24G VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^.
1. A divine glory proves a divine nature. This Christ had from eternity, for he had it before the world began ; therefore he had a divine nature also. It is the manifestation of his glory, which he had eclipsed and laid aside for a season, that here he desires of God, Phil. ii. 6-] 1. He glorified his Father by manifesting the glory of his deity, his name, to others ; and he prays the Father to glorify him as he had glorified him on the earth. 2. There is not the same reason of Avhat is here asserted of Christ and what is said of the elect, 2 Tim. i. 9. Christ here positively says he had " ii-xov (glory) with his Father before the world was ;" nor is this anywhere, in any one tittle in the Scripture expounded to be any otherwise but in a real having of that glory. The grace that is given to believers is not said to be before the world was, but ct/jo -x^povm aluviuv, which may denote the first promise, Gen. iii. 15, as it doth Tit. i. 2 ; and if it be intended of the purpose of God, which was from eternity (as the words will bear), it is so expounded in twenty places. 3. Though the divine nature prayed not, yet he who was in the form of God, and humbled himself to take upon him the form and employment of a ser- vant, might and did pray. The Godhead prayed not, but he who was God prayed. 4. For the sense assigned, let them once show us, in the whole book of God, where this expression, " I had £/%oi/," may be pos- sibly interpreted, " I had it in purpose,'' or " I was predestinated to it," and not " I had it really and indeed," and they say something to the purpose. In the meantime, they do but corrupt the Avord of God (as many do) by this pretended interpretation of it. 5. If pre- destination only be intended, here is nothing singular spoken of Christ, but what is common to him with all believers, when evidently Christ speaks of something that belonged to him eminently. 6. The very express tenor of the words will not admit of this gloss (let what violence can be used) : Kat vvv do^affov /xs, Cu Udrsp, rrapa, (TiavTw, T7j do^rj fi sJy^ov, 'TTpo Tou Tov xociMov dvai, irapu, <so'r — " The glory that I had with thee, let me have it manifested with thee, now my work is done."
Grotius falls in with our catechists: "Tj]' bd^rt p £/'%ov, Destinatione tua; ut 1 Pet. i. 20, Apoc. xiii. 8, sic et Eph. i. 8, 4, et infra, ver. 24. Simile loquendi genus. Sic Legem fuisse ante mundum aiunt He- brsei." Again, " Uapa go!, refer ad illud s/^oi/, et intellige, ut diximus, in decreto tuo."
But what intends the learned man by those places of 1 Pet. i. 20, Rev. xiii. 8? Is it to expound the thing that he supposes to be ex- pressed ? or to intimate that the phrase here used is expounded by the use of it in those other places? If the first, he begs that to be
eum esse Deum, apparet, 2 Tim. i. 9, ubi ait apostolus de credentibus, illis datani fiiisse gratiam ante tempora seculai'ia. Prteterea, hie scriptum est, Jesum rogare banc glo- ]-iam, quod naturaa divinae prorsus repugnat. Loci vero sententia est, Christum ro- gare Deum, ut ci gloriam reipsa det, quam babuerit apud Deum in ipsius decreto an- tequum muiidus fieret."
DEITY OF CHRIST PROVED, ETC. 247
the sense of this place which is the sense of them, though neither the scope of the places nor the sense of the words themselves will bear it. If the latter, it is most false. There is not one word, phrase, or expression, in any one of the places pointed unto, at all coincident with them here used. Besides, the two places mentioned are of very different senses, the one speaking of God's purpose appointing Christ to be a mediator, the other of the promise given presently after the fall. 2. We grant that Christ, in respect of his human nature, was predestinated unto glory ; but that he calls God's pur- pose his " glory," "' the glory which he had," " which he had with God," wherewith he desires to be " glorified with him again," is to be proved from the text, or context, or phrase of speech, or parallel place, or analogy of faith, or somewhat, and not nakedly to be im- posed on us. Let Prov. viii. 22-31, Phil. ii. 6-11, be consulted, as parallel to this place. Eph. i. 3, 4, speaks indeed of our predestination in Christ, " that we should be holy," and so come to glory, but of the glory that Christ had before the world was it speaks not; yea, verse 3, we are said to be actually " blessed," or to have the heavenly blessings, when we do enjoy them, which we are elected to, verse 4. What the Jews say of the Law, and the like, we must allow learned men to tell us, that they may be known to be so, although the sense of the Scripture be insensibly darkened thereby.
To the same purpose is that of Peter, 1 Epist. i. 10, 11, "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you : searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." To which add that more clear place, 1 Pet. iii. 18-20, " Quickened by the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were dis- obedient in the days of Noah." He who was in the days