The Institution of Christian Religion

I ask furthermore,¹ whether they think that Christ ought to be worshipped or no? For he claimeth this unto himself, to have all knees bow before him: it followeth that he is the God which did in the law forbid any other to be worshipped but himself. If they will have that meant of the Father only which is spoken in Isaiah: I am, and none but I: this testimony I turn against them selves, for as much as we see, that whatsoever pertaineth to God is given to Christ.² And their cavillation hath no place, that Christ was exalted in the flesh, wherein he had been abased, and that in respect of the flesh, all authority is given him in heaven and in earth: because although the majesty of King and Judge extend to the whole Person of the Mediator, yet ⟨p. 41⟩if he had not been God openly showed in flesh, he could not have been advanced to such height, but that God should have disagreed with himself. But this controversy Paul doeth well take away, teaching that he was equal with God before that he did abase himself under the shape of a servant.³ Now how could this equality have stand together, unless he had been the same God whose name is Jah and Jehovah: that rideth upon the Cherubin, that is king of all the earth and Lord of the worlds? Now howsoever they babble against it, it can not be taken from Christ which Isaiah sayeth in an other place:⁴ He, he, is our GOD, for him we have waited, whereas in these words he describeth the coming of GOD the redeemer, not only that should bring home the people from the exile of Babylon, but also fully in all points restore the church. And with their other cavillation they nothing prevail, in saying, that Christ was God in his Father. For though we confess that in respect of order and degree the beginning of the Godhead is in the Father, yet we say that it is a detestable invention to say that the essence is only proper to the Father, as though he were the only Godmaker of the Sonne. For by this means either he should have moe essence than one, or ells they call Christ God only in tittle and imagination. If they grant that Christ is God, but next after the Father, then shall the essence be in him begotten and fashioned, which in the Father is unbegotten and unfashioned.