' by him:' it is di' avrou, which de- notes not the principal, but mediate or instrumental cause." But it is most evident that these men care not what they say, so they may say something that they think will trouble them whom they oppose.