John iii. 1 3, " And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." Verse 31, " He that cometh from above is above all : he that cometh from heaven is above all." Chap. viii. 23, " Ye are from beneath; I am from above." Chap. xvi. 28, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world : again, I leave the world, and go to the Father."
Hence we thus argue : — He that was in heaven before he was on the earth, and who was also in heaven whilst he was on the earth, is the eternal God; but this doth Jesus Christ abundantly confirm con- cerning himself : therefore he is the eternal God, blessed for ever.
In answer to the first place our catechists thus proceed : —
Q. Wfiat ansicerest thou to the second testimony, John vi. 62 ?
A. Neithei' is here any mention marie expressly of pre-eternity ; for in this place the Scripture witnesseth that the Son of man, that is a man, was in heaven, who without all controversy was not eternally pre-existent. i
' "Ad secundum autem quid respondcs ? — Neqnc hie ullam pros-retcruitatis men- tioncm factam exprcsse ; nam hoc in loco Filium bominis, id est, homiuem in cojlis fuisse tcstatur Scriptura, quern citra ullam controYcrsiam proe-£eternum non cxtitisse ccrtum est."
DEITY OF CHRIST PROVED, ETC. 229
So the3^ 1. It is expressly affirmed that Christ tuas in heaven be- fore his coming into the world. And if we evince his pre-existence to liis incarnation against the Socinians, the task will not be difficult to prove that pre-existence to be in an eternal divine nature against the Arians. It is sufficient, as to our intendment in producing this testimony, that it is affirmed that Christ rjv 'Trporspov in heaven before his coming forth into the world ; in what nature we elsewhere prove.
2. It is said, indeed, that the Son of man was in heaven; Avhich makes it evident that he who is the Son of man hath another nature besides that wherein he is the Son of man, wherein he is the Son of God. And by affirming that the Son of man was in heaven before, it doth no more assert that he was eternal and in heaven in that nature wherein he is the Son of man, than the affirmation that God redeemed his church with his own blood doth prove that the blood shed was the blood of the divine nature. Both the affirmations are concerning the person of Christ. As he who was God shed his blood as he was man, so he who was man was eternal and in heaven as he was God. So that the answer doth merely beg the thing in question, namely, that Christ is not God and man in one person.
3. The insinuation here of Christ's being in heaven as man before his ascension mentioned in Scripture, shall be considered when we come to the proposal made of that figment by Mr. E., in his chapter of the prophetical office of Christ. In answer to the other testimonies cited, they thus proceed, towards the latter end of their chapter concerning the person of Christ : —
Q. What answerest thou to John iii. 13, x. 36, xvi. 28, xvii. 18?
A. That a divine nature is not here proved appeareth, because the w^ords of the first testimony. " He came down from heaven," may be received figuratively: as James i. 17, " Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comethdown from the Father of lights;" and Rev. xxi. 2, 10, " I sav^^ the holy city Jerusalem coming down from God." But if the words be taken properly, which we willingly admit, it appears that they are not spoken of any other than the Son of man, A^ho, seeing he hath necessarily a human person, cannot by nature be God. More- over, for what the Scripture witnesseth of Christ, that the Father sent him into the world, the same we read of the apostles of Christ in the same words above alleged; as John xvii. 18, " As thou hast sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world." And these words, " Christ came forth from the Father," are of the same import with " He descended from heaven." " To come into the world" is of that sort as the Scripture manifests to have been after the nativity of Christ, John xviii. 37, where the Lord himself says, " For this I am born, and come into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth ;" and 1 John iv. 1, it is written, " Many false prophets ai"e gone forth into the woi'ld." Wherefore from this kind of speaking a divine nature in Christ cannot be proved ; but in all these speeches only what was the divine original of the office of Christ is described.'
' " Ubi vero Scriptura de Cliristo ait, quod de coclo descendit, a Patre cxivit, et in mundum venit, Job. iii. 13, x. 3G, xvi. 28, xvii. 18, quid ad liac rcspondes ? — Ex iis non probari divinam naturam hinc apparere, quod primi testimonii verba, Descendit de ccclo, possint figuratc accipi ; qucmadmodum, Jac. i. 17, Omne datum bonum et donum