A godly and learned exposition or commentary upon the three first chapters of the…A godly and learned exposition or commentarie vpon the three first chapters of the…

Here followeth the fourth particular commandment of Christ unto John, as also the fourth particular Epistle. The commandment in these words: To the Angel which is at Thyatira write; of the substance of this commandment I have spoken before: only remember the end thereof, which is to certify this church of Thyatira, that John had a calling and commandment from God to write this Epistle unto them: and further to certify the whole Church of God, to the end of the world, of his calling to write this book of the Revelation.

Here followeth the fourth particular commaundement of Christ vnto Iohn, as also the fourth particular Epistle. The commaundement in these words: To the Angell which is at Thyatira write; of the substance of this commaundement I haue spoken before: onely remember the end thereof, which is to certifie this church of Thyatira, that Iohn had a calling and commaundement from God to write this Epistle vnto them: and further to certifie the whole Church of God, to the end of the world, of his calling to write this booke of the Reuelation.

The Epistle it self containeth three parts: a Preface, a Proposition, and a Conclusion. The Preface in these words: These things saith the Son of God▪ which hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass: all which things almost have been handled in the beginning of this chapter, and in the former,¹ from whence they are borrowed. In the Preface, first is set down in whose name the Epistle is written, to wit, in Christs name: the causes thereof we have showed before. Then Christ is described by three arguments: First, To be the Son of God: Secondly, To have eyes like a flame of fire: Thirdly, To have feet like fine brass. For the first, In the former chapter he was called The Son of man: but here he is called The Son of God; where by God we must not absolutely understand the godhead of the whole Trinity, but the person of the father, who being opposed either to the Son or to the holy ghost, is usually called God: not that he is God more than the Son, or than the holy ghost; but because he is the first in order, and because he is that person from whom the godhead is communicated to the Son and to the holy ghost. So that here Christ is called the Son of the father: which mystery we cannot fully understand, for the word hath not revealed the same: neither can we find it elsewhere out of the word. But yet for the better conceiving thereof, remember these two rules. I. That Christ is the son of the father, not in respect of his godhead, but in respect of his person: For the godhead of the Son is the same with the godhead of the father: The godhead of the father doth not beget, neither is the godhead of the Son begotten. II. Rule. Christ is the Son of the father, not by creation, as the Angels and Adam were; nor by adoption, as every believer is; but by nature, in that he is begotten of the substance of his father before all worlds: for the father communicates from himself the whole godhead that is in himself unto his Son.