that is none other wise than a kinges sonne shuld do To our purpose Kinges and Princes haue their glorie and their maiestie semelie for their state the Lorde Iesus had glorie semelie for Goddes sonne ¶ THE ONLY BEGOTTEN This word auanceth the Lorde Iesus aboue al creatures and teacheth him to be Goddes natural son We ar also called Goddes sonnes but that is by adoption by fauor by grace not by natural generation By natural generation God hath one only sonne who of his goodnes mercie hath made vs partakers of that that he is by nature This word only begotten ought wel to be weighed For it teacheth the Lorde Iesus to be of the same substance that the father is of and and therefore verie God and aequal to the father For these thinges hange together folow one another For our Euāgelist teacheth in the .5 chap. that whan the lorde Iesus saied God was his father he mēt patera idion his awne father that is his natural father therefore shewed him selfe aequal to God For it foloweth in dede that if God be his awne father that is to saie his father by natural generation he must nedes be aequal to God his father For in the Godhead there is nothinge greater or smaller He that is of Goddes substāce must nedes be God And he that is God must nedes be infinite aboue al measure greatnes So to be Goddes ōly begottē sonne God to be his awne father bothe which wordes this Euāgelist hath of the lorde Iesus ovthroweth al that maie be diuised by anie rauīge braine against his tru natural godhead Yet the Arrians lille out theyr blasphemous tounges stil francticly allege the scriptures for them For first thei iangle that it is writtē in this gospel the father is greater thā I. Wherevnto first I saye that one place of this gospel is not to be expouned agaīst the hole purpose of the boke which is to teach that the lorde Iesus is Goddes natural sonne aequal to God And sith the Euangelist hath this worde aequal plainly and expressely thei shew themselues mad that wold make him to encoūtre agaīst himselfe Secōdly I saie that in that place the lorde Iesus compareth not his substance with the fathers substāce but compareth his present hūble state with the glorious state that he shulde haue after his ascēsion And therefore al the godlie old fathers welnigh haue taught those wordes to be spoken of his mānes nature which shuld be forth with aduaūced to immortal incorruptible glorie by the power of the father Some greke writers in dede admitte that the father is greater thē the sonne not bicause he hath greater power or that there is anie differēce in their substāce essence but in that he is the father and begetteth the sonne and is not begottē of the sonne therefore he maie be saide greater The meaninge also of those wordes the father is greater than I maie be this The ende why I trauaile with you is not that you shuld staie in me and loke no farther but to bringe you to the father as to the last marcke that with me you maie see him as he is Whose glorie is more dere to me thā is myn awne glorie therefore I seke it more thā myne awne I thincke that I haue not accomplished myne office vntil I haue brought you to him But our Arriās sith they be ouer the shoues sticke not blindly to presse forwarde to goe ouer the bootes to For thei rūne to this place writtē to the Cor. chap. 15. Whā al thinges shal be made subiecte to him thā shal the sonne also him selfe be assubiected to him who hath assubiected al thinges to him But what if we aūswere that that also is spokē touchinge his mānes nature For the same autor S. Paule in the .2 to the Philip. teacheth that touchinge his diuine nature he thought it no robberie to be aequal with God Naie saie they for than he shuld not haue saide shal be assubiected for that nature is al readie subiecte Wil they graūt than that the lorde Iesus hath a nature that is not now subiecte to God but shal be hereafter If they wil graūt that thā wil I saie that what so euer is not now subiecte to God in the lorde Iesus shal nev be subiecte to God For that that is once aequal to God shal euer be aequal to God How than is it saide that his mānes nature shal be assubiected if it be al readie assubiected I aunswere bicause we shal thā know it which now we beleue only For as S. Augustine proueth in the holie scripture thinges are saide to be don whā they beginne to be knowē of vs. As whan we saie halowed be thy name Goddes name of it selfe is holie but we desire that it maie be so knowen to vs. For fuller vndrestandinge of that place of Sainct Paule ye shal considre that al power is giuen to Christ in that he is clothed with mānes nature For God hath exalted him in the same nature wherein he was humbled The scripture than witnesseth that Christ hath ful dominion and raigneth ouer heauen and erth God in dede is our gouernor but it is in the face of Christes mānes nature Now Christ shal surrēdre the kingdom that was giuen vnto him that we maie cleaue perfectly to God Howbeit he shal not by that meanes vtterly giue vp his kingdō where of as the scripture teacheth there is no ende but he shal as it were conueie it from his manhod to his godhead For thā we shal haue an opē entree free accesse to the diuine maiestie where now our weaknes wil not suffre vs to approche Christ thā shal this waie be subiected to the father for thā the veale shal be taken awaie the office of his mediation shal some waie cease we shal se God face to face raignīge in his glorie without anie coueringe meane And where sainte Paule saieth that God maie be al in al some thincke he speaketh so bicause we shal haue than without anie meane manie cōmodities which god now ministreth vnto vs by creatures For mainteināce of our life we shal than haue no nede of bread drincke c. nether for aedifyinge shal we haue nede of the sacramentes of the church nor the outwarde worde of the scripture nor ecclesiastical offices For God by him selue shal be al in al. Other teache the meanīge of those wordes to be that the flesh shal couet no more against the spirite but God shal possesse euerie parte of vs and reigne in vs fully and perfectly which thinge in this life is only begonne Here I wil leaue the Arrians stickinge in the mire wil returne to S. Iohā FVL of grace and veritee Bicause that afterwarde he setteth grace veritee against the law there be that thinke that his meaninge is here that the Apostles acknowleged him to be Goddes sonne by this that he
⧠AN EXPOSITION OF A PARTE OF S. Iohannes Gospel made in sondrie readinges in the English Congregation by Bartho Traheron and now published against the wicked entreprises of new sterte vp Arrians in Englande He that beleueth in me beleueth not in me but in him that sent me And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me Iohan. 12. ¶ Imprinted Anno. 1557. ✚ TO MY MOST DERE SISTER ELISABETH P. THINCKE not to much good sister what you haue had but considre what you haue remembre not what you haue ben some tymes in the worldes eies but what you be now in goddes eyes Lamente not that you lost but ioie in that you haue founde Whan you were high you were surely low now that you ar low you ar surely high Let this sincke in to your minde that if wordlye thinges had not ben taken from you you shuld shortely haue bē taken from them and perchaunce if they had not ben so drouned they wold haue drouned you before death had remoued you from them If no aduersite had assailed you you had ben a ded sea and the patiēce other singular vertues which now shine in you had ben quenched ether in your selfe vtterly or touchynge the knowlege of anie other vnfrutefully And therefore Seneca truly saide that that person is verye miserable who neuer felt anie miserie The world ment to impouerishe you but God hath enryched you The world wold depresse you but God hath aduaūced you The world thought to ouerwhelme you with heauines but God hath filled you with tru ioies The world labored to staine you with infamie but God hath made your name both cleare and pure and also to sende forth a pleasant odor amonge his saītes You haue not thā lost somuch as you haue founde Only beware for the tyme to cūme for more remaineth to be laied vpon you for a farther trial Yea I know that Circe the sorceresse hath al readie wil more here after allure you with hir enchaunted cuppe But let not the swetenes of the cuppes lippes and the pleasantnes of the poison begile you Rather chose to drinke the lordes cuppe which though it haue a bitter tast in the first draught yet in the ende purging corrupte and noisome humors it maketh a pure and cleane bodie You know that as goddes goodnes hath made you my natural sister so his wrath hath giuen to vs both and to the rest of our brethern and sistern an vnnatural stepmother How vnmercifully and cruelly she hath delt with vs and how sharpely she hath whipt vs you can remembre and if she beginne now to smile vpon you she meaneth the more mischeife Take hede good sister a stepmother wil euer be a stepmother Giue yourselfe ernestly to readinge of the holie scriptures Holde fast the doctryne that our holye brother and eldest saue one religiously mainteined whom our stepdame laboreth to deface I trust in vaine Flie aswel al idolatrical as al Anabaptistical straūge opinions To which ende I haue dedicated this my litle trauaile vnto you as to my derest sister whom I most desire to be preserued pure and spotles in euerye parte I am not ignorāt that the better you shal be sincerer in treu religiō the more you shal anger our stepdames testie harte and the les fauor you shal finde in your iust requestes But I haue more regarde to the welth of your soule thā to the welth of your bodye And therefore I haue sent you this preseruatiue which our stepdame if she were as she can pretende shuld take in good parte But so that she maye liue in hir babilonical whoredome and droncken lustes and swille in the wine of Aegyptes errors I perceaue she passeth not much how other thinges goe Lift you vp your mindes eyes and beholde the glorious face of the lorde Iesus while our stepmothers eyes ar daseld with the glisteringe vaine glorie of the world toteth al daye in the deceaueable painted face of a monstruous man triple in head and double in herte O that she might be made better but see that you in the meane while be nor made worsse by hyr Let the frute of my worste parte that is with you see the frute of my better parte Commende me to him whom lawes permitte you to love to whō god graūte in heauen that he seketh in erth The lorde Iesus guide you euer with his holie spirite my entierly biloued Your Bro. Bartho Traheron THE FIRST READING I HAVE chosen this parte of the holie scripture wherein to trauail with you at this time bicause thorough goddes great wrath against sinne and the most despiteful malice of Satan against the truth the olde hainous heresie of the vngodlie Arrians is renued in our coūtree and as it were raised vp againe from hel These cankerd old Arrians that you maie undrestāde their heresie spake blasphemously of the godhead of our Lorde Iesus For the first autor of it Arrius vttered erroniously vngodly in the scoles of Alexandria in Aegypte that there was a time whā goddes sonne was not By which wordes he ment that he was not of the same beinge and substāce that the father is of nor of the fame aeternitie and so not the natural sonne of God and verie God in dede but an excellent creature of God whereby God made al thinges as by ā instrumēt as he him selfe opened in farther declaration of his mīde For he graūted that the Lorde Iesus was the first and cheifest creature the beginninge of al other creatures and gaue him also the name of God Howbeit he thought not that he had his Godhed by nature but by borowinge For trial of this matter the most noble and godlie Emperor Constātine the great called a general concile at Nice of thre hundred and eightene bishoppes of whom manie for singular lerninge and eloquence manie for great holines of life were compted worthie of euerlastinge remēbrance In this famous cōcile it was cōcluded out of the holie scriptures that goddes sonne is of the same aeternitee of the same substance essence beinge that God the father is goddes natural sonne and coaequal with the father as it appeareth in the Crede communely called the Nicene Crede Whereunto the hole assemble agreed and subscribed sauinge these fiue Eusebius bishoppe of Nicomedia Theognis bishoppe of Nice Maris bishoppe of Calchedon Theognis bishoppe of Marmarike and Secundus bishoppe of Ptolemais Which fiue bishoppes for their vngodlines by the emperors commaundement were banished out of their coūtrees But sone after their exile Eusebius and Theognis repented that thei had don so vnaduisedly and sent a boke of repentance to the godlie bishoppes wherin they vsed these wordes We haue agreed to the faith and after we had made inquisition of the meaninge of this worde cōsubstantial we were throughly quieted And in dede we claue not to the haeresie yea we subscribed to the faith but we subscribed not to the excommunication Not that we reproue the faith but we
cōprehēde with their litle wittes But we must cōsidre that god is best knowē yea only knowē to him selfe we must thinke him to be such as he hī selfe hath opened vnto vs that he is not such as we cā imagine him or cōprehēde him Now he hath taught vs that there is one god the father the sonne the holie gost That the father is god the sonne is god the holie gost is god yet not three goddes but one god Three distinctions three proprietes as the good fathers speake three persones to be in the godhead he him selfe hath taught vs by his special instrumētes sent by him in to the world to teach the assured truth And it foloweth not in dede herevpon that there be three goddes For these three haue one substāce if it be lawful to vse that terme in this matter one essence one beinge I graūte it shuld folow that there were three goddes if they were three sondrie diuided substances But now the substāce and essence is one and they differ not therein they differ only in proprietes and persons This is the proprietee of the father that he is the foūtaine head springe of al begetteth his sonne This is the propriete of the sonne that he shineth from the father issueth and springeth out of him and is begottē of him This is the proprietee of the holie gost that he procedeth from the father and the sonne If anie mā wil aske how this trinitee can bein ā vnitee ā vnitee in a trinitee the same declareth that he wil not be satisfied vntil he haue ētred in to the secretes of god and know al that is in god and be as wise as god and comprehēd that that is infinite and vnmeasurable within the smal compasse of his franticke head and so in dede shew him selfe to raue and to be more mete to be placed in bedleem than in the companie of Christiane mē Whan god hath once clarely and certaīly saied it it is our parte to thincke it to be as he hath saide it to be For surely it maie be it is whan he hath plaīly saide it though our reason cā nev reach it And that god hath said this with cleare wordes it shal most euidētly appeare out of S. Ioannes doctrine whā it shal be weighed For I doubte not but that we al acknowlege that what so S. Io. saieth god saieth And whā we know that god hath certaīly said it we wil beleue it though it seme neuer so much repugnant to reason For we refuse not al that is repugnāt to reason but whā the same is repugnant to goddes worde And to saie the truth this matter is not so much repugnāt to reason as it is aboue the reach of reason In the beginninge was the word The word was in the beginninge By the worde the euangeliste meaneth the secōde person in the holie trinitee namely our lorde Iesus Christ touchinge his diuine nature as it appeareth afterwarde whā he saieth the word became flesh Here we must cōsidre why goddes sonne is called a worde Aunciāt writers cōsidre a worde two waies For thei teach that there is an outwarde worde ā inwarde worde The outward word is that soūdeth passeth awaie The inwarde worde is the cōceipte of the herte which remaineth stil in the herte whā the soūd is past So thei saie that god hath an outwarde worde which is sounded pronounced writtē in bokes that he hath an inwarde worde which remaineth with in him selfe where of the outwarde worde is an image effecte frute This inwarde worde euer remaininge in him is called his sonne as the cōceipte of the herte maie be called the engēdred frute of the herte and the hertes childe Thei thincke also that he is called the worde of god bicause that as a worde is the image of mannes minde representeth it vnto vs so the Lorde Iesus is goddes image and most liuely representeth vnto vs his power his godhed and his wisedom For what so euer is in the father shineth in the sonne Some other thincke that the worde here is taken for a thinge after the hebrue maner of speakinge For the hebrues vse DABAR which signifieth a word for a thinge Whan Esaie the prophete asked kinge Ezechias what the Embassadors of Babilon had seē in his house he aunswered thus They saw al that was in myn house lo haiah dabar there was not a worde that is to saie anie one thinge that I shewed not vnto them in my treasures The prophete replieth Beholde the daies comme that what so euer is in thy house shal be takē awaye what so euer thy fathers haue laied vp in stoare vnto this daie shal be caried to Babilon lo ijvather dabar there shal not a worde remaine saieth the lorde that is to saie there shal not one thinge be left behinde The angel also in S. Luke whan the Virgine Marie meruailed how she shuld conceaue a childe without mannes helpe said vnto hir no worde shal be impossible vnto god that is no thinge shal be impossible for him to do So than after this understandinge S. Iohānes meaninge is that in the beginninge there was a diuine heauēlie thinge with god The greke vocable logos which S. Iohan. vseth hath sondrie significatiōs and amonge other beside cōmunicatiō and talke it signifieth reason and wisdō which singificacion agreeth ryght wel For Salomon calleth that thing wisdōe that was with God beefore the foundacion of the world was laied and that was Amō before him that is to saie as the Hebreues expoune the worde a director For by that wisdome God made all thinges and doeth all thinges as it is there expressed by me kinges raigne Princes enacte righteousnes c. Surely in my minde S. Iohn hath respect to the first cha of Genesis and openeth the same vnto vs. For Moses saith not simply that God made all thynges of noughte but that he spake and made thinges that is to saie that he made all thinges by his worde By the worde than I vnderstande Goddes vertue and power wherby he hath opened and as it were set abrode himselfe in makynge all thinges in preseruing maintaining thē in their state finally in repairing restoring and renuing them being decaied thorough sinne For as a worde vttereth and bringeth forth that that is in the hearte so by this woorde this power vertue of god is vttered brought forth and sette abrode that laie hydden in god before So that I thinke that he is called goddes worde both bicause he is gods wysdome and gods image represētyng all that is in the father and also because he is the secrete vertue and power of God wherby god vttereth shewethe oute and sendeth foorth that is in hym namely hys might and wisedome in making all thinges his goodnes in preseruing them and his mercy indeclaring to mortal men his wil and pleasure and in recouering and sauing them being