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so constantly among the Jews called "the Word," the only reason which we can conceive, why the apostle should thus use this phrase: and then observing the manner of St. John's writing, who rises strangely by degrees, making the last word of the former sentence the first of that which followeth: as, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not so, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word," (John i. 4, 5.) which so was in the beginning, "was with God, and the Word was God;" that is, the same God with whom the Word was in the beginning. But he could not be the same God with him any other way, than by having the same divine essence. Therefore the being which Christ had, before he was conceived by the Virgin, was the divine nature by which he was properly and really God.

Secondly, He who was subsisting in the form of God, and thought himself to be equal with God (in which thought he could not be deceived, nor be injurious to God), must of necessity be truly and essentially God; because there can be no equality between the divine essence, which is infinite, and any other whatsoever, which must be finite. But this is true of Christ, and that antecedently to his conception in the Virgin's womb, and existence in his human nature. For," being (or rather subsisting)* in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." (Phil. ii. 6, 7.) Out of which words naturally result three propositions fully demonstrating our assertion. First, That Christ was in the form of a servant, as soon as he was made man. Secondly, That he was in the form of God, before he was in the form of a servant. Thirdly, That he was in the

προφήτου λεγόμενον νῦν πνεῦμα, ἵνα καν πρόpao xnre. Epist. ad Serapionem, i. §. 7. Whereas we find in the same place of St. John, the same Spirit in the same sense mentioned with and without an article. Ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος, John iii. 5. and, τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τοῦ avúμatos, ver. 6. So 1 John iv. 1. Mà παντὶ πνεύματι πιστεύετε, ἀλλὰ δοκιμάζετε Tà súμATа. And again, (ver. 2.) 'Ev τούτῳ γινώσκετε τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ· σαν asua, &c. And beside, according to that distinction, τὸ πνεῦμα certainly stands for the gift of the Spirit, 1 Thess. v. 19. τὸ πνεῦμα μὴ σβέννυτε. In the like manner, it is so far from truth, that the Scriptures observe so much the articles, as to use Os always for the true and supreme God, and 9 for the false or inferior; that where the true is professedly opposed to the false, even there he is styled simply Θεός. As: ̓Αλλὰ τότε μὲν οὐκ εἰδότες Θεὸν, ἐδουλεύσατε τοῖς μὴ φύσει οὖσι θεοῖς· νῦν δὲ

γνόντες Θεὸν, μᾶλλον δὲ γνωσθέντες ὑπὸ Θεοῦ, Gal. iv. 8, 9. And where the supreme is distinguished from him whom they make the inferior God, he is called likewise Θεός without an article, as: Δούλος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἀφαιρισμένος εἰς εὐαγγέλιον Θεοῦ, and τοῦ ὁρισθέντος υἱοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν δυνάμει, Rom. i. 1. 4. ̓Απόστολος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ dia Delhμaros D, 1 Cor. i. 1. 2 Cor. i. 1. Eph. i. 1. Col. i. 1. And if this distinction were good, our Saviour's argument to the Pharisees were not so: El di iya ἐν πνεύματι Θεοῦ ἐκβάλλω τὰ δαιμόνια, άρα ἔφθασεν ἐφ' ὑμᾶς ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ, Matt. xii. 28. For it doth not follow, that if by the power of an inferior or false god he cast out devils, that therefore the kingdom of the true and supreme God is come upon them.

In effigie Dei constitutus.' Tertull. adv. Marcion. 1. v. 20. et adv. Prax. c. 7. 'In figura Dei constitutus.' S. Cyprian. Testim. 1. ii. adv. Jud. §. 13.et l. iii. ad Quirin.§.39.

form of God, that is, did as truly and really subsist in the divine nature, as in the form of a servant, or in the nature of man. It is a vain imagination, that our Saviour then first appeared a servant, when he was apprehended, bound, scourged, crucified. For they were not all slaves which ever suffered such indignities, or died that death; and when they did, their death did not make, but find them, or suppose them servants. Beside, our Saviour in all the degrees of his humiliation never lived as a servant unto any master on earth. It is true, at first he was subject, but as a son, to his reputed father and undoubted mother. When he appeared in public, he lived after the manner of a prophet, and a doctor sent from God, accompanied with a family as it were of his apostles, whose master he professed himself, subject to the commands of no man in that office, and obedient only unto God. "The form" then "of a servant" which he "took upon him," must consist in something distinct from his sufferings, or submission unto men; as the condition in which he was, when he so submitted, and so suffered. In that he was "made flesh," (John i. 14.) sent "in the likeness of sinful flesh," (Rom. viii. 3.) subject unto all infirmities and miseries of this life, attending on the sons of men fallen by the sin of Adam: in that he was made of a woman, made under the Law," (Gal. iv. 4.) and so obliged to perform the same; which Law did so handle the children of God, as that they differed nothing from servants: in that he was born, bred, and lived in a mean, low, and abject condition; "as a root out of a dry ground, he had no form nor comeliness, and when they saw him, there was no beauty that they should desire him; but was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:" (Isa. liii. 2, 3.) In that he was thus made man, he "took upon him the form of a servant." Which is not mine, but the apostle's explication; as adding it not by way of conjunction, in which there might be some diversity, but by way of apposition, which signifieth a clear identity. And therefore it is necessary to observe, that our translation of that verse is not only not exact, but very disadvantageous to that truth, which is contained in it. For we read it thus: "He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." Where we have two copulative conjunctions, neither of which is in the original text, and three distinct propositions, without any dependence of one upon the other; whereas all the words together are but an expression of Christ's exinanition, with an explication shewing in what it con

̓Αλλ ̓ ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε, μορφὴν δούλου λαβῶν, ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος, which is also exactly observed by the Vulgar Latin, Sed semetipsum exinanivit, formam servi accipiens, in similitudine hominum

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factus, where yeviμevoç is added by apposition to λaßv, and have both equal relation to ixivore: or, which is all one, ἐκένωσε λαβὼν, ἔλαβε γενόμενος. Phil. ii. 7.

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sisteth: which will clearly appear by this literal translation, But emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.' Where if any man doubt how Christ emptied himself,' the text will satisfy him, "by taking the form of a servant;" if any still question how he took the form of a servant, he hath the apostle's resolution, "by being made in the likeness of men." Indeed, after the expression of this exinanition, he goes on with a conjunction, to add another act of Christ's humiliation; "And being found in fashion as a man," being already by his exinanition in the form of a servant, or the likeness of men, he humbled himself, and became (or rather becoming)* obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 8.) As therefore his humiliation consisted in his obedience unto death, so his exinanition consisted in the assumption of the form of a servant, and that in the nature of man. All which is very fitly expressed by a strange interpretation in the Epistle to the Hebrews. For whereas these words are clearly in the Psalmist, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened:" (Psal. xl. 6.) the apostle appropriateth the sentence to Christ; "When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and of fering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me." (Heb. x. 5.) Now being the boring of the ear under the Law, (Exod. xxi. 6. Deut. xv. 17.) was a note of perpetual servi tude, being this was expressed in the words of the Psalmist, and changed by the apostle into the preparing of a body; it followeth that when Christ's body first was framed, even then did he assume the form of a servant.

Again, it appeareth out of the same text, that Christ was in the form of God before he was in the form of a servant, and consequently, before he was made man. For he which is presupposed to be, and to think of that being which he hath, and upon that thought to assume, must have that being before that assumption; but Christ is first expressly said to be in the form of God, and, being so, to think it no robbery to be equal with God, and notwithstanding that equality, to take upon him the form of a servant: therefore it cannot be denied but he was before in the form of God. Beside, he was not in the form of a servant, but by the emptying himself, and all exinanition necessarily presupposeth a precedent plenitude; it being as impossible to empty any thing which hath no fulness, as to fill any thing which hath no emptiness. But the fulness which Christ had, in respect whereof assuming the form of a servant, he is said to empty himself, could be in nothing else but in the form of God, in which he was before. Wherefore, if the

Ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτὸν, γενόμενος ὑπήκοος. For in both these verses there is but one conjunction, joining together two acts of our Saviour, bis first exinanition, or éxé

vors, and his farther humiliation, or tra πείνωσε : the rest are all particles added for explication to the verbs.

assumption of the form of a servant be contemporary with his exinanition; if that exinanition necessarily presupposeth a plenitude as indispensably antecedent to it; if the form of God be also coeval with that precedent plenitude; then must we confess, Christ was in the form of God before he was in the form of a servant: which is the second proposition.

Again, it is as evident from the same Scripture, (Phil. ii. 6.) that Christ was as much "in the form of God," as "the form of a servant," and did as really subsist in the divine nature, as in the nature of man. For he was so "in the form of God," as thereby "to be equal with God."* But no other form beside

* To sva Toa . Pariari Deo.' Tertull. adv. Marcion. 1. v. c. 20. Esse se æqualem Deo.' S. Cyprian. Testim. 1. ii. edr. Jud. §. 13. et l. iii. ad Quirin. §. 39. 'Esse æqualis Deo.' Leporius, Lib. Emendat, p. 15. opusc. Dogm. Vet. V. Script. Par. 1630. Thus all express the notion of equality, not of similitude: nor can we understand any less by rò elvas Toa, than τὴν ἰσότητα, ἴσον and ἴσα being indiffe rently used by the Greeks, as Pindar, Olymp. Od. ii. 109.

ἴσον δὲ νύκτεσσιν αἰεὶ, Ἴσα δ ̓ ἐν ἁμέραις ἅλι

ον ἔχοντες, ἀπονέστερον Εσθλοὶ νέμονται βίο

του.

So whom the Greeks call loov, Homer Tea Sex. Odyss. O. 519.

Τὸν νῦν ἴσα θεῷ Ἰθακήσιοι εἰσορόωσι. Where Tea has not the nature of an adverb, as belonging to logów, but of a noun referred to the antecedent Tov, or including an adverb added to a noun, Tov viv as lodev. The collection of Grotius from this verse is very strange ; εἶναι ἴσα et, est spectari tanquam Deum.' As if he should have said alropów signifies spectant, therefore siva signifies spectari. This he was forced to put off thus, be cause the strength of our interpretation, rendering an equality, lies in the verb substantive To Elval. As Dionysius of Alexandria very anciently: κενώσας ἑαυτὸν, καὶ ταπεινώσας ἕως θανάτου, θανάτου δὲ σταυροῦ, ἴσα Θεῷ ὑπάρχει. Epist. ad Paulum Samosat. For we acknowledge that Toa by itself oft-times signifieth no more than instar, and so inferreth nothing but a similitude as we find it frequently in the Book of Job. Where it sometimes answereth to the inseparable particle ; as, * quasi in nocte, loa vuæri, v. 14. maɔɔ sicut caseum, Toa Tugã, x. 10. quasi putredo, Sym. quoins onmedivi, LXX. Toa dox, xiii. 28. sicut aquam, Toa moT, xv. 16. yy tanquam lignum, Toa uh, xxiv. 20. sicut lutum, Toa nhã, xxvii. 16. sicut vestimento, loa diπλοίδι, xxix. 14. aa quasi bos, ἴσα βουσὶν,

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bitur cineri, ad verbum proverbia cineris, ἶσα σποδῷ, xiii. 12. So that in all these places it is used adverbially for instar, and in none hath the addition of Tò vai to it. As for that answer of Socinus, that Christ cannot be God, because he is said to be equal with God: Tantum abest ut, ab eo quod Christus sit æqualis Deo, sequatur ipsum esse æternum et summum Deum, ut potius ex hoc ipso necessario consequatur non esse æternum et summum Deum. Nemo enim sibi ipsi æqualis esse potest.' Socin. ad 8. c. Weik. as if there could be no predication of equality, where we find a substantial identity: it is most certainly false, because the most exact speakers use such language as this is. There can be no expressions more exact and pertinent than those which are used by geometricians, neither can there be any better judges of equality than they are; but they most frequently use that expression in this notion, proving an equality, and inferring it from identity. As in the fifth proposition of the first Element of Euclid, two lines are said to contain an angle equal to the angle contained by two other lines, because they contained the same angle, or γωνίαν κοινήν· and the basis of one triangle is supposed equal to the basis of another triangle, because the same line was basis to both, or βάσις κοινή. In the same manner certainly may the Son be said to be equal to the Father in essence or power, because they both have the same essence or power, that is, οὐσίαν καὶ δύναμιν κοινήν. Ocell. de Universo. 'Αλλ' ἀεὶ κατὰ ταὐτὸ καὶ ὡσαύτως διατελεῖ καὶ ἴσον καὶ ὅμοιον αὐτὸ ἑαυτοῦ. c. 1. §. 6.

the essential, which is the divine nature itself, could infer an equality with God. "To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal, saith the Holy One?" (Isa. xl. 25. xlvi. 5.) There can be but one infinite, eternal, and independent Being; and there can be no comparison between that and whatsoever is finite, temporal, and depending. He therefore who did truly think himself equal with God, as being in the form of God, must be conceived to subsist in that one infinite, eternal, and independent nature of God. Again, the phrase, “in the form of God," not elsewhere mentioned, is used by the apostle with respect unto that other, of "the form of a servant," exegetically continued "in the likeness of man;" and the respect of one unto the other is so necessary, that if the form of God be not as real and essential as the form of a servant, or the likeness of man, there is no force in the apostle's words, nor will bis argument be fit to work any great degree of humiliation upon the consideration of Christ's exinanition. But by the form is certainly understood the true condition of a servant, and by the likeness infallibly meant the real nature of man: nor doth the fashion, in which he was found, destroy, but rather assert the truth of his humanity. And therefore, as sure as Christ was really and essentially man, of the same nature with us, in whose similitude he was made; so certainly was he also really and essentially God, of the same nature and being with him, in whose form he did subsist. Seeing then we have clearly evinced from the express words of St. Paul, that Christ was in the form of a servant as soon as he was made man; that he was in the form of God before he was in the form of a servant; that the form of God in which he subsisted, doth as truly signify the divine, as the likeness of man the human nature: it necessarily followeth, that Christ had a real existence before he was begotten of the Virgin, and that the being which he had, was the divine essence, by which he was truly, really, and properly God. Thirdly, He which is expressly styled Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, without any restriction or limitation, as he is after, so was before any time assignable, truly and essentially God. For by this title God describeth his own being, and distinguisheth it from all other. "I the Lord, the first, and with the last, I am he." "I am he, I am the first, I also am the last." "I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God." (Isa. xli. 4. xlviii. 12. xliv. 6.) But Christ is expressly called Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. He so proclaimed himself by "a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." (Rev. i. 11.) Which answereth to that solemn call and proclamation in the prophet, "Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel my called." (Isa. xlviii. 12.) He comforteth St. John with the majesty of this title, "Fear not, I am the first and the last." (Rev. i. 17.) Which words were spoken by "one like unto the Son of man,'

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