confute here the blasphemie of Calv. inst. li. 10, 13. Sect. 23. & 25.Calvin, holding the second Person to be God, not as of the Father, but as of himself. And yet such are the bookes that our youth now read commonly in England, and that by commandement.
The WORD true God by nature.1. God was the Word.) Lest any man upon the premisses, which set forth the relation and distinction of the second Person from the first, might thinke that the Father only were God, the Evangelist expresly teacheth, the WORD to be God. For though the wordes seeme to lie otherwise (because we have of purpose followed the elegancie which the Evangelist himself observed in placing them so, and therfore they stand so both in Greeke and Latin) yet indeed the construction is thus: The WORD was God, and 1. Jo. c. 5, 20.(as in his first Epistle the same Apostle writeth) true God: lest any might say (as the Arians did) that he was God indeed, but not truly and naturally, but by common adoption or calling, as good men in the Church be called the sonnes of God. What wonderful wrangling and tergiversation the Arians used to avoid the evidence of this place, we see in S. Augustine li. 3 de Doct. Christ. c. 2. The Protestants are like the wrangling Arians.even such as the Protestants doe, to avoid the like wordes, This is my body, concerning the B. Sacrament.
The WORD not a creature but the Creatour.3. By him.) Againe, by this he signifieth the eternitie, divinitie, omnipotencie, and equalitie of the WORD or Sonne, with God the Father, because by him al things were created. Al things he saith, both visible of this world: and invisible, as Angels and al spiritual creatures. Whereupon it is evident also, that himself is no creature, being the Creatour of al: neither is sinne of his creation, being a defect of a thing, rather then a thing itself, and therfore neither of nor by him.
Free-wil.12. He gave them power.) Free wil to receive or acknowledge Christ, and power given to men, if they wil, to be made by Christ the sonnes of God: but not forced or drawen thereunto by any necessitie.
Humble kneeling at the solemne wordes of Christs incarnation.14. The Word made flesh.) This is the high and divine testimonie of Christs incarnation and that he vouchsafed to become man. For the acknowledging of which inexplicable benefit and giving humble thankes for the same, al Christian people in the world by tradition of the Fathers prostrate themselves or kneele downe, when they heare it sung or said at the holy Masse, either in this Ghospel, or in the Creede by these wordes: ET HOMO FACTUS EST.
How mortal men see God.18. No man hath seen.) Never man in this mortalitie saw God in the very shape and natural forme of the divine essence, but men see him only in the shape of visible creatures, in or by which it pleaseth him to shew himself unto many diversly in this world: but never in such sort as when he shewed himself in the Person of the Sonne of God, being made truey man and conversing with men.
The B. Trinitie.32. The Spirit.) Here is an evident testimonie of the third Person in Trinitie, which is the Holy Ghost: so that in this one Chapter we finde expresly against al Heretikes, Jewes, and Pagans, set forth the truth of the Churches doctrine concerning the whole Trinitie.
Peter by his new name designed to be the Rocke of the Church.42. Looking upon him.) This beholding of Simon, insinuateth Christs designement: and preferring of him to be the cheefe Apostle, the Rocke of the Church and his Vicar; and therfore upon that Divine providence and intention he accordingly changeth his name, calling him for Simon, Cephas, which is a Syriake word, as much to say as Rocke or Stone. And S. Paul commonly calleth him by this name Cephas, whereas other both Greekes and Latines call him altogether by the Greeke word, Peter, which signifieth the selfsame thing. Cephas. Petrus. Li. 2. c. 12. in John.Whereof S. Cyril saith, that our Saviour by foretelling that his name should no more now be Simon, but Peter, did by the word itself aptly signifie, that on him, as on a rocke and stone most firme, he would build his Church.
