creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (Col. i. 15-17.) In which words our Saviour is expressly styled the "first-boru of every creature," that is, begotten by God, as the Son of his love,† antecedently to all other emanations, before any thing proceeded from him, or was framed and created by him. And that precedency is presently proved by this undeniable argument, that all other emanations or productions came from him, and whatsoever received its being by creation, was by him created. Which assertion is delivered in the most proper, full, and pregnant expressions imaginable. First, In the vulgar phrase of Moses, as most consonant to his description; "for by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth;" signifying thereby, that he speaketh of the same. creation. Secondly, By a division which Moses never used, as describing the production only of corporeal substances: lest therefore those immaterial beings might seem exempted from the Son's creation, because omitted in Moses's description, he addeth visible and invisible;" and lest in that invisible World, among the many degrees of the celestial hierarchy, any order might seem exempted from an essential dependence upon him, he nameth those which are of greatest eminence, “whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers," and under them comprehendeth all the rest. Nor doth it yet suffice, thus to extend the object of his power by asserting all things to be made by him, except it be so understood as to acknowledge the sovereignty of his person, and the authority of his action. For lest we should conceive the Son of God framing the World as a mere instrumental cause which worketh by and for another, he sheweth him as well the final as the efficient cause; for "all things were created by him and for him." Lastly, Whereas all things first received their being by creation, and when they have received it, continue in the same by virtue of God's conservation, " in whom we live, and move, and have our being;" lest in any thing we should be thought not to depend immediately upon the Son of God, he is described as the Conserver, as well as the Creator; for "he is before all things, and by him all things consist." If then we consider the two last-cited verses by themselves, we cannot "The first-born of every creature" is taken by Origen for an expression declaring the Divinity of Christ, and used by him as a phrase in opposition to his humanity to express the same: Ελέγομεν δὴ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρα, ὅτι αἱ μέν τινές εἰσι φωναὶ τοῦ ἐν τῷ Ἰησοῦ πρωτοτόκου πάσης κτίσεως, ὡς ἡ, Εγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς, καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ, καὶ αἱ τούτοις παραπλήσιαι αἱ δὲ τοῦ κατ' αὐτὸν νουμένου ἀνθρώπου, ὡς ἡ, Νῦν δέ με ζητεῖτε ἀποκτεῖναι, ἄνθρωπον ὃς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὑμῖν λελάληκα. lib. ii. adv. Celsum, §. 25. In relation to the precedent words, ver. 13. τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἀγάπης αὐτοῦ, for that υἱὸς ἀγαπητὸς was the υἱὸς πρωτότοπος. deny but that they are a most complete 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 no where more plainly or fully set forth unto us as the Maker of the World. 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 be in Christ, he is a new creature," saith St. Paul (2 Cor. v. 17.): and again," in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." (Gal. vi. 15.) Instead of which words he had before, "faith working by love." (Gal. v. 6.) "For we are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph. ii. 10.) 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 and his first creation, he was not in. And therefore he who is so created, is called a new man, in opposi-tion 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 spirit of our mind, and to put on that new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness;" (Eph. iv. 23, 24.) and " which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him." (Col. iii. 10.) 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 who 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, 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 must be interpreted • Ανανέωσις τ ἀνακαίνωσις· as the new wan, νέος άνθρωπος, οι καινὸς ἄνθρωπος. The first ὁ ἀνανεούμενος. the last, ὁ ἀνακαινούμενος, both the same. Suidas, ̓Ανακαίνισις, ἡ ἀνανέωσις· λέγεται δὲ καὶ ἀνακαίνωσις· which is the language of the New Testament. This renovation being thus called καινὴ κτίσις, the ancients framed a proper word for it, which is, ἀνάκτισις· ἐν ᾗ γίνεται πάντων τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις κατὰ τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ κατὰ τὸ σῶ μa naxav åvaigsosc. Just. Qu. et Resp. ad Græcos, p. 167. This new creation doth so necessarily infer an alteration, that it is called by St. Paul a metamorphosis, μεταμο;φοῦσθε τῇ ἀνακοινώσει τοῦ νιὸς ὑμῶν Rom. xii. 2. 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 latitude 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 the new creation. Being then all men become not new, being there is no new creature but such whose "faith worketh 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." (Heb. ii. 16.) We acknowledge in man kind a new creation, because an old man becomes a new; but there is no such notion in the celestial hierarchy, because 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 holiness and righteousness," (Eph. iv. 22.) because they always were truly righteous and holy ever since their first creation. Therefore 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 Ad hoc Dominus sustinuit pati pro anima nostra, cum sit orbis Terrarum Dominus, cui dixit die ante constitutionem seculi, Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram.' Barnaba Epist. c. iv. And again : Aiyu yag vezφὴ περὶ ἡμῶν ὡς λέγει τῷ υἱῷ, Ποιήσωμεν κατ' εἰκόνα, &c. c. v. Εγκαλοῦμεν οὖν Ἰουδαίοις τοῦ τον μὴ νομίσασι Θεὸν ὑπὸ τῶν προφητῶν πολύ λαχοῦ μεμαρτυρημένον ὡς μεγάλην ὄντα δύνα attribute unto the Son, asserting that those words, "Let us make man," (Gen. i. 26.) were 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, 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." (i. 1-3.) 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 testimony to the truth of both the last together." In the bginning 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 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 show 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 that name he shews at first that he had a being in the beginning ;* 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; † Πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, that is, παρὰ τῷ Θεῷ that is, by God. As Nonnus: Πατρὸς ἔην ἀμέριστος, ἀτέρμονι σύνθρονος ἕδρῃ. c. i. 4. As Wisdom speaketh, Prov. viii. 30. then I was by him, byx maxi ñμnv mag' airõõ, Chald. et erum in lutere ejus. Moschopulus, περὶ σχεδῶν, p. 25. Πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, τουτέστι, μετὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ. As : Αἱ ἀδελ φαὶ αὐτοῦ οὐχὶ πᾶσαι πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἰσί; Matt. xiii. 56. καθ' ἡμέραν ἡμην πρὸς ὑμᾶς. Mark κιν. 49. πρὸς ὑμᾶς δὲ τυχὸν παραμενω. 1 Cor χνί. 6. Πεπιστευμένῳ διακονίαν Ἰησοῦ Χρι στοῦ, ὃς πρὸ αἰώνων παρὰ Πατρὶ ἦν, καὶ ἐν Tím ipam. Ignat. ad Magnes, c. 6. and therefore well may we conceive it is he to whom "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;" (Gen. i. 26.) and of whom those words may be understood, "Behold, the man is become as one of us." (Gen. iii. 22.) 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 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 said, Let there be light; and there was light." (Gen. i. 3.) And so " by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth." (Psal. xxxiii. 6.) From whence "we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God." (Heb. xi. 3. 2 Pet. iii. 5.) 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 fore St. John, and reckons in his Divinity, And Isa אנא במימרי עבדת ית ארעא Targum My hand also אף ידי יסדה ארץ .13 .xlviii -Etiam in terbo meofundaci ter שכללת ארעא founded the earth: the Chaldee ram. And most clearly Gen. i. 27.we read, |