850 atPENtfl t. with God, or God-man ; nor are these things attributed to hint merely by way of communication of preperties, wherebywhat was proper only to the divine nature is attributed to the manhood : but these all by way of influence and virtualefficacy; are attributed to him asGod-man, as trulyas the works ofredemption, mediation, &c. Page 183. His being appointed Lord, will send us to a higher date than his actual ascension to heaven, even to afore the creation; yea, even to eternity ; Heb. i. 2. God hath in these last days spoken unto us by ins Son, whom he bath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds: Yea, and because as God-man, he was appointed Lord of them, there- fore it was also that God commissioned him to make them, con- sidered as God-man, to make his title of lordship even as Son of man proper and direct, and adequately full to him, and there needs no more to verify this, viz. that as God-man he made the worlds, and virtually as man, as well as efficiently, both as God and man in the sense it bath been explained in. Chapter XII. page 184. That Christ, as God-man, is the Creator of all things, is further proved from John i. 1, 2, 3. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, $fc. This name " the Word of Gott" imports both his being the image of God the Father, as the second person, and the image or manifestationof God to us in human nature. Many of our protestant divines have altogether declined the first sense and betaken themselves to the latter, viz, 'That Christ is called the `'Nord, in relation to his being manifested in a human nature, and therein to manifest the whole God unto us. This is not appropriated to him only as the Son of God and second person ; but as united to human na- ture ; Rev. xix. 13. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. Page 187. That repetition in the secondverse, viz. John i. 2. The same was in the beginning with God, imports that the second person did then sustain, and take on him another relation, even the person of the Mediator, and enter upon the office, acting the part and sustaining the.place and reputation of it. Page 189. Compare this with Prov. vii. 22. and the titles, the Word and wisdom are in effect and significancy the same in the original langesges. Solomon speaks but the same things of him there that Jo-n Both here : " The Word was with God in the beginning, that is, the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, I was by him rejoicing before him ;" and so it may explain what is meant by the beginning here, namely, the be- ginning of creation, and therefore is not meant of his eternal generation ; for so Christ is not the beginning of God's ways, for the ways of God are his goings forth toward his creatures. That speech is all one with Col. i. 15: Thefirst-born of every creature, being in God's decree of creation tbe first, the corner-
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