A53669:116
A brief declaration and vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity as also of…
A brief declaration and vindication of the doctrine of the Trinity as also of the person and satisfaction of Christ / accommodated to the capacity and use of such as may be in danger to be seduced, and the establishment of the truth by J. Owen.
London: printed by R.W. for Nath. Ponder, 1669
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And let me add this by the way that the Interpretation of this place, Joh. 1. 1. to be mentioned after wards; and those of the two places before mentioned, John 8. 58. chap. 3. 31. Faustus Socin•s learned out of his Uncle Laelius papers as he confesseth, and doth more than intimate that he believed he had them as it were by Revelation; and it may be so; they are indeed so forced, absurd, and irrational, that no man could ever fix upon them by any reasonable Investigation. But the Author of this Revelation, if we may judge of the Parent by the Child, could be no other but the spirit of Error and darkness. I suppose therefore that notwithstanding these exceptions, Christians will believe, that in the beginning the word was with God; that is, that the Son was with the Father, as is frequently elsewhere declared.
But who was this Word? saith the Apostle, He was God. He was so with God, that is the Father, as that he ⟨p. 70⟩himself was God also. God, in that the notion of God, which both nature, and the Scripture doth represent. Not a God by Office, one exalted to that dignity, (which cannot well be pretended before the Creation of the world) but as Thomas confessed him, our Lord and our God, John 20. 28. Or as Paul expresses it; over all God blessed for ever; or the most high God, which these men love to deny. Let not the infidelity of men excited by the craft and malice of Satan s•ek for blind occasions, and this matter is determined; if the Word and Testimony of God be able to umpire a difference amongst the Children of men. Here is the sum of our Creed in this matter; In the beginning the Word was God; and so continues unto Eternity; being Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the Lord God Almighty.