1 Cor.vi. 20. us, as he thinks good: we may well be obliged to glorify God in our body, and in our fpirit, which are God's. We have reafon also hence to be content with whatsoever con 15. dition God disposeth us unto, or imposeth upon us; he doth therein juftly; and, if we complain, may we not be Matt. xx. answered, Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Is it not lawful? yea, is it not probable, that God will order things for the best, for the good of his children? Will he willingly hurt them? Can he defign Ifa.xlix.15. their mifchief? Can a woman forget her fucking child, that She should not have compassion on the fon of her womb ? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Sooner may the most tender parents become unnaturally regardlefs, malicious, and cruel towards their children, than God neglect the good of his offspring. We have reafon therefore to be fatisfied with all that befalls us; to be patient in the forest afflictions; efteeming them to come from a paternal hand, inflicted with great affection and compasDeut.viii.5. fion, defigned and tending to our good; Thou shalt confider in thy heart, that as a man chafteneth his fon, the Lord thy God chafteneth thee, faith God to the Ifraelites. Heb. xii. 9, We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: fhall we not much rather be in Subjection unto the Father of Spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chaftened us after their own pleasure ; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holinefs. What fweeter comfort can there be, than to know that the most distasteful and crofs accidents befalling us do conduce to our profit, fhall prove most beneficial to us? This confideration alfo ferves to cherish our faith, and raise our hope, and quicken our devotion. Whom shall we confide in, if not in our father? From whom can we expect good, if not from him, who hath given us already fo much, even all we have? If we in our need, with due reverence and fubmiffion, request help from him, can such Matt. vii. 9, a father refufe us? No. What man is there of us, that if his fon afk him bread, will give him a fione? or if he ask fifh, will give him a ferpent? If we then, who are evil, 10. 10, 11. know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more fhall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that afk him? fert. i. 3. This confideration also may beget in us a due valuation of ourselves; and thereby raise us from base and unworthy practices; excite and encourage us to worthy defigns and attempts: even natural light dictates to us the use of this confideration, and heathen philofophers much apply it: "If any one," faith Epictetus, "could duly be af- Epic. Dif"fected with this opinion, that we are all originally de"fcended from God, and that God is the Father both of "men and gods, he would not, I fuppofe, conceive any "thing ignoble or mean concerning himfelf: if Cæfar "fhould adopt thee, none could endure thy fuperciliouf"nefs and if thou knoweft that thou art God's fon, will "it not elevate thee?" So the Philofopher. Shall we that are fo nobly born, of fo illuftrious an extraction, fo far debase ourselves, as to regard and purfue trivial, abject, difhonourable things? fhall we not be afhamed of such a contemptible degeneracy? fhall we not be afraid, for fuch unworthiness to be degraded, rejected, and difinherited by our holy Father? who can nowife brook that fuch blots and dishonours should stick to his lineage, that fuch diforders and mifbehaviour fhould be committed in his family, that we should fo deform his image impreffed upon us: Every branch that beareth not good fruit, he loppeth John xv. 2, it from his ftock, and cafteth it away, as our Saviour tells 6. us. It is proper for children to refemble their father, in their countenance, in their temper, in their doings; If ye John viii. were Abraham's children (fo our Saviour argues) ye would 39, 44. do the works of Abraham: and, Ye are of your father the Devil, because ye perform the lufts of your father; (because ye resemble him in his murderous and treacherous difpofition.) So if we pretend to be the children of God, we muft, according to St. Paul's exhortation, imitate him Eph. v. 1. as dear children: we must be holy, and pure, juft, ficent, merciful, perfect as he is; otherwise we fall this high dignity, we forfeit this excellent privilege of Luke vi. U 4 bene 1 Pet. i. 14, 15. from Matt. v. 45, 48. 35, 36. John i. 3, iji. 17. i. 9. Differt. being thus related to God; we become aliens, and exiles, and enemies, inftead of fons and friends, unto him. Confidering alfo this relation will prompt us how we fhould be affected, and how behave ourselves towards all God's creatures: if God be the Father of all things, they are in fome fort all our brethren: fhall we then abuse, trample upon, or tyrannize over any of them? will God Vid. Epit. permit it, doth it become us to do fo? If we be all branches sprouting from one root, ftreams iffuing from one common fource of divine beneficence, members of one family, we are obliged to univerfal good-will and charity; to be kind and compaffionate; to be helpful and beneficial, so far as our capacity reacheth; to endeavour, as we may, to preferve the order, and promote the welfare of the world, and all things in it. Efpecially toward those beings, who, according to a more proper and excellent fenfe, are entitled the fons of this our common Father; toward beings intellectual, we hence learn our respective duties of love and respect toward those elder brethren of ours, the angels, (the bleffed and holy ones, I mean, fuch as have not degenerated from their nature, and apoftatized from their duty toward God;) of charity and good-will to each other; which if we do not maintain, let us confider we are undutiful and unkind to God first, and then to ourselves; both his relations and our own we hate and harm, his children and our brethren, by hating or harming any man whatever, especially any good man, any Chriftian brother, who by fo many other more especially bands is ftraitly tied unto us, upon so many better grounds doth stand related both to God and us. But let thus much fuffice for this attribute or title of God, understood in this manner, as applicable to God effentially confidered; which notion we fee how true and ufeful it is. But that God is alfo here (and that according to the principal intention of the words) to be underftood fo as by way of eminency to fignify the first Person in the bleffed Trinity, and that the title or appofition more proper Father doth respect especially him, who, according to a and excellent manner, is the Son of God, our Kurà Tíva Lord Chrift Jefus, may upon divers accounts appear. 1. Be-xiλοτέραν, (as cause it follows, and in Jefus Chrift his Son: God is to Nazianzen speaks,) be taken in that notion according to which Chrift is his Orat. 37. Son: the Father preceding relates to the Son following. 2. Because this Creed appears (according to our former discourses) enlarged upon the foundation of the first most fimple confeffions, used in baptifm, and thofe derived from the form prescribed by our Saviour, of baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft: wherefore the Father here is to be interpreted according to that form. 3. The ancient Chriftians (from whom we received the words, and may best understand the sense) did thus generally take and expound them. Now that God is the Father of our Lord Jefus Christ, the universal tenor of the Gospel speaketh, and it is the chief doctrine thereof: this God from heaven by a vocal atteftation declared, (This is John x. 38. my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed ;) our Saviour profeffed; the Apoftles preached; the miracles (performed by our Saviour) were intended to confirm. In this God manifefted his tranfcendent love and mercy and goodnefs to mankind, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that John iii. 16. no believer in him should perish, but have everlasting life; that he did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for Rom. viii. us all: his own Son, ios vids, his peculiar Son, in a more proper and peculiar manner fo: his μovoyevns, only-begotten Son, (in a refpect, according to which no other can pretend to that relation;) his άyannτòs, his darling, (whom he loves with a fuperlative dearnefs.) So that God is the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift; and that it is a fundamental point of our religion and belief; and that it is mainly defigned here, doth fufficiently appear. Now the grounds of this paternity are feveral: his temporal generation by the Spirit and power of God; The Holy Luke i. 35. Ghoft fhall come upon thee, and the power of the Moft High fhall overshadow thee: therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God: When the fulness of time came, God fent forth his Son, Gal. iv. 4. 32. Acts xiii. 32, 33. 1, 2. vid. &c. born of a woman. His reftoral from death to life; We preach the promise made to your fathers, that God hath fulfilled it to us their children, raifing up Jefus ; according alfo to what is written in the fecond Pfalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: whence he is Col. i. 18. called @pwrótоxos ex twv vexpv, the firfiborn from the dead. His defignation of him to fovereign power and authority; John i. 49. Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Ifrael, was Heb. i. 2. Nathanael's confeffion, whom God appointed (or made) Compare heir of all; putting all things under his feet. Father, John xvii. our Saviour prays, glorify thy Son, as thou hafi given him John v. 25, power over all flesh: All power is given me in heaven and upon earth. But the most eminent ground of this paterxxviii. 18. nity (and most proper to this place) is that eternal generaHeb. i. 6. tion, whereby God the Father did in the beginning, before all time imaginable or poffible, (in a manner unconceiveable and ineffable,) communicate his own divine effence to God the Son: his effence, not fpecifically the fame, (fuch as men impart, when they beget a fon in their own likeness,) but the fame individually; begetting Heb. i. 3. him perfectly like himself, without any fo much as acciCol. i. 15. dental diffimilitude or disparity; (by an unconceiveable rog-irradiation of his glory, and impreffion of his substance, as O, the author to the Hebrews speaks.) Matt. Eph. i. 22. του, πρωτό τοκος πάσης κτίσεως. Which doctrine, (though full of deep mystery, and tranfcending the capacity of our understanding to comprehend,) as we are obliged, because it hath been God's good pleasure to reveal it unto us, with a firm faith and humble adoration to embrace, fo it is of great confequence and (even practical) use; ferving to illuftrate the wonderful grace of God in the difpenfation evangelical, and thereby to beget fuitable gratitude in us; encouragement and enforcement to our duty, ftrong faith and hope in God; as alfo to direct and order our devotion toward him. But these confiderations (with the farther probation of this great truth against some, who have dared to oppose it) I shall refer to that article, in which we most expressly confefs, that Jefus Chrift is the Son of God, and confe |