that all these Expreffions are the common Defcription which the Scripture gives of the Eternity of God, whofe Being is commensurate to all the feveral refpects of Duration, past, prefent, and to come: Befides that the Attribute of Almighty is alfo a part of this Defcription, which is fo peculiar a Property of God, I mean of Him who is God by Nature, that the Scripture never gives it to any other.

II. I fhall in the next place produce thofe Texts which do exprefly affirm that the World and all Creatures whatsoever were made by him: And this will not only infer his Existence before his Incarnation, but from all Eternity.

And for this, befides this Passage of St. John, we have the Apoftle to the Hebrews moft exprefs, who says, that by him God made the Worlds: Heb.3 And St. Paul likewife fays the fame 2. more fully and particularly, calling

F4

Fefus

J. 15,

16.

Coloff. Jefus Chrift, who was the Son of God, the first-born of every Creature, that is, as I have fhewn in my former Difcourfe, the Heir and Lord of the whole Creation: For by him, fays he, were all things created, that are in Heaven and that are in Earth, vifible and invifible; Whether they be Thrones or Dominions, Principalities or Powers, for fo he calls the feveral Orders of Angels all things were created by him and for him, and he is before all things: Or as he is defcribed in St. John's Vifion, he is the beginning of the Creati on of God, that is, the Principle and Efficient Caufe of the Creation; or else, he was when all things began to be made, and therefore must be before any thing was created, and for that reafon could not be a Creature himfelf; and confequently, must of ne ceffity have been from all Eternity. I

Now thefe Texts must neceffarily be understood of the old Creation and of the natural World, and not of the moral World, and the Renovation

and

and Reformation of the Minds and Manners of Men by the Gospel: For that was only the World here below which was reform'd by him, and not things in Heaven; not the invifi ble World, not the feveral Orders of good Angels, which kept their first station, and have no need to be reform'd and made anew: Nor the Devil and his evil Angels; for though fince the preaching of the Gospel they have been under greater restraint and kept more within bounds, yet we have no reason to think that they are at all reform'd, but are Devils ftill, and have the fame malice and mind to do all the mischief to Mankind that God will fuffer them to do.

So that these Texts feem, at first view, to be very plain and preffing of themselves, but they appear tỏ be much more convincing when we confider the groundlefs Interpretations whereby they endeavour to evade the dint and force of them. For can any Man that seriously atbab tends

Heb. I.

2.

tends to the perpetual Style and Phrafe of the New Testament, and to the plain scope and drift of the Apofle's reafoning in these Texts, be induc'd to believe that when St. Paul tells us, that all things were created by him, that are in Heaven and that are in Earth, vifible and invifible; whether they be Thrones, or Dominions, or Prin» cipalities, or Powers: Ifay, can any Man of good sense persuade himself that by all this the Apostle means no more than the moral Renovation of the World here below, and the Reformation of Mankind by Jefus Chrift, and his Gospel which was preached unto them?

But there is yet one Text more to this purpose, which I have referv'd to the last place; because I find Schlictingius and Crellius, in their joint Comment upon it, to be put to their laft fhifts to avoid the force of it. It is in the Epistle to the Hebrews, at the beginning of it where the Apostle thus defcribés the Son of God; God, fays he, hath

in

m thefe last days fpoken to us by his Son, whom he hath conftituted heir of all things, by whom alfo he made the Worlds: From whence he argues the excellency of the Gospel above the Law: For the Law was given by Angels, but the Gospel by the Son of God's whofe preheminence above the Angels he fhews at large in the two firft Chapters of this Epiftle.

And to this end he proves the two parts of the Description which had been given of him; namely, v. 2. that God had conftituted him heir of all things, and that by him he made the Worlds

First, That God had conftituted bim heir of all things, which is no where faid of the Angels: But of him it is faid that was made fo much better than the Angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they. The Angels are only called God's Minifters, for which the Apostle a cites the words of the v.7. Pfalmift 32 but to Chrift he gives thes

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