282 VINDiCLE EVANGELICiE.
It is most evident that these men know not what to say nor what to stick to in their interpretation of this place. This makes them heap up so many several suggestions, contradictory one to another, crying that " It may be thus," or " It may be thus/' But, — 1. That these words cannot be referred to God the Father, but must of necessit}^ be referred to Christ, is evident, because there is no occasion of mentioning him in this place, but an account is given of what was spoken verse 37, " But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him ;" to which answers this verse, " When he saw liis glory, and spake of him" The other words of *' blinding" and " hardening" are evidently alleged to give an account of the reason of the Jews' obstinacy in their unbelief, not relating immediately to the person spoken of. The subject-matter treated of is Christ. The occasion of mentioning this testimony is Christ. Of him here are the words spoken. 2. The glory Isaiah saw was present; all the circumstances of the vision evince no less. He tells you the time, place, and circumstances of it ; — when he saw the sera- phims ; when he heard their voice; when the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried ; when the house was filled with glory; and when he himself was so terrified that he cried out, " Woe is me, for I am undone!" If any thing in the world be certain, it is cer- tain that he saw that glory present. 3. He did not only see his glory, but he saw him ; or he so saw his glory as that he saw him, so as he may be seen. So the prophet says expressly, " I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." And what the prophet says of seeing the Lord of hosts, the apostle expresses by seeing " his glorj- ;" because he saw him in that glorious vision, or saw that glorious reioresenta- tion of his jDresence. 4. He did, indeed, see the glory of the Lord Christ in seeing the glory of the one God, he being the true God of Israel; and on no other account is his glory seen than by seeing the glory of the one true God. 5. The prophet doth not say that " the earth was full of the glory of God," but it is the proclamation that the seraphims made one to another concerning that God whose pre- sence was then there manifested. 6. When Christ first appeared to the people of the Jews, there was no great manifestation of glory. The earth was always full of the glory of God. And if those words have any peculiar relation to the glory of the gospel, yet withal they prove that he was then present whose glory in the gospel was after- ward to fill the earth.
Grotius hath not aught to add to what was before insisted on by
appellati fuere, 1 Sam. ix. 9. Denique, etiamsi de gloria ea quce turn pra?scns erat, Esaiaj visa, baec verba accipias, longe tamen aliud est gloriam alicujus videre, et aliud ipsummet videre. Et in gloria illius uiiius Dei vidit etiam Esaias gloriam Cliristi Doiniui. Ait enim ibidem vates, Fhna est terra gloria Dei, Esa. vi. 3. Turn autem Loc rcipsa factum est, cum Jesus Ghristus illi populo primum apparuit, et post toti mundo amiunciatus est."
OF THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST. 283
Ids friends. A representation he would have this to be of God's deal- ing in the gospel, when it is plainly his proceeding in the rejection of the Jews for their incredulity, and tells you, " Dicitur Esaias vidisse gloriam Christi, sicut Abrahamus diem ejus;" — " Isaiah saw his glory, as Abraham saw his day." Well aimed, however! Abra- ham saw his day by faith ; Isaiah saw his glory in a vision. Abra- liam saw his day as future, and rejoiced ; Isaiah so saw his glory as God present that he trembled. Abraham saw the day of Christ all the days of his believing ; Isaiah saw his glory only in the year that king Uzziah died. Abraham saw the day of Christ in the promise of his coming ; Isaiah saw his glory with the circumstances before mentioned. Even such let all undertakings appear to be that are against the eternal deity of Jesus Christ!
In his annotations on the Gth of Isaiah, where the vision insisted on is expressed, he takes no notice at all of Jesus Christ or the second person of the Trinity ; nor (which is very strange) doth he so much as once intimate that what is here spoken is applied by the Holy Ghost unto Christ in the gospel, nor once name the chapter where it is done ! With what mind and intention the business is thus car- ried on God knows; I know not.
CHAPTER XIII.
Of the incarnation of Christ, and his pre-existence thereunto.
The testimonies of Scripture which affirm Christ to have been incarnate, or to have taken flesh, which inevitably proves his pre- existence in another nature to his so doing, they labour, in their next attempt, to corrupt, and so to evade the force and efficacy which from them appeareth so destructive to their cause ; and herein they thus proceed : —