C.

53

on the good, and fendeth rain on the juft and on the un- Vide S. Aujuft. These impartial beams and undiftinguishing guft. in Pfal. fhowers are but to fhew us what we ought to do, and to make us fruitful in the works of God; for no other reason Christ hath given us this command, (9) Love your enemies, bless them that curfe you, do good to them that hate you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. No other command did

he give upon this ground, but, Be ye therefore merci- Luke vi. 36. ful, as your Father is merciful.

So neceffary is this Faith in God, as in our Father, both for direction to the best of actions, and for confolation in the worft of conditions.

But although this be very neceffary, yet is it not the principal or moft proper explication of God's Paternity. For as we find one perfon in a more peculiar manner the Son of God, fo muft we look upon God as in a more peculiar manner the Father of that Son. (r) I afcend unto my Father and your John xx. Father, faith our Saviour; the fame of both, but 17. in a different manner, denoted by the article prefixed before the one, and not the other which distinction in the original we may preferve by this tranflation, I afcend unto the Father of me, and Father of you; firft of me, and then of you: not therefore his, because ours; but therefore ours, because his. So far we are the fons of God, as we are like unto him; and our fimilitude unto God confifteth in our conformity to the likenefs of his Son. For Rom. viii. whom he did foreknow, he also did predeftinate to be 29. conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firft-born among many brethren. He the firft-born, and we fons, as brethren unto him: he appointed Heb. i. 2. heir of all things, and we heirs of God, as joint-heirs with him. Thus God (s) fent forth his Son, that we Gal. iv. 4, might receive the adoption of fons. And because we 5, 6. are fons, God hath fent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. By his miffion we are adopted, and by his Spirit call we God our Fa

Cal. iv. 7. ther. So are we no longer fervants, but now fons; and if fons, then heirs of God, but ftill through Chrift. Heb. ii. 11. It is true indeed, that both be that fanctifieth, that is, Chrift, and they who are fanctified, that is, faithful Chriftians, are all of one, the fame Father, the fame God; for which caufe he is not ashamed to call them brethren: yet are they (t) not all of him after the Heb. ii. 10. fame manner, not the many Sons like the Captain of their falvation but Chrift the beloved, the firstborn, the only-begotten, the Son after a more peculiar and more excellent manner; the reft with relation unto, and dependence on his fonfhip; as Ifa. viii. 18. given unto him; Behold I, and the children which Heb. ii. 13. God hath given me as being fo by faith in him; Gal. iii. 26. For we are all the Children of God by faith in Chrift

Jefus as receiving the right of fonfhip from him; John i. 12. For as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the Sons of God. (u) Among all the fons of God there is none like to that one Son of God. And if there be fo great a disparity in the filiation, we must make as great a difference in the correfpondent relation. There is one degree of fonship founded on Creation, and that is the loweft, as belonging unto all, both good and bad: another degree above that there is grounded upon regeneration, or Adoption, belonging only to the truly faithful in this life and a third above the rest founded on the Refurrection, or collation of the eternal inheritance, and the fimilitude of God, appertaining to the Saints alone in the world to come: 1John iii. 2. For we are now the fons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we fhall be; but we know that when he Shall appear, we shall be like him. And there is yet another degree of Filiation, of a greater eminency and a different nature, appertaining properly to none of these, but to the true Son of God alone, who amongst all his brethren hath only received Rom. viii. the title of his (v) own Son, and a fingular teftimony from Heaven, This is my beloved Son, (w) even

32.

ἴδιον ἔλεξε

* Θεόν,

viii. 32.

in the presence of John the Baptift, even in the Mat.iii. 17. midst of Mofes and Elias, (who are certainly the & xvii. 5. fons of God by all the other three degrees of filiation) and therefore hath called God after a peculiar way his own Father. And fo at laft we come unto John v. 18. the most fingular and eminent paternal relation, Tariga unto the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, OEÒY, which is blessed for evermore; the Father of him, and as Rom. of us, but not the Father of us as (x) of him. Christ hath taught us to fay, Our Father: a form vi of speech which he never used himself; fometimes palo. he calls him the Father; fometimes my Father, 2 Cor. xi. fometimes your, but never our: he makes no fuch conjunction of us to himself, as to make no diftinction between us and himself; fo conjoining us as to distinguish, though so distinguishing as not to feparate us.

ὅς γε το

31.

Indeed I conceive this, as the most eminent notion of God's Paternity, fo the original and proper explication of this Article of the Creed: and that not only because the ancient Fathers deliver no other expofition of it; but also because that which I conceive to be the firft occafion, rife, and original of the Creed itself, requireth this as the proper interpretation. Immediately before the afcenfion of our Saviour, he said unto his Apoftles, All power is given Mat.xxviii. unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach 18, 19. all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft. From this facred form of Baptism did the Church derive the (y) rule of Faith, requiring the profeffion of belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, before they could be baptized in their Name. When the Eunuch afked Philip, What doth hinder me to be baptized? Philip Acts viii. faid, If thou believeft with all thine heart, thou mayeft": 36, 37• and when the Eunuch replied, I believe that Jefus Chrift is the Son of God; he baptized him. And before that, the Samaritans, when they believed Philip Ver. 12. preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and

E 4

the

& x. 48. &

xix. S.

the name of Jefus Chrift, were baptized, both men and women. For as in the Acts of the Apoftles there is Acts ii. 38, no more expreffed than that they baptized in the & viii. 16. name of Jefus Chrift: fo is no more expreffed of the faith required in them who were to be baptized, than to believe in the fame name. But being the Father and the Holy Ghoft were likewise mentioned in the first institution, being the expreffing of one doth not exclude the other, being it is certain that from the Apostles' times the names of all three were ufed; hence upon the fame ground was required faith, and a profeffion of belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. Again, as the Eunuch faid not fimply, I believe in the Son, but I believe that Jefus Chrift is the Son of God, as a brief explication of that part of the inftitution which he had learned before of Philip: fo they who were converted unto Chriftianity were first taught, not the bare names, but the explications and defcriptions of them in a brief, eafy and familiar way; which when they had rendered, acknowledged, and profeffed, they were baptized in them. And these being regularly and conftantly used, made up the rule of Faith, that is, the Creed. The truth of which may fufficiently be made apparent to any who fhall ferioufly confider the conftant practice of the Church, from the first age unto this prefent, of delivering the rule of Faith to those which were to be baptized, and fo requiring of themselves, or their Sureties, an express recitation, profeffion, or acknowledgment of the Creed. From whence this obfervation is properly deducible; That in what sense the name of Father is taken in the form of Baptifm, in the fame it alfo ought to be taken in this Article. And be ing nothing can be more clear than that, when it is faid, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, the notion of Father hath in this particular no other relation but to that Son whofe name is joined with his: and as we are baptized into no other Son of that Father,

Father, but that only-begotten Chrift Jefus, fo into no other Father, but the Father of that only-begotten: it followeth, that the proper explication of the firft words of the Creed is this; I believe in God the Father of Chrift Fefus.

In vain then is that vulgar diftinction applied unto the explication of the Creed, whereby the Father is confidered both perfonally and effentially: perfonally as the first in the glorious Trinity, with relation and oppofition to the Son; effentially, as comprehending the whole Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. For that the Son is not here comprehended in the Father is evident, not only out of the original, or occasion, but also from the very letter of the Creed, which teacheth us to believe in God the Father, and in his Son; for if the Son were included in the Father, then were the Son the Father of himself. As therefore when I fay, I believe in Jefus Chrift his Son, I must neceffarily understand the Son of that Father whom I mentioned in the firft Article; fo when I faid, I believe in God the Father, I muft as neceffarily be understood of the (z) Father of him whom I call his Son in the fecond Article.

50.

Now as it cannot be denied that God may several ways be faid to be the Father of Chrift; first, as he was begotten by the Holy Ghoft of the Virgin Ma- Luke i. 35. ry; fecondly, as he was fent by him with special authority, as the King of Ifrael; thirdly, as he was John x. 35, raised from the dead, out of the womb of the earth 36. & i.49, unto immortal life, and made heir of all things in Acts xiii. his Father's house: fo muft we not doubt but, be- 32, 33fide all these, God is the Father of that Son in a more eminent and peculiar manner, as he is and ever was with God, and God: which fhall be demon- Joh. i. ftrated fully in the fecond Article, when we come to fhew how Chrift is the only-begotten Son. And according unto this Paternity by way of generation totally Divine, in which he who begetteth is God, and he which is begotten the fame God, do we be