and Senfuality, upon this very confideration that the Son hath put fuch an honour and dignity upon us: We fhould reverence that Nature which God did not difdain to affume and to inhabit here on Earth, and in which he now gloriously reigns in Heaven, at the right hand of his Fato him be glory for ever and ever.

ther;

Amen.

SER

SERMON II.

Concerning the

Divinity of our B. Saviour.

Preached in the

Church of St. Lawrence Jewry,

January the 6th. 1679.

The Word was made flesh.

Proceed now to profecute the third Corollary or Conclufion, which does neceffarily follow from the Defcription which St. John in the beginning of his Gospel gives of the Word, and which I have fo largely explain'd in the foregoing Difcourfe: And it was this,

That the Word, here defcribed by the Evangelift, had an existence before

45

his Incarnation and his being born of the B. Virgin.

This Affertion, I told you, is levelled directly against the Socinians, who affirm our B. Saviour to be a mere Man, and deny that he had any exiftence before he was born of the Virgin Mary his Mother: which Pofition of theirs does perfectly contradict all the former Conclufions which have been fo evidently drawn from the Description here given of the Word: And not only fo, but hath forced them to interpret this whole paffage in the beginning of St. John's Gofpel in a very different fenfe from that which was conftantly received, not only by the ancient Fathers, but by the general confent of all Chriftians for 1500 years together: For to eftablifh this their Opinion of our Saviour's being a mere Man and having no exiftence before his Birth, they have found it neceffary to expound this whole paffage quite to another fenfe, and fuch as by their

Own

own confeffion was never mentioned, nor, I believe, thought of by any 'Chriftian Writer whatsoever before

Socinus.

For this reafon I fhall very particularly confider the Interpretation which Socinus gives of this Paffage of St. John; and befides the novelty of it, which they themselves acknowledge, I make no doubt very plainly to manifeft the great Violence and Unreasonableness, and likewife the Inconfiftency of it with other plain Texts of the New Teftament.

It is very evident what it was that forc'd Socinus to fo ftrain'd and violent an Interpretation of this Paffage of the Evangelift, namely, that he plainly faw how much the obvious, and natural, and generally receiv'd Interpretation of this Paffage, in all Ages of the Chriftian Church down to this time, ftood in the way of his Opinion, of Chrift's being a mere Man, which he was fo fond of, of neceffity have quitted,

D 2

and must

unless he would