Page images
PDF
EPUB

same person in the same similitude of nature also; but the Word proceeding is the Son, the Holy Ghost is not, because the first procession is by way of generation, the other is not. As therefore the regeneration and adoption of man, so the procession of the Holy Ghost doth no way prejudice the eternal generation, as pertaining solely

to the Son of God.

Seeing then our Saviour Jesus Christ had a real being and existence before he was conceived by the virgin Mary; seeing the being which he had antecedently to that conception was not any created, but the one and indivisible divine essence; seeing he had not that divinity of himself originally, as the Father, but by communication from him; seeing the communication of the same essence unto him was a proper generation; we cannot but believe that the same Jesus Christ is the begotten Son of God: and seeing the same essence was never so by way of generation communicated unto any, we must also acknowledge him the only-begotten, distinguished from the Holy Ghost, as Son; from the adopted children, as the natural Son.

The necessity of the belief of this part of the article, that Jesus Christ is the proper and natural Son of God, begotten of the substance of the Father, and by that singular way of generation the only Son, appeareth first in the confirmation of our faith concerning the redemption of mankind. For this doth show such an excellency and dignity in the person of the Mediator as will assure us of an infinite efficacy in his actions, and value in his sufferings. "We know it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins;" and we may very. well doubt how the blood of him, who hath no other nature than that of man, can take away the sins of other men; there appearing no such difference as will show a certainty in the one, and an impossibility in the other. But since we may be “ bought with a price," well may we believe the blood of Christ sufficiently precious, when we are assured that it is the blood of God: nor can we question the efficacy of it in "purging our conscience from dead works," if we believe "Christ offered up himself through the eternal Spirit." If we be truly sensible of our sins, we must acknowledge that in every one we

have offended God; and the gravity of every offence must needs increase proportionably to the dignity of the party offended in respect of the offender; because the more worthy any person is, the more reverence is due unto him, and every injury tendeth to his dishonor; but between God and man there is an infinite disproportion; and therefore every offence committed against him must be esteemed as in the highest degree of injury. Again; as the gravity of the offence beareth proportion to the person offended, so the value of reparation ariseth from the dignity of the person satisfying; because the satisfaction consisteth in a reparation of that honor which by the injury was eclipsed; and all honor doth increase proportionably as the person yielding it is honorable. If then by every sin we have offended God, who is of infinite eminency, according unto which the injury is aggravated; how shall we ever be secure of our reconciliation unto God, except the person who hath undertaken to make the reparation be of the same infinite dignity; so as the honor rendered by his obedience may prove proportionable to the offence and that dishonor which arose from our disobedience? This scruple is no otherwise to be satisfied than by a belief in such a Mediator as is the only-begotten Son of God, of the same substance with the Father, and consequently of the same power and dignity with the God whom by our sins we have offended.

Secondly; the belief of the eternal generation of the Son, by which he is the same God with the Father, is necessary for the confirming and encouraging a Christian in ascribing that honor and glory unto Christ which is due unto him. For we are commanded to give that worship unto the Son which is truly and properly divine; the same which we give unto God the Father, who "hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father," John v. 22. as it was represented to St. John in a vision, when "he heard every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, saying, Blessing, honor, glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever, Rev. v. 13. Again; we are commanded "to fear the Lord our God,

"

and to serve him;" and that with such an emphasis, as by him we are to understand him alone, because "the Lord our God is one Lord." From whence if any one arose among the Jews teaching under the title of a prophet to worship any other beside him for God, the judgment of the Rabbins was, that notwithstanding all the miracles which he could work, though they were as great as Moses wrought, he ought immediately to be strangled, because the evidence of this truth, that one God only must be worshipped, is above all evidence of sense. Nor must we look upon this precept as valid only under the law, as if then there were only one God to be worshipped, but since the gospel we had another; for our Saviour hath commended it to our observation, by making use of it against the Devil in his temptation, saying, "Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve,' Matt. iv. 10. If then we be obliged to worship the God of Israel only, if we be also commanded to give the same worship to the Son which we give to him; it is necessary that we should believe that the Son is the God of Israel. When the scripture "bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, it saith, Let all the angels of God worship him;" but then the same scripture calleth that first-begotten "Jehovah," and "the Lord of the whole earth," Psal. xcvii. 5. For a man to worship that for God which is not God, knowing that it is not God, is affected and gross idolatry; to worship that as God which is not God, thinking that it is God, is not in the same degree, but it is the same sin; to worship him as God who is God, thinking that he is not God, cannot be thought an act in the formality void of idolatry. Lest therefore, while we are obliged to give unto him divine worship, we should fall into that sin which of all others we ought most to abhor, it is no less necessary that we should believe that Son to be that eternal God, whom we are bound to worship, and whom only we should serve.

Thirdly; our belief in Christ as the eternal Son of God is necessary to raise us unto a thankful acknowledgment of the infinite love of God, appearing in the sending of his only-begotten Son into the world to die for Div. No. XIV.

Τ

sinners. This love of God is frequently extolled and admired by the apostles. "God so loved the world," saith St. John, "that he gave his only-begotten Son," John iii. 16. "God commendeth his love towards us," saith St. Paul, "in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us;" in that "he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all," Rom. v. 8; viii. 32. "In this," saith St. John again, 66 was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins," 1 John iv. 9, 10. If we look upon all this as nothing else but that God should cause a man to be born after another manner than other men, and when he was so born after a peculiar manner, yet a mortal man should deliver him to die for the sins of the world; I see no such great expression of his love in this way of redemption, more than would have appeared if he had redeemed us any other way. It is true indeed, that the reparation of lapsed man is no act of absolute necessity in respect of God, but that he hath as freely designed our redemption as our creation; considering the misery from which we are redeemed, and the happiness to which we are invited, we cannot but acknowledge the singular love of God, even in the act of redemption itself; but yet the apostles have raised that consideration higher, and placed the choicest mark of the love of God in the choosing such means and performing in that manner our reparation, by sending his only-begotten into the world; by not sparing his own Son, by giving and delivering him up to be scourged and crucified for us: and the estimation of this act of God's love must necessarily increase proportionably to the dignity of the Son so sent into the world; because the more worthy the person of Christ before he suffered, the greater his condescension unto such a suffering condition; and the nearer his relation to the Father, the greater his love to us for whose sakes he sent him so to suffer. Wherefore to derogate any way from the person and nature of our Saviour before he suffered, is so far to undervalue the love of God, and consequently to come

short of that acknowledgment and thanksgiving which is due unto him for it. If then the sending of Christ into the world were the highest act of the love of God which could be expressed; if we be obliged unto a return of thankfulness some way correspondent to such infinite love; if such a return can never be made without a true sense of that infinity, and a sense of that infinity of love cannot consist without an apprehension of an infinite dignity of nature in the person sent; then it is absolutely necessary to believe that Christ is so the only-begotten Son of the Father, as to be of the same substance with him, of glory equal, of majesty co-eternal.

By this discourse in way of explication every Christian may understand what it is he says, and express his mind how he would be understood, when he maketh this brief confession, "I believe in Christ the only Son of God." For by these words he must be thought to intend no less than this-I do profess to be fully assured of this assertion as of a most certain, infallible, and necessary truth, that Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Messias, is the true, proper, and natural Son of God, begotten of the substance of the Father; which being incapable of division or multiplication, is so really and totally communicated to him, that he is of the same essence with him, "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God." And as I assert him to be the Son, so do I also exclude all other persons from that kind of sonship, acknowledging none but him to be begotten of God by that proper and natural generation; and thereby excluding all which are not begotten, as it is a generation; all which are said to be begotten, and are called sons, but are so only by adoption, as it is natural. And thus I believe in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his only Son.

Our Lord.

AFTER Our Saviour's relation founded upon his eternal generation, followeth his dominion in all ancient creeds, as the necessary consequent of his filiation. For as we believe him to be the Son of God, so must we acknowledge him to be "our Lord," because the only Son

« EelmineJätka »