have been, and to have been in heaven with God, and partaker with him in his glory, before his incarnation and appearance in the world. 2. Those which affirm that the world, and all creatures whatsoever were made by him. 1. Those texts which exprefsly affert the Son of God to have been, and to have been in heaven with God, and partaker with him in his glory, before his incarnation and appearance in the world. No man hath afcended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, the Son of man which is in heaven, John iii. 13. where the Son is faid to have come down from heaven, in refpect of the union of his divinity with human nature, and his special refidence in it here below; and yet he is faid to have come down from heaven, as still to be in heaven: He that came down from heaven, the Son of man which is in heaven; that is, in respect of his divinity, by which he is every where prefent. And he that came down from heaven is here called the Son of man, by the fame figure that his blood is elsewhere called the blood of God, Acts xx. 28. the Apostle afcribing that to one nature which is proper to the other. This we take to be the most natural and eafy fenfe of this text, and moft agreeable to the tenor of the New Teftament. Again, What and if ye shall fee the Son of man afcend up where he was before? John vi. 62. So that, if he really afcended up to heaven after his refurrection, he was really there before his incarnation. Before Abraham was, (fays our bleffed Saviour) I am, John viii. 58. the obvious fenfe of which words is, that he had a real existence before Abraham was actually in being. Again, it is faid, John xiii. 3. that Jefus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God, &c. And again, John xvi. 27. 28. For the Father himself loveth you, becaufe ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. This was fo very plain, that his difciples, who were flow enough of apprehenfion in other things, did understand this fo well, that, upon this de claration claration of his, they were convinced of his omniscience, which is an incommunicable property of the divinity: for fo it immediately follows, ver. 29. 30. His difciples faid unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and Speakest no parable. Now are we fure that thou knoweft all things, and needeft not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou comeft forth from God. So that either this which I have all along declared muft be the meaning of our Saviour's words, or elfe his difciples were grofsly mistaken, and did not understand him at all; and if fo, then furely our Saviour, before he had proceeded any further, would have corrected their mistake, and have fet them right in this matter. But fo far is he from doing that, that he allows them to have understood him aright for thus it follows, ver. 31. Jefus anfwered them, Do ye now believe? as if he had faid, I am glad that you are at laft convinced, and do believe that I came from God, and muft return to him; and that I know all things, which none but God can do. Is it now poffible for any man to read this paffage, and yet not to be convinced that the difciples understood our Šaviour to speak literally? But if his meaning was, as the Socinians would make us believe, then the difciples did perfectly mistake his words; the contrary whereof is, I think, very plain and evident, beyond all contradiction. : Again, John xvii. 5. And now, O Father, glorify me with thine own felf, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. This furely is not spoken of his being with God after his incarnation, and before his entrance upon his public miniftry: they have not, I think, the face to understand this expreffion, before the world was, of the new creation; but do endeavour to avoid it another way, which I fhall confider by and by. And a little after, ver. 8. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and known furely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst fend me. Again, John i. I. 2. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have feen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life; for the life was manifested, and we have feen it, and bear witness, and fhew unto you E 3 that eternal life (for fo he calls the Son of God) which was with the Father, and was manifefted unto us. And that he was not only with God before he affumed human nature, but also was really God, St Paul tells us, Phil. ii. 5. 6. 7. 8. Let this mind be in you, which was alfo in Chrift Fefus; who being in the form of God, six aprayer hyheato, did not arrogate to himself to be equal with God; that is, he made no oftentation of his divinity; for this I take to be the true meaning of that phrase, both because it is fo ufed by Plutarch, and because it makes the fenfe much more eafy and current, thus: Who being in the form of God, did not affume an equality with God; that is, he did not appear in the glory of his divinity, which was hid under a veil of human flesh and infirmity; but emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a fervant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, (or in the habit of a man), he became obedient unto death, &c. So that if his being made in the likeness and fashion of a man, does fignify, that he was really man by his incarnation; then furely his being in the form of God, when he took upon bim the fashion and likeness of man, and the form of a fervant or flave, muft, in all reafon, fignify, that he was really God before he became man. For which reason the fame Apostle did not doubt to fay, that God was manifefted in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. And now I hope I have made it fully appear, that the beginning of St John's gospel is not the fingle and only text upon which we ground this great doctrine, as Socinus calls it, and as we really esteem it to be; for you fee that I have produced a great many more to avoid the dint and force whereof, the Socinians do chiefly make use of these two answers. ift, To thofe texts which fay, that he was in heaven, and came down from heaven, they give this anfwer, That our Saviour, fome time before his entrance upon his public ministry, they cannot agree precifely when, was taken up into heaven, and then and there had the will of God revealed to him, and was fent down from heaven again to make it known to the world. This is fo very arbitrary and precarious a fuppofition, that I must confefs myfelf not a little out of countenance for for them, that men of fo much wit and reafon fhould ever be put to fo forry and pitiful a fhift. For can any man imagine, that in fo exact a history of our Saviour's life, written by feveral perfons, the relation of so important a matter as this, and of the circumstances of it, fhould be wholly omitted? That we fhould have a particular account of his being carried into Egypt in his infancy, and of the time when he was brought back from thence; of his difputing in the temple with the Jewish doctors, and putting them to filence, when he was but twelve years of age; a punctual relation of his being baptized by John; and how after that he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and was carried by that evil spirit from one place to another: but not one word of his being taken up by God into heaven, and of his coming down again from thence; not the least intimation given either of the time, or any other circumftance of fo memorable a thing, upon which, according to the Socinians, the authority of his miffion, and the divinity of his doctrine, did fo much depend: when fo many things, of fo much less moment, are fo minutely and exactly reported; what can be the reafon of this deep filence in all the Evangelifts concerning this matter? But above all, it is to be wondered, that St John, who wrote his gospel laft, and, as Eufebius tells us, on purpose to fupply the omiflions of the other Evangelifts, fhould give no account of this thing; and yet, as the Socinians fuppofe, fhould fo often take it for granted, and refer to it; as when it is faid, that he came forth from God, and was fent from God, and came down from beaven, befides feveral other expreffions to this purpose. Who can believe this? And can it then be reasonable to fuppofe fuch a thing, and this without any, ground from the hiftory of the gospel, only to ferve an hypothefis which they had taken up, and which they cannot maintain, unless they may have leave to make a fuppofition, for which they have nothing in truth to fay, but only that it is neceffary to defend an opinion which they are refolved not to part with upon any terms? This is fo inartificial, not to fay abfurd, a way of avoiding a difficulty, to take for granted whatever is ne ceffary to that purpofe, that no man of common inge nuity would make ufe of it; and there is no furer fign that a caufe is greatly diftreffed, than to be driven to fuch a fhift. For do but give a man leave to fuppofe what he pleases, and he may prove what he will, and avoid any difficulty whatever that can be objected to him. Befides, that according to this device, the Son of God did not first come from heaven into the world, as the fcripture feems every where to fay, but firft was in the world, and then went to heaven, and from thence came back into the world again; and he was not in the beginning with God, but was firft in the world, and afterwards with God; whereas St John fays, that the Word was in the beginning, and then was made flesh, and dwelt among us but they fay, that he first was made flesh, and then a great while after was in the beginning with God. A fuppofition which is quite contrary to all the texts which I have mentioned. Nor do the feveral parts of this interpretation of theirs agree very well together. In the beginning, that is, fay they, when the gofpel began to be published, was the Word; and then, that is, in the beginning, he was with God; that is, in heaven to receive from God that doctrine which he was to deliver to the world. But if by the beginning he meant the first publication of the gofpel, he was not then with God, but had been with him, and was come back from him, before he entered upon his public ministry; which they make to be the meaning of the beginning. And in the beginning he was God; that is, fay they, not God by nature, but by office and divine conftitution and yet in this again they fall foul upon themselves; for they fay he was not declared to be God till after his refurrection, and his being advanced to the right hand of God: fo that he was not God in their fenfe of the beginning; that is, when he entered upon his public ministry, and began to preach the gospel. : 2dly, As to fome other texts, which speak of his exiftence before his incarnation, as that he was glorified with his Father before the world was; and before Abraham was, I am; thefe they interpret thus, that he was glori fed with his Father before ite world was, and that he was before Abraham was, viz. in the divine foreknowledge and decree. But then furely they do not confider, that |