explains the Words of the Psalmist when he saith God hath rais'd up Jesus again Acts 13.33 as it is also written in the Second Psalm Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee and he may from hence be fitly term'd as he is the first-born from the dead and the first-fruits of them that slept yet he can no more be call'd the Only-begotten Son of God for this Reason than the First-born of a numerous Issue can be said to be all the Children or the First-fruits the whole Crop For it is evident from many Places of Scripture that the Church shall be also rais'd to a Glorious State and those very Terms the First-born and the First-fruits are us'd to assure us of it and on this Account they are call'd the Children of God by our Blessed Saviour who saith Luke 20.35 36. They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more For they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God being the children of the resurrection Now what difference soever there was between the Perfections of Adam and Christ as Man or between the Glory he was rais'd to and that which the Saints shall have hereafter this cannot properly distinguish his Relation to God the Father from theirs For tho' a First-born who hath many Brethren should have a greater Inheritance than all of them and a Right of Dominion too as the Ancient Patriarchs had over the whole Family yet he cannot justly be call'd the Only Son for these or any other Advantages he might have above the rest Christ is therefore call'd the Son of God chiefly in respect of his Divine Nature and so the Ancient Jews understood this Term as it was applied to the Messias Therefore upon Occasion of Christ's calling God his Father it is said The Jews sought the more to kill him Joh. 5.18 because he not only had broken the Sabbath but said also that God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own or his proper Father making himself equal with God Jesus was now generally look'd upon as the profess'd Messias because John the Baptist had given a Publick Testimony concerning him which was confirm'd on all Occasions by his Disciples and had been confess'd by himself Therefore the Jews having a Notion of that Eminent Relation which the Messias had to God the Father as his Eternal Son when they heard our Saviour mention God as his Father put a very different Sense upon these Words from what they would have done from another Person and because they did not believe him to be the Christ they interpreted them to his Disadvantage For tho' they themselves were ready to say upon Occasion Joh 8.41 We have one Father even God yet they accounted such an Expression from our Saviour to be Blasphemy and attempted several times to put him to Death for it And this was the pretended Crime for which he was at last condemn'd For the High-Priest having not such Witness against him as he desired Mat. 26.63 c. put an Oath upon him to tell him whether he were the Christ the Son of God to which when our Saviour had intimated his Consent the High-Priest rent his cloaths saying he hath spoken blasphemy and asking the judgment of the council concerning it they all pronounced him to be guilty of death But the Disciples believing that he was the Christ did also acknowledge him to be the Son of God in the Sense before-mention'd in several Confessions which they made to him But I shall now only take notice of such as were attended with some Remarkable Circumstances which will help us to understand the Meaning of them When our Lord had done two Miracles together walking himself with Peter upon the Sea in a Tempest and causing the Wind to cease on the sudden Mat. 14.33 so soon as he was come into the ship the disciples and others that were with them came and worshipped him saying of a truth thou art the son of God By which Words it appears they acknowledg'd him to be God because they gave him Divine Worship at the same time And if they had committed a Mistake in these Things there is no question but our Saviour would have corrected it in them The like Adoration was also given to Christ by the Man who was born blind Joh. 9.38 so soon as he understood from him that he was the Son of God But nothing is more Remarkable to this Purpose than Martha her Confession who when our Saviour had ask'd her Joh. 11.25 c. whether she believ'd him to be the Resurrection and the Life that is that he could by his own Power raise Men from the Dead to Life again and that Faith in him would save them from Death and make them Partakers of Everlasting Life she answers him Yea Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of God which should come into the world So that this Confession did imply as much in her Opinion as that Christ was Omnipotent and the Great Object of a Divine and Saving Faith And in that she saith the Son of God which should come into the world this supposes it was formerly believ'd the Messias should be such a Person There are several other Testimonies in the Gospel to this Purpose but I shall add but one more from St. John himself which gives a great Confirmation to all the rest who speaking of the Signs which Jesus did saith These are written Joh. 20.31 that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name These Words Jesus is the Christ the Son of God are certainly meant of his being God as well as Man because many Signs done by him did plainly prove it And in this Chapter the Apostle mentions two of them namely our Saviour's Appearing two several times in a miraculous manner to his Disciples the latter of which Appearances drew that Confession from St. Thomas My Lord and my God And it is Remarkable that immediately after these Words and Christ's Answer to them the Apostle adds many other signs did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God which Words have no doubt a particular Respect to Thomas his Confession as those which follow have to our Saviour's Answer to him For Christ having said to Thomas Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed The Apostle tells us how far this Blessing goeth even to Eternal Life in these Words and that believing ye might have life through his name And indeed the Occasion of St. John's writing this Gospel and the Arguments that are every where contain'd in it do sufficiently
so many different Names of the same Person but Three Subsistences or Persons really distinct from one another 3. I shall shew what Relation they have to each other 4. I shall prove that these Three are One God 1. Every One of these is the Great and Most High God 1. The Father is so but I need not say any thing to prove this because it is acknowledged by those who deny the Trinity that all the Glorious Titles Perfections and Works of the Deity are attributed to him and that to him belongs Divine Honour and Worship from his Creatures That he is an Infinite and Eternal Being Glorious in Holiness and Fearful in Praises a God of all Power and Might Truth and Righteousness Wisdom and Goodness in a word that of Him and through Him and to Him are all Things Therefore I proceed 2. To speak of the Word or the Son who also is God in the same Sense with the Father as will abundantly appear to all unprejudiced Men from the Names by which he is call'd the Perfections ascrib'd to him the Works he is said to do and the Honour and Worship which all Intelligent Creatures are requir'd to give him in the Holy Scriptures 1. The Names he is called by as the Name of God Jehovah the Son of God and the Word The Name of God is very frequently given to Christ both in the Old and New Testament The Psalmist speaking of him Ps 49.6 says Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever and the Prophet Isaiah calls him the mighty God Isa 9.6 St. Thomas plainly owns his Divinity in these Words Joh. 20.28 My Lord and my God When St. Luke says of the Jews they stoned Stephen calling upon God Acts 7.59 and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit he teaches us that Jesus is the God he prayed to And St. Paul in exhorting the Elders of Ephesus to feed the Church of God Acts 20.28 which he hath purchased with his own Blood doth assure us that the same Person who shed his Blood for us upon the Cross is the God of the Church Rom. 9.5.1 Tim. 3.16.1 Joh. 5.20 This Apostle tells us also of Christ that he is over all God blessed for ever and that God was manifest in the Flesh And St. John affirms of him that he is the true God Now if it be said of one or two of these Places that the word God is not in some ancient Copy or Version this Omission might easily happen through the Mistake of a Transcriber and ought not to be accounted any Prejudice to those Places seeing they are entire in all other Copies And tho' some object that the Name of God is given to Magistrates in the Scripture and therefore doth not prove the Divinity of Christ they ought to see that it is applied to him after a very different manner and with such Distinctions as cannot belong to any Creature For what Christian durst ever call a Magistrate my God as St. Thomas calls our Saviour or say he is God blessed for ever or the true and mighty God as the Scripture terms him The Name Jehovah which is the incommunicable Name of the Great God is also given to him Those Words Psal 102.25 Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands are applied to Christ Heb. 1.10 and yet the same Person of whom they are spoken is called Jehovah no less than seven or eight times in that Psalm The Prophet Isaiah speaking of Christ and his Forerunner saith Chap. 40.3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make strait in the desart a high-way for our God There is no question but the Person whose Way John the Baptist who is here meant by him that cries in the wilderness was to prepare was Christ the Son of God therefore it is he whom the Prophet calls not only our God but the Lord that is Jehovah in the 2d and 5th Verses of that Chapter But the Prophet Jeremiab is yet more express when speaking of the Messias as a righteous branch and a King that should descend from David Chap. 23. he says Ver. 6. In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness A Place sufficient one would think of it self to satisfie any that Christ is the True and Eternal God were it not obscur'd a little by the Repetition of it with some difference Chap. 33.16 where it is in our Translation This is the name wherewith she shall be called The Lord our Righteousness And some Interpreters understand it in the same Sense as if this Name was applied here to Jerusalem or the Church and from hence some conclude it is not the incommunicable Name of God and that nothing more is said of Christ in the Place before-mentioned than of the Church in this Now how well the Words in the Original will bear that Interpretation I shall not determine but I think they are very capable of another which hath been also given them by some Learned Men namely this And he who shall call her that is Jerusalem before-mention'd is the Lord our Righteousness And tho' there is some difference in the Hebrew between this and the other Place yet the Authors of the several Learned Versions taking the Sense to be the same in both do not only apply this to the Messias but render it in the same Words as they do the other with very little Alteration in any of them And if we allow of that Interpretation which applies this Name to Jerusalem yet it can belong to it no otherwise than as the Church hath a Relation to him and is Interested in his Righteousness who is properly call'd by it The Name of the Son of God as it is given to Christ and is to be understood of his Only-begotten Son as he is sometimes call'd is a further Proof of his Divinity For this denotes a more Eminent Relation than that which belongs to his Human Nature either from his Conception or his Resurrection from the Dead For tho' he was conceiv'd by the immediate Power and Operation of the Holy Ghost and for this Reason is sometimes call'd the Son of God yet we cannot say he had much the Advantage of Adam in this who by the same efficient Cause was formd out of the Dust of the Ground as Christ was of the Substance of the Virgin and therefore Adam is call'd the Son of God in a peculiar Sense distinct from that Relation which other good Men have to him Luke 3.38 The Holy Angels have also the same Relation to God for this Reason who made them eminently Partakers of his own Nature and constituted them in a State of Happiness and Immortality And tho' our Saviour was made the Son of God in another Respect by his Resurrection from the Dead as Saint Paul
prove this Truth For this Gospel was written by him at the Request of the Elders of Ephesus and other Christians as we are assur'd from good Authority in Opposition to the Ebeonites and Cerinthians who denied the Divinity of our Saviour and whosoever reads it may see the Apostle makes it his main Business to assure the World that he is God This he affirms at the very beginning of his Gospel and records many of our Saviour's Sayings by which he asserted it and several of his chief Miracles by which he prov'd it that are omitted by the other Evangelists And if this appears to have been his chief Design in this Gospel as certainly it was who can doubt of his Meaning in the Place before-mention'd which is near the Conclusion of it where he saith These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God Now this with the other Citations which I mention'd before will clear the Sense of those Expressions in this Chapter of my Text Ver. 1. Ver. 5. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God And who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God that they assert him to be God as well as Man And therefore this is the Doctrine which the Apostle proves in the following Verses as I said before and I hope have now made it more evident to you The last Name which I shall mention as given to Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 render'd the Word under which Name St. John saith Chap. 1.1 that he was in the beginning that is before the World was created as appears not only from the same Expression us'd in that Sense in the first Chapter of Genesis but because all things are said to be made by him ver 3. which supposes he was before them and because Time began with the Creation of the World therefore the Word which was before it must be Eternal And the Apostle here expresly affirms that the Word was God and that this Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and was the only-begotten of the father v. 14. the same person whom John the Baptist bare witness of namely Jesus Christ as in the following Verses And the Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is understood of a Divine Person who together with God the Father made the World was well known amongst the Jews as appears from many Places in the Chaldae Paraphrase where the Word is added to explain the Sense more fully when there is only God or Lord in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Bishop of Worcest Vindic. of Trin. p. 128. and it is render'd by such a Term as several Learned Men assure us is us'd there to signifie the Word only in the Sense of a Person And I think any indifferent Reader would understand it of a Personal Word in many if not all those Places wherein it is found and particularly in these It is said in that Paraphrase Gen. 6.6 It repented the Lord with his word that he had made man upon the earth Then shall the word of the Lord be my God Gen. 28.21 Ex. 19.17 Lev. 26.46 Deut. 1.30 Moses brought forth the People to meet the Word of God These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between his word and the children of Israel The word of the Lord your God which goeth before you he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes The word of the Lord the God is a consuming fire Deut. 4.24 Chap. 31.6.8 Job 42.9 10 12. a jealous God The word of the Lord thy God will go before thee he will not fail thee nor forsake thee The word of the Lord accepted the face of Job And the word of the Lord turn'd the captivity of Job c. So the word of the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning Now to be chosen by Jacob as his God to meet his People to be a Party in a Covenant between himself and them to conduct his People and fight for them to accept of Job's Person to turn his Captivity to bless and enrich him and to be a consuming Fire a jealous God do all suppose a Person and some of them plainly assert that he is God The ancient Jews therefore who had a great Veneration for this Paraphrase and were oblig'd to read it constantly with the Hebrew Text did believe from these and many other Places in it that there was a Divine Substance called the Word by whom God made the World So Philo the Jew speaking of God the Father of all mentions another Divine Person Quaest Solut. De Agricult whom he calls the Word and his Only-begotten Son by whom he made the World From whence we may conclude that St. John first received the Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Jews and he speaks so briefly of it at the Beginning of his Gospel because it was commonly known to them Tho' it is true also that many of the Heathens had receiv'd the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Second Person in it either from ancient Tradition or the Scriptures which were read by several Learned Men amongst them But Plato was especially noted for it therefore when Amelius who was one of his Followers read this Gospel of St. John he challeng'd this Notion of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if it was taken from Plato But there is no Reason to think he receiv'd a Notion from any Heathen which he knew was better understood by the Jews and was well acquainted with those Places of Scripture upon which it was grounded Now St. John doth not only call Christ the Word in that Place and in my Text but mentions him also as the Word of Life at the beginning of this Epistle and speaking of him Rev. 19.13 he saith His name is called the word of God Neither is St. John the only Writer of the New Testament who applies this Name to Christ but St. Luke seems to use it in the same Sense Luke 1.2 when he speaks of the Apostles as eye-witnesses and ministers of the word for that Word of which they were Eye-witnesses was our Lord himself And this Sense of that Place is more probable because St. Peter uses the same Expression with respect to Christ and saith of himself and the other Apostles that they were eye-witnesses of his majesty 2 Pet. 1.16 And in the Epistle to the Hebrews this Divine Word is mention'd and the Omniscience of God attributed to him The word of God is quick and powerful Heb. 4.12 and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart That is he perfectly sees the