John 8:57–58

This last part of Christs answer occasions a new exception against him, that he, who was so young a man, should presume to say he had seen Abraham, ver. 57. In answer to which, Christ asserts that however they take it, yet he is before Abraham; to wit, in respect of his Godhead, though upon that also followeth that even then he exercised the office of Mediatour according to the Covenant of Redemption, in that nature, and so was the matter of the godlies desire and joy, even from the beginning, as was said before of Abraham, ver. 56. While they say, thou art not yet fifty yeares old, though Christ was far younger, it may be conceived that Christs condition and exercise, being a man of sorrowes and acquainted with griefes, had altered him much, and made him seem older then he was, as indeed, exercise of minde will waste mens bodies soone. Or it may be conceived to be spoken with a latitude, that it was very absurd that he, who had not lived so much as the halfe of an age, (reckoning an hundred years to an age) should say he had seen Abraham who was dead so many ages before. Likewise, they bewray their malice in their speech, obscuring what he had spoken of Abrahams seeing of his day, and putting in these words, hast thou seen Abraham? as thinking it a disparagement, that Abraham should take notice of him though he had lived since that time. Doctrine, 1. The truth of God must not be the worse loved, that it be sublime and above the reach of humane reason, or that malicious men cannot, or will not see and acknowledge it, but do account it absurd; for, here a precious truth is rejected by them as absurd. 2. Such as look on Christs outside only, and his state of humiliation, will never see his true excellency; And so many things are true of Christ as God, that flesh and blood, and they who look on him as meer man, will think them most absurd: for, herein was their mistake, they look on him as man only, and therefore object, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 3. Let men oppose as they will, yet it is a truth beyond all contraversie, that Christ had a subsistence before his incarnation and becoming man, and consequently is true God; for, saith he, Verily, verily, I say unto you before Abraham was, I am. He followeth forth his subsistence no further then before Abraham, (though he be eternal) because this was the matter now in contraversie. And they who forge glosses to obscure this text, as speaking of no subsistance of Christ before his incarnation, do not only wrong Christ, as not answering distinctly to the Jewes Question, ver. 57. but are in that respect more blinde then the very Jewes, who understood it so, and could not endure to hear it, ver. 59. 4. Christs subsistence before his incarnation, is immutable and unchangeable, not subject to the vicissitudes of time; Therefore saith he, before Abraham was I am, not, I was, to shew that this has subsistence is unchangeable, still present, and consequently eternal. This, I am, is also a name of God, Exod. 3.14. pointing out that he is, and hath an unchangeable being of himselfe and that albeit there be that which may be known of God, Rom. 1.19. yet his nature is incomprehensible and unsearchable, and is most fitly expressed by this, I am that I am, Exod. 3.14. See Judge 13.18.