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tance. He then who hath a predeftinated us unto the adoption of Children Eph. x. 5. by Jefus Chrift to himself, hath thereby another kind of paternal relation, and fo we receive the b Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Rom. 8. 15. The neceffity of this Faith in God as in our Father appeareth, first, in that it is the ground of all our filial fear, honour and obedience due unto him upon this relation.

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this relation. Honour thy Father is the firft Commandment Eph. 6. 1, 2. with promife, written in Tables of stone with the finger of God; and, children obey your parents in the Lord, is an Evangelical Precept, but founded upon principles of reafon and juftice; for this is right, faith S.Paul. And if there be fuch a rational and legal obligation of honour and obedience to the fathers of our flesh, how much more must we think our felves obliged to him whom we believe to be our heavenly and everlasting Father?

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A Son honoureth his Father, and a Servant his Mafter. If then I be aa Malac. 1. 6. Father, where is my honour? and if I be a Mafter, where is my fear? faith the Lord of Hofts. If we be heirs, we must be co-heirs with Christ; if fons, we must be brethren to the only-begotten: but being he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that fent him, he acknowledgeth no fraternity but with fuch as do the fame; as he hath faid, Whosoever Matt.12.50. Shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the fame is my brother. If it be required of a Bishop in the Church of God, to be one that § 1 Tim. 3. 4. ruleth well his own Houfe, having his Children in fubjection with all gravity; what obedience must be due, what subjection must be paid, unto the Father of the family?

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The fame relation in the Object of our Faith is the life of our devotions, h Matt. 6.8. the expectation of all our petitions. Chrift who taught his Difciples, and Matt. 7. 9, us in them, how to pray, propounded not the knowledge of God, though ignns without that he could not hear us; neither represented he his power, though exogio αwithout that he cannot help us; but comprehended all in this Relation, quia in 8 When ye pray, fay, Our Father. This prevents all vain repetitions of our most earnest defires, and gives us full fecurity to cut off all tautology, for hOur Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask him. This ob creates a clear affurance of a grant without mistake of our petition: What is onogrior man is there of us, who if his fon ask bread, will give him a stone? or if áças. be ask a fifh, will give him a ferpent? If we then who were evil know how Lycophron. to give good gifts unto our children; how much more shall our Father Quòd fi à Dowhich is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

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Again, this paternity is the proper foundation of our Chriftian patience, incuti, cui fweetning all afflictions with the name and nature of fatherly Corrections. magis patien† We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them Domino præreverence, shall we not much rather be in fubjection to the Father of Spi-beamus? rits, and live? especially confidering, that they chastened us after their Quin infuper own pleasure; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of his gaudere nos holiness: they, as an argument of their authority; He, as an affurance of docet dignahis love: they, that we might acknowledge them to be our Parents; He, caftigationis. that he may perfuade us that we are his Sons: For whom the Lord loveth Ego, inquit, he chafteneth, and scourgeth every fon whom he receiveth. And what quos diligo cagreater incitement unto the exercife of patience is imaginable unto a fuffering ferfoul, than to fee in every stroke the hand of a Father, in every affliction a de- beatum cujus monstration of his love? Or how canft thou repine, or be guilty of the least emendationi degree of impatiency, even in the fharpeft corrections, if thou shalt know ftat, cui digwith thine heart, that as a man chasteneth his fon, fo the Lord thy God cha- natur irafci, fteneth thee? How canft thou not be comforted, and even rejoice in the nendi diffimidft of thy greatest fufferings, when thou knowest that he which striketh mulatione pitieth, he which afflicteth is as it were afflicted with it? For like as a Fa- non decipit. ther pitieth his Children, fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

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Lastly, the fame Relation strongly inferreth an abfolute neceffity of our imitation; it being clearly vain to affume the title of Son without any fimi* nav Tolitude of the Father. What is the * general notion of Generation but the νῶν ὅμοιον production of the like; Nature, ambitious of perpetuity, ftriving to preEpiph. Har. Terve the fpecies in the multiplication and fucceffion of individuals? And this fimilitude confifteth partly in effentials, or the likeness of Nature; partTly in accidentals, or the likeness in † figure, or ‡ affections. Adam begat a zivat tois fon in his own likeness, after his image: and can we imagine those the fons Exfore, suhofov. of God which are no way like him? a fimilitude of nature we must not, of figure we cannot pretend unto: it remains then only that we bear fome likenefs in our actions and affections. b Be ye therefore followers, faith the Fortes cre- Apostle, or rather imitators, of God, as dear children. What he hath reantur fortibus vealed of himself, that we must exprefs within our felves. Thus God fpake in juvencis, unto the Children of Ifrael whom he stiled his Son, Te fhall be holy, for eft in equis I am holy. And the Apoftle upon the fame ground fpeaketh unto us, as to tus, nec im- obedient children, As he that hath called you is holy, fo be ye holy in all bellem fero- manner of converfation. It is part of the general beneficence and univerfal ces progene- goodness of our God, that he maketh his Sun to rife on the evil and on the columbam. good, and fendeth rain on the juft and on the unjust. Thefe impartial Hor. Ode. Beams and undistinguishing Showers are but to fhew us what we ought to do, Gen. 5.3, and to make us fruitful in the works of God; for no other reafon Chrift hath b Ephef. 5.1. M. Filii given us this command, love your enemies, bless them that curfe you, do hominum good to them that hate you, that ye may be the children of your Father funt quando which is in heaven. No other command did he give upon this ground, but, quando bene, Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is merciful.

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But although this be very neceffary, yet is it not the principal or most 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 John 20.17. a more peculiar manner the Father of that Son. I afcend unto my Avasaiva Father and your Father, faith our Saviour; the fame of both, but in a gau- different manner, denoted by the Article prefixed before the one, and not ea vu. Had the other: which diftinction in the original we may preferve by this tranboth places flation, I afcend unto the Father of me, and Father of you; first of me, had its arti- and then of you: not therefore his, because ours; but therefore ours, becaufe his. So far we are the fons of God, as we are like unto him; and feemed two our fimilitude unto God confifteth in our conformity to the likeness of his Fathers: had Son. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predeftinate to be conformed to been prefixed the Image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. to alig - He the firft-born, and we fons, as brethren unto him: he appointed heir of all things, and we heirs of God, as joint-heirs with him. Thus God fent then forth his Son, that we might receive the adoption of Sons. And because we are Chrift's but Sons, God hath fent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, το πατέρα με, Father. By his mission we are adopted, and by his Spirit call we God our Fa

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to be principally and originally Chrift's, and by our reference unto him, our Father, Пalega μ, μì xỹ, Qúow ev oy Deórnli, καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν [ὰ χάριν ἐν τῇ ἡοθεσίᾳ. Epiphan. Haref. 69. §. 55. ἐκ εἰπὼν πρὸς ἢ παλέρα ὑμῶν, ἀλλὰ διελῶν, καὶ εἰς πῶν πρῶτον τὸ οἰκεῖον, πρὸς τ πατέρα μὲ ὅπως ἂν καὶ φύσιν· εἶτ ̓ ἐπανα[αἱῶν καὶ πατέρα ὑμῶν, ὅπες τ κ θέσιν. S. Cyril. Catech. 7. Ἑτέρως ἐν αὐτῷ παῖς, καὶ ἑτέρως ἐμῶν, πάνυ μὲ ἐν. Εἰ γ 7 δικαίων ετέξως Θεὸς καὶ ἢ ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων, πολδῷ μᾶλλον τὰ ἡδ καὶ ἡμῶν. Ἐπειδῶν τὸ εἶπε, εἰπὶ τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, ἵνα μὴ δτὶ τότε ἴσον τι φανταῶσι, δείκοσι τὸ ἐνηλε aafpion. S. Chyfoft. ad locum. h Rom. 8. 29. i Heb. 1. 2. Gal. 4. 4, 5, 6. Hoc facit Deus ex filiis hominum filios Dei, quia ex filio Dei fecit Deus filium hominis. S. Aug. in Pfal. 52. ther.

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ther. So are we no longer a fervants, but now fons; and if fons, then heirs Gal. 4. 7. of God, but ftill through Chrift. 'Tis true indeed, that both he that fancti- ↳ Heb. 2. 11. fieth, 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 not all of him after the fame * Dicimur & manner, not the many Sons like the Captain of their Salvation: but Chrift ille aliter filius the beloved, the firft-born, the only-begotten, the Son after a more peculiar Dei. S. A and more excellent manner; the reft with relation unto, and dependence on guft. in Pfal. his Sonfhip; as given unto him, Behold I, and the Children which God, wh hath given me; as being fo by faith in him, For we are all the Children of xalaxsıGod by faith in Chrift Jefus; as receiving the right of Sonfhip from him. sang, For as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the fons of pire άλη God. Among all the fons of God there is none like to that one Son of MoveGod. And if there be fo great a difparity in the Filiation, we muft make as 3. Cyril. Hieકિડ ક great a difference in the correfpondent relation. There is one degree of Son- rof. Catech. 7. thip founded on creation, and that is the loweft, as belonging unto all, both Heb. 2. 10. good and bad: another degree above that there is grounded upon Regenera- Heb. 2. 13. tion, or Adoption, belonging only to the truly faithful in this life: and a third Gal. 3. 26. above the reft founded on the Refurrection, or Collation of the eternal Inhe-John 1. 12. ritance, and the Similitude of God, appertaining to the Saints alone in the in filiis Dei fiworld to come: Fors we are now the fons of God, and it doth not yet ap- Dei. Et ipfe pear what we shall be, but we know that when he fhall appear, we shall dictus eft filius be like him. And there is yet another degree of Filiation, of a greater Emi- Dei, & nos dinency and a different nature, appertaining properly to none of thefe, but to Dei: Sed quis the true Son of God alone, who amongst all his brethren hath only received erit fimilis the title of his own Son, and a fingular teftimony from Heaven. h This is Domino in fimy beloved Son, even in the prefence of John the Baptift, even in the midst unicus, nos of Mofes and Elias, (who are certainly the fons of God by all the other multi. Ille uthree degrees of Filiation) and therefore hath called God after a peculiar num. Ille way his own Father. And fo at laft we come unto the moft fingular and natus, nos aeminent paternal relation, unto the God and Father of our Lord Jefus doptati. Ille Chrift, which is bleffed for evermore, the Father of him, and of us, but hus unigeninot the Father of us as † of him. Chrift hath taught us to fay, Our Fa- tus per natuther: a form of fpeech which he never ufed himfelf; fometimes he calls ram, nos a tempore facti him the Father; fometimes my Father, fometimes your, but never our : per gratiam. he makes no fuch conjunction of us to himself, as to make no diftinction S. Aug. Pjal. between us and himself; fo conjoining us as to distinguish, though so distin81 John 3.2. guishing as not to feparate us. Rom. 8.32. Ut magnifi

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centia Dei dilectionis ex comparationis genere nofceretur, non peperciffe Patrem proprio filio fuo docuit. Nec utique pro adoptandis adoptato, neque pro creatis creaturæ: fed pro alienis fuo, pro connuncupandis proprio. Hilar. 1.6. de Trin. h Matt. 3. 17. and 17.5. Anne ibi in eo quod dicitur, Hic eft, non hoc fignificare videtur, Alios quidem cognominatos ab eo filios, fed hic filius meus eft? Donavi adoptionis plurimis nomen, fed ifte mihi filius : eft? Id. John 5. 18. πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεξε τ Θεόν, as Rom. 8. 32. ὅς γε τὸ ἰδία 4δ ἐκ ἐφείσατο. k2 Cor. II. 31.

Non ficut Chrifti pater, itâ & noftri pater. Nunquam enim Chriftus ità nos conjunxit, ut nullam diftinétionem faceret inter nos & fe. Ille enim filius æqualis patri, ille æternus cum patre, patrique coæternus: Nos autem facti per filium, adoptati per unicum. Proinde nunquam auditum eft de ore Domini noftri Jefu Chrifti, cùm ad difcipulos loqueretur, dixiffe illum de Deo fummo patre fuo, Pater nofter; fed ut Pater meus dixit, aut Pater vefter; ufque adeò ut quodam loco poneret hæc duo. Vado ad Deum meum, inquit, & Deum veftrum. Quare non dixit Deum noftrum & Patrem meum dixit, & Patrem veftrum; non dixit noftrum? Sic jungit nè diftinguat, fic diftinguit ut non fejungat. Unum nos vult effe in fe, unum autem Patrem & fe. S. Aug. in Joan. Tract. 21.

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 laid unto his Apoftles, All power is given unto me Mat. 18. 18, in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing 19. them

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them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft. *Arius and From this facred form of Baptifm did the Church derive the * rule of Faith, Euzoius, in their Creed requiring the profeffion of belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, before delivered to they could be baptized in their Name. When the Eunuch asked Philip, Conftantine: a What doth hinder me to be baptized? Philip faid, If thou believeft with Tairlwall thine heart, thou mayeft: and when the Eunuch replied, I believe that Papy ix + à- Jefus Chrift is the Son of God; he baptized him. And before that, the yar dalt Samaritans, when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning Tö xveis Tois the Kingdom of God, and the name of Jefus Chrift, were baptized, both Laurs μady men and women. For as in the Acts of the Apostles there is no more exTais, Hogue preffed than that they baptized in the name of Jefus Chrift: fo is no more oals wala rà expreffed of the Faith required in them who were to be baptized, than to be O, Blieve in the fame Name. But being the Father and the Holy Ghost were likeζοντες αὐτὸς wife mentioned in the first Institution, being the expreffing of one doth not als, exclude the other, being it is certain that from the Apostles times the names એક, ૪ વ્યંજષ્ઠ , is of all three were ufed; hence upon the fame ground was required Faith, and Socr. 1.1. c.26. a profeffion of belief in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Again, as And upon the the Eunuch faid not fimply, I believe in the Son, but I believe that Jefus Confeffion of Christ is the Son of God, as a brief explication of that part of the Inftitution Faith, they which he had learned before of Philip fo they who were converted unto were restored Chriftianity were first taught not the bare names, but the explications and munion of the defcriptions of them in a brief, eafie and familiar way; which when they had Church by the rendred, acknowledged, and profeffed, they were baptized in them. And Synod of Jeru thefe being regularly and conftantly ufed, made up the Rule of Faith, that is, 1.2. c.27. In the Creed. The truth of which may fufficiently be made apparent to any who the fame man- fhall feriously confider the conftant practice of the Church, from the first Age delivered his unto this prefent, of delivering the Rule of Faith to thofe which were to be Creed unto the baptized, and fo requiring of themselves, or their Sureties, an express recitaNice, conclu- tion, profeffion, or acknowledgment of the Creed. From whence this obferding and de- vation is properly deducible; That in what fenfe the name of Father is taducing it from ken in the Form of Baptifm, in the fame it also ought to be taken in this Arο κύ - ticle. And being nothing can be more clear than that, when it is faid, In the ειπ ἡμῶν, name of the Father, and of the Son, the notion of Father, hath in this parsiis ticular no other relation but to that Son whofe name is joined with his; and τὸ κήρυγμα Tμ- as we are baptized into no other Son of that Father, but that only-begotten Chrift Jefus, fo into no other Father, but the Father of that only-begotten: anal, it followeth, that the proper explication of the first words of the Creed is &c. Socrat. this, I believe in God the Father of Chrift Fefus.

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Theodor. l. 1. c. 12. The fame is also alledged by the Council of Antioch, under the Emperor Conftantius and Pope Julius. Socrat. 1. 2. c. 10. Vide S. Athanaf. in Epift. ad ubique Orthod. Orat. contra Gregales Sabellii, & contra Arianos, ex Deo Deus. Vide Bafil. de Spirit. S. So Vigilius Tapfenfis Dial. l. 1. makes Arius and Athanafius jointly speak thefe words: Credimus in Deum Patrem Omnipotentem, & in Jefum Chriftum Filium ejus, Dominum noftrum, & in Spiritum S. Hæc eft fidei noftræ Regula, quam cœlefti mag fterio Dominus tradidit Apoftolis, dicens,. Ite, Baptizate, &c. Act. 8. 36, 37. b Verse 12. a 36,37. c Act. 2. 38. and 8. 16. and 10.48. and 19. 5.

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 occafion, 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 first Article;

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fo when I faid, I believe in God the Father, I must as neceffarily be under-* Pater cùm ftood of the Father of him whom I call his Son in the fecond Article. Now as it cannot be denied that God may feveral ways be faid to be the qui filius fuFather of Chrift; first, as he was begotten by the Holy Ghost of the Vir- pradicta fit gin Mary; fecondly, as he was fent by him with fpecial authority, as the ftantiæ. King of Ifrael; thirdly, as he was raifed from the dead, out of the womb Ruff. in Sym. of the earth unto immortal Life, and made heir of all things in his Father's John 10.35 house so must we not doubt but, befide all these, God is the Father of that 36. and 1. 49 Son in a more eminent and peculiar manner, as he is and ever wasd with God, Acts 13.32, and God: which fhall be demonftrated fully in the fecond Article, when we 33. come to fhew how Chrift is the only-begotten Son. And according unto this Job. 1.1. Paternity by way of Generation totally Divine, in which he who begetteth is God, and he which is begotten the fame God, do we believe in God, as the eternal Father of an eternal Son. Which Relation is co-æval with his Ef fence: fo that we are not to imagine one without the other; but as we pro. fefs him always God, fo must we acknowledge him † always Father, and that † Αμα γάρ ἐσι in a far more * proper manner than the fame title can be given to any Crea- Èòs xj aμ ture. Such is the fluctuant condition of human generation, and of those relations which arife from thence, that he which is this day a fon, the next may prove a father, and within the space of one day more, without any real alteration in himself, become neither fon nor father, lofing one Relation by the death of him that begot him, and the other by the departure of pesas y him that was begotten by him. But in the Godhead these Relations are v more † proper, because fixed, the Father having never been a Son, the Son never becoming Father, in reference to the fame kind of generation.

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Παλὴς ἀεὶ πα જે કં ઉં xgs in a se li i zalne nalng. Epiph. Haref. 62. Sicut nunquam fuit non Deus, ità nunquam fuit non Pater, à quo Filius natus. Gennad. de Ecclef. dogm. c. I. Credimus in Deum, eundem confitemur Patrem, ut eundem femper habuiffe Filium nos credamus. Chryfol. Serm. 59. Ineft Deo pietas, eft in Deo femper affectio, paternitas permanet apud illum: femper ergò Filium fuiffe credas, nè Patrem femper non fuiffe blafphemes. Id. Serm. 62. Ádvertite, quòd cùm Dei Patris nomen in Confeffione conjungit, oftendit quod non ante Deus effe cœperit, & poftea Pater, fed fine ullo initio & Deus femper & Pater eft. Aug. de Temp. Serm. 132. * Deus folus propriè verus eft Pater, qui fine initio & fine Pater eft; non enim aliquando cœpit effe quòd Pater eft, fed femper Pater eft, femper habens Filium ex fe genitum. Faufinus lib. contra Arianos. Ἐπὶ τὸ θεότητα μόνης ὁ πατὴς κυρίως ὁ πατὴρ ἐσι, καὶ ὁ τὸς κυρίως τὸς ἐςὶ, * ἐπὶ τάτων ἢ μόνων ἔφηκε τὸ παλὴς ἀεὶ παλής είναι, καὶ τὸ ψός από τὸς εἶναι. S. Athanaf. Difp. contra Arianos. † Ἐπὶ μόνης - θεότη & τὸ παλὴς καὶ τὸ φὸς ἔφηκε καὶ ἔσιν ἀεὶ τὸ ἀνθρώπων εἰ παλὴς λέγεται τις. ἀλλ ̓ ἑτέρα γέγονεν ὑὸς, καὶ εἰ τὸς λέξεις, ἀλλ ̓ ἑτέρα λέγει, παλὴς. ὥσε ἐπ' ἀνθρώπων μὴ σώζεις κυρίως τὸ παρὸς καὶ δ όνομα. S. Athana. Tom. 1. Παλής κυρίως, ότι μὴ καὶ εός, ὥστες καὶ τὸς κυρίως, ότι μὴ καὶ παλής. τὰ γδ' ἡμέτερα & κυρίως, ὅτι καὶ ἄμφω. Greg. NΑΣ,

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A farther reason of the propriety of God's Paternity appears from this, * Etiamfi Fithat he hath begotten a Son of the fame nature and effence with himself, homo in quinot only fpecifically, but individually, as I fhall alfo demonstrate in the ex- bufdam fimipofition of the fecond Article. For Generation being the production of the lis, in quibuflike, and that likeness being the fimilitude of * fubftance; where is the milis Patri; nearest identity of nature, there must be also the most proper Generation, tamen quia and confequently he which generateth, the most proper Father. If there- ejufdem fubfore man, who by the benediction of God given unto him at his first crea- negari verus tion in these words, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, be- Filius non getteth a Son b in his own likeness, after his image, that is, of the fame hu- poteft, & quia man nature, of the fame fubftance with him, (which if he did not, he fhould lius, negari not according to the benediction multiply himself or man at all,) with which ejufdem fubfimilitude of nature many accidental disparities may confist, if by this act of poteft. S.. Generation he obtaineth the name of Father, because, and in regard, of the Aug. 1. 3. fimilitude of his nature in the Son, how much more properly must that 15. Vide Tho. name belong unto God himself, who hath begotten a Son of a nature and sum. p. 1. effence fo totally like, fo totally the fame, that no accidental disparity can qua. 33. ars. imaginably confist with that identity?

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