The next place they are pleased to take notice of, as to this head of testimonies about the names of God, is 1 John iii. 16, " Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us." He who laid down his life for us was God ; that is, he was so when he laid down his life for us, and not made a God since.
Q. To the eighth what sayest thou ?
A. First take this account, that neithei" in any Greek edition (but only the Com- plutensis) nor in the SjTiacthe word " God" is found. But suppose that this word were found in all copies, were therefore this word " he" to be referred to " God" ? No, doubtless ; not only for that reason which we gave a little before, in answer to the
264< VINDICI^ EVANGELIC^..
third testimony, that such words are not always referred to the next person, but, moreover, because John doth often in this epistle refer the Greek word IxiTvoi to him who was named long before, as in the 3d, 5th, and 7th verses of this chapter.'
1. Our catechists do very faintly adhere to the first exception, about tlie word Qsou^ in the orisfinal, wrautinff that it is in some copies, and knowing that the like phrase is vised elsewhere, and that the sense in this place necessarily requires the presence of that word.
2. Supposing it as they do, we deny that this is a very just exception which they insist upon, that as a relative may sometimes, and in some cases, where the sense is evident, be referred to the remote antece- dent, therefore it may or ought to be so in any place, contrary to the propriety of grammar, where there are no circumstances enforcing such a construction, but all things requiring the proper sense of it.
3. It is allowed of only where several persons are spoken of immediately before, which here are not, one only being intimated or expressed.
4. They can give no example of the word "God'' going before, and txsTvog following after, where sxsTvog is referred to any thing or per- son more remote ; much less here, where the apostle, having treated of God and the love of God, draws an argument from the love of God to enforce our love of one another. 5. In the places they point unto, sx,£h/og m every one of them is referred to the next and imme- diate antecedent, as will be evident to our reader upon the first view.
Give them their great associate and we have done: "'Exsrjog hie est Christus, ut supra ver. 5, subintelligendum hie autem est, hoc Christum fecisse Deo sic decernente nostri causa quod expressum est, Rom. v. 8." That Izuvog is Christ is confessed ; but the word being a relative, and expressive of some person before mentioned, we say it relates unto ©soD, the word going immediately before it. No, says Grotius, but " the sense is, 'Herein appeared the love of God, that by his appointment Christ died for us.' " That Christ laid down his life for us by the appointment of the Father is most true, but that that is the intendment of this place, or that the grammatical construction of the words will bear any such sense, we deny.
And this is what they have to except to the testimonies which themselves choose to insist on to give in their exceptions to, as to
' " Ad octavum vero quid ? — Primum igitur sichabeto, neque in Graeca editioiie ulla (excepta Complutensi), uec in editione Syriaca, vocem Deus haberi. Verum etiamsi base vox haberetur in omnibus exemplaribus, num idcirco ea vox ille ad Deum erit i-e- ferenda ? Non certe ; non solum ob eam causam quam paulo superius attulimus, in responsione ad testimonium tertium, quod verba ejusmodi non semper ad propinquioi-es personas referantur, verum etiam quod IxiTvos vocera Grgecum Johannes in hac cpistola Sfepe ad eum refert, qui longe antea nominatus fuerat, ut et 3, 5, et 7, versu ejusdem capitis in Groeco apparet."
2 It cannot now be questioned that there is no authority for the insertion of ei^v. Even our authorized version consigns it to Italics, as a supplement, and not in the ori- ginal.— Ed.
DEITY OF CHRIST PPvOVED, ETC. 265
the names of Jehovah and God being ascribed unto Jesus Christ ; which having vindicated from all their sophistry, I shall shut up the discourse of them with this argument, which they afford us for the confirmation of the sacred truth contended for : He who is Je- hovah, God, the only true God, etc., he is God by nature; but thus is Jesus Christ God, and these are the names the Scripture calls and knows him by : therefore he is so, God hy nature, blessed for ever.
That many more testimonies to this purpose may be produced^ and have been so by those who have pleaded the deity of Christ against its opposers, both of old and of late, is known to all that inquire after such things. I content myself to vindicate what they have put in exceptions unto.
CHAPTER XI.
Of the work of creation assigned to Jesus Christ, etc. — The confirmation of his eternal deity from thence.
The scriptures which assign the creating of all things to Jesus Christ they propose as tlie next testimony of his deity whereunto they desire to give in their exceptions. To these they annex them wherein it is affirmed that he brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, and that he Avas with them in the wilderness; with one par- ticular out of Isaiah, compared with the account given of it in the gospel, about the prophet's seeing the glory of Christ. Of those which are of the first sort they instance in John i. 3, 10; Col. i. 16, 17; Heb. i. 2, 10-12.