Chapter X
How all things depend on Christ, God-man; and what influence he hath into
them ; further proved and illustrated by that text in Col. i. 16. Some
cautions premised for the understanding it aright. What is meant by those
expressions, in him and by him are all things.
For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, risible and invisible, ivhether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or rjoicers; all things were created by him, and for him. COL. I. 16.
Now is to succeed that other title of glories due to our Lord Christ, con sidered as God-man, namely, in his relation unto the works and counsels of God, and the influence he hath in them, the dependence they all have, either actually or virtually, upon that personal union of the Son of God with our nature ; and this is the second thing in order in the text, or a second crown of glory, which our apostle here setteth upon our Lord s head, who is yet, moreover, above and besides all this, an head unto his church,
&c., as ver. 18.
That these things here are spoken of him as God-man, and not as second
person only, I shewed in the first chapter of this book, in the latter part of it, wherein I opened and sorted the particulars of this text into their due method.
The only difficulty that here occurs (ere we proceed any further) is, that
seeing the Son of God did not assume that man Jesus into one person with himself until four thousand years after the creation ; how can the work of the creation be attributed to him, considered as God-man, that by him all
things were created ? And so, why should it not still rest upon this
account, that by him, simply considered as God s Son, and second person,
all things were made.
Towards the clearing of this I cast in these ensuing particulars.
I. That there is a double influence which causes have into effects ; one
virtual, the other actual. Not to instance in other causes (if any such like
to this might be found), it will be enough to give a parallel instance in
Christ himself, whose actions performed by him, when come in the flesh, had yet a virtual influence into many things that were done long before, either the actual existence of him in the flesh, or the performance of those
actions ; yea, the virtue whereof reached to the beginning of the world. Thus by virtue of his death, Adam, and Eve, and Abraham, and all the
fathers, were saved. Not to prove this by induction, but by the lump ; Peter having spoken of all the fathers under the Old Testament, Acts xv., in the last words of ver. 10 immediately subjoins and pronounceth this as common to the Jews and themselves now in the times of the New Testa ment ; We believe that, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved, even as they, ver. 11, that is, they and we both alike are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, and further, this their
salvation is attributed to his death ; which though once, as a sacrifice offered
CHAP. X.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 539
up in the end of the world, Heb. ix. 26, yet was offered up for sins past ; Rom. iii. 25, Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God. And that under the Old Testament, saith Heb. ix. 15, And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testa
ment, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the
promise of the eternal inheritance.
And as there is this double influence, so answerably, a double existence may be conceived of him.
A virtual existence, which is affirmed of him in that speech, when he is
said to have been the same Christ, yesterday as well as to-day, to all be
lievers ; Heb. xiii. 8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for
ever. Yea, and his death, in respect of the virtue of it, hath existed from the beginning of the world, as that speech, Rev. xv. 8, evidently imports,
* the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. Let us first see what the text will speak in favour of this interpretation,
yea, let us but compare phrase with phrase, as things are spoken of him; in
this text, he is said to be the first-born from the dead ; and, 1 Cor. xv. 20, the first-fruits of them that slept, in so much as, ver. 23 of that chapter, the priority of order in rising again is given to Christ, but every man in
his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ s. But is it so, that Christ, in respect of an actual priority, was the first of all the elect that rise again ; so as none of them afore him, though you know
Lazarus, and divers others at his death, rose out of their graves ? And
yet, still he is the first-born, the eldest Son, whom that womb of the earth
gave up, the first fruits that soil brought forth, which therefore must neces
sarily be understood of a virtual existence and priority ; and so, as because
by virtue of him, all others do and have risen again. Then you may, by these and the like parallels, easily conceive how this assertion is to be
* all things were created by him, as God-man, and as that one Lord or Christ ; as also, that there is not a necessity to ascribe all such things spoken of him, or to put the account of his being second person alone, as abstracted from the consideration of his being Lord, and Christ, because said to be done by him afore the human nature existed.
understood, that
And so the plain sense of this assertion is this, that the Son of God, per
sonally and actually existing as the Son of God with God, afore the world
or any creature was made, he undertaking and covenanting with God to become a man (yea, that man which he hath now taken up into one person with himself), as well for this end as for other ends more glorious, God did in the virtue and fore-knowledge thereof, and in the assurance of that covenant of his, proceed unto the creating all things which he hath made ; and without the intuition, or having this in his eye, he would not have made
any thing which he hath made.
II. The second particular is, the adding some cautions touching the under
standing of this assertion.
1. It is not to be understood, as if I meant, that God had not sufficient
power, or absolute sovereignty, to have created, unless the Son of God had become man. God was God, blessed for ever, and all-sufficient in himself, without this design about Christ ; so as it adds no new power to him, which he had not in himself afore. Thus take that power which is in God to
sanctify us now, when fallen into sin, and which is in the Holy Ghost to
effect it in us, is one and the same essential power, which is in God as God,
540 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III.
out of which he made man at first, and created him in holiness, and no
other. And Christ s redemption, or dying for us, adds no new degree of
essential power to God, or the Holy Ghost, whereby to enable him to sanc
tify us, as if else he wanted power to do it. No ; and yet we say, as to
the exerting or putting forth that power, that it depends morally on Christ s
having died, as without which it would not have been put forth ; as also, for that his death purchased the power, and also the mercy that was in God, to have it demonstrated, in raising up men dead in sins and trespasses ; and so we say it is to be attributed to his death and resurrection virtually, which also the Scripture affirms, Philip, iii. 10, That I may know him, and
the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.
2. As to the point in hand, I assert not neither so high and so great a
dependence of this creating power upon the personal union, as is of sancti
fying us upon Christ s redemption, for by his death he purchased that power. But so it is not here, as if that his undertaking to assume man s nature had
purchased this putting forth God s power to create ; but the dependence thereon refers to God s will, and so is ex hypothesi, that he would otherwise never have gone about to create, he would never have been pleased with any
creature, or all creatures, he could have made, without this ; and so in him, and from him, as so considered, it was, that God condescended thereunto, as the reasons of this *
point, annexed to the proof of it, will give the ac count of.
3. When this is attributed to Christ as God-man, it is not exclusively to be understood as if, as second person, he did not concur to create as well
as the Father and the Holy Ghost, because he virtually concurred as Godman. No ; for look as in redemption, the Son, as second person, concurs as well as the Father and the Spirit, as it is one act in common of the three
persons, yet so as over and above, Christ, as God-man in one person, doth
in especial effect it ; so here in creation, he hath, over and above his com mon concurrence as second person, in this, and all works else, a special honour attributed to him, as God-man, from his virtual hand in it.
III. It will much conduce to the right stating of this point, as I assert
it, to take notice of the aberrations from, and yet dark gropings after this
truth.
- 1. Arius, he would have Christ to have been a great creature in the form of God, and as a God by office, and like unto him in all things, existing afore the world was, "as the medium or means by whom God made all things ; and that without the intervention of such an immense and divine creature, he would not immediately himself have created any thing.* But then, Arius withal denied that this Christ was also God essentially, and of the substance of his Father, and so asserted him to be but a mere creature.
2. Others of late have in like manner thus endeavoured to set out the
person of Christ to us ; that he was put forth by God out of himself, a mere creature, and under the covenant of works ; yet so as in his person he was the Spirit, the seminal or prolific virtue of all the creatures that could or should be made, being the whole mass of what God had in him to
afford to make creatures out of, distinct from himself ; as man hath to
afford what if let out of himself is the foundation or matter of a son, or
children from him ; and that this great Son of his thus put forth, finding himself distinct from God now put forth, and so as a mere creature mutable, as under the covenant of works, as all are by the law of creation, and that
* See Kivet in Gen.
CHAP. X.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 541
so he would die and perish if lie remained alone and thus out of God, he
therefore, by the supernatural guidance and impulse of God, willingly died
to that creatureship and the state and condition thereof, and giving that up to a oneness with God in spirit, he rose and ascended up to a being in the form of God, and one with God in Spirit, and in this respect was termed the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, and then did create, as God, and as being in the form of God, and put forth angels and this world, and all things out of himself, and thereby is become the head of the first
creation*; and by his appearing in flesh in that man at Jerusalem, did, by the like example acted by him, teach us men to die unto our being creatures, which hath been commonly termed by them, destroying of flesh, &c., and then to rise up in spirit unto that being in the form of God, and one in
spirit with God, even as Christ himself afore the world had done, and
thereby preserved himself from ruin. And this is the covenant of grace, say they ; thus Christ became the head of the new creation, as he was author of the first.
3. That great and excellently learned man, Sir Francis Bacon, in a con
fession of faith, which I had in manuscript, under his hand, about fortysix years ago, and since printed, 1641, but without his name, his words are these :
I believe that God is so holy, pure, and jealous, as it is impossible for him to be pleased in any creature, though the work of his own hands ; so that neither angel nor man could stand, or can stand one moment in his
eyes without the beholding of the same in the face of a mediator ; and therefore before him with whom all things are present, the Lamb of God was
slain afore all the world, without which eternal purpose of his it was im
possible for him to have descended to any work of creation, but he should have enjoyed the blessed and individual society of three persons in the God head only for ever. But that out of his eternal and infinite goodness and
love, purposing to become a creature, and communicate with his creatures, he ordained in his eternal counsel, that one person of the Godhead should be united to one nature, and to one particular of his creatures, that so in the person of the mediator the true ladder might be fixed whereby God might descend to his creatures, and his creatures ascend unto him.
And in his fifth paragraph it follows :
* That by virtue of this his eternal counsel, touching a mediator, he de scended at his own good pleasure, and according to the times and seasons, to himself known, to become a creature ; who by his eternal Word created all
things, and by his eternal Spirit doth comfort and preserve them.
There are two things in his stating this which I do not readily assent unto.
1. That Christ was considered by God as the Lamb slain ; and from the
foresight of his death, and the second person undertaking to become the Lamb slain, it was that God designed to create, even as through and for his death, as afore considered, he ordained to redeem man, considered then
as fallen. But this needed not as to creation, there being no supposition of guilt in that which was nothing, which all things afore their creation were ; and besides, though his taking our nature was designed and proved to our redemption from sin, yet sufficient alone to move him simply to make and create mere creatures was that other reason which he gives, that one
person of the Godhead should be united to one of his own creatures ; in whose person, so united, God s holiness and purity would fully be pleased to descend to create other fellowcreatures for him and his glory. Let
542 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III.
Christ s blood then stand to reconcile sinners, or those that were in danger to sin ; and let his bare undertaking to be united to a creature be a sufficient
relief against the meanness of mere creatures, and by their defects to set
forth his glory. The creature alone considered had not been worth the making without this design ; Christ s person alone was an abundantly well -
pleasing medium or mediator of union to the elect, and of stability unto the frailty and unworthiness in creatures.
2. The second thing (which may stumble some) in this assertion is, that he says, it was impossible for God without this counsel or decree (namely, of Christ s incarnation) to have descended to any work of creation, &c. Which expression, unless understood of an impossibility ex hypothesi, by way of supposition (that God would not have been pleased with any or all works his power could make, unless this personal union of some creature with God had been added and undertaken), would have a danger in it, and a great
absurdity. Only as of a wise man it is said, he cannot do that which his wisdom and will, guided by counsel, thinks no meet for him to do ; so the same may be affirmed of God, which also seems, by the tenure of his speech, to have been his scope.
But the state I would put this assertion into, in distinction from this, and in perfect opposition to those forementioned errors of others, is, That indeed, according to the Scriptures, and the very foundations of our
religion, God needed not any mere creature to help him to create, but it is
his own immediate power that doth it, as the book of Job and Genesis tells us ; therefore (to obviate that objection) our Christ is truly and by nature
very God, of the same substance with his Father, begotten by him, and
equal to him, and that afore the world was ; as also at the creation, he
existed as God with God his Father, afore any creature was, or any way assumed by him.
His subserviency to God in the creation is set forth in this Col. i. 16, in
three particles.
I. Ev awry,* In him.
II. A/ auroij, By him.
III. Eis avrbv, For him.
I. In him, as the exemplary cause, so some schoolmen of old interpreted
it ; for it is not in him all the creatures can be said to be as in a head, for
that is the peculiar and proper privilege of elect men and angels, that are
homogeneal to him. He is a Lord to every creature, but not a head, therefore the exemplary cause is intended. And this was one reason, among many others, why God, in his decree about what creature the second person should assume, pitched upon man s nature rather than that of angels, be cause man s nature is the compendium of all, and so fitted to be (as in Christ
it was) exalted the exemplar, the cr^wrdYLKrov, the pattern of the whole crea
tion. The poets feigned a piece out of every creature to have been taken
to make up man, the perfection of them all. In his reasonable soul, which
is a spirit that can subsist of itself, he agrees with angels ; in his body, and the lives thereof, sensitive and vegetative, with beasts and plants, &c. Now
therefore God set up Christ as the pattern of all perfection (for so that human nature, united and quickened by the Godhead, must needs be even
above the angels themselves, though having a body, and more excellent than
* So in the original, "On Iv O.VTW sxrttfG r) rd xavra, rd ev roTf ovgavoTg xat rd lit] TTJg 7?J,
*"a coard xai rd dogara, i/re Sg&Of, g/Vs xu/6r7jr, /Vf
i, rd vdvra di dvrov xai elg dvrov txnffrat. ^1i- 16.
CHAP. X.J AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 543
they), and drew in scattered pieces the several perfections met in that human nature in the rest of the creation from this pattern. And in man s
creation (whose nature it was he was to assume) this seems to have been
considered by God, in that speech then uttered, Let us make man accord-
to our image, which in Christ as decreed to be God-man, and in which, as
such, he is styled, the image of the invisible God, as hath been shewn
(which some, both ancient and modern divines, have interpreted of Christ, as to be made man, notwithstanding Austin s objection). Even as that
speech used when man was created, Man was made a living soul is in
terpreted by the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 45, &c., to have an eye to Christ, as the type or shadow hath to the body, so likewise that speech uttered before
* Let us make man after our image, that man re
concerning his creation,
fers to whom God was to be united to, and is as if God had said, whom we in our decrees have set up as the pattern and expressest image of the
invisible Godhead, common to all three persons, to the utmost liveliness ordained to be set out, in him who was set out. Therefore the first in in
tention, and decree, and therein before this man Adam, and all things, and
of whom this man Adam is but a shadow.
II. The second phrase is, 3/ aurou, By him all things were created ; so
Eph. iii. 9, where speaking of the mystery of the gospel itself (whereof Christ was the great founder, and apparent author in all men s eyes), he
adds, how the same Christ had also created all things, he having been some way the instrument, as he is Christ, God-man, anointed of the creation, as
well as actually of redemption. And the coming of it in there, so by a mere
occasional addition, imports as if this Christ indeed had been concealed, and came not into the world, but then when the gospel was to be revealed and manifested (of which he there speaks as a mystery hid), yet unto
him, as thus to come into the world, was the world beholden for their
creation. And this glory of Christ, God concealed until the full revelation
of him in the great work of redemption, that so all his revenues of glory might come in together. Yea, if he were at all to be made a creature, it was his due personal privilege ^to have been first himself made, and him
self to have been God s instrument in it, and to have uttered those words
still which were spoken by God (yet as on purpose relating to him, as Cameron well observes), Let there be light, Let there be sun, moon, &c. Even as it was his due, when he assumed our nature, to have been filled with all that personal glory which he hath now in heaven ; but that for
accomplishment of other ends also it was suspended, namely, that he
might first become sin and a curse for us ; so, I say, it was his due to have existed in his human nature first (supposing such a decree that he should assume) ; and then he, as God s Word and instrument, to have
created all things, as he wrought miracles when he was on the earth. But God having a further and more glorious end, suspended that (as he did his personal glory due to him, when he came), and contrived his
coming after the fall, in order to redemption. He yet gives him that glory of creation virtually, and that he created all things by him, and by virtue
of his incarnation ; and in creating (to shew he should have done it as his
Xoyog, a Word to be made flesh) he accordingly acts his part, as in Gen. i.,
God said, Let there be light, and the like, which but for this very mys
tery needed not have been. Yea, such seems to have been his subservi
ency to God herein, that John contents not himself only to have said, that
all things were made by him, but further adds, and without him nothing was made that was mn.de, Unto the interpretation of which place, hereto
544 THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE FATHER, [BOOK III.
annexed,* I refer the reader for a further explication and confirmation o
this truth.
And the reason of this is, partly to honour his Son, to make that his act of undertaking to assume our nature (whereby the Son should be made
less than his Father, even in the greatest height of glory that could be put upon him ; and yet he did this to manifest the Godhead to the utmost), the foundation of the creation, as he did his incarnation in frail flesh,
together with his sufferings the foundation of our salvation (for upon the
decrees of God s will we will suppose the connection of these to depend) ; but yet partly withal, because it was not meet, nor did it become the
great God to make any mere creatures, though never so glorious, but
upon Christ s undertaking first himself to be a creature, and that for two
reasons.
First, For if God glorify himself by creation at all, he will glorify him
self as God the utmost way that may be, or else he doth not like himself. God is curious in the works which his hands mean to make, and will mani
fest his Godhead unto the utmost. Now all that could have been held
forth and manifested of the Godhead, in and to mere creatures, had fallen
short, had not been to the utmost ; therefore if God satisfy himself, it must be by that which is the utmost, or he would have torn all projects of models
of worlds in pieces, and never have put them in execution ; for still he says with himself, I shall do my best and utmost, if there be not an union of some creature into one person with us. Nothing else would have satisfied
his vast desires of being glorified.
And, secondly, the holiness of mere creatures would not have come up to a contentment of his, as the manifestation of the Godhead in the creation
of mere creatures would not have given full contentment to his power and
wisdom, so no mere created holiness to his holiness. He finds folly in the
angels, possibility of mutability, an imperfection; but there is none in God
incarnate. Now, therefore, if his Son will undertake to be a creature, he
is so pleased herewith, as he can be content to condescend (as the psalmist s word is) to look down upon the making works of a lower nature. Which
all serve also to illustrate this highest work of all, by their several subordi
nation thereunto in their several ranks and orders.
It is strange that in the text there should be three phrases used concern
ing the creation in relation unto Christ. The creatures are said to be
created in him, and created by him, and created for him.
In him, as a head, they are not. The creatures cannot be said to be
created, as the elect are said to be chosen, in him : that is proper to those
creatures that are homogeneal to him. In him, therefore, may well be understood virtually, as in Eph. ii. 10, we are said to be his workman
ship, created in him to good works : so the old creation is also in him in
* I was brought up with him (speaking of Wisdom), I remember Junius translates it actively, Edu-
a virtual respect. That place in Prov. viii. 30,
cat; I was he that did foster the creatures, he did foster the purposes of God in the creation of the world ; he was Educans, nursing up and foster
ing of the old creation in his purpose. In Eph. iii. 9, the apostle saith, that it was given to him to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and
to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who (saith he) created all
things by Jesus Christ. He speaks of the mystery of the gospel. Now
that Jesus Christ was the founder of the gospel, that was apparently known,
* See chap, sii., infra. ED.
CHAP. XI.] AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. 545
it was in all men s eyes ; but he addeth, by the same Jesus Christ he
created all things, that is, by Jesus Christ as anointed God-man. And to me the words came in thus (for it is an addition by the way), that though the gospel only began to reveal this Christ, and he did not assume man s
nature till the times of the gospel, and for evangelical ends and purposes, for the redemption of man took frail flesh ; yet, saith he, know this, the world was beholden to him for its creation ; and this is one glory of his that
is not to be laid aside, and the revelation of it, saith he, is by the gospel. He brings it in here with the other, that Christ might have all his revenues
of glory (which in the 8th verse have been styled his riches) come in together.