occasioned John as they say to write this Gospell wherein he asserteth the Godhead of Christ And so by the way occasionally yee see what use even Heriticks are made of to the Church of God We had lost this Gospell if Ebion and Cerinthus had not broached their heresies God suffereth desperate opinions to be vented for the purging of his owne Truth The Truth of God is compared to Silver The words of the Lord are pure yea as Silver tried in a furnace of Earth purified seven times Every corrupt opinion that cometh to be vented against any Truth of God that is a new furnace and the truth being cast into that furnace it cometh out the purer for it Purified seven times As it is with Passengers of quality and note were it not for some evill inveterate Currs in the street they might passe and never be observed the very barking of the Dogs maketh them to be noted So these evill inveterate Corrupt Hereticks by their barking have occasioned the taking notice of that truth of the Divinity of Christ Had not they barked John had not Written This was the occasion And this should incourage you to attention because the same Hereticks are with us now we have our owne Ebions and Cerinthusses to this day that deny the Divinity of Christ and say He had no being till he took it from the Virgin Mary Fourthly we come to the Scope of this Book which is to hold out the Divine nature of Christ as the object of our Faith to set forth Christ as the Sonne of God that we believe in Him so as to have Salvation by Him And This St. John telleth you to have been his aime Joh. 20. 31. These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Sonne of God and that believing you might have Life through Him He desires to set forth Christ to us as our Redeemer and therefore laboureth so much both in the beginning of his Gospell and throughout to hold forth the Godhead and Divine nature of Christ That so it might appear that he is a sufficient Redeemer If He had not been God He could not have gon through with the purchase As the Eagle trieth her young ones by holding them against the beams of the Sun and if they be able to look upon them with a stedfast eye she owneth such So John bringeth his Readers to the Sun of the Divinity of Christ and such as will not acknowledge that are bastard-Christians and not Saints Fifthly One thing yet remaineth by way of preface which is the difference between this and the other Gospells which lieth especially in two things First whereas the three former Evangelists insist especially upon things done by Christ after John was cast into Prison and so principally relate the acts of Christ in the last year of his Ministry St. John taketh in here the acts of his two former years what Christ did and what Christ said before John was cast into Prison which the other touch but sparingly upon Secondly whereas the other Evangelists insist mainly upon what Christ did Saint John relateth especially what Christ said They are much more large in recording his Miracles John in recording his Sermons and Prayers as Chap. 15. Some Miracles indeed he relateth to us but they are such as wake may either for his Discourse with the Disciples or for his disputation with his Adversaries So still he seemed more to take notice of what Christ said then what he did I now prepare you to be attentive for I begin to close with the first Chapter and with these first words of the Chapter which are of so great importance That as I told you before they had a most extraordinary force upon Junius his spirit and besides upon one Numenius a Heathen Philosopher That falling upon this Gospell cried out in a kind of indignation This Barbarian saith he for so the Greeks call the Jews hath concluded more in a few lines than our great Philosophers have in all their Books He was so taken with the mystery of these words For they are words which the most quick-sighted Christian can be hardly able to see through And throughout I shall indeavour to make it as plain as God shall inable me Onely ye must not take it amisse if some things shall be left obscure Augustine saith I will not defraud those that are able to understand for fear of being irksome to them that are not able Do but think your selves at a feast When many guests are invited to a feast They are of severall Constitutions and like severall dishes But now Shall a man that seeth such a dish before him to which he hath no stomack presently rise from the Table No he will perhaps think with himselfe Other men may like this dish So it should be taken here Suppose something be too hard for thee it may perhaps be clear to another Paul is a debtor to the wise and to the unwise therefore let none arise and goe away but let every man expect his portion Do you hope that whatsoever difficult passages there are in the Scriptures yet there will be some full of Light and Comfort To close then with the first verse In the beginning was the Word and the Word was Text. with God and the Word was God YE have here the Subject and the Predicate which are laid down in three Propositions The subject in every proposition is the same the Word And there are in these three propositions three things predicated of this Word First an eternall existency and that in the first Proposition The Word was in the beginning Secondly a Personall Co-exsistency of Christ with the Father The Word was with God namely as a distinct person from God That is the second Proposition Thirdly a divine Essence The Word was God a distinct Person indeed therefore said to be with God but of the same Nature therefore said to be God Mysteries have more need of Adoration than Locution The first thing we are to understand is a discourse of the Subject of these three Propositions The Word And for the clearing of that three Quaeries we shall resolve First what Person is here meant by the Word Quarie 1 I answer clearly The second Person in the Trinity Of Respon whom ye shall find him called not onely by St. John Christ is called the Word by Iohn but by St. Luke and Paul too Jesus Christ is called by St. John The Word 1 John 5. 7. There are three that beare record in Heaven The Father the WORD the Holy Ghost Here the Word cometh in in the second place between the Father and the Holy Ghost to denote the second Person Revel 19. 13. He was cloathed in a vesture dipt in Blood and His Name is called the Word of God Neither is John the onely man that calleth Him so though by the way St. John himselfe above all the Apostles got the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John the
Pulpit but him that speaketh from Heaven which is Christ himself according to what we read Heb. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven Christ speaketh from Heaven in every Sermon wherein truth is delivered unto you He saith to the drunkard from Heaven Become sober and to the wanton he saith from Heaven Become chaste to the unbeliever Lay hold on Christ It is said from Heaven when it is said from the Pulpit If men will go on in sin in spight of Heaven God will confound them in spight of the world they must to Hell in spight of the world Though hand joyn in hand they shall not go unpunished If men will not hear him speak on earth they must not expect to have him to hear when they would have Heaven That is the third thing Christ is called the word in reference to the word uttering because he is the substance of all his Father's Revelations and Promises Let us therefore learn from hence to grow in the knowledge of what we read and whatsoever we hear from the word of God because he is the substance of all Thus take any Scripture gage it and you will find Christ in the bottom of it If it be a Precept it leadeth you to Christ for strength to perform it If it be a Threat it leadeth you to Christ for grace to escape it If it be a Promise it clearly conveyeth Christ In him all the promises are Yea and Amen and therefore called Pretious promises not that they have any more price in them of themselves than any other Truths have but pretious promises That is a pretious Box that hath a rich Jewell in it Every Promise is pretious that hath Christ in more latitude than other places of Scripture have Therefore let us labour to find Christ in every one The old World had but one Promise for a great many years together from Adam to Abraham we read but of one Promise which God made to Adam in Paradise and yet Adam a holy man and Enoch a holy man and yet but one Promise Now we that have so many Promises cannot we find Christ in some of them to rely upon Having therefore these promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves Let us seek for Christ and Cleansing in the Promises I have done now with the Subject of these three Propositions The Word The first thing that is predicated of the Word is that Propositi ∣ on 1 which we meet with in the first Proposition namely His eternall Existency In the beginning was the word The other Evangelists especially Matthew and Luke they have spoken fully of the temporall Generation of Christ So Matthew beginneth The book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David the son of Abraham Now John whose aim was to insist upon those things that concern the Divinity of Christ he beginneth with his Eternall Generation In the Beginning was the Word Beginning and was saith Basil these two terms are like two Anchors which the ship of a man's soul may safely ride at come what storms will come None of those Heresies that deny the Divinity of Christ shall be able to shame that man that layeth hold upon these In the beginning and Was. There was a Beginning when other things received their Beeing I but Christ was in that Beginning and so before the things had received their Beeing Much ado there is amongst Interpreters to little purpose to find out severall senses of this word Beginning I will not trouble you with them That of Mark will clearly give you the meaning of it In the beginning of the Creation of God Mar. 13. 19. Such as was not from the beginning of the Creation which God created Here is the thing clear The beginning of the Creation that God created is the same that Moses meaneth Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth It is something remarkable that Moses with whom God spake face to face and John the Evangelist who lay in Christ's bosome should both of them have one Exordium In the beginning saith Moses and In the beginning saith John It is thought that John doth allude to Moses onely with this clear difference Moses speaking of the Creation of the World saith In the beginning God made heaven and earth He speaks of a World that was made John speaking of a Word that was not made saith In the beginning was the word He doth not say He was made as if Christ were a creature but when all other creatures were made Christ was Christ had a Beeing when they did but begin to be therefore he was before them That which was in the beginning must needs be eternall Why Why because before the creatures began to be there was nothing but God What was before the Beginning Let that be the question Quest It will lead you into the Abysse of Eternity what may Answ be before the Creation Here Faith may enter into the darknesse of Eternity where it may lose it self and can see nothing but God before all and God after all and God in all Before the Creation nothing but God Christ was before the Creation when they began to be he was Therefore Christ was Eternall there was no beginning before that Indeed there was God before the Creation but God hath no beginning Though there be principium ordinis there is not principium temporis as the Father first and The Father Son and holy Ghost Eternall Son secondly and the holy Ghost the third Here is principium ordinis Order but no Time wherein the Father Son or holy Ghost began to be So Christ was in the beginning had a beeing then There was no beginning till the Creation Therefore Christ was from all Eternity This may be confirmed with more strength because the holy Ghost throughout the Scripture when he would expresse Eternity useth to do it thus Such a thing was before the world that is it was Eternall Psal 90. 1 2. Lord thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations Before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the earth or the world from everlasting to everlasting thou art God How proveth he that Because he was before the Mountains or Earth was made Christ was before the world therefore God from everlasting to everlasting Joh. 17. 5. Now O Father glorifie thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was That is from Eternity Take a clear place for those that clearly apprehend Christ to be meant by Wisdom as undoubtedly He is Prov. 8. 22. and so forward to the 30 verse a place to which our Evangelist is thought to have alluded here and it is fully parallel where Wisdom saith The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his waies Just as in the
the Creatures as it were by these severall stages and let our affections goe on as God went on in working Fourthly But six dayes De Posse God might have done 4. To see how great things God can do in a short time it in a moment But defacto he did it in six dayes We see how great a thing God can do in a short time That which men and Angells could not have done though he had given them a thousand millions of years to have perfected it Thirteen years was Solomon a building the first Temple And forty yeares were the Jews a building the second Temple Here in six dayes Heaven and Earth and Sea and All things therein are made Therefore trust God be thou never so low in thy estate or name or body or Soul He that raised the World out of nothing in six dayes how soon is he able to raise thee to a Competencie of these things Lastly Six dayes and no more God cast it so as we may 5. To limit us a time of working think on purpose to limit us a time of working and a time of resting He himself wrought six dayes and rested the seaventh day from all his works To teach us That we should have six dayes to labour in and keep the seaventh as a Sabbath Levit. 23. 3. Six dayes shalt thou labour but the seaventh day is the Sabbath of rest an holy Convocation ye shall do no work therein It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings That is the third thing Ye have heard what these All-things are In what order they were made And in what space of time they were created See now next In what manner they were created Fourthly In what manner were they made They were made by the sole word of God without instruments 4. In what manner without materialls meerly by the word of Command Psal 148. 5 6. Praise him ye Heaven of heavens and ye waters that be above the Heavens let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created He hath established them for ever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not passe You read of no Instruments Solomon could not make a Temple but he must have a thousand of Tools God doth but speak the word and the earth was made You read of no materials out of which he made the world What can men make if you give them nothing to work upon Let a Smith have Iron and a Mason Stone and they can make some Work but here God maketh all out of Nothing saith the Apostle Heb. 11. 3. Through faith we Understand that the World was framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear Briefly God made Something of Nothing and then out of that Something made All things as one well expresseth it That which Gen. 1. is called the earth and the water and the deep that first matter it was made out of meer nothing There is something out of nothing and then out of that first-Matter were all things framed There is all things out of something so as mediately or immediately all the Creatures come out of Nothing There is Non-ens negativum And so the first matter commeth out of nothing There is Non-ens privativum And so the other things they came out of that which is Non-ens tale a thing that had no naturall disposition to receive such a form And here is the omnipotency of God seen in both For it requires as much power to produce such and such formes as to produce that God Omnipotent in the Creation first matter out of Nothing and yet This God hath done And this should teach us both Obedience and Humility The consideration of the manner of making all things He made them all by his word Who are we that we should disobey the word of God which every Creature was framed by It is a shame for a man to be the worst thing in his house All the World is a house made for Man and man approveth himself the worst thing in the World if he disobey the Word of God Fire Haile Ice Snow fulfill thy Word saith the Psalmist He did but say Let there be light and the light presently shined How many words have we had Ten words of the Law as the Ten Commandements all comprized in two Words under the Gospell Repent and Believe and how many are unbelieving and disobedient still The Creatures cast shame upon us in this particular As they were made without Instruments by a sole word of Command so they were made of Nothing This should take down our Pride shall we be proud of the Creature That is to be proud of Nothing Proud of our parts or gifts Who art thou the Son of Adam vvho is Adam the Son of dust What is that dust The Son of nothing All resolveth it self into Nothing And certainly he that hath brought something out of nothing can quickly reduce our something to nothing again if we begin to be proud of it As he did the parts and power of Nebuchadnezzar when he took away his understanding and turned him to eat grasse with the beasts of the field Some thing ye have heard about the Things and the Order and the Manner and the Time Fiftly See now the End for which all things were made 5. To what end Solomon telleth you in one word That they were all made for the glory of God Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself The Heavens declare the glory of God The firmaments shew his handy works Therefore this is the great improvement we should make of all the things that are made to read something of God in them And this is a duty that lyeth especially upon man Man as he is the most considerable part of the visible World so the only Creature that can consider the rest and it lyeth as a more strong engagement upon him to Glorifie God above all because no visible Creature can do it if man deny it And it lyeth as a more strong obligation upon Ministers to Preach the Word because Regularly none but they can Preach And also upon Kings to govern and Merchants to trade because none can govern none can trade in such things as they No none but Men can consider and praise God for what he hath done in the World Therefore every man should look at this great book of the Creature as that which is written all over with something of God Beloved There is many a man cast away for not reading when he is put to this book a Non legit here may destroy a man for not reading the book of the Creature Though some of us take it but for a morall fault Observe that Psal 28. 5. Because they regarded not the works of the Lord nor the operation of his hands he shall destroy them and not build them up Why Should God set before
the World and the World was made by Him and the World knew him not Ye have here the World in another sense The world in the beginning of the verse is taken for the whole Fabrick of Heaven and Earth as Aristotle saith The World is a Masse made up of Heaven and Earth In this sense it is said He was in the World the World was made by Him Now in the latter Clause of the verse The world knew Him not The World there is put for the Inhabitants of the earth for the men of the World Rom. 5. 12. The World and Men are all one By one man's disobedience sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed over all-Men Here is the World and all men The world was made by Him and the world that is the men of the world knew him not It is a Rule in Divinity Verba Cognitionis affectiones important c. Words of knowledge import affections and operate suitably So to know carrieth more then meer speculation When Christ is said to know us The Holy Ghost telleth us It is more then barely to take notice of us It is to take care for us Joh. 10. 14. Christ knoweth his sheep that is he taketh care of his Elect. And he is known of his that is He is served and obeyed and worshipped and believed on by them So the world knew him not that is the World worshipped him not as God The world did not owne Him and serve Him as became their Creator So as now the words thus opened The observation lieth clear before us namely That notwithstanding Christ's Observ being in the world and the world being made by Him the men of the world knew him not Take a place or two to clear up this especially in reference to the Gentiles for to them properly it belongeth I should have told you that the word World is sometimes confined to them If the fall of them be the diminishing of the world and the fall of them the riches of the Gentiles He came to his owne and his owne received him not That is did not know him 1 Joh. 2. 1. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew not him There is yet a clearer place 1 Cor. 1. 21. After that in the wisdome of God the world by wisdome knew not God All the wisdome the Heathens had could not raise them to a due knowledge of God The world by wisdome knew not God Christ was in the world but the world knew him not A threefold ignorance of Christ was found in all the Gentiles First They knew him not as the second person in the Trinity Secondly They knew him not as Mediator Thirdly They knew him not as Creator which is properly here spoken to He made the world and the world knew him not Let me run over these briefly first They knew him not 1. The Gentiles knew not Chtist as the second Person in the Trinity as the second person in the Trinity so they are said to have been without Christ and without God in the world Ephes 2. 12. speaking there of the Gentiles saith he At that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the World They had the great book of the Creatures to read but that did shew them nothing of Christ as the second person in the Trinity Naturall reason could never find out that Mystery in it selfe Therefore men when they go to find out this great mystery of the Trinity they are at their wit's end They might find out a God and that he was Good and Great and that he was One but to find out a Trinity of Persons a Father Son and Holy Ghost This they could not Take a curious piece a well drawn Picture he that seeth it may be able to say that he that drew it was a skilfull and exact Painter But whether an English man or a Spaniard or a Dutch man or an Italian that he cannot tell by the Picture why because he made this piece as an Artist but not as a German or English man Therefore he discovereth his Art by the piece but not his Country So God made the World not as Father Son and Holy Ghost Three in one and one in three All the works towards the Creatures works ad Extra are common to all the persons in the Trinity God as God made the world Therefore by the sight of the world men may be able to know that it is a God that made it and that this God is good because he made so many things useful in the world this God is wise because of the variety of the creatures and this God is One because of the order of things But to say This God is Three in One the Creation of the world doth not bear this If the works be ad Intra as Generation these are the works of some one Person but the works ad extra they represent the Godhead but not the Persons Secondly They did not know Christ as Mediator therefore 2. They knew not Christ as Mediator they raised up many Mediators 1 Cor. 8. 5 6. Though there be that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth as there be gods many and lords many But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him The Apostle doth here clearly allude to the custom of the Heathens who had two sorts of gods they had their dii Coelestes their supream heavenly gods which they worshipt as the Sun Moon and Stars and then besides these they had their dii Terrestres inferiour gods gods on earth who were men that lived upon the earth which were afterwards canonized and made gods That is the true meaning of this There be many that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth So there be gods many and lords many gods many those are their supream gods lords many those are their inferiour gods Baalim as they called him who was the first King of Babel and the first that was made a god and all those kinds of gods therefore after him were called Baalim as Caesar being the first Emperour all Emperours after him were called Caesars Now saith the Apostle To us is but one God not many but one Lord not many but one Mediator Christ Jesus Thirdly They knew him not as Creator therefore Paul 3. They knew not Christ as Creator when he came to Athens found them ignorant of this Greece was the Eye of the world and Athens was the Eye of Greece yet even at Athens Paul found an Altar To an unknown God and that same God was the God that made the world God the Creator Act. 17. 23 24. saith Paul For as I passed by and beheld your devotions I found an Altar with this inscription
ΘΕἈÎΘΡΩΠΟΣ OR God-Man BEING AN EXPOSITION Upon the first Eighteen verses of the first chapter of the Gospel according to St JOHN Wherein is most Accurately and Divinely handled the Divinity and Humanity of Jesus Christ proving him to be God and Man Coequall and Coeternall with the Father To the confutation of severall Heresies both Ancient and Modern By that Eminently Learned and Reverend Divine JOHN ARROWSMITH D. D. Late Master of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge and Professor of Divinity there The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before the works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was Prov. 8. 22 23. Quid est Deus Mens universi Quid est Deus Quod vides totum et quod non vides totum Sic demum Magnitudo sua illi redditur quia nihil majus excogitari potest Si solus est omnia opus suum extrà et intrà tenet Seneca London Printed for Humphrey Moseley and William Wilson and are to be sold at the Prince's Armes in St Paul's Church-yard and in Well-yard neer St Bartholomew's Hospitall 1660. TO THE READER WHat was said to the highest praise and Commendations out of the mouth of Truth it selfe concerning John the Baptist John 5. 35. may not unfitly be spoken of the Learned Authour of this mysterious Treatise That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He was a burning and a shining Light who by his indefatigable and unwearied studie in the sublime mysteries of the Gospel did spend and waste himself to the socket and utmost end of his last breath to explicate the darkest places of the sacred Scriptures that he might give light to others in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And though this Piece be a Posthumus yet it speaketh the living praise of its departed Authour And cannot but discover its selfe to be the product of so holy and learned a Divine as the Author was The matter it selfe declareth the excellencie of his worth and the largenesse of his capacity in the right apprehending and dividing of the word of truth to the confuting of heresies and damnable errors It may well be said of him as of Athanasius of old Maluit sedem quà m fidei syllabam mutare He had while he was rather have lost whatsoever profits and preferments were cast upon him than to have altered or forsaken the least syllable or Iota of his Christian-faith who after he had fought a good fight kept the faith and finished his course with joy is accepted into glory Our losse and the Churches deprivation of him became his gain his advantage For the Prophets doe not live for ever Zach. 1. 5. which may give us just occasion to wish Jeremiah's wish Oh that our heads were full of water and our eyes fountaines of teares that we might weep day and night for the Prophets that are taken away from us And amongst them for this Prophet of whom I may say the Poets words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he was one of a Thousand With what diligence and with what studie and paines with what good conscience with what integrity and uprightnesse he did carry himselfe in the constant course of his life those that were most intimate with him cannot but testifie All that knew any thing of him knew the truth of all His manner of Preaching did shew indefatigable great pains and labour being one of the most hard courses that could be undergone which was by way of Paraphrase and Explication of the most mysterious and obscure Texts of the Sacred Scriptures Great dexterity good judgement and profound and admirable learning were everywhere manifested in his Ministry He was noted in the Vniversity for one of prime wit and sharp conceipt plain in the delivery of the word yet so that any one might discern there was both judgement much learning and wisdome mixt therewith He had a soul that aspired after much more than so weak and sickly a body was able to undergoe He put forth his strength beyond his strength to doe good Even as a Taper that doth wast it self to give light to others so did he exhaust himself strengh and vitall parts to give light to all Nothing made him for some time before his death to give off his Ministry but weakness disability of body So that he must have this testimony that he did service to God and his Church as long as God would have him to do service to him on earth And many have cause to weep though not for him who is now translated to glory yet for themselves in the loss of so faithfull and carefull a dispencer of the word of God I dare say no more lest while I indeavour to declare his worth and dignity I should do him wrong Had he lived to have supervised this work no question but it would have passed his hand with more politenesse and authority I now desire thee not only to read but throughly to weigh and consider the worth and excellency of the heavenly matter contained therein That that God that causeth light to shine out of darknesse may cause the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to shine in all our hearts more more to the perfect day Which at the Throne of grace shall be continually prayed for by him that is Thine in the Lord T. A. ΘΕἈÎΘΡΩΠΟΣ OR GOD made MAN JOHN 1. ver 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God ANcient Records tell us That before the first Writing of this Book The Churches of God set upon the Work of Fasting and Prayer by the Appointment of St. John That so they might seek Divine assistance How much more need have I at this time to beg your Prayers before I begin and all the while I shall continue to expound this Glorious Gospell It is therefore my hearty and humble request to you all that your Prayers may neither be denied nor sparingly put up for me That as Augustine pray'd for himselfe in reference to the whole Scriptures Domine sint Castae deliciae meae Scripturae Sanctae Lord let thy holy Scriptures be my chast delight Nec fallar in iis nec fallam alios ex iis Let me neither be deceived in them nor let me deceive others out of them So that you would pray on my behalfe That I may neither my selfe be deceived in the mis-understanding of the sublime places of this Book not mis-guide you by giving you either false or impertinent Interpretations of them What progresse I shall make herein God onely knoweth But in the Confidence of His assistance not in mine owne strength which I acknowledge to be farre below many others I shall enter upon this first Chapter after I have premised by way of preface something concerning The Title of this sublime book The Writer The Occasion The Scope And likewise something concerning the Difference
between it and the other Three Gospells First for the Title It is a Gospell The Gospell according to St. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifieth Glad-tidings Salvation by Christ imparted gladdeth the heart good newes No tydings in the world so good as those that impart Salvation by Christ And that Message was never so clearely delivered as under the New Testament though under the Old it was but more obscurely Therefore though there were Gospell in the Old Testament yet yee do not find it called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Promises But in the New Testament this message goeth under a new name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 namely the Gospel Rom. 1. 1. Paul a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an Apostle separate to the Gospell of God The four first Books of the New Testament because they do most lively hold forth to you the History of Christ's Incarnation and Conversation and Passion and Resurrection and Ascension and his Sermons and Miracles Therefore they are called peculiarly by this name of Gospell All the other Books they do but inlarge and apply and illustrate these four Evangelists Even as all the Prophets under the Old Testament were but as so many Commentators upon Moses Now if it be lawfull to compare Scripture with Scripture for some kind of difference there is As in pieces of Gold though all be pure Gold yet some have a clearer stamp then others So all divine truths in Scripture are divine truths yet there is a clearer truth in some places then in others Therefore you Evangelium Sancti Iohannis est Evangelium Evangeliorum may call this of John The Gospell of Gospells as Solomon's Song was called the Song of Songs If it be lawfull to compare Scripture with Scripture He that brings glad Tydings we say He may knock at any man's door Here are glad Tydings indeed The Gospell what is that Certainly glorious things are spoken of Thee Oh Thou Gospell of God as he said of the City of God Glorious things c. It is called the Glorious Gospell of the Blessed God Such a phrase you have 1 Tim. 1. 11. according to the Glorious Gospell of the Blessed God which is committed to my trust It is called else where The Gospell of the Kingdome There is no coming to Heaven but by the Gospell Math. 4. 23. Preaching the Gospell of the Kingdome It is called the Gospell of Peace Rom. 10. 16. How beautifull are the feet of them that Preach the Gospell of peace and bring glad Tydings of good things It is called the Gospell of the Grace of God Acts 20. 24. That I might finish my Course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospell of the Grace of God Would you then have Glory or Peace or Grace or Kingdome listen then to the Gospell So much for the Title Secondly for the Writer of this Book The Pen-man of it It is John The Gospell according to John Matthew Mark Luke and John these four drew the Chariot in which Christ rid all the World over And amongst them four John hath a kind of preheminency The Ancients are wont to compare these four to those four beasts in Ezekiel Ezek. 1. 10. who had the faces of a Man of an Oxe of a Lyon and of an Eagle and they make John the Eagle because he soareth aloft more than all the rest in the Contemplation of Christ's Divinity The Eagle maketh his Nest on high as it is in Job The Eagle can do that which the other fouls of the aire are not able to do It can look upon the Sun in its highest beauty Behold the Eagle of the Gospell looking upon Christ in his Divine nature and expressing that more then all the other Evangelists They that are given to Divine speculation know the flight of this Eagle You that would be heavenly-minded listen to what John telleth you John John's Title whom the Lord loveth That is his Title There was leaning on Jesus Bosome one of his Disciples whom Jesus loved The likelier man to reveale secrets who was in the Bosome of Christ We are wont to communicate our secrets to our friends to those whom we love most You may expect to hear of Christs secrets from the Disciple whom Jesus loved And therefore saith Augustine John drew out of the bosome Christs secrets are revealed to his best beloved ones of Christ the very Heart of Christ what he was about to make known to the World The King sendeth a messenger to you and by his Favourite you expect to know the whole mind of the Prince because his Favourite is the messenger Here is the Disciple whom Christ loved And not onely so but John the Sonne of Thunder that is a true Title of his which onely he and his brethren shared in Mark 3. 17. James the sonne of Zebedee and John the brother of James He nameth them Boanerges which is the sonnes of Thunder to rowse men from security Here is Thunder in the Gospell So many Words so many Thunder-Claps John was now to deal with desperate Heretiques That denied the Divinity of Christ and here is Thunder for them enough to affright them all Junius was not able to stand Junius how converted before the force of this Thunder-clap He himselfe telleth us That in his youth he was given to Atheism and drowned in Cursed principles and the first thing that brought him to the Knowledge of a God was the beginning of this Chapter of John He cast his eyes upon these words and professed that he was not himselfe of a long time after he sâ—w so much Majesty therein beyond all humane Rhetorick that he was not himselfe of a long time after This Junius that Translated the Bible speaketh of himselfe There is a mistake amongst people as if there were no powerfull preaching but that which is Clamorous preaching As if the goodnesse of a mans Sermon were to be made out of the goodnesse of his Longues and not out of the matter by the goodnesse of the delivery and not by the sublimity of the Doctrine Here is John the meekest of the Disciples the most beloved Disciple of them all a Man of a meek spirit as we read in his Story yet this John hath something of Thunder in him How By the effect of his Doctrine not by the height of his voyce As it is said of Pericles a great and famous Orator in Athens He Thundered and ratled in his speech And so John in his Doctrine the sonne of Thunder in that respect Thirdly you must Consider the occasion of John's writing this Gospell When the Pastor was absent the Wolves broke in upon the Flock When John was banished into Patmos by Domitian Ebion and Cerinthus and other Heriticks The reasons why the Gospel of Iohn was written there were that denied the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and this