Here there is need of a

created all things in their nature and essence, so hath he not withdrawn his word and virtue out of them, as a shoemaker does the last out of the shoe he has made, but hath left his Word in all things, that he may preserve and govern all things, impart to, and sustain them in their nature and essence; that thereby they may live, move, and increase. We, and all created things, are like a shadow, that receives its motion from the body, or the tree it relates to the tree being in motion, the shadow also moves; ' in God we live, and move, and have our being,' (Acts xvii. 28.) Wherefore the word of God, is the spirit, the virtue, and the hand, in all living things, or it is the very efficacy of life. Take away the word, their life is gone, and they must of necessity perish,' (Psalm civ. 29, 30.) sublime understanding, to know how all things live in the word, by the word, and from the word, as St. Paul tells the Romans, (xi. 36,) For of him, and through him, and to him are all things.'' And the same author, (Lib. IV. c. 6,) concerning true Christianity, says thus: "This virtue and enlivening power of God, is that Word, by which all things were created. By the Word of the Lord, the heavens were created, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth,' (Psalm xxxiii. 6.) This word which God spake, did not vanish away, and was not a mere sound only; but was the life of all created beings, remaining with them, and is that power which preserveth all things; according to that of St. Paul, (Heb. i. 3,) The Lord upholdeth all things by the word of his power.' For as the shadow depends upon the tree, so does our life depend upon God." Herein consists the foundation of all true wisdom;

6

so that whatsoever obtains the name of wisdom, is counterfeit and vain, unless it has Christ for its foundation, as the principle of all life, and by whom all things consist. Wherefore St. Paul having laid this foundation in his epistle to the Colossians, i. 15 -17, admonishes them thus, (ii. 8.) Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ:' and he subjoins the cause; ' for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily: and ye are complete in him.' Of so great moment is it that in Christ, life is said to have been, to be, and always will be; and that without him all things are dead: from which doctrine, we must of necessity come to the knowledge of his supernatural glory. But as our natural life has its origin from the eternal word of God, and is preserved by it alone, so (5.) the same word is also the fountain and beginning of spiritual life: for we are all by the fall of Adam liable to death, as St. Paul expressly teaches, both in his Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. ii. and in that to the Colossians, chap. ii. Therefore Christ is not only the way, by which we escape to life, nor only the truth in which we reach to it, but he is also the life itself: or life is so in him, as John speaks, that he raises and revives from spiritual death, (Ephes. ii. 1,) yea, that he not only bestows life, but also is life itself, and remains in them who believe in him. Hence St. Paul says; (Gal. ii. 20,) I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:' and, (Philipp. i. 21,) To me to live is Christ.' But although this spiritual life is properly the true life, and natural life, being subject to corruption and a curse, cannot be said to be the true life; but

rather man, considered according to nature, as the son of wrath, is alienated from the life of God; (Ephes. iv. 18.) yet this spiritual and in itself truest life, is hid with Christ in God, until Christ our life shall be made manifest, and then also we being made manifest with him, shall become glorious, (Col. iii. 3, 4.) Wherefore (6.) also the life of glory is in Christ, I say, of eternal and infinite glory, when Christ shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, (2 Thess. i. 9, 10.) This life is in the Son, as John declares. Therefore from all that has been said, the argument of this section runs the more clearly thus. "He in whom,

Creator of all

as the eternal Son of God, and the things, is the beginning of all natural and spiritual life, yea, the life of future glory, and in whom all natural and spiritual life, as likewise the life of eternal glory, does consist; He is the true, essential, and the living God. All these things are most clearly demonstrated concerning Christ out of the Holy Scriptures: therefore Christ is the true, essential, and living God.

ས.

"He that is the light of all men, illuminating all men, the true light, in respect of whom all created light, even John the Baptist (who otherwise was a burning and a shining light) ought to be reputed as no light at all, or as a shadow only; and who is the origin of light, and the true light of life, without whom all things remain in death and darkness: He, together with the Father, is the true and essential

:

God. Christ is that light, of which all these things are clearly expressed in holy scripture: therefore Christ, together with the Father, is the true and essential God." The first proposition likewise cannot be denied for although otherwise the word light in the Holy Scriptures, is sometimes taken, not only for that light which God created on the first day, and for the light of the sun and of the other stars, as also for the natural light of the day, but also in a spiritual signification, for men divinely enlightened, especially for those whom God makes use of as instruments for the conversion and illumination of many other persons: yet the description of light above-mentioned, is so framed, that it cannot possibly suit with any man, or angel, or with any other created being whatsoever. Yea, in these two denominations of life and light, (if they be described after so sublime a manner, as life is described in the former argument, and light in this) the whole work of redemption is founded, or all mankind are delivered from death and darkness, and translated into the kingdom of life and light. Which great work, no created being could by any means, much less by itself, possibly achieve; as neither is it assigned to any created thing in all the Holy Scriptures. Since therefore it most evidently appears, that Christ is that light which illuminates all men, and from which all other light is derived, as from its fountain, and which translates from the darkness of death into the light of eternal life, and does all this by itself; the conclusion remains firm, that Christ, together with the Father, is the true and essential God. Now here St. John witnesses concerning Christ, that he is the light of men; and he explains himself by saying, that this light illumi

nates all men; (John i. 9.) Nay, he does not simply affirm of Christ, that he is the light of men, but after he had described his eternity, his true Godhead, and his omnipotence in the work of the creation, and from this last attribute especially, had propounded him as the origin of life; he adds, with a wonderful and holy emphasis, ' And the life was the light of men,' (John i. 4.) By which he teaches, that Christ, as the light was then present in the beginning, and as soon as men were made, (and so before the fall) he was the light of men. And when this light (Christ) seemed to have disappeared after the fall, yet nevertheless this light still shineth (paíveɩ) in the darkness, although the darkness comprehend it not.' This sublime predicate by the word light, obtains now a higher and more excellent signification, than it carries with it in many places of the Holy Scriptures. For things created are indeed called lights; but where is it said of man, or of any other created being, that in it is life, and that this life is the light of men,' which shined in them before the fall, and that after the fall it remained always the same, and of itself immutable; that it shines, though the darkness comprehend it not: the light of men before the fall, and a light illuminating them again, and rescuing them out of darkness after the fall? We may from thence draw such a conclusion, as St. Paul (Heb. i. 3.) does in arguing the same way, when he would make known the divine glory of Christ from hence, that God in all the holy scripture is never said to have spoken so to any angel, as he spake to Christ, (Psalm ii. 7.) Wherefore this expression of St. John now mentioned clearly imports, that Christ is also the origin of all light. For as it naturally follows