Such are the unexceptionable criteria on which has been formed the almost unanimous decision of biblical critics, that, according of the apostle John, Christ preexistent-the Word -was the person through whom all the wonderful works of the Father were effected that he was himself, and in a manner absolutely peculiar to his own case, the truth, wisdom, and operative power, of God. Now, from these his essential attributes, Jehovah may indeed be distinguished, but can never be separated; nor does it appear to be in any degree probable that such a title, with such a meaning, should be attributed by the apostle to the Son of God, on any other principle than that of his actual deity-of his being truly one in the divine nature with the Father Almighty. This conclusion is obviously confirmed, in a very striking manner, by the theology of the Targumists, who (as has been already hinted) plainly and very frequently identify the Word of Jehovah with Jehovah himself.

V. In perfect consistency with the application, to Christ preexistent, of the title Word, it is to him that the work of creation itself is, in the New Testament, repeatedly attributed.

in the examination of that curious relic of Jewish antiquity-the Zohar. The information which he derived from it, respecting the opinions of its authors on the subject of the divine character of the Messiah, he states as follows: "As far as then relates to the names of the Messiah, he is expressly mentioned in the book of Zohar, under the essential name Jehovah, and is also called the Angel of God, the Schechina, the Divine Majesty, the Metatron, Michael the Archangel, the Angel of the covenant, the Word of God, the Holy, Blessed God," Again, "His divinity is proved in the Zohar, because he is described by the essential name of God. He is called the image of God and the splendour of his glory, the Lord of Hosts, the Son of God, the Son of the Highest, the Faithful Shepherd, the Lord over this lower world, the Lord of ministering angels, the Gracious Schechina. The following divine attributes are moreover ascribed to the Messiah; Eternity, because the degree of predestination is made in him from eternity; and Omnipotence, because he works miracles. Amongst his divine works it is recorded, that the Messiah created the world, destroys the power of Satan, and receives penitents in favour. To these things are to be added the worship that is given to him, aud the doctrine that God the Father swears by him," &c. &c.: De Messiâ, pp. 911, 912. From the close correspondence of these doctrines with those of the New Testament, Schoettgen concludes that Simeon Ben Jochai was a Judaizing Christian; but this notion is not generally adopted. Indeed, it appears to be precluded by the fact that this cabalistic doctor has always enjoyed a high reputation among the Jews. Whether, however, he was a Christian or not, he is a powerful commentator on the meaning of the apostle John, in the exordium of his Gospel,

The apostle John does not hesitate to assure us, that "All things were made by him," and that "without him was not any thing made that was made:" i, 3.* Again, he says of Christ, "He was in the world, and THE WORLD WAS MADE BY HIM" ver. 10. The Greek proposition here rendered "by," as it is used in various parts of the New Testament, denotes indifferently either the mediating or the original cause of a thing. On a referrence, however, to the doctrine of the Jews respecting the Word of God, (the title applied to our Lord in the preceding part of this passage,) I am inclined to the opinion, that Christ preexistent is here described as the person through whom the universe was created; in which case the statement here made by the evangelist corresponds precisely. with that of another inspired writer on the same subject. "God," says the apostle, to the Hebrews, "hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir

* John i, 3, 10. Πάντα δὲ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο· καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἓν, over. The verb vero, rendered in our version "were made, might perhaps be translated still more literally, "came into existence." To say that all things came into existence by Christ is however precisely the same, in point of effect, as to say that all things were made by him. That the apostle's doctrine imports nothing less than that all things were created by Christ preexistent, is abundantly evident, for the following critical reasons: 1st, Because, in other passages of the New Testament which relate to creation, the same verb (ivoua) is employed in the same sense: see Heb. xi, 3; James iii, 9; comp. Acts xix, 26. 2ndly, Because the apostle is here speaking of the Word; and it was the well-known doctrine of the Jews, (founded on the Old Testament) that God created all things by his Word. 3dly, Because there is a conspicuous correspondence between the whole of this passage in the Gospel of John, and the Mosaic account of the creation; and, in the Septuagint version of the latter, (the version of the Old Testament, from which this apostle uniformly derived his citations) this very word

vero is again and again employed, to express the coming into existence of the creatures of God. When God said, Let there be light— yévero us, there was light, or the light was created.-When God said, Let there be a firmament-évεTo Orüws, it was so, or it was so created, &c. The same terms are employed on the production of each of the six successive parts of the creation, and no one part of the creation was effected without the previous proclamation of the divine word of command—a circumstance which plainly elucidates the apostle's declaration, that without the Word. ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἓν ὅ γέγονεν, -not one thing was made, that was made. In the Septuagint version of Gen. ii, 4, égéveTo represents the Hebrew 7 creatus est. 4thly, Because the same doctrine is repeated in verse 10-a verse, in which no reasonable critic would venture to impose on yévero any other signification than that of coming into existence, or being created. "He was in the world, aali κόσμος δὶ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο--and the world was made by him.”

of all things, BY WHOM ALSO HE MADE THE WORLDS:" Heb. i, 2.*

But, in whichsoever sense we understand the preposition "by," in John i, 3. 10, the fact thus recorded, that the Son was himself the Maker of all things-that he actually wrought out the whole creation of God-affords (according to my apprehension of the subject) a satisfactory and decisive evidence that he was not himself a creature-that, on the contrary, he really participated in the nature of the Father. It is by the visible works of the creation, as the apostle Paul has declared, that "the eternal power and Godhead" of Jehovah are demonstrated to our understanding; (Rom. i, 20;) and nothing, I would submit, can be more improbable in natural theology, or more at variance with revelation, than the notion, that God first created a particular being, and then employed that being as the Creator of the rest of the universe. "I am Jehovah,' saith God by his prophet Isaiah, "that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens ALONE, that spreadeth abroad the earth by HIMSELF.... I am Jehovah, and there is none else :" Isa. xliv, 24; xlv, 18: comp. Gen. i, 1.

In conformity with the tenor of these remarks, the apostle, in addressing the Hebrews, has no sooner spoken of the Son of God, as the person by whom the Father made the worlds, than he proceeds to expatiate on his divine character; and presently adduces one of the Psalms, in which the Son is addressed, not merely as the medium, but as the author, of the creation. "But unto the Son† he saith..... Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands:" Ps. cii, 25: Heb. i, 8—

10.

* Hebri, 2. δ ̓ οὗ καὶ τοὺς αἰῶνας ἐποίησεν. The substantive αἰῶνες is again employed to signify the worlds or the universe, in ch. xii, 3, and elsewhere by the apostle Paul: vide 1 Tim. i, 17; 1 Cor ii, 7. This application of the word is considered to be a Hebraism; for the Rabbins make a precisely similar use of the corresponding expression,

,that is רבון כל העולמיס God is described, by these writers, as עולמיס

as Lord of all the worlds: see Gill, Com. in loc.

† πρὸς δὲ τὸν υἱόν, κ. τ. λ. Some critics have observed, that gos, in this passage, ought to be rendered concerning, and not unto-a remark suggested by the use of this preposition in the preceding verse.

Πρὸς μὲν τοὺς ἀγγέλους λέγει, κ. τ. λ. "Unto (or concerning) the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits," &c. It is undeniable, however, that the proper force of argos is "unto," and it is surely very questionable whether it can ever be otherwise rightly rendered, when it introduces (as in this passage) a form of address: (see a multitude of similar examples in Schmidii Conc. N. T.) Whether, however, we ren

And now, in order to complete the present division of my argument, I have only to advert to that sublime passage of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians, in which the Son of God, the First-born of the universe, is presented to our attention as the Former of the most powerful intelligent creatures, the Creator of the material and immaterial world, the object as well as the medium or author of all things. "God," says this inspired writer, "hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of every creature, (or of the whole creation :) for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,

der gòs in Heb. i, 8, unto, or concerning, the argument of the apostle is, in substance, precisely the same. As the divine Person, addressed in the passage cited from Psalm cii, is the only person mentioned, or in any, even the slighest, manner alluded to, in that passage, it follows, that, if the passage was written concerning the Son, the Son is the person there addressed.

*TEWTÓTOROS Tάons xriotas." The First-born (or First-begotten) of the whole creation." This title affords no support to the unscriptural notion, that the Son of God was himself a creature; for there is a marked distinction between rónos, the derivative of ríxt gigno, and κτίσις, the derivative of κτίζω creo. And since πρῶτος or πρῶτον is sometimes followed by a genitive case, and thus assumes the force of Agóregos or góregov, (as in John i, 15. 30; xv, 18; 1 Tim. ii, 1;) we may conclude with Casaubon, that πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως is grammatically equivalent to τεχθεὶς πρὸ πάσης κτίσεως, ante ullam rem creatam genitus-begotten before any thing was made. While, however, the priority of the Son, in point of time, before all creatures, is plainly expressed in this phrase, it is most probable, that the title garrOXOS also includes the idea of lordship and preeminence-a notion which sometimes attaches to the corresponding Hebrew term 13, vide Deut. xxxiii, 17: Job xviii, 13: Isa. xiv, 30: Jer. xxxi, 9: so Schleusner, after Drusius, Cameron, Whitby, Macknight, and others, interprets gwTÓTONOS as signifying, princeps, et dominus omnium rerum creatarum.

† Some critics conceive that the creation attributed to the Son of God, in Col. i, 13-17, is the spiritual or new creation: and were this the true meaning of the passage, the deity of Christ would still be a necessary inference from the apostle's doctrine. "Omnia Christus fecit nova," says Grotius (in Eph. iii, 9) "et divinior hæc creatio quam prior illa." That it is the original, and not the new creation, which is here attributed to the Son, appears, however, to be certain, for the following reasons: 1st, Because the verb xri?w creo, in the great majority of the passages in which it occurs in the Greek Scriptures, (viz. the Septuagint, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament) denotes an actual, physical, formation. 2. Because all things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, and especially those angelic beings who are here described as Thrones, Principalities, &c. were the subjects of the original, but were not the subjects of the new, creation: comp. Eph.

Q

visible, and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: (comp. ch. ii, 10: Eph. i, 21; iii, 10; vi, 12: Tit. iii, 1:) all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist:" Col. i, 13-17. What calm and reasonable critic --what plain and unsophisticated reader of Scripture--can admit that the apostle wrote these things of the Son of God, and wrote them by inspiration, and at the same time refuse to confess that the Son of God is JEHOVAH ?

VI. But, the divine operations of the Word, in his preexistence, were by no means confined to the work of creation. He was also the spiritual quickener and enlightener of mankind; and more particularly the celestial leader and governor of God's peculiar people. Immediately after declaring the doctrine, that by the Word all things were made, the apostle John (in reference, probably, to the same stage in the history of the Son of God-namely, that of his preexistence) proceeds to say, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men ;" (John i, 4;) and in his first Epistle he describes this divine Person as "that ETERNAL LIFE, which was with the Father, and (afterwards) was manifested unto us:" 1 John i, 2.

It was Christ who (according to the most probable interpretation of 1 Pet. iii, 18, 19*) preached, through his prophet

era.

i, 20, 21; iii, 10, &c. 3. Because the doctrine, that God physically created all things by his Word or Son, is elsewhere declared in Scripture, (John i, 3; Heb. i, 2;) and (as has been already stated) formed a leading feature in the theology of the Jews, at or near the Christian 4. Because the titles here given by the apostle to the Son-7800τότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, the First-begotten of the whole creation, and εἰκὼν Tou so, the Image of God, were immediately connected with that Jewish theological opinion to which I have now alluded. Thus Philo declares that the Father first raised up (avérune) the First-begotten (gwTózovov): and that he, being begotten, formed species of beings (μógov sida) De confus. Ling. Ed. Mang. tom. i, 414. Again, he denominates the creating Word, the Image of God, and says that "as God is the model of the Image (Ts novos), so the Image becomes the model of other things; De Alleg. lib. iii, Ed. Mang. tom. i, 106. To these considerations may be added that of the apparently universal judgment of the early fathers, most of whom wrote in Greek, and were of course far better acquainted than we are with the natural and necessary force of the terms of their own language. That these writers were accustomed to interpret this passage as relating to a physical creation may be ascertained on a reference to Origen, in Johan. tom. ii, cap. 8. Ed. Ben. iv, 67. Athanas. contra Arian. Orat. iii, Ed. Col. i, 416. Cyril. Hieros. Catches. xi. de Fil. Unig. 24, Ed. Ben. p. 161. Chrysostom in Johan, Hom. v. al. 4. Ed. Ben. tom. viii, 37. Theodoret, Ecum. Theophyl. in loc. &c.

** Οτι καὶ Χριστὸς ἅπαξ περὶ ἁμαρτιῶν ἔπαθε.......θανατωθεὶς μὲν σαρκὶ, ζωοποιηθεὶς δὲ πνεύματι, κ. τ. λ. "For Christ also hath once