plete description of the Creator of the world; and if they were spoken of God the Father, could be no way injurious to his Majesty, who is nowhere more plainly or fully set forth unto us as the Maker of the world.

Eph. ii. 10.

Now although this were sufficient to persuade us to interpret this place of the making of the world, yet it will not be unfit to make use of another reason, which will compel us so to understand it. For undoubtedly there are but two kinds of creation in the language of the Scriptures, the one literal, the other metaphorical; one old, the other new; one by way of formation, the other by way of reformation. If any man 2 Cor. v. 17. be in Christ, he is a new creature, saith St Paul: and again, In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor Gal. vi. 15. uncircumcision, but a new creature. Instead of which words he had before, faith working by love. For we are the work- Gal. v. 6. manship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. From whence it is evident, that a new creature is such a person as truly believeth in Christ, and manifesteth that faith by the exercise of good works; and the new creation is the reforming or bringing man into this new condition, which, by nature or his first creation, he was not in. And therefore he which is so created, is called a new man, in opposition to the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Eph. iv. 22. From whence the apostle chargeth us to be renewed in the Eph. iv. 23, spirit of our mind, and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness; and which is Col. iii. 10. renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him. The new creation then is described to us as consisting wholly in renovation', or a translation from a worse unto a better condition by way of reformation; by which those which have lost the image of God, in which the first man was created, are restored to the image of the same God again, by a real change,

1 Ανανέωσις or ἀνακαίνωσις" 25, the new man, νέος άνθρωπος, οι καινὸς άνθρωπος. The first, ὁ ἀνανεούμενος, the last, ὁ ἀνακαινούμενος, both the same. Suidas, ̓Ανακαίνισις, ἡ ἀνανέω σις· λέγεται δὲ καὶ ἀνακαίνωσις which is the language of the New Testament. This renovation being thus called κawn KTIOIS, the ancients framed a proper

word for it, which is, ἀνάκτισις· ἐν ᾗ
γίνεται πάντων τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις κατὰ
τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα κακῶν ἡ
ȧraípeois. Just. Qu. et Resp. ad Græcos,
i. 7. [p. 167 D.] This new creation doth
so necessarily infer an alteration, that
it is called by St Paul a metamor-
phosis, μεταμορφοῦσθε τῇ ἀνακοινώσει
TOÙ VOÒS Úμv. Rom. xii. 2.

24.

Heb. ii. 16.

though not substantial, wrought within them. Now this,
being the notion of the new creation, in all those places which
undoubtedly and confessedly speak of it, it will be necessary
to apply it unto such Scriptures as are pretended to require
the same interpretation. Thus therefore I proceed. If the
second or new creation cannot be meant by the apostle in the
place produced out of the Epistle to the Colossians, then it 116
must be interpreted of the first. For there are but two kinds
of creation mentioned in the Scriptures, and one of them is
there expressly named. But the place of the apostle can no
way admit an interpretation by the new creation, as will thus
appear: the object of the creation, mentioned in this place,
is of as great latitude and universality as the object of the
first creation, not only expressed, but implied, by Moses.
But the object of the new creation is not of the same lati-
tude with that of the old. Therefore that which is mentioned
here, cannot be the new creation. For certainly if we reflect
upon the true notion of the new creation, it necessarily and
essentially includes an opposition to a former worse condition,
as the new man is always opposed to the old; and if Adam
had continued still in innocency, there could have been no
such distinction between the old man and the new, or the old
and new creation. Being then all men become not new,
being there is no new creature but such whose faith work-
eth by love, being so many millions of men have neither
faith nor love, it cannot be said that by Christ all things
were created anew that are in heaven and that are in earth,
when the greatest part of mankind have no share in the new
creation. Again, we cannot imagine that the apostle should
speak of the creation in a general word, intending thereby
only the new, and while he doth so, express particularly and
especially those parts of the old creation which are incapable
of the new, or at least have no relation to it. The angels
are all either good or bad: but whether they be bad, they
can never be good again, nor did Christ come to redeem the
devils; or whether they be good, they were always such, nor
were they so by the virtue of Christ's incarnation; for he
took not on him the nature of angels. We acknowledge in
mankind a new creation, because an old man becomes a new;
but there is no such notion in the celestial hierarchy, be-
cause no old and new angels: they which fell, are fallen for

eternity; they which stand, always stood, and shall stand
for ever.
Where then are the regenerated thrones and
dominions? Where are the recreated principalities and
powers? All those angels, of whatsoever degrees, were
created by the Son of God, as the apostle expressly affirms.
But they were never created by a new creation unto true Eph. iv. 24.
holiness and righteousness, because they always were truly
righteous and holy ever since their first creation. There-
fore except we could yet invent another creation, which were
neither the old nor the new, we must conclude that all the
angels were at first created by the Son of God; and as they,
so all things else, especially man, whose creation' all the first
writers of the Church of God expressly attribute unto the
Son, asserting that those words, Let us make man, were Gen. 1. 20.
spoken as by the Father unto him.

Nor need we doubt of this interpretation, or the doctrine arising from it, seeing it is so clearly delivered by St John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, John i. 1—3. and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. Whereas we have proved Christ had a being before he was conceived by the Virgin Mary, because he was at the beginning of the world; and have also proved that he was at the beginning of the world, because he made it; this place of St John gives a sufficient 117 testimony to the truth of both the last together. In the beginning was the Word; and that Word made flesh is Christ: therefore Christ was in the beginning. All things were made by him: therefore he created the world. Indeed, nothing can be more clearly penned, to give full satisfaction in this point, than these words of St John, which seem with a strange brevity designed to take off all objections, and remove all

1 εἰ ὁ Κύριος ὑπέμεινεν παθεῖν περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν, ὧν παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου Κύριος, ᾧ εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ καθ ̓ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέραν. Βarnaba Epist. c. 5. § 5. And again: Aéyet γὰρ ἡ γραφὴ περὶ ἡμῶν ὡς λέγει τῷ υἱῷ, Ποιήσωμεν κατ' εἰκόνα, &c. Barnab. Epist. c. 6. § 12. 'Eyкаλοῦμεν οὖν Ιουδαίοις τοῦτον μὴ νομίσασι Θεόν, ὑπὸ τῶν προφητῶν πολλαχοῦ

μεμαρτυρημένον ὡς μεγάλην ὄντα δύνα-
μιν καὶ Θεόν, κατὰ τὸν τῶν ὅλων Θεὸν
καὶ Πατέρα. τούτῳ γὰρ φαμὲν ἐν τῇ
κατὰ Μωσέα κοσμοποιΐα προστάττοντα
τὸν Πατέρα εἰρηκέναι τό, Γενηθήτω
φῶς, καὶ, Γενηθήτω στερέωμα, καὶ τὰ
λοιπά, ὅσα προσέταξεν ὁ Θεὸς γενέσθαι
καὶ τούτῳ εἰρηκέναι τό, Ποιήσωμεν
ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἡμετέ
pav. Orig. cont. Celsum, 1. ii. § 9.
[vol. 1. p. 393 B.]

prejudice, before they teach so strange a truth. Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, and his age was known to them for whom this Gospel was penned. St John would teach that this Christ did make the world, which was created at least four thousand years before his birth. The name of Jesus was given him since, at his circumcision: the title of Christ belonged unto his office, which he exercised not till thirty years after. Neither of these with any shew of probability will reach to the creation of the world. Wherefore he produceth a name of his, as yet unknown to the world, or rather not taken notice of, though in frequent use among the Jews, which belonged unto him who was made man, but before he was so. Under this name he shews at first that he had a being in the beginning1; and when all things were to be created, and consequently were not yet, then in the beginning was the Word, and so not created. This is the first step, the Word was not created when the world was made. The next is, that the same Word which then was, and was not made, at the same time was with God', when he made all things; and therefore well may we conceive it was he to whom God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and of Gen. iii. 22. whom those words may be understood, Behold, the man is become as one of us. After this, lest any should conceive the creation of the world too great and divine a work to be attributed to the Word; lest any should object, that none can produce any thing out of nothing but God himself; he addeth, That the Word, as he was with God, so was he also God. Again, lest any should divide the Deity, or frame a false conception of different gods, he returns unto the second assertion, and joins it with the first, The same was in the beginning with

Gen. i. 26.

God: and then delivers that which at the first seemed strange, but now after those three propositions, may easily be accepted; All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. For now this is no new doctrine, but only an interpretation of those Scriptures which told us, God made all things by his Word before. For God Gen. i. 3. said, Let there be light, and there was light. And so, by the Psal. xxxiii. 6. Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. From whence we understand Heb. xi. 3. that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. Neither was it a new interpretation, but that which was most familiar to the Jews, who in their synagogues, by the reading of the paraphrase or the interpretation of the Hebrew text in the

before St John, and reckons in his
Divinity, first Πατέρα τῶν ὅλων, then
δεύτερον Θεόν, ὅς ἐστιν ἐκείνου λόγος.
Quæst. et Solut. [Frag. 1. Vol. 1. p.
625.] Whom he calls: opłòv avтoû
(θεοῦ) λόγον, πρωτόγονον υἱόν. De
Agricult. [c. 12. vol. 1. p. 308.] He
attributes the creation of the world to
this Λόγος, whom he terms: ὄργανον
Θεοῦ, δι' οὗ ὁ κόσμος) κατεσκεύασται.
[Εὑρήσεις γὰρ αἴτιον μὲν αὐτοῦ (τοῦ
κόσμου) τὸν Θεόν, ὑφ' οὗ γέγονεν· ὕλην
δὲ τὰ τέσσαρα στοιχεῖα ἐξ ὧν συνεκράθη
ὄργανον δὲ Λόγον Θεοῦ, δι' οὐ κατε-
σKevάoon.] De Flammeo Gladio, [c.
35, vol. I. p. 162]. Σκιά Θεοῦ δὲ
ὁ Λόγος αὐτοῦ ἐστιν, ᾧ καθάπερ ὀργάνῳ
προσχρησάμενος ἐκοσμοποίει. Idem.
Alleg. lib. ii. [lib. iii. c. 31, Vol. 1. p.
106.] Where we must observe, though
Philo makes the Aoyos, of whom
he speaks, as instrumental in the
creation of the world; yet he taketh
it not for a bare expression of the
will of God, but for a God, though
in the second degree, and expressly
for the Son of God. Nor ought we
to look on Philo Judæus in this as a
Platonist, but merely as a Jew, who
refers his whole doctrine of this Aóyos
to the first chapter of Genesis. And
the rest of the Jews before him, who
had no such knowledge out of Plato's
school, used the same notion. For as
Isa. xlviii. 13. the hand of God, is by
the Chaldee paraphrast translated the

.And Isa. xlviii .במימרי עברית ית ארעא My hand also אף ידי יסדה ארץ .13

2 Pet. iii. 5.