222 VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
of the world, but this gloss refers it to the things made in the end of the world.
(3.) It is contradictory to itself, for by the "beginning" they un- derstand the beginning of the gospel, or the first preaching of it, but the things that they say here were made by Christ are things that were done after his ascension.
(4.) It is true, the apostles wrought not any miracles, effected no mighty works, but by the presence of Christ witli them (though the text cited to prove it, John xv. 5, be quite of another iinjio^'t^i^ce, as speaking of gospel obedience, not works of miracles or conver- sions) ; but that those works of theirs, or his by them, are here in- tended, is not offered to proof by our catechists. And this is the sense of the words they give : " Christ in the beginning of the gospel made all things, or all things were made hy him, even those which he made by others after his ascension into heaven;" or thus, "All things, that is, some things, were made, that is, mended, by him, that is, the apostles, in the beginning of the gospel, that is, after his ascension."
(5.) Our sense of the words is plain and obvious. Says the apostle, "He who was in the beginning, and was God, made all things;" which he first expresseth positively, and then by an universal nega- tive confirms and explains what was before asserted in an universal affirmative, " Without him was not any thing made that was made."
And this is the sum of what they have to except against this part of our testimony, than which nothing can be more vain and frivolous.
The 10th verse is also by them taken under consideration, and these words therein, " The world was made by him;" against which this is their procedure: —
Q. What dost thou answer to the second?
A. 1. That John doth not write here that the world was created, but "made." 2. He uses the same manner of speech which signifietli the mediate cause ; for he saith " The world was made by him." Lastly, This word mundus, the world, as others of the same import, doth not only denote heaven and earth, but, besides other significations, it either signifieth human kind, as the present place manifesteth, "He was in the world, and the world knew him not," and John xii. 19, or also future immortality, as Heb. i. 6; which is to be understood of the world to come, as it appears from chap, ii., where he saith, "He hath not put the world to come into subjection to the angels, of which we speak," but he had nowhere spoken of it but chap. i. G. Furthermore, you have a place, chap. x. 5, where, speaking of Christ, he saith, " Wherefore coming into the world, he saith. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not have, but a body," etc. ; where, seeing it is evident that he speaks of that world into which Jesus being entered was made our priest, as all the cir- cumstances demonstrate, it appears that he speaks not of the present, but of the world to come, seeing, chap. viii. 4, he had said of Christ, " If he were on earth he should not be a priest."'
1 " Quid vei-o rcspondes ad secundum ? — Primum, quod hie non scribat Johannes mundum esse creatum, sed factum. Deinde, eo loquendi mode utitur, qui mediam causam dcsignat, ait enim, mundum per eiim factum. Denique, htec vox mundus^
DEITY OF CHRIST PROVED, ETC. 223
The first two exceptions have been already cashiered ; those which follow are of as little weight or consideration : for, —
1. It is confessed that the word " world" hath in Scripture various acceptations, and is sometimes taken for men in the world ; but that it can be so taken when the world is said to be made or created, when it is equivalent to all things, when it is proposed as a place where- unto one comes, and where he is, as is the state of the expression hei'e, there can nothing more absurd or foolish be imagined.
2. Heb. i. 6 speaks not of the world to come, nor is there any place in the Scripture where the word "world" doth signify immortality or the world to come, nor any thing looking that way. Heb, ii. 5, mention is made not simply of the world, but of the " world to come ;" nor doth that expression of the apostle relate unto that of chap. i. 6, where the word " world" is used, but to what goes before and after in the same chapter, where the thing itself is insisted on in other terms. Nor \^ future immortality intended there, by the "world to come," but the present state of the Christian church, called the " world to come," in reference to that of the Jews, which was past in that use of speech whereby it was expressed before it came ; as also chap. vi. 5. Nor is the " world to come" life eternal or blessed immortality ; life is to be had in it, but " immortality" and the " world to come" are not the same. Nor is that world ever said to be made, nor is it any- where described as made already, but as to come: as Matt. xii. 32; Luke xviii. 30, xx. 35 ; Eph. i. 21. Nor can it be said of the world to come that it knew not Christ, as it is of this that he made; nor can Christ be said to come into that world in the beginning, which he did not until after his resurrection ; nor is the world to come that whereof it is said in the next verse, which expounds this, " He came iig ra 'Ibia," "to his own," for then "his own," o/ 'Ihioi, "knew him not." So that there is not the least colour or pretence of this foppery that here they would evade the testimony of the Holy Ghost withal.