Understanding. If therefore you admit the Expreffion to have any Meaning, you must allow the I am to belong to Chrift, in its proper and peculiar Ufe, as fignifying Eternity and Permanency of Duration. For the present then let this reft; obferving only, that here we find him afferting his own Eternity, and St. John afcribing to him the Creation of all Things, which is the greatest Act of Power we have any Notion of.

Let us now look to the other Part of the Question. The laft Time that our Saviour appeared to his Difciples, to give them a full Commiffion to teach and baptize, and full Affurance of his being with them to the End of the World, he introduces his Charge to them, with Mention of his own Power and Authority: All Power, fays he, is given unto me in Heaven and Earth, Matt. xxviii. 18; where it cannot be denied, but that he fpeaks of Power and Authority conferred on him after his Resurrection; and in virtue of this Power fo received, he commiflions them: They were made Delegates under him, with respect to the Power and Authority he had then received: All Power is given unto me in Heaven and Earth; Go ye, therefore, and teach all Nations. The Word therefore

therefore imports, that he is giving out Commiffions to them to act under the Power he had received: Their Commiffion was to teach, to baptize; and he promises them (which Promife likewife is grounded upon the fame Power) that he would be with them alway to the End of the World.

And having thus ftated before you the Fact, let us confider what Weight there is in the great Socinian Argument against the Eternity of the Logos. All Power, say they, was conferred on our Saviour after the Refurrection; and therefore it is abfurd to afcribe any Power to him before: For he that receives all Power is fuppofed to have none, before he fo received it. At first View the Objection is plaufible; but, when duly confidered, will be found to miss the Aim: For the Power fpoken of in St. Matthew, and the Power fpoken of in St. John, belong to different and entirely diftinct States; and therefore his receiving all Power belonging to one at this certain determinate Time, is no Proof of his not having the other before that Time. He that in virtue of a Royal Commiffion receives all Power to govern any Part of the Kingdom, cannot be faid to have had no Power belonging to

him before; for he had at leaft the natural Powers of a Man: The Powers of Nature are diftinct, and antecedent to the Powers of his Commiffion. And you may please to obferve, that the Acts of Power afcribed to Chrift, in his different States, are entirely different. St. John, when he speaks of his eternal and inherent Power, afcribes the Creation of all Things to him: And St. Paul, fpeaking of the fame Power, afcribes to it the Preservation of all Things. But in the Hebrews and in the Coloffians, with respect to his Power of Office, he is ftyled Head of the Church: And accordingly, our Saviour, when he says, All Power is given to him, and gives out Commiffions under him to the Apostles, gives out none but fuch as refer to the Church: All Power is given unto me; therefore I appoint you to teach and baptize. He does not, in virtue of this Power which he then received, give Commiffions for the creating new Worlds, or for governing or preferving the old; but, as by his Power received he then was constituted Head of the Church, he gives out Commiffions only relating to the Church. As for his Power of creating, which is as evidently afcribed to him as any one Thing, VOL. IV. C

that

that surely is distinct from the Power con ferred on him at his Refurrection: for it was fomething too late to receive Power to create the World, after the World had for many Ages been created. I know what is faid of a new Creation by Virtue and Holinefs: But were Powers, and Principalities, and Dominions, were Things vifible and invifible, nay, were the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens, which the Apostle fays are the Work of his Hands, thus newly created? Was the material World redeemed, and made holy and righteous? What Abfurdities may we not believe, or teach, if thefe are the Doctrines of clear and unbiaffed Reafon ?

To conclude then; It is evident, that in the Place now before us, and in other Parts of Scripture, there are three diftinct States fpoken of, which belong to our blessed Lord: And this Obfervation is fo material, that, without having an Eye to it, there is no understanding the Scripture, or the early Writers of the Church, in the great and long controverted Points concerning the Eternity and Divinity of the Son of God. For, on one Side, it is very abfurd to urge the lofty Expreffions in Scripture, or elsewhere,

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where, which belong to his laft State, and defcribe the Glories which he received in Reward of his Obedience, as Proofs of his natural Dignity, which he had before the Worlds began: And, on the other Side, it is equally abfurd to apply the Limitations in point of Time or Duration, or which in any other Respect belong to the Glories of his Office; to apply them, I fay, to the antecedent and inherent Glories of his Nature.