EVERY THING THAT EXISTS BY HIS WORD AND SPIRIT," that is, BY HIS WILL, FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF THE GLORY OF

HIS POWER AND GOODNESS.

WHEREBY GOD THE FATHER. Job ix. 8. "which alone spreadeth out the heavens." Isai. xliv. 24. "I am Jehovah that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." xlv. 6, 7. "that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me: I am Jehovah, and there is none else: I form the light, and create darkness." If there be any thing like a common meaning, or universally received usage of words, this language not only precludes the possibility of there being any other God, but also of there being any co-equal person, of any kind whatever. Neh. ix. 6. "thou art Jehovah alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens." Mal. ii. 10. "have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us?" Hence Christ himself says, Matt. xi. 25. “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." So, too, all the apostles, Acts iv. 24. compared with v. 27. "Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is the kings of the earth stood up.... against thy holy child Jesus." Rom. xi. 36. "for of him, and through him, and to him are all things." 1 Cor. viii. 6. "to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things." 2 Cor. iv. 6. "for

God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Heb. ii. 10. “him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things." iii. 4. "He that built all things is God."

BY HIS WORD. Gen. i. throughout the whole chapter"God said." Psal. xxxiii. 6. "by the word of Jehovah were the heavens made." v. 9. "for he spake, and it was done." cxlviii. 5. "he commanded, and they were created." 2 Pet. iii. 5. "by the word of God the heavens were of old," that is, as is evident from other passages, by the Son, who appears

to let forth

The King of Glory, in his powerful Word
And Spirit, coming to create new worlds.

Paradise Lost, VII. 207.

hence to derive his title of Word." John i. 3, 10. "all things were made by him: by him the world was made." 1 Cor. viii. 6. "to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things." Eph. iii. 9. "who created all things by Jesus Christ." Col. i. 16. " 'by him were all things created." Heb. i. 2. "by whom also he made the worlds;" whence it is said, v. 10. "thou hast laid the foundation of the earth.” The preposition per sometimes signifies the primary cause, as Matt. xii. 28. "I cast out devils (per Spiritum) by the Spirit of God." 1 Cor. i. 9. "God is faithful, (per quem) by whom ye are called," sometimes the instrumental, or less principal cause, as in the passages quoted above, where it cannot be taken as the primary cause, for if so, the Father himself, of whom are all things, would not be the primary cause; nor is it the joint cause, for in such case it would have been said that the Father created all things, not by, but with the Word and Spirit; or collectively, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit created; which phrases are nowhere to be found in Scripture. Besides, the expressions to be of the Father, and to be by the Son, do not denote the same kind of efficient 'cause. If it be not the same cause, neither is it a joint cause; and if not a joint cause, certainly the Father, of whom are all things, must be the principal cause, rather than the Son by whom are all things; for the Father is not only he of whom, but also from whom, and for whom, and through whom, and on account of whom are all things, as has been proved above, inasmuch as he comprehends within himself all lesser causes; whereas the Son is only he by whom are all things; wherefore he is the less principal cause. Hence it is often said that

7 Thyself, though great and glorious, dost thou count

Or all angelic nature join'd in one,

Equal to him, begotten Son? by whom,
As by his Word, the mighty Father made
All things, ev'n thee.

Abdiel's speech to Satan, Paradise Lost, V. 833.
Compare also VII. 163–167.

8 For an answer to this assertion, and indeed with reference to the whole of this chapter, see Waterland's Second Sermon in defence of the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, where he proves that Christ is properly Creator.

the Father created the world by the Son,'-but never, in the same sense, that the Son created the world by the Father. It is, however, sometimes attempted to be proved from Rev. iii. 14. that the Son was the joint, or even the principal cause of the creation with the Father; the beginning of the creation of God; where the word beginning is interpreted in an active sense, on the authority of Aristotle.1 But in the first place, the Hebrew language, whence the expression is taken, no where admits of this sense, but rather requires a contrary usage, as Gen. xlix. 3. "Reuben, thou art.... the beginning of my strength.” Secondly, there are two passages in St. Paul referring to Christ himself, which clearly prove that the word beginning is here used in a passive signification. Col. i. 15, 18. "the first born of every creature.... the beginning, the first born from the dead,"where the position of the Greek accent, and the passive verbal πpwróronos, shew that the Son of God was the first born of every creature precisely in the same sense as the Son of man was the first born of Mary, › TpwróToxos, Matt. 1. 25. The other passage is Rom. viii. 29. "first born among many brethren;" that is, in a passive signification. Lastly, it should be remarked, that he is not called simply the beginning of the creation, but of the creation of God; which can mean nothing else than the first of those things which God created; how therefore can he be himself God? Nor can we admit the reason devised by some of the Fathers3 for his being called, Col. i. 15. "the first born of every creature," namely, because it is said v. 16. "by him

2

9 He Heaven of Heavens and all the Powers therein
By thee created.

Paradise Lost, III. 390. 1 See Aristotle's Metaphys. iv. 1. Milton alludes to this philosophical sense of the word, as the principle from which another arises, in his logical work. 'Hinc causa proprie dicta, principium quoque nominatur a Cic. I. de Nat. Deorum, sed frequentius apud Græcos.' Artis Logicæ plenior Institutio, &c. Prose Works, VI. 225. Blackwall defends the active sense of apyn in Rev. iii. 14. on the authority of Plato, quoting a passage from the Phædo, where the word is similarly used. Sacred Classics, vol. ii. 177, edit. 1731. Compare Suicer in voc.

2 In allusion to the opinion of Isidore Pelusiota, Erasmus, and others (with whom Michaelis agrees, Annotat. ad Paraphr. ad Col. i. 15.) that it should not be read πρωτότοκος, primogenitus, but πρωτοτόκος, primus genitor.

3 Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Tertullian (contra Marcionem, lib. v.) Novatian. See also Athanasius, Orat. ii. contra Arinos.

all things were created." For had St. Paul intended to convey the meaning supposed, he would have said, who was before every creature, (which is what these Fathers contend the words signify, though not without violence to the language) not, who was the first born of every creature, an expression which clearly has a superlative, and at the same time to a certain extent a partitive sense, in so far as production may be considered as a kind of generation and creation; but by no means in so far as the title of first born among men may be here applied to Christ, seeing that he is termed first born, not only in respect of dignity, but also of time. v. 16. "for by him were all things created that are in heaven."

994

Nor is the passage in Prov. viii. 22, 23. of more weight, even if it be admitted that the chapter in general is to be understood with reference to Christ: "Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old; I was set up from everlasting.' For that which was possessed and set up, could not be the primary cause. Even a creature, however, is called the beginning of the ways of God, Job xl. 19. "he (behemoth) is the chief (principium) of the ways of God." As to the eighth chapter of Proverbs, it appears to me that it is not the Son of God who is there introduced as the speaker, but a poetical personification of wisdom, as in Job xxviii. 20-27. "whence then cometh wisdom?-then did he see it."

Another argument is brought from Isai. xlv. 12, 23. “I have made the earth.... unto me every knee shall bow." It is contended that this is spoken of Christ, on the authority of St. Paul, Rom. xiv. 10, 11. "we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ: for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me." But it is evident from the parallel passage Philipp. ii. 9-11. that this is said of God the Father, by whose gift the Son has received that judgment seat, and all judgment, "that at the name of Jesus

4 See Waterland's Seventh Sermon on Christ's Divinity, &c. Works, vol. ii. 144.

5 All the Christian writers, from the earliest times, apply this text to Christ; and expressions in it are even quoted by those who deny his divinity. Compare Bull's Catholick Doctrine concerning the Blessed Trinity, iii. 842; Whitaker's Origin of Arianism Disclosed, p. 149, note k. 6 By Calovius, Calvin, Musculus, Tirinus, &c.

every knee shall bow.... to the glory of God the Father;" or, which means the same thing, "every tongue shall confess to God."

AND SPIRIT. Gen. i. 2. "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters ;" that is, his divine power, rather than any person, as has been already shewn in the sixth chapter, on the Holy Spirit. For if it were a person, why is the Spirit named, to the exclusion of the Son, by whom we so often read that the world was created? unless, indeed, that Spirit were Christ, to whom, as has been before proved, the name of Spirit is sometimes given in the Old Testament. However this may be, and even if it should be admitted to have been a person, it seems at all events to have been only a subordinate minister: God is first described as creating the heaven and the earth; the Spirit is only represented as moving upon the face of the waters already created. So Job xxvi. 13. "by his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens." Psal. xxxiii. 6. "by the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath (spiritu) of his mouth." Now the person of the Spirit does not seem to have proceeded more from the mouth of God than from that of Christ, who "shall consume that wicked one with the spirit of his mouth," 2 Thess. ii. 8. compared with Isai. xi. 4. "the rod of his mouth."

BY HIS WILL. Psal. cxxxv. 6. "whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that did he in heaven and earth." Rev. iv. 11. "for thy pleasure they are and were created."

FOR THE MANIFESTATION OF THE GLORY OF HIS POWER AND GOODNESS. Gen. i. 31. "God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good." See also 1 Tim. iv. 4. Psal. xix. 1. "the heavens declare the glory of God."

Spiritus Dei incubabat. The word incubabat properly signifies brooded, as a bird over her eggs; and the beauty of the original image, which is not retained in our authorized translation, has been twice preserved with great effect in the Paradise Lost.

Thou from the first