r him (Prov. viii. 22.) The Lord poffeffed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old? I was fet up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth when there were no fountains abounding with water: Before the mountains were fettled, before the hills, was I brought forth: While as yet he had not formed the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world: When he prepared the Heavens, I was there when he fet a compafs upon the face of the depth-when he gave to the fea his decree, that the waters fhould not pafs his commandment. when he appointed the foundations of the earth,then was I by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the Sons of men. 22. Or if it be doubted whether this was not rather meant of wifdom as a quality or attribute of the Deity, and not of the fubftantial, living wif dom, and word of the Father, yet furely it must be allowed, if compared with other Scriptures, to be perfectly applicable to him. For our Lord himfelf affures us, John xvii. 5. That he had glory with the Father before the world was: And the Prophet Micah declares that his goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, or, as the original, by means, from of old, from the days of Eternity. And our Lord himfelf fays ftill more in the paffages juft quoted from the first Chapter of the Revelation, when, as we have feen, he applies to himfelf the high Titles of the Eternal God, even thofe whereby Jehovah diftinguishes himfelf from all falfe pretenders to Divinity, repeatedly faying, I am Alpha and Omega, the firft and the laft. Hence the Apoftle, fpeaking of his. Type Melchizedek, King of righteousness, and King of peace, defcribes him as without Father, without Mother, without defcent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God, viz. a proper type of Him who is eternal, 23. I mentioned can 23. I mentioned alfo Immutability, another peculiar Attribute of the Eternal God. I am Jehovah (fays he, Mal. iii, 6,) I change not, therefore ye fons of Jacob are not confumed: The Father of lights (fays St. James) with whom is no variablenefs, neither fhadow of turning And is not this Attribute alfo afcribed to Chrift? We have already feen, that the Author of the Epiftle to the Hebrews applies to him the 25th, 26th, and 27th verfes of the 102d Pfalm; and furely no words: more ftrongly exprefs immutability :--They fhalt perifh, but thou remaineft: and they all fhall wax old, as doth a garment; and as a vefture fhalt thou fold them up, and they fhall be changed; but thou art the fame, and thy years fail not.. | And, Ch. xiii. and verse 8th of the fame Epiftle, affures us, that he is the fame yefterday, to-day, and for ever; and on this his unchangeableness, grounds an argument against our being carried about with divers and frange doctrines. But why fhould I dwell upon particulars? He himfelf affures us, John xvi.. 15. All things that the Father hath, are mine: All the Names, Titles, and Attributes of the Father: and no wonder, for the Father himfelf is his, and dwells in him in all his fulness; and their union is perfect, indiffoluble and eternal,-fo that the Son is never without the Father, nor the Father without the Son. CHAP. VIII. That the Apoftles reprefent HIM as the immediate Author of all the Divine Works, whether of Creation, Prefervation, or Redemption,--whether of Grace or Juftice, or Mercy or Judgment. "WE E. have already feen, in that remarkable paffage, quoted at large from the beginning of St. John's Gofpel, that he confidered the WORD which was in the beginning with God, as the immediate Creator of all things. His words words are very exprefs,-All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made, ver. 3. And again, ver. 10. The world was made by him. St. Paul, it is well known, taught the very fame doctrine,- -By him (ev avīw.) were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, vifible and invifible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers: all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things confift. 2. It is true, the Father, who is the fountain of Deity and of Divine Power, is also the primary caufe of all the Divine Works. But it is plain, from these paffages, that the Apostles confidered the Word that was in the beginning with God, as the immediate Author of them, the operative. Creator (if I may fo exprefs myself) the real and proper framer of all things, vifible and invifible, temporal and eternal. Hence it is that they apply to him as we have feen) the words of David in the 102d Pfalm,-Thou, Lord, in the beginning, haft laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands: which words certainly reprefent the perfon, of whom they are fpoken, not as an inftrument in the hands of another, but as in a true and proper sense, the Maker of the world. And this was certainly the opinion of the Ancient Fathers, as innumerable paffages, in their writings, fhew. For the illustration of the fubject, I fhall quote two or three pages from Bishop Bull's Defence of the Nicene Faith; in which, it will generally be allowed, he fairly reprefents the fentiments of thefe eminently holy men, who living fo near the Apoftolick age, (fome of them being Difciples of the Apoftolical Fathers) and being fo conftantly converfant with their writings, could not easily be ignorant what the doctrine of the Apoftles was upon this fubject.' I make ufe of the tranflation of FRAN. HOLLAND, A. M. Rector of Sutton, Wilts. 3. The 3. The following paffage the Bishop gives us + from Juftin's Epiftle to Diognetus, P. 498.-"He, the Almighty, the Creator of all things, the invifible God, hath implanted among men, and engraven in their hearts, the heavenly Truth, the Word, holy and incomprehenfible; not fending, as any one would conjecture, a Servant, an Angel, a Prince, an earthly Potentate, or one to whom he had entrusted the administration of heavenly things, but the Artificer and Maker of all things, by whom he formed the heavens, and fhut in the fea in its proper bounds: whofe mysteries all the elements faithuflly obferve: from whom the Sun has received his charge to measure out the day, whom the Moon obeys, when he commands her to shine in the night, and the stars which follow the course of the Moon; by whom all things are ordered and bounded, to whom all things are fubject, the heavens, the earth, the fea, and all that in them is; the fire, the water, the abyfs; what is in the heights and depths, and betwixt them : Him he hath fent to them. For what end? As a man would think to tyrannize over them? To awe and terrify them ?No: He fent him as a King fends a King, his Son, in clemency and meekness: He fent him as a God: He fent him to Man, he fent him to fave." 4. The Bishop quotes Athenagoras to the fame purpose, P. 131.- The Son of God is the Word of the Father, in idea, and energy. All things were made by him, and for him; the Father and the Son being one, the Son in the Father, and the Father in the Son, by the unity and power of the Spirit. The Son of God is the Mind and Word of the Father." And (P. 143, 144.) produces from Irenæus, difciple of Polycarp, a paffage ftill more explicit." Nor fhall any thing made, and in fubjection, be compared with the WORD of God, by whom all things were made, who is + Vol. I. P. 125. ou our Lord Jefus Chrift. Because, whether they are Angels or Archangels, or thrones or dominions, they are made by him who is God over all, by his Word. So St. John hath told us. For when he had said of the Word of God, that he was in the Father, he added,—All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made. David, also, when he had particularly enumerated his praises, added, for he commanded, and they were created; and fpoke, and they were made. Whom did he command? The Word, by whom the heavens were made, and the Host of them by the breath of his mouth. -Now the things that are made, are different from Him that made them; and those appointed, from Him that appointed them. He is unmade, without beginning, without end; he wants nothing, is felffufficient, and gives to all other things their being. The things made by him had a beginning, and, as fuch, may have an end,-are fubject-indigent. It is altogether neceffary they should have a different name, especially among men of any discernment in fuch things. So that He who made all things, with his Word, be justly and alone called God and Lord; but not that those who are made, fhould participate, or juftly take to themfelves, the name of their Creator." 5. In the two following pages, the Bishop quotes two more paffages from Irenæus to the fame purpofe.- "The Son, who is the Word of God, laid out thefe things from the beginning, the Father not ftanding in need of Angels for the Creation of the world, and the making of Man, for whom the world was created, nor again wanting a minifterial power for making these things that are made, and the difpofing the affairs of the world, after the formation of Man, but having a fufficient and ineffable one. his own offspring, and'imprefs minifters to him in all things, i. e. the Son and Holy Spirit, the Word and Wisdom, to whom Angels are fubject, and minister." Again" All things were made by For |