CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

But in the second place Christ doth not only pray for his Mediatory glory but his divine glory in respect of the manifestation of it, viz. that now it might be discovered to all the world, that he was not only man but God also, eternal, blessed for evermore, and in this sense the Text doth strongly maintain the Eternal Deity of Christ, for he prayeth for the manifestation of that divine and essential glory he had with the Father before the world was; Insomuch that Christ being in the Text said to have this before the world was, it doth suppose a subsistence of his divine nature, for although the Scripture saith, the godly are Elected before the foundation of the world, yet it never saith, they had this before the world was, for that would suppose them to be existent in nature, So that if the Text had said no more then Glorify me with the glory prepared for me before the world was, as it speaks of the godly, then it would not have proved strongly against those heretics; But when he saith, Which I had with thee, This doth necessarily suppose such a thing as cannot be communicated to a mere creature; None but one eternal can say so. So that both these Expositions may go on as parts to make the complete sense of the Text, and this remain a thunderbolt against the Arians; Take we then the first particular as it supposeth the Eternity of Christ, That Christ had a being before he was born of the Virgin Mary, even a divine being as a God: No creature can say as Christ here▪ They have such a glory with God before the world was, for it would be a contradiction to any creature to say so, for it would imply him to have a being before he hath a being: Hence the godly though they are said to be elected and predestinated from Eternity, yet that doth not suppose them to be abaeterno, because Predestinatio ect actio immanens, and nihil ponit in esse; It's a mere immanent action in God, and puts no real thing in the creature: Now that Christ had an Eternal being is plain; Besides those Texts of Scripture, 1 Cor. 10. where the Israelites in the Wilderness are said to tempt Christ, and Heb. 11. Moses in his days accounted the reproach of Christ above the Treasures of Egypt: And 1 Pet. 1.11. The Spirit of God is said to be in the Prophets of old: Which places could not be true if Christ had not then a subsistency, which was long before his birth of the Virgin Mary: