of Christ be intended, then whereas Christ's dominion is according to our adversaries, (Smal. de Divin. Christi. cap. 16.) extended over all creatures, men, angels, devils, and all other things in the world, then men, angels, devils, and all things are new creatures. 7. Socinus says, that by principalities, and powers, devils are intended: and what advancement may they be supposed to have obtained by the new creation? The devils were created, that is, delivered. There is no end of the folly and absurdities of this interpretation: I shall spend no more words about it. Our argument from this place stands firm and unshaken.

Grotius abides by his friends in the interpretation of this place, wresting it to the new creature, and the dominion of Christ over all; against all the reasons formerly insisted on, and with no other argument than what he was from the Socinians supplied withal. His words on the place are. It is certain, that all things were created by the Word. But those things that go before shew that Christ is here treated of, which is the name of a man. As Chrysostom also understood this place: but he would have it, that the world was made for Christ, in a sense not corrupt: but on the account of that which went before, Krion is better interpreted, were ordained, or obtained a certain new state.' So he, in almost the very words of Socinus. But,

1. In what sense all things were created by the Word, and what Grotius intends by the Word, I shall speak elsewhere. 2. Is Christ the name of a man only? Or of him who is only a man? Or is he a man only as he is Christ? If he would have spoken out to this, we might have had some light into his meaning, in many other places of his annotations. The apostle tells us that Christ is over all, God blessed for ever;' Rom. ix. 5. And that Jesus Christ was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead;' Rom. i. 3. If Christ denote the person of our Mediator, Christ is God, and what is spoken of Christ, is spoken of him who is God. But this is that which is aimed at; the Word, or Wisdom of God, bears eminent favour towards that man Jesus Christ but that he was any more than a man, (that is, the

c Certum est, per Verbum creata omnia. Sed quæ præcedunt, ostendunt hic de Christo agi, quod hominis nomen est, quomodo etiam Chrysostomus hunc accepit locum. Sed ille intelligit mundum creatum propter Christum, sensu non malo: sed propter id quod præcessit, rectius est ixrion hic interpretari, ordinata sunt, novum quendam statum sunt consecuta.

4.

union of the natures of God and man in one person) is denied. 3. The words before are so spoken of Christ, as that they call him the Son of God, and the image of the invisible God, and the first born of the creation: which though he was, who was a man, yet he was not, as he was a man. All the arguments we have insisted on, and farther shall insist on (by God's assistance) to prove the Deity of Christ, with all the texts of Scripture wherein it is plainly affirmed, do evince the vanity of this exception, Christ is the name of a man, therefore the things spoken of him are not proper and peculiar to God.' 5. Into Chrysostom's exposition of this place I shall not at present enquire, though I am not without reason to think he is wronged: but that the word here, created,' may not, cannot be rendered ordained, or placed in a new state and condition, I have before sufficiently evinced; neither doth Grotius add any thing to evince his interpretation of the place, or to remove what is objected against it.

1. He tells us, that of that sense of the word krísεv, he hath spoken in his prolegomena. And urges, Eph. ii. 10. 13. iii. 9. iv. 24. to prove the sense proposed. 1. It is confessed, that God doth sometimes express the exceeding greatness of his power, and efficacy of his grace, in the regeneration of a sinner, and enabling him to live to God, by the word create; whence such a person is sometimes called the new creature, according to the many promises of the Old Testament, of creating a new heart in the elect, whom he would take into covenant with himself. A truth which wraps that in its bowels, whereunto Grotius was no friend. But that this new creation can be accommodated to the things here spoken of, is such a figment, as so learned a man might have been ashamed of. The constant use of the word in the New Testament, is that which is proper, and that which in this place we insist on; as Rom. i. 25. 1 Tim. iv. 3. Rev. iv. 11. 2. Eph. ii. 10. speaks of the new creature in the sense declared, which is not illustrated by ver. 13. which is quite of another import. Chap. iv. 24. is to the same purpose. Chap. iii. 9. the creation of all things, simply, and absolutely, is ascribed to God; which to wrest to a new creation there is no reason, but what arises from opposition to Jesus Christ, because it is ascribed also to him.

2. The latter part of the verse he thus illustrates, or rather obscures ; ' τὰ πάντα δ' αὐτοῦ : intellige omnia quæ ad novam creationem pertinent.' How causelesly, how without ground, how contrary to the words, and scope of the place, hath been shewed; kaì siç avtòv ektiotai: propter ipsum, ut ipse omnibus præesset;' Rev. v. 13. Heb. ii. 8. This is to go forward in an ill way. 1. What one instance can he give of this sense of the expression opened? The words, as hath been shewed, are used of God the Father, Rom. xi. 36. and are expressive of absolute sovereignty, as Rev. iv. 11. 2. The texts cited by him to exemplify the sense of this place, (for they are not instanced in to explain the phrase, which is not used in them) do quit evert his whole gloss: in both places the dominion of Christ is asserted over the whole creation; and particularly in Rev. v. 13. things in heaven, earth, under the earth, and in the sea,' are recounted. I desire to know whether all these are made new creatures, or no? If not; it is not the dominion of Christ over them, that is here spoken of; for he speaks only of them that he created.

Of the 17th verse he gives the same exposition; 'kaÌ AỶTòs koti tyò távtwv: id est, A et Q, ut ait Apocal. i. 8. πpò Távτшv, intellige ut jam diximus.' Not contented to pervert this place, he draws another into society with it; wherein he is more highly engaged than our catechists, who con-'. fess that place to be spoken of the eternity of God; ‘kaì rà πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκε et hæc vox de veteri creatione ad novam traducitur; vid. 2 Pet. iii. 5.' Prove it by any one instance; or if that may not be done, beg no more in a matter of this importance. In Peter it is used of the existence of all things by the power of God, in and upon their creation; and so also here, but spoken with reference to Jesus Christ, who is 'God over all blessed for ever.' And so much for the vindication of this testimony.

Heb. i. 2. is nextly mentioned. By whom also he made the worlds.'

That these words are spoken of Christ, is not denied. They are too express to bear any exception on that account. That God is said to make the world by Christ, doth not at all prejudice what we intend from this place. God could no way make the world by Christ, but as he was his own eternal Wisdom, which exempts him from the condition of a crea

ture. Besides, as it is said, that God made the world by him, denoting the subordination of the Son to the Father, and his being his Wisdom, as he is described, Prov. viii. So also the Word is said to make the world, as a principal efficient cause himself; John i. 3. and Heb. i. 10. The word here used is alwvas. That alwv is of various acceptations in the New Testament, is known. A duration of time, an age, eternity, are sometimes expressed thereby. The world, the beginning of it, or its creation, as John ix. 32. In this place it signifies not time simply and solely, but the things created in the beginning of time, and in all times; and so expressly the word is used, Heb. xi. 2. the framing alwvwv, is the creation of the world, which by faith we come to know. 'The worlds,' that is, the world, and all in it, was made by Christ. Let us now hear our catechists.

Q. How dost thou answer to this testimony?

A. On this manner, that it is here openly written, not that Christ made, but that God by Christ made the worlds. It is also confessed, that the word 'secula,' may signify not. only the ages past and present, but also to come. But that here it signifies things future is demonstrated from hence, that the same author affirmeth, that by him whom God appointed heir of all things, he made the worlds. For Jesus of Nazareth was not made heir of all things before he raised him from the dead; which appears from hence, because then all power in heaven and in earth was given him of God the Father, in which grant of power, and not in any other thing, that inheritance of all things is contained.'

1. For the first exception, it hath been sufficiently spoken to already; and if nothing else but the pre-existence of Christ unto the whole creation be hence proved, yet the cause of our adversaries is by it destroyed for ever. This exception might do some service to the Arians, to Socinians it will do none at all. 2. The word 'secula' signifies not things future any where. This is gratis dictum, and cannot be proved by

d Qui respondes ad quartum testimonium ?-Eo pacto, quod hic palam scriptum sit, non, Christum fecisse, sed, Deum per Christum fecisse secula. Vocem vero secula non solum præsentia et præterita, verum etiam futura significare posse, in confesso est. Hic vero de futnris agi id demonstrat, quod idem autor affirmet, per eum, quem hæredem universorum constituerit Deus, etiam secula esse condita. Nam Jesus Nazarenus non prius constitutus hæres universorum fuit, quam eum Deus a mortuis excitavit. Quod hinc patet, quod tum demum omnis potestas in cœlo et in terra eidem data a Deo Patre fuerit, cujus potestatis donatione, et non alia re, ista universorum hæreditas continetur.

any instance. The world to come' may do so, but the 'world' simply doth not. That it doth not so signify in this place is evident from these considerations. 1. These words, by whom he made the world,' are given as a reason why God made him heir of all things; even because by him he made all things; which is no reason at all, if you understand only heavenly things by the worlds here; which also removes the last exception of our catechists, that Christ was appointed heir of all things antecedently to his making of the worlds; which is most false; this being given as a reason of that; his making of the world, of his being made heir of all things. Besides, this answer, that Christ made not the world until his resurrection, is directly opposite to that formerly given by them to Col. i. 16. where they would have him to be said to make all things, because of the reconciliation he made by his death; ver. 20. 2. The same word or expression in the same epistle is used for the world in its creation, as was before observed chap. xi. 2. which makes it evident, that the apostle in both places intends the same. 3. Aúv is no where used absolutely for the world to come; which being spoken of in this epistle is once called ỏikovμένην τὴν μέλλουσαν, chap. ii. 5. and αιῶνα μέλλοντα, chap. vi. 5. but no where absolutely diva, or divas. 4. The 'world to come' is no where said to be made; nor is this expression used of it. It is said chap. ii. to be put into subjection to Christ, not to be made by him; and chap. vi. the powers of it are mentioned, not its creation. 5. That is said to be made by Christ, which he upholds with the word of his power; but this is said simply to be all things; 'he upholdeth all things by the word of his power,' ver. 3. 6. This plainly answers the former expressions insisted on. 'He made the world,'' he made all things,' &c. So that this text also lies as a two edged-sword, at the very heart of the Socinian cause.

Grotius seeing that this interpretation could not be made good, yet being no way willing to grant, that making of the world is ascribed to Christ, relieves his friends with one evasion more than they were aware of. It is that di óũ, by whom, is put for di dv, for whom, or for whose sake. And roínos is to be rendered by the preterpluperfect tense, ' he had made :' and so the sense is, God made the world for