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seek a more excellent and proper foundation of this only

Sonship; and fuch we may deduce from the teftimony of John iii. 13. divine writ. It is evident thence that our Saviour had an

vi. 62.

viii. 58.

Heb. i.

Col. i. 16,

existence before his temporal generation; for he did defcend from heaven, and was there before he did defcend; (his afcenfion was but a returning thither, whence he had defcended at his incarnation;) he was before St. John John i. 15. the Baptift; and therefore, as St. John confeffes, was worthily preferred before him. Before Abraham was born, he did fubfift; (and therefore might without any abfurdity affirm, that Abraham and he did fee each other, might have intercourse together, as his own discourse with the Jews doth declare :) nay farther, it is plain he was of standing, and had a glory before the world had a being: Johnxvii.5. for he prays thus; And now, Father, glorify me with thyfelf with the glory which I had before the world was with thee (glory; that is, a most honourable state of being and excellent perfection was not only defigned him, but he really had it before the world was :) and needs must it be fo; for by him God made the world; and himself made it: By him, faith St. Paul, were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, vifible and invifible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things confift. (He did not only create anew and reform mankind, but he created all things; and among them all degrees of angels, all things in heaven; such things as the new metaphorical creation John i. 3, did not extend unto.) All things were made by him, (or did exift by him,) and without him there was not any thing made which was made, faith St. John: (and what could be faid more exprefsly or clearly?) In fine, he did exift from all eternity: πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως; that is, bom John i. 1. before all the creation: as, In the beginning was the Word: in the beginning; that is, before any point of time defignable or conceivable; that is, from eternity: whence Rev. i. 17. he is truly ftyled, the first and the laft, (ó πgŵtos xaì ó ÉxaTos,) and Alpha and Omega, feveral times in St. John's Revelation; (a phrase by which God's eternity and im

17.

Eph. iii. 9.

10.

ii. 8. xxii.

13.

xlviii. 12.

16.

viii. 33.

16.

mortality are ufually expreffed.) He had therefore a Ifa. xli. 4. being before his temporal generation, and that before all xliv. 6. creatures, even from eternity: therefore that being was Rev. i. 8. divine: if no creature, if author of all creatures, if eternally fubfiftent, then God: that action is proper, that attribute is peculiar to God; only God can be the Creator of all things: (he that built all things is God; none but God can be eternal; he only hath immortality, and only therefore hath eternity:) he is confequently faid, before he did affume the form of a fervant, and became like unto Heb. iii. 4. men, to have subfifted in the form of God, and not to have 1 Tim. vi. deemed it robbery to be equal (or in equality) to God; (fo Phil. ii. 6, that as he was after his incarnation truly man, partaker 7. of man's nature and properties, fo before it he was truly God, partaker of the divine effence and attributes ;) and therefore he is frequently in the Scriptures called God, Vid. Rom. (in the most proper and highest fenfe :) In the beginning John i. i. was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God is faid to have been manifefted in the 1 Tim. iii. flesh, juftified in the Spirit, feen of angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed upon in the world, affumed into glory; (of which pofitions it is evident that the subject is Chrift; he is therefore called God.) God is alfo faid, by St. Paul, to have purchased his Church with his own blood; who Acts xx. 28. elfe did that but Chrift? My Lord and my God; fo St. Johnxx.28. Thomas expreffed his faith in Chrift, (upon his conviction,) which our Saviour accepts and approves as a proper teftimony thereof. Alfo; We are, faith St. John, in 1 John v. the true one, (the God of truth,) in his Son Jefus Chrift. This he, is the true God, and life eternal, (no falfe, no metaphorical God, but the very true, fupreme, ever-living God;) out of whom, faith St. Paul, as concerning the flesh Rom. ix. 5. (according to his humanity,) Chrift came, who is over all, God bleed for ever; (ó ènì návтwv Osòs,) the God over all, the fupreme God, the Moft High: God, bleffed for ever; the ỏ λoynròs, the blessed one, (which is a special and cha- Mark xiv. racteristical attribute or title of God.) Now this proper appellation, with the majesty and worship due thereto, as alfo the title of Lord and King, King of kings, and Lord of 1 Tim. vi.

20.

61.

15.

lords, with the reverence and authority attending them; likewise the most divine works of creation and providence, and judging the world; immediate working of miracles, remitting of fins; the divine attributes of wife, good, powerful, abfolutely and perfectly; in a word, all things that the Father hath, (according to what our Saviour afJohn xvi. firmed, All things that the Father hath are mine ;) we cannot imagine that God, who is fo jealous of his honour, (who will not give his glory to another,) would communicate to any creature, how eminent foever in nature, (for the highest creature poffible must however be infinitely diftant from, infinitely inferior to, himself in perfection and dignity; nor can any be capable of it in nature, or in reafon and juftice accept fuch names, fuch characters, such prerogatives.) Now our Saviour being thus God, and the whole tenor of our religion (with teftimonies of Scripture frequent and obvious) afferting but one God, therefore our Saviour hath the fame effence with God; and it must be neceffarily true what himself affirms; I and the Father are one, (John x. 30.) Yet hath he not this effence Col. i. 15. of himself, but by communication; for as the Father hath life in himself, fo hath he given the Son to have life Heb. i. 3. in himself. (John v. 26.) He is the image of the invifible God, (an image most perfectly like, because having the very fame nature,) an effulgency of his glory, and a character (or perfect impreffion) of his fubftance; and this eternal communication of the fame divine effence is that generation, in respect of which he is most properly and truly the only begotten Son of God. If to produce a being like, (in any kind or degree,) be to generate; to impart a being without any diffimilitude or disparity at all, perfectly the fame, is the most proper generation: and that none other (befide our Saviour) was fo begotten, in any manner like or comparable to this, is evident enough; for that as no reafon could have taught us that our Saviour himself was thus begotten, fo no revelation hath fhewed us that any other was. By creation things receive a being from God infinitely different, unlike, and unequal to the being of God; and that filiation which is

grounded upon adoption and grace is wholly diverfe from

this and the communication of the divine effence to the Holy Ghost doth fo differ in manner from this, (though the manner be incomprehenfible to us,) that it is never called generation in Scripture, and therefore we must not prefume it to be fo. But fo much for explication of the point. For application briefly: The confideration of this point will ferve to instruct and confirm our faith concerning the mystery of our redemption; to direct and heighten our devotion; to raise in us a due gratitude toward God; to beget hope and comfort in us.

Heb. ix. 14.

γάπης αὐτῷ,

1. We may first hence learn whence the undertaking of Chrift (his performances and his fufferings for us) become of fo great worth and efficacy. It is no wonder that God's only Son's mediation fhould be so acceptable and effectual with God; that his blood fhould be fo precious 1 John i. 7. in God's fight, and his interceffion fo prevalent with him. What could God deny his own Son, the Son of his love, Col. i. 13. fo earnestly entreating in our behalf? What debts might Tis Tñs &not fo rich a price difcharge? What anger could not so dear a facrifice appeafe? What justice should fo full a compenfation not fatisfy? We were not redeemed with 1 Pet. i. 19. gold; all the Indies had not been able to ranfom a foul; all the hecatombs in the world cannot fatisfy for a peccadillo. Well might a person so infinitely worthy and excellent be a fufficient ransom for whole worlds of miferable offenders and captives; well might his voluntary fuffering a bitter and difgraceful death countervail the deferved punishment of all mankind, if our difpleafing and dishonouring a Perfon fo great, fo good, doth aggravate our offence; the equal excellency and dignity of the Per Pf. xlix. 7. fon fubmitting in our behalf to justice and performance of fatisfaction, may proportionably advance the reparation, and countervail the injury done. Well therefore may we believe and fay with the Apostle, Who shall criminate Rom. viii, against the elect of God? It is God that juftifieth; (the Son of God, as himself God, that fatisfies juftice for us :) Who is there that condemns ? It is Chrift that hath died for

us.

33.

2. We learn what reverence and adoration is due to John v. 23. Our Saviour; and why we must honour the Son, even as we honour the Father, (as himself hath taught us to do.) Whence it is, that, in St. John's Revelation, every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and fuch as are in the fea, and all that are in them, did (and ought to) fay, Bleffing, honour, glory, and power be unto him that fitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever, (afcribing the fame preeminency, and paying the fame veneration jointly to God Almighty, and to the Lamb his bleffed Son;) why, not we men only, (whom he hath particularly purchased and redeemPhil. ii. 9. ed,) but even all things in heaven and earth, and beneath the earth, muft bend the knee (yield worship and obfervHeb. i. 6. ance) to him; when the firfibegotten is brought into the

world, it is faid, Let all the angels of God worship him, We are (we fee) obliged to ascribe divine glory, to yield divine adoration, to Chrift: Why? Because he is the only Son of God, equal in majefty, one in effence with him. Were he not fo, it were injury to God and facrilege to do Ifa. xlii. 8. it: God would not impart his glory, we should not yield it to another.

3. We hence may perceive the infinite goodness of God unto us, and our obligation to love, and answerable Rom. v. 8. thankfulness toward him. God commendeth his love to

9, 10.

ward us, faith St. Paul, in that, while we were yet finners, 1 John iv. Chrift died for us: In this, faith St. John, was manifefted the love of God toward us, because God fent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love, (love indeed, admirable and inconceivable,) not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and fent his only begotten Son to be a propitiation for our fins. Can there be imagined any equal, any like expreffion of kindness, of mercy, of condefcenfion, of goodness, as for a prince (himself perfectly glorious and happy) freely to deliver up his own only moft dearly beloved Son, (out from his bofom of glory and bliss,) to suffer most base contumelies, most grievous torments, for the welfare of his declared enemies, traitors, and rebels? Such hath

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