An expository comment, doctrinal, controversial, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…An expository comment, doctrinal, controversal, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…

A second cavil that needeth a vindication, may be, in that Christ is said to be Lord, as distinguished from God: Therefore it may be thought, that Christ is not God. To this it's answered, That it's true, in the New Testament, though Christ be sometimes called God, yet the more common title given to him, is [Greek or Hebrew], ⟨p. 123⟩especially when God the Father, and Christ are mentioned together, but as when Christ is called Lord, it doth not exclude God the Father from being the Lord also: So neither when God the Father is called God, doth it exclude Christ from being God. But you may say, Why doth the Scripture, if Christ be God, and the fountain of grace, as well as God the Father, always put Christ after God? The answer is, That though absolutely as God there be an equality, yet when personally considered, so that divine order is attended unto, whereby the Father is of himself alone, but the Son of the Father, especially if we consider Christ as Mediator: so although God, yet because in that work he is God-man, and in that office inferior to the Father; hence it is that the Scripture speaks of him as the fountain, and Christ as the stream, or rather second fountain; That of God are all things, and by Christ are all things. It is good to understand these mysteries, so far as the Scripture is a guide to us, that we be not involved in those damnable Socinian Doctrines which overthrow these fundamentals.

A second cavil that needeth a vindication, may be, in that Christ is said to be Lord, as distinguished from God: Therefore it may be thought, that Christ is not God. To this it's answered, That it's true, in the New Testament, though Christ be sometimes called God, yet the more common title given to him, is 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, ⟨p. 123⟩especially when God the Father, and Christ are mentioned together, but as when Christ is called Lord, it doth not exclude God the Father from being the Lord also: So neither when God the Father is called God, doth it exclude Christ from being God. But you may say, Why doth the Scripture, if Christ be God, and the fountain of grace, as well as God the Father, alwayes put Christ after God? The answer is, That though absolutely as God there be an equality, yet when personally considered, so that divine order is attended unto, whereby the Father is of himself alone, but the Sonne of the Father, especially if we consider Christ as Mediatour: so although God, yet because in that work he is God-man, and in that office inferiour to the Father; hence it is that the Scripture speaks of him as the fountain, and Christ as the stream, or rather second fountain; That of God are all things, and by Christ are all things. It is good to understand these mysteries, so farre as the Scripture is a guide to us, that we be not involved in those damnable Socinian Doctrines which overthrow these fundamentals.