WHEN there is mention of the word of God,or of man,it doth not signify a part of speech,such as grammarians call a noun or a verb,or any simple voice,without a contexture with other words to make it significative;but a perfect speech or discourse,whereby the speaker affirmeth,denieth,commandeth,promiseth,threateneth,wisheth,or interrogateth.In which sense it is not vocabulum that signifies a word,but sermo (in Greek logos)that is,some speech,discourse,or saying.
Again,if we say the word of God,or of man,it may be understood sometimes of the speaker:as the words that God hath spoken,or that a man hath spoken;in which sense,when we say the Gospel of St.
Matthew,we understand St.Matthew to be the writer of it:and sometimes of the subject;in which sense,when we read in the Bible,"The words of the days of the kings of Israel,or Judah,"it is meant the acts that were done in those days were the subject of those words;and in the Greek,which,in the Scripture,retaineth many Hebraisms,by the word of God is oftentimes meant,not that which is spoken by God,but concerning God and His government;that is to say,the doctrine of religion:insomuch as it is all one to say logos theou,and theologia;which is that doctrine which we usually call divinity,as is manifest by the places following:"The Paul and Barnabas waxed bold,and said,it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you,but seeing you put it from you,and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,lo,we turn to the Gentiles."That which is here called the word of God was the doctrine of Christian religion;as it appears evidently by that which goes before.And where it is said to the Apostles by an angel,"Go stand and speak in the Temple,all the words of this life";by the words of this life is meant the doctrine of the Gospel,as is evident by what they did in the Temple,and is expressed in the last verse of the same chapter."Daily in the Temple,and in every house,they ceased not to teach and preach Christ Jesus":in which place it is manifest that Jesus Christ was the subject of this "word of life";or,which is all one,the subject of the "words of this life eternal"that our Saviour offered them.So the word of God is called the word of the Gospel,because it containeth the doctrine of the kingdom of Christ;and the same word is called the word of faith;that is,as is there expressed,the doctrine of Christ come and raised from the dead.Also,"When any one heareth the word of the kingdom";that is the doctrine of the kingdom taught by Christ.Again,the same word is said "to grow and to be multiplied";which to understand of the evangelical doctrine is easy,but of the voice or speech of God,hard and strange.In the same sense the doctrine of devils signifieth not the words of any devil,but the doctrine of heathen men concerning demons,and those phantasms which they worshipped as gods.
Considering these two significations of the word of God,as it is taken in Scripture,it is manifest in this latter sense (where it is taken for the doctrine of Christian religion)that the whole Scripture is the word of God:but in the former sense,not so.For example,though these words,"I am the Lord thy God,"etc.,to the end of the Ten Commandments,were spoken by God to Moses;yet the preface,"God spake these words and said,"is to be understood for the words of him that wrote the holy history.The word of God,as it is taken for that which He hath spoken,is understood sometimes properly,sometimes metaphorically.Properly,as the words He hath spoken to His prophets:metaphorically,for His wisdom,power,and eternal decree,in making the world;in which sense,those fiats,"Let their be light,Let there be a firmament,Let us make man,"etc.are the word of God.And in the same sense it is said,"All things were made by it,and without it was nothing made that was made":and "He upholdeth all things by the word of His power";that is,by the power of His word;that is,by His power:and "The worlds were framed by the word of God";and many other places to the same sense:as also amongst the Latins,the name of fate,which signifieth properly the word spoken,is taken in the same sense.
Secondly,for the effect of His word;that is to say,for the thing itself,which by His word is affirmed,commanded,threatened,or promised;as where Joseph is said to have been kept in prison,"till his word was come";that is,till that was come to pass which he had foretold to Pharoah's butler concerning his being restored to his office:for there,by his word was come,is meant the thing itself was come to pass.So also,Elijah saith to God,"I have done all these thy words,"instead of "I have done all these things at thy word,"or commandment.And,"Where is the word of the Lord"is put for "Where is the evil He threatened."And,"There shall none of my words be prolonged any more";by words are understood those things which God promised to His people.And in the New Testament,"heaven and earth shall pass away,but my words shall not pass away";that is,there is nothing that I have promised or foretold that shall not come to pass.And in this sense it is that St.
John the Evangelist,and,I think,St.John only,calleth our Saviour Himself as in the flesh the Word of God,"And the Word was made flesh";that is to say,the word,or promise,that Christ should come into the world,"who in the beginning was with God".